1989 Ford Mustang LX 5.0L. Sunday, September 20, 2015.
A funny thing happens over time where everyday objects, places, and occurrences to which we paid little or no attention when new become curiosities. This is probably part of the obvious appeal of sites like Curbside Classic and the always-booming nostalgia market. What changes is what is considered “vintage” or “retro”. What I’ve assembled here is not so much a deep dive into my thoughts on any one, single automobile, but a smorgasbord of vehicles that would have been common and, besides the Mustang, not of particular interest to me around the time I was in high school. Almost three decades removed from my own commencement, all of them trigger vague memories of my own teenage years.
Shortly after moving to Chicago in my 20s in the mid-Aughts, I had been a regular at a spot called the Holiday Club which was located not far from my first apartment in the Second City. The Holiday Club seemed to combine pretty much everything I wanted out of a weekend at the time into one location, all wrapped neatly in kitsch and warm feelings as elicited from its vintage decor. There was the very 1960s-inspired front area that housed a bar, pool tables, and dining booths upholstered in sparkly, gold vinyl.
At the Holiday Club near Wrigleyville for brunch. Sunday, August 23, 2009.
The back room converted into a full-on disco on weekends that featured another bar, more booths and tables, and a giant, silver mirrorball over a decent-sized dance floor located in what had probably been the cashier’s checkout area of the 1930’s-era drug store it had originally been. I was a regular patron for years, sometimes hitting the dance floor on Friday and Saturday nights, and then returning on Sunday for brunch. I celebrated my thirtieth birthday there. Wednesday night karaoke was a hoot. I both met and brought many of my favorite people there, including friends from both high school and college who were visiting from out of town, as recently as last summer.
Fridays featured “Eighties Night”, and Saturday nights were dedicated to the ’90s. A funny thing happened in celebrating the former between when I first used to go there and my last time there late last summer. In the mid-Aughts, many the other patrons in the bar and on the dance floor were in their 20s, having been born around the time that many of those songs were new. This wasn’t so different from when I would go to “Seventies Night” while in college myself, with many older-than-me adults wondering how I could know all the words to some of those disco, funk, and rock classics that would have been played on the radio when I was still in diapers.
1989 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer. Sunday, May 31, 2020.
There was nothing quite like being caught up in the whooshing, churning, washing machine-like maelstrom of celebratory, sweating, dancing girls and guys on the dance floor in various levels of intoxication, scream-singing the Beastie Boys’ “Brass Monkey” or Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” to each other at the top of their ever more festive lungs. Fast forward ten or fifteen years, ’80s Night was still a thing at Holiday Club before the current pandemic started. The music was still choice and the service and overall vibes friendly.
On my last visit there, the crowd on the dance floor was still mostly made up of twenty-somethings who on average were probably at least negative five years old when the last mainstream pop, R&B and dance hits from the ’80s had first reached the Billboard charts. My mid-forties self is now probably older than many of their former college professors. Neither this, nor my increasingly plaintive joints, have kept me from my occasional return to the H.C. to break it down on the dance floor with everyone else. “Everybody, get up and do your thing… ♪♫” Madonna, you don’t have to ask me twice. We need a holiday.
c. 1992 Ford Taurus wagon. Monday, August 31, 2015.
Many of these songs may not have some personal resonance with many of my younger, co-revelers. There’s also no rule that says that one must be of a certain age to enjoy things from an era before one’s own. More than a few of my friends and acquaintances were into the ’60s and The Beatles when we were adolescents. Still, I doubt that hearing Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” would fire many of-that-time memories for those clubgoers the way seeing some of these cars had thrust me back into the years before I became my own responsibility.
All of these featured vehicles existed as new cars in the form in which I photographed them in the magic model year of 1992. By that year, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable had just been restyled into the versions we see here. The Chevrolet S-10 Blazer, introduced for model year ’83, was then in its tenth season, with its four-door variant only having been introduced a couple of years prior, in 1990. The Chevrolet Lumina was in its third, proper model year, having been introduced in early ’89 as a 1990 model. The last restyle of the ’79-vintage Ford Mustang which was introduced for ’87 would hang on through ’93 until the replacement SN-95 model would debut the next year.
c. 1990 Chevrolet Lumina. Sunday, September 13, 2015.
While I was able to confirm the model year of only the Blazer and Mustang LX 5.0 convertible, both from 1989, they look much like their ’92 counterparts. It’s entirely possible that the three other vehicles could also be from that latter year, as well. Riding my Raleigh twelve-speed bike through my old neighborhood in Flint as a teenager, I could have seen any of these U.S.-branded cars (or truck) parked in a driveway with new a window sticker on it from Al Bennett Ford or Hank Graff Chevrolet. Outside of the Mustang, which appeared to be in great shape at the time I photographed it, the condition of the other four vehicles was slightly unsettling if expected, given their age, as I remembered how their brethren looked as new cars when I stood on the cusp of adulthood and leaving my parents’ household for the first time.
c. 1992 Mercury Sable. Thursday, September 3, 2015.
