(first posted 1/21/2014) For many blue collar kids, Rambler wagons were the minivans of working class suburbia. These were perfect as a family vehicle or as a second car since they had, by the 1960s, earned a reputation for dependability and economy. Since they were popular as new vehicles, there were a lot of used Ramblers filling the niche of families looking for dependable, second-car transportation as well. My Chicagoland neighborhood was filled with AMC products, especially wagons. And the back of those wagons were filled with us kids, exercising our all-American freedoms.
This was before it was common to have two-income families. During the 1970s, half of America’s families earned between $3000-$7000 a year and more than half of all married couples in these homes were raising more than a few children. Ramblers fit the image of no-nonsense parenting and families had over a decade of new and used AMC products to meet their needs during the era.
Us kids grew up riding in the way-back, rear-facing Rambler wagon car seat. Riding in the third seat was the best. We didn’t have to stand on the transmission hump to see over the front seat. We were spared the full effects of the Winstons or Kents saturating the front seat with second-hand tobacco goodness and of the ripe diapers our baby siblings were filling. The Rambler third seat was too small for an adult, and too far from mom for a baby. When Mom or Dad let us sit back there, it was an acknowledgement that we could be trusted to behave, big enough to be on our own with the other kids. The Rambler way-back seat was where a kid could be a kid and get away with it! Freedom!
In the way-back there was little between us and the car following us, except a rear bumper, and a tail gate. We had huge windows surrounding us on all three sides and without air conditioning, it wasn’t unusual for the rear window to be down. This created a buffeting of air at the back of our heads, through to the rear. Can you imagine going 80 miles per hour in reverse? I can! We did that on the Dan Ryan Expressway, or when making any trip into the Loop when traffic was light. The feeling of speeding backwards at expressway speeds while facing the giant bug-encrusted grille of a Pontiac Bonneville a few yards away is something few experience today.
We behaved for at least a few miles on these trips, but the moment an opportunity presented itself, the fight was on! During more peaceful moments, our three prepubescent dinosaur boy brains would kick in and get us to begin wondering how we could fight the boredom creeping into our skulls. It usually began with a whispered, snickering, “Watch this!”, followed quickly with an older child’s cautionary, but muffled, “NO!” A tissue mom gave me to wipe my snotty nose would then “accidentally” fly out through the tail gate window, then strike quickly onto the speeding pavement and be driven over by the car following us. “Way cool – now watch this!” Out goes a Dairy Queen cup!
“MOM!” “I didn’t do it!” “He’s littering!” “It was an accident!” “DAD!?”
“What the hell-heck’s going on back there! God help you if I have to pull over! I’ll be damn-danged if I let you ride back there again! YOU HEAR ME? I’m not in the mood for a butt whipping, but if you throw one more piece of shit-CRAP out of that window…YOU HEAR ME?! GEEZ – dropped my cigarette!”
“Feel under the baby seat – pick it up before it burns another hole! Stop yelling at the kids and drive, dammit!”
image courtesy allthatspam.blogspot
Rear-facing kids also become expert at entertaining the drivers following a Rambler. It often began with a stare at the pipe smoking guy behind the wheel, wearing Ray-Bans driving with his cute wife and baby riding across the bench seat of a Chevy Impala. Then when we believed he was looking into our faces, we would stick out our tongues, pick our noses, shake our heads, or smile like we had just been released from a psych ward. Most drivers seeing us do this would politely ignore us. Women would often smile or wrinkle their noses like they smelled a delinquent. If we got too disgusting in our antics, the cars would drop back, pass or…
“Why the hell is that idiot honking at us? What the hell-heck are you kids doing back there?”
A drawback to this seat was nausea. If any of us were in any way queasy before climbing into the rear-facing seat, riding backwards only aggravated it. My littlest siblings were often carsick and we had a plastic bucket for when they puked. When they were riding in the Rambler’s way-back, we would feel a need to stare at them if they got too quiet or looked like they would hurl. If one of them started, the other usually joined in and we’d have two kids barfing in the Rambler’s way-back. Whenever this happened, I’d hold my breath, close my eyes and try to climb over the seat like a panicked rat escaping a fire.
