Cars Archives
A WWII Surplus Jeep in the Garage I hate to stamp columns with a date-sensitive comment, but watching History Channel's America: The Story of Us last night spurred a deeply-buried memory in my brain. The show was documenting how Pearl Harbor instantly ended the Great Depression, with the mobilizing of the American economy to create a massive...
The Plymouth Superbird The year was 1970. The place was sleepy Bentonville, Arkansas, population 5,000 or so. I must have been sitting in our 1965 Chevy pickup which my father had purchased shortly after moving us from our house on a city block in Miami, Oklahoma to a 250-acre farm located 15 miles...
Dad's Auto Accessories Today's I remember JFK remembrance is the result of a conversation which took place between a coworker and myself earlier this week. My buddy John Sorrells walked in, threw an object on my desk, and said "okay, nostalgia expert, what's this?" Without hesitation I said "Why, that's a curb feeler."...
The Long-Lost Fake-Wooden-Sided Station Wagon You could always tell which homes on the street had at least three kids living there: look for a fake-wooden-sided station wagon parked out front. It's hard to pinpoint when the station wagon got its start. The Ford Model T resembled a station wagon in its most basic form. However,...
When Cars Had Hood Ornaments We Boomers saw the decline, fall, and disappearance of many things during our lifetimes. One of these once-familiar sights that has become much more rare is the hood ornament. Once upon a time, hood ornaments graced the exposed radiator caps of cars built in the 30's and 40's. They were...
Steering the Car on Dad's Lap I'd sit on his lap in that big old Buick And steer as we drove through town He'd tousle my hair and say son take A good look around This is your hometown . . . The first time I heard the great Bruce Springsteen's My Hometown I picked right...
Wing Vent Windows Anybody up for a good conspiracy theory? The makers of automobile air conditioners have teamed up and made wing vent windows disappear! Hey, it's a little plausible. After all, I remember a dramatic difference in the interior temperature of a big Plymouth when those vent windows were opened to blast...
The Ford Mustang Appears Automobile styling changed radically during the twenty years that followed WWII's end. Cars were big rolling boxes in 1945. By 1965, they had gotten smaller, sleeker, and faster. And one design in particular proved itself to be timeless, selling in huge numbers over thirty years after its introduction. The Ford...
Gas Wars As we drive past gas station signs that advertise prices per gallon that far exceed the hourly rates of our first jobs, we Boomers find ourselves looking longingly into our memory banks for the regular phenomenon that was experienced in the mid 1960's: the gas war. Gas station owners hate...
Riding in the Back of the Pickup Oh, what horrible, neglectful parents we had by today's standards. First of all, they smoked! In the house! Second, they would let us head out the door in the morning, and not give a second thought to us until we wandered in at suppertime! And, horrors of horrors, they let...
When Unleaded Gas Appeared Leaded gasoline was born in 1921. GM researchers had been testing fuel blends since 1916, trying to stop engine knock. The problem was early, non-uniform detonation of fuels in the engine cylinder. Left unchecked, it could quickly ruin an engine. So lead was added to the mixture at the refinery,...
When Cars Were BIG It was a curious situation in the days of our youth. Roads, as a rule, were narrower than today, particularly the state two-lane highways that connected small towns. Yet the cars that traveled them were HUGE compared to today's models. Yet, our parents maneuvered those massive hulks around the tight...
When Cars Had Fins I was born in 1959, when fins were at their peak. From the massive vertical fins of the 59 Plymouth to the low sleek ones on the 59 Chevy, fins were everywhere in this era. The thing about fins was that they were actually more common in my childhood years...
Putting Stereo Music in Your First Car Our kids are starting out, for the most part, like we did, with their first cars being older and cheap. It's a rite of passage. When you start out with an old piece of junk, you learn to appreciate a nicer car when you can afford it. However, a key...
Racing in the Pinewood Derby The year was 1967. I was in the second grade. I was in class wearing my spiffy Cub Scout uniform, along with the other classmates who were members of the local pack. We had a den meeting after school that day, and we wore our uniforms to school. But this...
Eating on the Interstates As you motor down the interstate highway these days, you are presented with a plethora of options as to what you will eat. The fast food joints have spread nationwide, and have located themselves in the middle of nowhere so that you are never more than a few miles away...
Riding in the Rear Deck By the time my first child was born in 1986, we had already purchased a baby seat for the car. It had become law here in Arkansas a couple of years earlier that children under the age of two would be strapped in. But go back about twenty years (from...
The Floating VW Beetle Ad We youngsters certainly paid close attention to commercials in the 60's. One I'll never forget involved a guy climbing into a Beetle, driving it into a pond, and explaining to the audience as he bobbed up and down in the water that Volkswagen engineered their cars to be watertight, or...
Pushbutton Transmissions An innovation that first appeared in 1956, and lasted until 1966, was the push-button transmission. I remember my oldest brother had a Plymouth from the early 60's that had it. The pushbutton transmission was available in two incarnations: mechanical (pretty darned reliable) and electrical (extremely unreliable). Packard introduced it with...
The AMC Gremlin AMC was by far the most innovative car manufacturer out there after the death of most smaller car manufacturers in the 1950's. They weren't afraid to put out designs that looked radically different from what the big boys were offering. And they also sold a boatload of cars! It's a...
The AMC Pacer What strange evolution took place among cars during our time. I remember growing up with two kinds of cars running around our streets: the old ones built like boxes, and the newer sleeker ones. But they all had one thing in common: they were BIG! Volkswagens were plentiful, but you...
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The Rolling Stones:
The year was 1962. Rock and roll music had been in existence for eight years, according to a 2004 Rolling Stone article which declared (quite controversially) that Elvis's 1954 recording That's All Right Mama was the first rock and roll song. Kids were cruising the boulevard in Modesto, and George...
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