This grouping of cars is not unlike an actual class reunion, given the varying conditions of each of them, all of these years later. When I was a teenager, I would think of someone in my current mid-40s age bracket as being, like, so old. I couldn’t stop laughing the day I delivered the newspaper to one of my customers whose wife had put a signboard in their front lawn that read, “Lordy, Lordy – Don is 40!” I’m not sure if I found that so hilarious at the time because of the corny simplicity of that rhyme, or because I was wondering to myself, “Why would anybody want that advertised?” The respectful truth is that four decades is long enough for one to have experienced many things, some of which can leave a human being a little worse for wear, whether inherently good or bad.
Unlike the rust, duct tape, rattle-canned finish, and missing components (i.e. the luggage rack on the Mustang’s deck lid) on this assortment of cars, on people, our acquired imperfections can tell a story of a life’s path, even if every turn wasn’t the most ideal one for us in the moment. I had supposed that the common thread of approximate year of manufacture was enough for me to tie all five of these vehicles together, much like I treasure having experienced having gone to high school as part of such an amazing, multi-faceted, diverse student body at long-defunct Flint Central High School. Even though I photographed most of these vehicles in my neighborhood of Edgewater five years ago, there’s a big part of me that would like to see them together in this area just one more time, even if only for old times’ sake.
All vehicles were photographed in Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
For me Joseph, who graduated in 1978, when Disco was all over the radio, as well as some awesome rock songs, I loved the Doo-wop sounds of the fifties, having parents who enjoyed that music when they were young.
I think we all can relate to music that was 20 years before our time.
I can relate to cars in varying states of contrition too, having gone to my own 30th High School Reunion in 2008. Yeah, the people there were in various states of condition as well. Stay young my friend, even if it is only a state of mind as we age!
As to the cars, I had a neighbor with a black over silver Blazer like that, same wheels too, that she kept immaculate. She eventually traded it in on a red Olds Bravada with gold trim. And that Mustang LX… yeah, I wanted one of those, but chose the larger T-Bird instead. Those factory wheels really set it off, too. Is it just me who likes the LX of that vintage better than the GT?
RS Rick, my HS 30-year is not that far away! Social media turned into a means of keeping in touch with people without needing a formal gathering (which we can’t really do right now in the midst of social distancing).
Still, I’ll probably go to mine. At my 20-year, I met a bunch of great people with whom I used to share the halls of Flint Central without us speaking two words to one another, with whom I’ve since become great friends.
I’m also a huge fan of the LX 5.0L, as it’s much more my style than the GT. That said, I wouldn’t kick a nice GT convertible out of my garage!
Dang – your writing so perfectly captures the emotions that certain cars can wake in our memories. In my memory, our ’89 Mustang LX is forever young, cruising down the PCH towards our soon to be new home in SF with my young wife beside me. If only . . .
Rob, thank you so much. Echoing what I just wrote to RetroStang Rick above, your ’89 LX 5.0L convertible is pretty much my ideal Mustang right now.
As another 1978 grad, 1992 seems like almost yesterday. Of course, it was 28 years ago, as I am periodically reminded when I interact with my son who is that age. So even though 1992 was a different era for me than it was for you, I enjoyed this little cruise back to the past.
I am like you in that so many of these cars are – in my mind’s eye – all sparkly shiny new. They are, of course, either beaters or extinct now, with the rare survivor.
Joe, you and I are reasonably close in age and you have succeeded in dredging up a few latent memories this morning as what you say hits quite close to home.
One’s activities in life do certainly influence how they appear and function later on. For me I am well aware of my having aged in the face a considerable amount over the last ten years; yes, it’s to be expected but it has been exacerbated by various sucky life events. Into every life a little rain must fall and all that….
But as one who has been guilty of stalking high school classmates on FB (I was in a class of 43, so doing so isn’t any huge feat) I will brag about being the Taurus wagon of this bunch. Yes, I’m showing some wear but many of my then cohorts are more in the Sable and Blazer groupings.
My wife is certainly in the Mustang group. That woman has barely aged in the nearly 22 years we’ve been married. She gets it from her mother.
Haha! Jason, I’m with you on probably being toward the Taurus wagon end of things. In my mind, anway.
I photographed both the Taurus and Sable in front of the same storefront within something like a week. It made me wonder if they were both owned by the shop owner.
