ok...i'm ripping out the original oak slats that came with the house. the wife talked me into it. i originally thought they were just the flat oak strips laind down, but i soon found out they were tongue and goove. they're only 3/8" thick and 1.5" wide.

i noticed they were nailed down with short cleats. since the house was built in 1958, what tool did they use to install those cleats? was it the same type of flooring nailer used today? were the cleats in a packaged sleeve like they are today?

Yes. The 1.5 thing is wierd. I never see it in my area, but it has always been popular in certain parts of the country. It is big in Central Alabama.

We did repairs, sanded and finished this 1.5"x3/8' oak floor(some were 1/2") after Katrina. We had many of these floors in our area before Katrina.
The black stains in the flooring are from rusting flooring cleats caused by 3' of saltwater in the house during the storm. The cleats will rust away in a few years and the floor will need to be top nailed or replaced, I will vote for replacement.

[img=http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/8520/00004114wd.th.jpg]

damn....water has no mercy on wood floors...especially salt water.

did the salt water bleach it out like that?

The light colored wood at the bottom of the above photo is the freshly sanded area. The darker area is the Bona Drifast sealer we were applying. The finished floor looked like new except for the black stains from the rusting cleats.
This is what the floor looked like before we started.