“DAD! SHE’S GONNA THROW UP! AHHHH!”
“What the hell is going on back there? HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THINGS HOLY – GET THE F’N BUCKET! Why is that idiot honking at us? WE KNOW! WHAT? WHO threw the barf bucket out the window for Crap’s sake?”
I can’t help but look at a Rambler wagon and fondly smile.
I was surrounded by annoying wet-blankets who had no business calling themselves kids when I was at the age to throw stuff out the back!
My cousins in Youngstown, OH had an ’85 Parisienne which I LOVED. Throwing socks and boogery tissues at other drivers, as far as I’m concerned, was a natural choice.
Excellent! You bring back memories of my grandma’s 1967 Bonneville wagon that had the rear-facing third seat. My brother and I would insist on sitting back there, even when there were no second-seat passengers. Of course we would make faces at the people in the car behind us. Wasn’t that what those third seats were for? One thing I’m happy to say that I can’t relate to is the second-hand smoke.
I feel so deprived. I’ve never gotten to ride in the way way back of a station wagon. Suburban yes, but with barn doors so nothing to roll down and throw things out the back.
Come to think of it, no one in our neighborhood and none of my friends parents had station wagons. Lots of full size rides (we had a Bonneville and then a Delta 88, and my best friend’s folks had a Caprice) but no wagons.
In fact, possibly the only station wagon I’ve ever even been in was the ’87 Caprice Wagon our school had for the behind the wheel drivers’ training.
Brings back lots of third-seat memories of our ’65 Coronet wagon. It was such a relief after our crowded Fairlane, but despite the many benefits and amusements, the view out the back is ultimately more boring than forwards, as the scenery seems to change so slowly.
Here I am getting into the second row, as it appears my two younger brothers have already called dibs on the way back.
Holy crap, is that one of those 3 wheeled Postal Service delivery vehicles in the background on the street? We had those in our neighborhood for a time. The mailman could drive up into our 2 car driveway and do a U turn.
Yup. I can still hear it chugging up our court. A couple years later he got one of those very narrow mini-Metro vans.
I loved getting in the way-back of those Coronet wagons. This brought back memories of trying to retract hands and fingers at the last possible moment as the power rear window was being closed by the driver upfront. I wasn’t always fast enough but still came away with all my fingers. AAH MOM!!!
Love the flashy chrome wind deflectors on the D pillars. How upscale
Fabulous read, V-Dude. It appears that somehow my family did it backwards. The only time there was a wagon in the house was when there were two kids. After my dad re-married and there were two more, it was all 2 door cars. 6 people in a 74 Cutlass Supreme was no damned fun, even if (or especially if?) two of them were under 6.
When it was just my sister and I, neither of the family wagons (yes, we had two for awhile – 61 F-85 and a 63 Bel Air) had a 3rd seat, so we just lounged in the way-back, which seemed then about the size of a football field. OK, a metal football field. Later, Dad got the Country Squire with the dual facing rear seats. You are right about being a great place to escape the smoke.
You actually make me miss never having lived in a reverse-facing rear seat in a wagon. The part you leave out is what kids would do back there when old enough to go out without Mom and Dad. I was a passenger on one such trip. Bottle rockets were involved.
Regarding the first picture: How did you find a photograph from a Romney Family Vacation?
Lemonade for everyone! (And nothing stronger than that!)
What; no dog on the roof? 🙂
I recall an interview or speech that Mitt Romney did – growing up around the kids of other auto executives in Detroit, their families all got cool cars, while the Romney family drove Ramblers. It was nice to know that in at least one small way, I had it better than Mitt Romney growing up. 🙂
Except the Romney Ramblers were likely the .0001 % with AC, power windows, etc.
And 47% of them strippers. Ooops….
