Hi, I am brand new to this forum. I joined because I am going down memory lane as I clean out a large 98 year old house with a full attic and basement that are stuffed with things from the last fifty plus years of my family residing in the house. At times it has been like a treasure hunt. Other times, a lot of work! One of the fondest memories of my family is a trip we took out west in 1967 in a GM wood like sided station wagon. I don't know how many years the family had had the car by 1967. I don't remember my father running air conditioning, I do remember rolling down windows to get a breeze. My two parents and their five children ventured from Ohio to California and back. The trip was at least a month long. The oldest, a teenager, spent a lot of the trip in the front seat seated between my parents. I think it was to keep him from instigating things with his younger siblings. We did take turns getting to sit up front, though. He just had more turns than the rest of us! The next most popular seat was the "way back" seat. It faced backwards so you could see out the window and wave to the people in the car or truck behind you. My five year old younger brother got to lie down in the "in between" section. It was a small luggage space between the "way back" seat and the back seat. So instead of putting luggage there, it was his place to nap. And that leaves the back seat, the place of torture and games. When bored, one of my older brothers would pinch or torment me for fun. He usually sat behind my father who was driving and I usually sat behind my mother on the passenger side. We played many car games to keep harmony among us five children, like the alphabet game. I remember wishing for small towns and antique store signs so I could get past the "Q". We played the state game with license plates and the guess the miles to the next city game. My father usually won that one! As we drove, we sang folk songs that I remember to this day. For example, "I ride an old Paint, I lead an old Dan, I'm going to Montana to throw the houlihan". We saw state parks, like Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons, and the Petrified Forest. We drove through Haight-Asbury, in 1967! We saw so much, from old Indian reservations to old Faithful to snow in the mountains in June. We even stopped to have a snowball fight! We went to Chinatown in San Francisco for Chinese food and had spaghetti in Las Vegas. When I told the waiter I did not want any dressing on my salad, he told me that was "Frank Sinatra Style" because Frank did not put dressing on his salads either. . We picnicked for lunch by scenic parks eating deviled ham and PB and J sandwiches complete with drinking milk out of tall thermoses with the graduated sizes of cups, and later regularly stopped at Ho-Jos with its 31 flavors for an afternoon ice cream cone. Every morning, after eating cereal in the motel in those small Kellogg's individual serving boxes that you cut open in the center and add milk, we would take our luggage to the car and watch my father pack the luggage rack like a perfect jigsaw puzzle. He had real expertise at getting it all to fit. And today, I cleaned out the last room in the basement and found picnic sets from the trip complete with thermoses and enamel sandwich holders. I found the 1960’s luggage rack that sat on the GM station wagon with the way back seat. The rack is in great shape. I know it is likely near fifty years old. I am hoping someone here may be able to help identify the rack. If not, maybe some on here have similar "Wonder Years" types of memories of growing up with a wood style sided station wagon from the sixties and taking a great family trip. Or, riding with the tailgate down! I'd love to hear about your trips. Now, on to trying to figure out how to load a pic to this board to show you the rack.
Zee. Loved your story. I only have one memory of a long trip with my family. Only one younger brother and we were in a 1934 Chevy 4-door. AC, we didn't have no stinkin AC back then! Dad didn't drive and I can remember mom's sunburned left arm like it was yesterday when we went from central Illinois to Portland to live. Short life out there as we returned about a year later. Amazing how the memories come back. Below is your roof rack.
Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing the story; In my mind it's a nice thing to have picnics like that. I'm a (now as of this time) 23-year old and my Dad had a late 1980s Chevy Caprice Estate Wagon. Quite a useful car, and fun too. I only recall sitting in the rear seat once, with my Grandma. But where were we going - To the house I now reside in? On another subject, I ended up getting a 1990 Mercury a few months ago. The previous owner had it since when, 1991? He maintained it very well and I haven't driven it for 1,000 miles yet but have been enjoying it so far and took it to a car show where I won five quarts of oil.
