Wagons in vintage Street scenes

Those tent camping pics bring back some great memories of family vacations at Bass Lake, CA.

 

I know right KK, my very first camping trip ever was in a 67 or 68 Country Squire wagon in a park right by Mount Rushmore. The smell of pine was amazing and my parents slept in a tent and the three kids were in the car. As soon as we moved to Utah my dad bought a motorhome...I remember him saying "no more tents...ever".

 

The motorhome looked just like this, a big breadbox on wheels, about as arrow dynamic as a barn. Fun times though. I cut my automotive teeth working on it with my dad.

 

We never got beyond tent camping when I was a kid. New step-mom came along and she tried camping once and hated it. We teased her because she was sweeping the dirt around the tent.... After that it was all motels and lodges... As an adult, wife and I went tent camping once, but after I threw my back out trying to raise the center pole on the tent, we ditched that setup. Used a small P/U with a camper shell, then bought a used cab-over; then bought trailers.

 

My parents did tent camping for most of my childhood off the tailgate of a 1964 baby blue Rambler wagon, touring western USA and Canada. We all loved it and only stopped doing so when we spent a weekend at Crescent Lake just off HWY 97 here in Oregon. That is where Mom and Dad purchased a cabin in 1973 and we have never left or gone tent camping since.
All my three children grew up in that cabin and with the expected granddaughter (Greatgranddaughter for my parents) in two weeks.... figure she might just get the chance to ride in my wagon and swim in the crystal clear waters of beautiful Crescent lake too!



So... has God blessed me and my family? HELL YEAH! I would say so because we are definitely not part of the 1%!

 

Maine Township High School in Des Plaines, Ill., a suburb north west of Chicago. Oct. 13, 1958.

 

The smog isn’t quite as bad as Fernie Payan, 24, makes it seem, but he caused quite a stir driving about the city on Oct. 29, 1965 wearing this gas mask. Los Angeles was suffering through its third straight “smog alert” in three days. Payan appears to have been driving an MGA in this press photo from an unknown newspaper.

 

Two new Ford station wagons bought by the police department are being displayed in front of city hall in Chicago. The press photo is dated August 16, 1948, and stated that these two laboratory units, one for the North side and the other for the South side will be patrolling the city.

 

Coachcraft in Hollywood, CA., was formed pre-war by workers who earlier had worked for Dutch Darrin, a legendary auto body designer, building custom bodies on luxury chassis. The partners of Coachcraft did build some custom bodies on domestic chassis, but the majority of the work they preformed was customizing existing cars such as this Cadillac wagon.
Coachbuilt.com reports that the firm built a custom 1951 Cadillac series 62 station wagon, for contractor Merrill M. Masden of Minneapolis, MN. That car was designed by L.A. stylist Phillip Wright for Masden and this attractive Cadillac appears to possibly have been that car. Coachbuilt.com also reports that Wright also did other designs for Coachcraft in the 1940s and 1950s.

 

Check out the hand painted seat's behind the window glass. Pretty bad work actually...
But the car is WONDERFUL!

 

63rd St. and Cottage Grove Ave. in the Woodlawn section of Chicago.

 

Randolph street and the cross street is Halstead, in the city of Chicago