🙂
My brain was working that 1% angle as well. Couldn’t come up with anything snappy.
My ancient copy of Standard Catalog of American cars will sometimes list installation rates of rare options and numbers for early AC and power windows in lower dollar cars were frequently around 1% or less.
In other words, George’s cars got special mention!
Not true, in at least one case.
Last year, George Romney’s ’64 Rambler was auctioned on eBay. It was a Classic 550, 2 door sedan with no chrome trim, solid white body with standard green interior, complete with coffin-grade plastic-clad cardboard headliner.
It was a true survivor car with an honest 62,000 miles.The only options were an AM radio and rear seat belts. His Rambler Classic had the aluminum head 196 CID OHV engine. I think that was standard on the low-end Classic; my mom paid extra to get it over the L-head in her ’64 American.
The car at auction was equivalent to any skinflint’s Biscayne, Savoy, or Custom. George Romney wasn’t a man of means until late in life, and a lifelong habit of thrift is hard to break.
Compare the first picture with the artist’s rendition for the advertising…where in the world did that artist find 2/3rd size people to pose for it?
When I was a teenager in 1959+- our Explorer Scout leader had a yellow wagon much like this. He took seven of us and pulled a trailer on a two week camping expedition. Maybe 600 miles from Arkansas to south Texas. He had to do all the driving as none of us were old enough. (How he stood two weeks with seven 14 year olds is another story. Wonderful, beloved man for doing it.) Anyway we had the time of our lives camping at three different ranches and making several side trips to Mexico, etc.
When we got home he traded the Rambler. I am now thinking he had it planned that way all along as he knew this trip would be very hard on it.
He traded for a little white convertible which is still in the family.
I spent a fair amount of time in the back of an ’83 Caprice wagon and a ’74 Century wagon prior to that. It was a fun place for a kid to ride, but I’m glad we have higher safety standards today.
My mom never allowed the back window to be open however, as she had heard exhaust fumes could be sucked in. I suppose that could happen if you didn’t have the front windows open but I guess I don’t really know. Also if I remember right I couldn’t let myself out from the inside in either car. Which probably isn’t all that bad for kid seats.
Edit: I guess my mom wasn’t kidding, from the CDC:
Fatal Carbon Monoxide Poisoning in a Camper-Truck — Georgia
On December 27, 1990, three children, aged 6, 10, and 11 years, died as a result of carbon monoxide (CO) inhalation while riding in the back of their parents’ pickup truck, which had a camper shell cover. The family was returning overnight to Georgia from Mississippi, and the children were sleeping in the back of the truck. After 50 miles of travel, they stopped at a service station; the children did not complain of headache or other problems. During a second stop 250 miles further, the children appeared to be asleep. On arrival at their destination in Georgia, following a total drive of 550 miles, the children could not be aroused; resuscitation attempts were unsuccessful. The parents and two younger children riding in the truck cab were asymptomatic.
Autopsy examinations revealed that the three children had carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels of 15%-20%, 23%-28%, and 31%-36% and that cerebral edema was present in each. No evidence was found of other cause(s) of death. COHb levels were not measured in the parents and the two other children.
An inspection of the 1970 truck by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found that the muffler had been replaced, but the original tailpipe was not securely joined to the muffler. Several holes in the wall of the truck bed behind the cab allowed fumes leaking from the muffler to enter the enclosed bed. In addition, the camper shell cover was attached to the truck without a gasket, and the rear door of the cover was loose. Reported by: J Brown, Georgia Bureau of Investigation; T Young, MD, Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, Atlanta; J Wilber, MD, Acting State Epidemiologist, Div of Public Health, Georgia Dept of Human Resources. Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Activity, Div of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control, CDC.
Editorial Note
Editorial Note: Death from CO poisoning associated with vehicles is entirely preventable. The three deaths described in this report were caused by the combination of an aging vehicle, a defective exhaust system, and passengers being transported in an inadequately ventilated space.
