Family Cars
[This is probably going to be a long one; might have to break it up into two parts.]
I remember a few of Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's cars, starting with a pair of mid-to-late '50s Chevies. The first was a two-tone job (white and silver or gray, I think), my only real memory of which is that it sat in the driveway (outside the "barn") at S. Main St. The second was the solid gray one, model year 1960 or so -- that's the one beneath whose dashboard Pop-Pop installed the "micro switch" (the one I used to start the car that time in Aunt Maurie's driveway). From looking around the Web a little, it seems that the car I'm thinking of was a 1959 Impala, referred to on one site as "the bat-wing" model for the way the tail lights flared out. There was a white... Valiant, maybe? is that the one they had at the Mt. Holly Rd. house?
I think it was Jack who had a mint-green Lancer. Or maybe that was Morris and Ann's, too. Later, of course, Jack had the Spitfire which was, still later, a source of dubious gratitude to Mike.
Cars of ours: Mint-green Plymouth with the driver's window that wouldn't go up, hence was covered by a sheet of plastic during bad weather (which, in my memory, it must have always been -- I can't remember the plastic not being there). Gray-charcoal Dodge with the pushbutton transmission. A couple of tan Chevy station wagons -- think they were 1961 and 1963. The latter is the one I had a handful of accidents in, while driving I mean. (Hitting the Landon-Stone bridge on Thanksgiving Day, 1968; totaling (or so it was said, although naturally Dad found some way to get it fixed) on Chester Ave. -- I rear-ended a GTO, some nitwit had stopped to pick up a hitchhiker while I was dreamily inspecting the radio tuner's dial; and hitting some lady's car when turning right onto Fairview St. from whatever street it is behind RHS -- I'd just dropped off, umm, Mike it must have been, and the woman had her right-turn blinker on (as did nearly every other car coming from the left down Fairview), and I foolishly believed her... she said something like "You scared me to death!" and I reached deep down into my well of (less profane) Bud-ness to reply along the lines of "You didn't do much for my nerves either, lady!"). After I went to college (taking one of those station wagons -- and I can't believe I drove it to West Virginia with Cindy to pick Connie up that time), my memory goes nearly blank. Mom and Dad had that little yellow car -- a Buick? did Buick ever even make little cars? -- they used for driving Connie to Marshall. And then there was Dad's big red pickup -- that's the one of which I've got the pictures, with Doug and Mike leaning their heads under the hood and Dad practically swallowed up entirely. Dad had a couple of El Caminos, but perhaps I should leave that part of the tale to Mike (cough).
What am I missing?
I remember a few of Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop's cars, starting with a pair of mid-to-late '50s Chevies. The first was a two-tone job (white and silver or gray, I think), my only real memory of which is that it sat in the driveway (outside the "barn") at S. Main St. The second was the solid gray one, model year 1960 or so -- that's the one beneath whose dashboard Pop-Pop installed the "micro switch" (the one I used to start the car that time in Aunt Maurie's driveway). From looking around the Web a little, it seems that the car I'm thinking of was a 1959 Impala, referred to on one site as "the bat-wing" model for the way the tail lights flared out. There was a white... Valiant, maybe? is that the one they had at the Mt. Holly Rd. house?
I think it was Jack who had a mint-green Lancer. Or maybe that was Morris and Ann's, too. Later, of course, Jack had the Spitfire which was, still later, a source of dubious gratitude to Mike.
Cars of ours: Mint-green Plymouth with the driver's window that wouldn't go up, hence was covered by a sheet of plastic during bad weather (which, in my memory, it must have always been -- I can't remember the plastic not being there). Gray-charcoal Dodge with the pushbutton transmission. A couple of tan Chevy station wagons -- think they were 1961 and 1963. The latter is the one I had a handful of accidents in, while driving I mean. (Hitting the Landon-Stone bridge on Thanksgiving Day, 1968; totaling (or so it was said, although naturally Dad found some way to get it fixed) on Chester Ave. -- I rear-ended a GTO, some nitwit had stopped to pick up a hitchhiker while I was dreamily inspecting the radio tuner's dial; and hitting some lady's car when turning right onto Fairview St. from whatever street it is behind RHS -- I'd just dropped off, umm, Mike it must have been, and the woman had her right-turn blinker on (as did nearly every other car coming from the left down Fairview), and I foolishly believed her... she said something like "You scared me to death!" and I reached deep down into my well of (less profane) Bud-ness to reply along the lines of "You didn't do much for my nerves either, lady!"). After I went to college (taking one of those station wagons -- and I can't believe I drove it to West Virginia with Cindy to pick Connie up that time), my memory goes nearly blank. Mom and Dad had that little yellow car -- a Buick? did Buick ever even make little cars? -- they used for driving Connie to Marshall. And then there was Dad's big red pickup -- that's the one of which I've got the pictures, with Doug and Mike leaning their heads under the hood and Dad practically swallowed up entirely. Dad had a couple of El Caminos, but perhaps I should leave that part of the tale to Mike (cough).
What am I missing?
posted by JES | 5:53 PM
2 Comments:
Re: the 1965 Fairlane... I do remember one other thing about the seat that wasn't fastened properly. I can't remember if it was Cindy or Mike, and I can't remember if it was coming from or going to Granule & Gramps's. In any case, there was some story about a cat that one of you was transporting. It was apparently roaming around in the car, unconfined in any way, and spent much of the ride cowering beneath The Seat of Death. Whichever cat it was, this was commonly invoked as the reason it was never quite right in the head thereafter.
P.S. And yes, you're right, it was Mike who managed to drive the car over the telephone pole/railroad tie someplace.
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