First of all, it was just a question, wasn't insinuating anything with it. Several people made the statement of driving in the west/midwest doesn't pertain to a 55 mph limit. Just wondering why the rest of us are different.

Grew up in Western PA, lived on a dirt road that is still a dirt road as far as I hear. Only buildings you could see from my house were two barns, my front yard was 3 acres, and that is only what was on this side of the road. My first pet was a Holstein, my lawn tractor was a 70hp diesel, true John Deere, not a glorified lawn mower.
Few weeks ago, I drove from Kennedy Land to Kentucky then over to SC and back to the liberal theme park, 2500 miles in a week, mostly through rural. So yeah, I think I've driven in rural areas.
Given that, I would tend to feel more comfortable driving 115mph around here than on the PA highways I have been blessed with traversing.
And not all of us vote for Teddy, A-rop.

I knew a guy who went by "the President said the national speed limit is 55 so I drive 55 - everywhere" He got more then a few tickets.

Please no. It might start a C.W. McCall revival!

"...and a refer haulin' hogs..."

Sorry.

I believe the improvements in vehicle and tire technology that have occurred since the mid-70's would mean such a reduced speed limit would have less savings impact than it did the last time.

I don't think that logic will cut any ice in the minds of politicians who feel pressured to "do something" and will only do something meaningless and/or harmful as a result.

Does anyone know what the total cost was to make two updates to every highway speed limit sign in the U.S.?

Quick, without looking it up - who can tell me the name of the music group that was formed from the people who played on "Convoy?" Some might be surprised.

Mannheim Steamroller. and yes my wife was surprised.

While I agree that it would get short shrift west of the Mississippi, the average interstate speed in Oklahoma was usually around 65-70 during those dark days. And the worse part was that the ones doing the speed limit were almost causing wrecks.

We took a trip to visit my sister in Lexington, KY one time. The average speed on the interstates was 75-85. We had to do 80 mph to not be a hazard, and this was heavy traffic. That was a shock, since I had heard how bad we were about violating the speed laws in the western states.

To be honest, I do not know one way or the other about this. I think it would be political suicide for Congress to do this, but no one has ever accused them of being smart. I can also forsee a move towards more trains to deliver bulk items faster, therefore taking trucks out of the need for fast delivery. What needs to be remember is that bad laws have repercussions. The 55 speed limit was a knee jerk reaction to fuel shortages, which then followed by fuel surpluses that brought oil to its lowest relative price ever. If something happens within a few years to return fuel to a low concern for the public, how long will it be before we get everything reversed again?

I thought that Mannheim Steamroller was formed by some bread commercials that Chip Davis did in the '70s, and American Gramophone was the result of that.

The C.W. McCall label was also American Gramophone, with some support from Chip Davis, but I always thought that the two (C.W. McCall and Mannheim Steamroller) were parallel ventures from the bread commmercials, rather than one begetting another.

I really don't know for sure, but I am certain it all came from bread.

One of my favorite C.W. McCall tunes was "Roy". We had a boss the was named Roy, and was not liked very well. C.W. McCall's Roy was a short jingle, and it ended up on the annunciator for the real Roy's (the boss), voice mail. I didn't have anything to do with it, and I deny everything.



I had an old cat named Roy.
He was a good ol' boy.
He used to go a-huntin', down by the lake,
Catch him a nice, fresh garter snake.
Bring him on back and then set in the grass,
Lookin' like he had him a green mustache.

Yeah, Roy was a good ol' boy....

'Til the dogs got him.

Looks like oil has dropped a few bucks today just from seadog posting this thread

And, forget C.W. McCall (although I did like Convoy song), I'm leaning more toward a revival of Sammy Hagar!!!

Al pretty much got it. The guy who was/is "C.W. McCall" is a friend of Chip Davis and had been doing commercials for the Old Home Bread company. At the time, they wanted to do this album to capitalize on the CB craze (today's taken-for-granted electronics make it hard to imagine just how big a deal it was then, even though CB had been around for nearly 20 years when the craze started). The studio musicians who ended up playing went on to become Mannheim Steamroller and Christmas hasn't been the same since . I was a big fan of the Freshe Aire series long before the Christmas stuff got such a foothold. For all the jokes, they *are* immensely talented musicians.



"I Can't Drive 55" - did he do anything else?

I love the Fresh Aire series, and I have all 8 of the disks. I do love to stress test my stereo with it.

My favorites are Escape from the Atmosphere (FA 5), Toccata (FA 3), and G Major Toccata (FA 4).

That last one can blow a speaker!

Back in the vinyl days, high-end stereo shops used to use the Freshe Aire albums to demo their equipment, before anyone had heard of the group.

Yup; In those days, when Fresh Aire I was released, no one was sure what it was, what to do with it - but it quickly found itself in high-end stereo shops as a demo record.

I first came across Fresh Aire in a compilation CD that had some parts of FA1 and FA5, some of the non FA interludes, and other American Gramophone music.

I liked it so well, I purchased about 20 American Gramophone CDs, including the entire FA series, Classical Gas (a remake with Mason Williams and Chip Davis), a couple CW McCall CDs, Saving the Wildlife (a PBS series with Chip Davis music), Monday Morning Coffee, and a couple of Interlude only disks. And I received Fresh Aire Christmas CDs for several years.

They are quite nice to set the mood - cheese and wine kind of stuff, or just sitting back and relaxing.

Break out the old CB's and start looking for the smokies and bears, breaker 1-9, I'm southbound on 75 at mile marker 245, can I get a smokey report, 10-4!

I remember drafting trucks down the interstate that were running 80-90 mph when the speed limit was 55, seems like it made driving faster more of an adventure than it is now.

Ol' Chip's definitely a study in entrepreneurship, in addition to his musical mind!



Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I had a very nice one "from back in the day" refurbished about 2 years ago. I haven't used it since and have no plans to, but it's too nice a radio to just throw in the trash. It's the same one I had in my car in high school. I used to sit out in the parking lot during my lunch hour and talk to guys in Australia using the great propagation of that sun spot cycle .

We actually had a new CB shop open for business here in the last 3 years, and he just moved into a larger place. Blast from the past.

Copy that driver, you got a plain brown wrapper in the comedian taken your picture at the 262, and a bear in the air at the 293. Put your foot on the floor, I got your back door!

I love Smokey and the Bandit!