“Any moving vehicle with a vertical rear tailgate or door (e.g., a station wagon or pickup truck with a camper shell cover) creates negative air pressure behind it. Because of this vacuum, opening the rear window of a camper or station wagon can result in high concentrations of exhaust fumes entering the vehicle.”
Whoops, didn’t mean to paste the whole article, just the editorial note, but ran out of time to edit.
My wife and I took a few child safety classes in 1997 as our first child was on the way.
One film included an ’80s Caprice wagon being rear-ended. Crash dummies in the rear facing third seat didn’t fair well.
The film said emphatically that you should not allow your kids to ride in rear facing 3rd seats.
I always thought those wagon seats seemed very cool, but probably got only one or two rides in them in my life. Three seat / rear facing wagons were pretty rare in my life, so I can’t say I miss the idea much.
I recently meant to get a MB 124 wagon with a rear-facing third row seat to replace our BMW E34 wagon (which, in a few weeks, will no longer have enough seats for the whole family). My wife emphatically said no, for safety reasons; so we kept the BMW and got a minivan as a second car.
Reading your comment, I guess she was right. But – as everyone else is pointing out – rear-facing third-row seats are just so cool!
Not the same as the Rambler, but similar to a Country Squire. From my first days as a back-seat passenger up to April 2001, whenever we went camping, I sat facing my sister in the jump seat of the ’75 F-250 SuperCab. The cooler between us was our card table, and the massive width of the pickup meant we could flail our legs all we wanted, nobody was getting kicked. In April of ’01, we traded it in for a ’98 F-250 LD SuperCab with a regular old bench seat in back. Less nauseating, plus you could sleep back there and there was a third door, which made getting in and out easier. But when we upgraded to a SuperCrew in May of ’08–that was like stepping up to first class from coach!
Very funny story. Thanks!
I have a theory on car sickness and second hand smoke being linked.
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, as children, my wife and I both suffered car sickness on many trips of any length. It seemed to be a common ailment among kids, and a product called Dramamine, a pill for motion sickness, was common in glove boxes back then. Car sickness discussions were common among my parents and their friends.
Fast forward to the ’90s and early 2000s. My children have never been car sick. It took me several years to notice that difference from my childhood. Our friends have never reported problems with car sickness and their kids.
The difference? My wife and I are non-smokers. Our friends are almost all non-smokers, and none smoke around their kids. All four of our parents were dedicated smokers. My folks had AC, so closed windows were possible year round.
I think we were getting nicotine poisoning in wonderfully concentrated doses.
Of course another big difference is today’s cars don’t ride like boats.
I have a lot of experience captaining land yachts and smaller cars of many vintages and plenty of modern vehicles. For the most part, decently maintained cars going back to the 1960’s (my experience window) are all pretty similar cruising on flat interstate highways. The big cars are a lot nicer handling expansion joints and related noise.
I think Dave may be onto something there, my childhood rides were European cars with firm suspension and my sister and I only got queasy when dad was smoking with the windows up. That said there was a carpool in a late 70s Buick that induced carsickness anyway since we were accustomed to the firmer ride of our Volvo.
Aahhh Dramamine, how well I remember the unhappy ritual of being forced to swallow it in the futile hope (of my parents) that it would prevent car sickness. As a child I became convinced that, for myself anyway, it actually CAUSED vomiting, ugh! Recollections of many winding back country drives with younger siblings and self in constant discomfort brought on by proximity, annoyance and inevitable carsickness make me appreciate how civilized road trips have become in modern cars with child restraints, smoother rides, no smoking,etc.
The “tailgunner” seat was a distinctive feature of Volvo, Saab and Mercedes wagons as well. Personally I never rode in one since our friends with wagons drove Fords with inward facing seats so my time in the wayback was spent sitting sideways. The one notable exception was a single ride in an Olds Vista Cruiser with a forward facing seat and the extra window sin the roof. With only one sibling, my family got along fine with sedans
Wonderfully written piece, Vanilladude! So descriptive I felt like I was there!