Well said Joseph Dennis and I will reread this article later to see if I gain any further insight. You see, I just woke up (5:17AM) and your perspectives can change once you’ve had a bowl of cereal.
I moved to Portland, Oregon nearly 7 years ago in my early 20s and used to occasionally frequent 80s as well as 90s night at the Crystal Ballroom. I usually was about 10-30 years younger than most of the crowd as we danced to Stacy Q or Captain Hollywood Project. Not only is there not a 2000s night that I know about, but I don’t think I’d quite connect to the music in the same way. I’ve gotten better recently about listening to more modern music though.
Where I grew up in Tompkins County parts of life seemed decades behind the times since there is a slower pace to life, social progressiveness is not as common once you leave Ithaca, and the architecture (especially in rural areas) hasn’t changed much since the 1950s. The cars though, are almost always from within the past 10-15 years since the road salt ruins them so it’s easy to figure out what era you are in just by walking a parking lot.
Portland, Oregon is full of older cars and buildings so it can be easier to forget we are in 2020 or even the middle of a Pandemic if you know where to look. Also, there is (or at least was) a bunch of nostalgia around which further muddies perspectives. What really snaps you back to reality is the social progressiveness of many of the citizens and walking around gentrified areas that are very much of the 21st Century. If you visit Newberg or other rural Oregon towns though, you can easily forget which century you are in, it is kind of surreal.
Teddy, I had to look up the Crystal Ballroom in Portland and wow – what a venue / place! It looks amazing. I miss being able to lose myself in a crowd like that. There is a local bar here called “Beauty Bar” that does have a “2000’s Night” or something like that, but I haven’t been to that yet.
As far as social progressiveness in your neck of the woods, that’s such a great thing. I can’t imagine living anywhere else but here in Edgewater, where all of us are just so different from each other / there’s so much diversity – that there really doesn’t seem to be any one dominant demographic. I’ll probably treasure this experience for the rest of my life, wherever I end up or whether I stay here.
Thank you for sharing.
I think that a lot of people who frequent this site are old souls; I know I am. Being able to appreciate things outside of one’s time, be they cars or music, or anything else, is a state of mind, and a broad one, I think.
Getting “old” is also a state of mind, of course. Cars, just like their human counterparts can age gracefully or they can rot away and eventually hit the scrapyard.
The thing I love about owning a classic is that with my love and attention, I can make it look new again. And it can keep getting better with age, especially since its style is so unique compared to the cars of today.
I recently acquired a massive cassette tape suitcase full of old soul music and disco tapes. I drove the van yesterday out to go hiking, and later, to the beach, playing some Whispers, Commodores, Diana Ross, and Brothers Johnson tapes. It felt absolutely right to be bumping those tunes from the old Westy and it put a smile on my face.
Scott, you hit on something when you referred to the joy of making something old or classic look new again, which then stands out. This is probably why I’ll never get rid of some of my furniture and would probably have it recovered versus buying new stuff.
I also still have most of my old cassettes, but after my tape deck broke a few years ago (literally), those tapes have been collecting dust. I may buy an MP3 converter. Your experience of listening to classic R&B and driving your Westfalia sounds like a great way to combat the Quarantine Blues!
Ha – old times sake. I was out walking the dog the other night and just like nothing was out of the ordinary, a fellow drove by in his 1966 Cadillac convertible. Yep, right down the street, all shiny and fancy. Nobody took any notice, as if it was 1970 or something. Except me, all I could do was whistle. A friend had a ’66 Sedan de Ville back in the day. I couldn’t react fast enough to whip out my phone and snap off a shot.
That’s what keeps me coming back to this site – the memories evoked by the great writing and the great photography, whether it be cars or buses or streetcars.
I feel a connection to Chicago – I have been there several times, to Wrigley Field, and to see family. I always enjoy stepping back, in your stories Joseph.
The Mustang of the years surrounding the one you found is one of those “evergreen” cars where no matter what condition one is in my mind overlays an image of what a new one looked like whenever I see one. And I never even owned one.
While I certainly liked contemporary music of the time while remaining a big fan of 80’s New Wave stuff, much of the 90’s saw me and my friends congregating at The Covered Wagon on Folsom Street in San Francisco for “Disco Night” on Saturday nights and Boogie Oogie Oogieing and getting our Hustle on all night long. Thanks for bringing back some great memories, Joe!
Oh, man, Jim, in my college years, I listened to it all! From ’70s disco, to ’80s new wave, to then-current college alternative… I’d say that the ’90s were the decade that laid the foundation for me to experience and appreciate all kinds of music.