Your wagon itself might not be too difficult to identify. If you're talking a 60's GM wagon with wood grain on the sides and it was 1967, then there aren't a lot of choices. Chevrolet added a wood sided Caprice wagon to their line in 1966. Before that, there were no GM "woody" wagons unless you go back to early 50's GM wagons. In 67 there were "wood" sided wagons in the Chevrolet line (full size as well as the mid size Chevelle). Pontiac also added wood sided wagons for 67, both full size and mid size models. Oldsmobile and Buick added "wood" sides to their 67 Buick Sport Wagon and 67 Olds Vista Cruise lines. The Buick and Olds would have had glass roof sections you would have remembered and would likely would have forward facing third seats. So you are looking for a 66 or 67 Chevy or a 67 Pontiac. But, the rack doesn't look like a factory installed wagon luggage rack of that vintage. I say that because I think most wagon luggage racks by GM in those years came to a point in the center of the front cross bar of the rack (pointing towards the front of the car). But others here may prove me wrong, as I'm a Mopar guy and I don't know much about GM cars. Welcome aboard.
Thank you, Jim. I am now wondering if the rack was for a car my family may have had prior to the Chevrolet wagon. That would make it over fifty years old! I asked one of my brothers about the wagon we took on the '67 trip and he thought it may have been a wood sided Chevrolet Caprice wagon. That fits with your suggestions from narrowing it down. My parents were loyal GM buyers. I do not remember glass roof sections and there was most definitely a backward facing seat. If I come across a picture of the car I will try to upload it. I probably jumped to a conclusion that the rack was from that car. I showed the rack to a contractor who is working on the house and he mentioned that the rack attached to roof gutters and how cars no longer have those on the roof. I will have to ask my brothers if they remember what car my parents had before the wood sided wagon. I love this forum because it helps me remember the good times in the station wagon! My father still bought a station wagon even after we were all in college. We were totally wagon people!
...to the forum Zee. Loved your story: please trip down memory lane anytime you want! BTW: the racks that clip to the roof are actually designed to add and removed from the roof as needed and could fit any vehicle roof top. The one you have obviously screws to the roof and are meant to be permanent. You did not list its size but since the feet of the rack point front to back I would say it may very well be from an early 50's car as they were quite a bit smaller. All of our wagons that had roof racks from our late 60's cars or my mammoth 57 Olds were all longer then they were wide where yours looks wider than long: hence for a shorter roof line.
Thank you! Here is a post script for memory lane: Gas was around 30 cents a gallon at the start of the trip, but somewhere along the way we drove into a town that was having a "gas war" and the stations on the four corners of an intersection had all dropped to 25 cents a gallon. . That has stuck in my mind all these years. May not seem like a big deal, but recently I drove from the panhandle of Florida north through Alabama and missed stopping for gas that was $3.03. Later we stopped for some that was $3.29 and then $3.39. Not the same order of magnitude as 1967 but nearly felt like it. Was kicking myself for not getting the $3.03 gas! On the car rack....dimly I remember that my parents may have had an Opel at one time in the fifties, maybe before I came along. I'll ask my brothers. I appreciate your help! It could be that they hung onto the car roof rack from the fifties, because it was next to - I kid you not- the original Mayflower moving boxes from more than 50 years ago. Some things went into the basement and never came out! I found a dental sink in one of the cabinets and none of us is a dentist. How it came to be in the basement I have not a clue. It's been quite a trip!
aboard zee. I really enjoyed your intro. Thanks for sharing your story. I have a feeling we'll be seeing more of you around the joint.
It does appear to be a roof rack that could be attached and removed as needed. It's size indicates that it was likely designed to be used on sedans as well as wagons.
Take a look at the attached brochures and ad to see if you recognize the 66 or the 67. You never know what might trigger the memory that will pinpoint which year it is. As an example, a friend of mine had a realtor going through his house and she barely noticed his 67 Plymouth GTX in the garage, till she looked inside. My friend described an immediate change in her expression as she recognized the interior upholstery from a car her mother had when she was very young. She had no idea what kind of car her mom had, no memory of what it looked like, or even the color. The only thing she remembered was that her mom had won the car on a TV game show. She may not have known the type of car, but, she had spent so much time riding in the car as a young kid, that the one year only bucket seat upholstery design was still clear in her memory. Maybe something in the pictures here will trigger your memory. http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/chevy/66capstv.html 66 Caprice wagon http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/chevy/66full/66full.html 1966 Chevrolet brochure http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/chevy/67cwag/67cwag.html 1967 Chevrolet wagon brochure