Ha. The one time I rode in my friend’s dad’s Rambler wagon to Scout camp we got yelled at by his dad for throwing tissues out of the car.
As for riding tailgunner, I loved it in my folks’ Saab 95 wagon. I recall stuffing 6 1st graders in the back of that car to go to my birthday party at the HoJo. (I loved the fried clams and black raspberry ice cream.)
Six first graders, fried clams and ice cream? Sounds like the recipe for carsickness! 😉
It does, doesn’t it? But all was well. I never got car sick though (despite the smoke), maybe because I more or less grew up in the car. I always looked down my nose at the kids who did on the school bus. I was mortified when my daughter turned out to be that way. For her it turned out sugar and especially red food coloring was a major trigger. Still gives her headaches…
Oh, I hated the 3rd row rear facing seats in our family station wagons. I’d get car sick in those things. The Ford side facing versions weren’t any better.
Only child so my folks never had a big wagon. My aunt went through a phase of buying used cars from her boss and one was a ’76 Town & Country, I got my tailgunner-seat jollies in in that one. She worked for the Lake Champlain ferries and had a free pass for herself and anyone in her car, and let’s say we made the most of it-I can remember upwards of 12 of us in it.
IIRC, the neighbor’s big ’63 Pontiac wagon actually had a bit of a space between the second seat back, and the rear facing third seat back. One kid could squeeze in there, so the nine passenger was actually a ten passenger!
There’s another example of a swing away rear door. 1960! Who knew?
The first two pictures in this posting suprised me too…we had a ’61 and ’63 Rambler wagon (no 3rd seat) and I don’t remember the tailgate opening the later “Ford Side Opening”, especially with the window rolled in what looks to be all the way up…I thought Ford came up with this in the later ’60′s…maybe my memory is flawed in this respect though….I remember kids having to get in the back with the tailgate down like in Paul’s photo until the side opening door came out later in that decade.
Our Rambler only had the tailgate that opened downward….I think we had a manual crank window we had to lower at least part way first, though I remember as a kid using it as a “table” my Dad set up with the window cranked at least a little out of the tailgate (sitting on a lower bench outside the car at a rest stop). Starting with out F85 wagon we had a power rear window (none of the other windows was power operated though). I also don’t recall there being much space for “footroom” on our Rambler, I think it was pretty shallow under the load floor, wonder if they moved the fuel tank to allow for the well for your feet on the 3rd seat model?
I don’t have experience with any of the 3rd seats in the qty-6 wagons that my Father owned while I was growing up though…he never ordered the 3rd seat, and neither did it seem any of our neighbors who also had wagons…the kids made due in the rear without special seating, maybe pillows (it was favorite spot to lie down next to the luggage that didn’t go on the roof if you were still short enough to fit back there). Maybe had to do with size of the family, we had 6 in mine, and we didn’t need the 3rd seat as a larger family would. My Father really took good advantage of the space where the 3rd seat would be, packing it as full as possible first so that little extra luggage would need to be put in the back of the wagon or on the roof rack…he called it “the well” and it was later my job to pack it especially getting ready for camping trips (as my father was working during the day, and we’d often leave for a trip as soon as he got home from work in the evening, and I was still too young to work during the summer). We liked the later dual opening door opening sideways as it allowed you to stand right next to the bumper and load the well, which would have been a stretch with the one-way opening tailgate.
My mother drove a white 1962 Comet wagon with red interior. When we moved cross country, in 1966, we drove my father’s 1964 Galaxie 500. Three kids in the back is not fun. After arrival my mother got her new car a 1967 Plymouth Satellite wagon. I did like that Satellite with the basic 318-2V engine.
Is it just me, or does that wood-sided Chev (?) wagon also have wood-effect mudflaps?? In other news, I love the styling of the Rambler wagons that upper window line is so distinctive.
