Wagons in vintage Street scenes

Flxible used to build buses on Buick chassis in the early 1930s.

 

As I was zipping down the highway this morning in the Chevelle I was getting a lot of attention from fellow travellers. Lots of thumbs ups, honks, flashing headlights and it occurred to me how sad it is that one car with stripes and nice wheels could get that much attention when there was a time when we were driving our first one (1970) and they were basically common. There were Chevelles, Camaro's, Mustangs, 'cuda's and Chargers and Challengers all over, huffing and puffing. Kids hanging out the station wagons at the lights listening to them, yelling to spin the tires and do a burn-out, cheering on the stop light action with parents participating as well. Now and then a wagon with big engine joining in the fun to everyone's surprise - yet not, there were quite a few high horsepower wagons on the roads.

So now we see these pictures and think oh man, those were the days and I think to myself yep, they were the days. Kids today do not have anything much to get hyped about. The cars are for the most part bland, wagons have disappeared, SUV's are just hulks for the most part, if you squeal your tires leaving a stop light you can get a ticket for dangerous driving, basically all the fun is being sucked out of the whole driving experience.

To see some of these pictures with rows of cars in parking lots, many wagons, many muscle cars, very few just bland lumps of metal with wheels, it brings back what I feel are the glory days of the American automobile.

There, that's my little bit for the day/week/month (maybe).....

 

The Grand Hotel, Walla Walla Washington

 

Just found a Picture taken in Detroit in the early 50's. Looking east on Jefferson Ave from Holcomb St. The snow makes car spotty a challenge, I wonder if the Pedestrian made it to the other side?

 

Found a shot of the French Pontiac Service Vehicals from around 1950. Located in New Orleans LA.
I do not know what is happening on this shot, but there is a very rare Sedan Delivery that is being cropped out of the image at the right. Here is a link to the photo for any one interested.
http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/CLF/id/9358/rec/1
Used Car Lot late 50's
Again cropped Link Below
http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/CLF/id/4979/rec/4

 

Was that necessary?

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Evil abounds, or maybe it's just Bad.

While looking for a part for one of our Tauruses, my wife and I went to Pick-A-Part in Sun Valley Ca., near where we live. They don't stack 'em there, like they did in this place. Even so, it was far from the Happiest Place On Earth. My wife broke out in tears several times.(A mid-60's T-Bird had had it roof removed with sheet metal scissors by the look of it)Afterwards, she told my sister that it's a very sad place. And my sister agreed... Bad people do awful, horrible, terrible moronic things, because they're mean, cruel and stupid. Evil people do awful, horrible, terrible moronic things, because it's fun. I believe both Bad and Evil people did this to nice old cars. Neither of them was thinking about parting out the cars or the restoration industry. I'm not sure what you get for scrapping one of these, but I'm willing to bet that more money could've been made off them by helping people keep other nice old cars up and running. There would probably be more nice old cars, out there running around, if they had.

 

Judging by the look of these cars, I am betting this picture is from the late 60s or early 70s, and back then, these were old cars that NOBODY wanted, and nobody was even thinking of restoring! In 69, one of our neighbours scrapped a 57 Bel Air 2 door hard top with about 20,000 miles on it because the transmission went! There was not a spot on the car, but into the crusher it went! In the 70s, and into the 80s, late 60s muscle cars were winter beaters! Buy them cheap, run them until something breaks, and then scrap them. Precisely why there are so few left, and why they are worth so much now.

 

Walla Walla Yacht Club and the parade of boats at the Wallula basin in May 1959.