Brilliant! Another Peter Egan is born. Reading the article brought the same smile Egan’s first submission to R&T, “The Great TC Trek”, brought those many years ago.
Never had a wagon in the family with tailgunner seats. Closest I ever came was rolling around on the cargo floor with my two cousins in my Aunt’s 61 Chevy wagon.
Great memories and very similar to mine. The smoke in the car always led to motion sickness. Even when I smoked in my cool 20’s I couldn’t stand the smell of it. And I get motion sickness in any car unless I’m driving or at minimum in the front seat.
I also remember the time that our fancy Grandma loaded all 4 of the grandkids up (dressed to the nines) and took us out to a fancy lunch in her loaded ’58 Buick. She was a heel and toe gas-brake-gas-brake driver. All four of us tossed lunch in no time.
That was the last time lunch with Grandma happened at a fancy place…
Sounds like the many station wagon trips I went on as a kid. We had wagons for years. Different makes, different 3rd seat configurations. Always hated the FoMoCo seats that faced each other.
Since I was the caboose in the family, I got stuck in the back of the ’64 Chevy wagon with no 3rd seat. On long vacation trips, I sat in the back with a 150 pound metal ice chest making sandwiches and handing out cokes in glass bottles as dad drove 75+ mph. The back window was wide open because we had no A/C. Dust and dirt would be flying around inside the car. Was never more happen when dad bought a 74 Comet with A/C.
Our family’s wagon didn’t have third row seats, forward or backward facing, but that didn’t stop us from riding in the wayback (one word) but we usually lay down or faced sideways if I remember right. We didn’t have a roll-down window but I recall a few slow rides where we got to have the lift up window open for short distances. All this in a Volvo; I remember friends with domestic wagons, but no third row. I actually think there were more of those around when our kids were young in the ‘90’s, and our kids got to ride facing backwards in friends’ Volvo and Mercedes wagons.
Even today I occasionally see kids in the wayback of a Tesla Model S though that looks pretty claustrophobic to me. Fortunately most parents (at least Tesla owners) don’t smoke in the car with kids nowadays.
The only wagon our family ever had was a very tired 1962 Pontiac Catalina with no third row seating. Of course that didn’t stop my younger siblings from riding back there on numerous occasions; apparently parents who survived the great depression and then WWII didn’t worry about safety as much as modern parents. I’m not saying that either point of view is right or wrong, just different. The irony is that much later my wife and I owned a Highlander with the third row seating package (and paid several hundred dollars for the privilege) and no one ever sat back there in the nine plus years we owned the vehicle.
This wagon was part of my family’s collection of well used Pontiacs that we acquired in the late sixties/early seventies. This poor Pontiac had a distinct tilt from the left rear towards the right front. We always assumed that it had been wrecked at least once, when you are buying a low dollar vehicle from the back row of the dealer’s lot it is best not to ask questions as you probably don’t want to hear the answers. To its credit the Pontiac provided several years of service with little attention other than putting in gas and topping up the oil; 389 V8 was strong like bull, even with the two barrel “economy” carb it generated lots o’ torque.
Nice work, VanillaDude. You brought back memories of growing up in the ’60s and ’70s. We had a 1961 Rambler Custom 4-Door, but alas not a wagon. I can also relate to the “no-nonsense parenting.” Dad finally sold the Rambler when it got to 200k miles, but we saw it around town for years afterward. Good times!
Try getting a second date when the first date was in a wagon.
Given the terrible, lousy driving dynamics (even when near-new) of the Ramblers; the seat farthest away from the engine/transmission/Dad’s negative comments about “Mom’s car” was indeed the best seat to be in.
In the model years 57-60 Rambler, like several other brands offered their wagons with “hardtop styling”; no “B” pillar. At that time Rambler called their wagons “Cross Country” and their hardtops “Country Club.” I’m still a little disappointed that when they produced a pillarless wagon that they didn’t go the extra step and call it a “Cross Country Country Club” much in the way that we once had razors called “Wilkinson Sword Super Sword.”