We usually associate our teen years as when we start to appreciate cars, music, and pop culture, but as you expressed, it is remarkable how much we already start to learn and appreciate at a much, much younger age. History may associate disco, funk, and early 80s club music with more mature themes, my early exposure to it was entirely through records, and the radio at home. For me, it was innocent, fun, and full of energy. That is a part of the appeal of older music for young people.
The run-down state of these seeming eternally new cars from the 80s and 90s, is a bit of an eye-opener. The owners may see them as basic transportation, or as a connection to the past. I suspect mostly the latter.
Thank you for this great topic, and your thoughts Joseph!
Daniel, you hit on something with your commentary on ’80s music. I wasn’t much of a lyrics guy when I was given my first, new radio around age 10. I just knew I liked what I heard sonically when I would listen to some of my favorite songs. I used to get “song shamed” by mom for listening to songs that may have had mildly adult themes, but whatever. I don’t think I was being subliminally programmed to go out and behave irresponsibly. I was a good kid and I think I’m a good person today.
Ultimately, I think lyrics are important, but sometimes I just want to cut loose and just enjoy what I’m listening to.
Great observations Joseph. And your point is very true. As little kids we are drawn in to the hooks and rhythms of songs, that we often ignore, or don’t interpret, what the lyrics mean. Until later, as we grow up. But as you say, so often we just enjoyed the musical qualities of a song, that we didn’t care if the tune was suggestive at the time. lol
I remember I just found them fun to enjoy, without knowing the full meaning of a song. I think your mom would understand that it’s the music itself that kids love foremost. Even if an artist like Prince for example, typically had mature lyrics.
So many great tunes and artists from that era, that should have been much bigger. I thought ‘A Night to Remember’ by Shalamar was one of their best. I really enjoyed it at time. Yet, it only reached #44 in the Hot 100 in 1982. Though it did chart well here in Canada and the UK.
Other than some Kurt Weill and a single “Dukes of Dixieland” album, it was all classical music at our house growing up, until we kids infested that pristine atmosphere with our own tunes, starting with my sister’s folk music in the early ’60s.
Although I immersed myself in the psychedelic, rock and jazz of the later ’60s and early ’70s, after I left home in 1971 with just a backpack, my exposure to the music of my generation became rather limited and sporadic, especially as I was not a big fan of the direction pop music took in the mid ’70s. If you can believe it, I actually listened to classical music in that era (very early 20s) in the same way others listened to rock, funk, etc.. I’d put on a record and just totally lose myself in it. And some jazz too: McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, etc…
The point is that I’m shockingly clueless about popular music from about 1971 on! Stephanie caught me up with her love of the Grateful Dead, but there’s still major holes.
The key to getting older is to keep doing tings that you couldn’t or wouldn’t when you were younger. Right now the front suspension of my F100 is dangling in pieces in the air, as I’m in the middle of replacing bushings and shocks. I never attempted this before, and in the past I would have taken it to someone if it really had to be done. But it’s just a bunch of big bolts, that so far have all come apart, even with an adjustable crescent wrench, since I have limited tools. It’s a rejuvenating experience, in more ways than one.
Way to go, Paul, getting right into those nuts and bolts.
Knew someone who was a dedicated Dead Head. Could never see the attraction then or now.
Paul, thank you for this, and I love that last paragraph. This year and all of its related challenges has taught me that no matter how entrenched in routine I may be, it’s never too late to adapt, grow, try new things, and still flourish.
About popular music, I used to log onto Billboard.com every single Thursday morning (when the new, weekly charts would be released) to look at five key charts to see how my favorite artists were doing: Hot 100 singles chart; Billboard 200 album chart; their corresponding tallies on the R&B charts, and then what was happening on the dance charts (club play / singles).
“Hot Shot Debut”, chart position “with a bullet” (meaning with upward momentum), etc. were all terms I learned from being a regular / semi-regular Billboard devotee for years. I haven’t looked at a chart for probably close to a decade. Most of my music purchases have been things recorded years ago that have stood the test of time.
One day, I may have the time and resources to learn some basic car skills.
Ha, not old enough. I started high school in the San Fernando Valley at a Catholic Boys School courtesy my parents in 1967. Music wise I wasn’t up on much of anything as I had other interests.I wasn’t aware of the Beatles till visiting a previous neighbor in New Jersey, driving up from Maryland, and before moving to California in June 1966. Their daughter Susan was my age and when I saw her bedroom walls covered by posters of these guys I asked who are they. The look I got…
At that high school we had a dance near the end of my first year which I attended. Can’t recall if I danced since our school was all boys and strange girls coming over would have intimidated me. However, I do remember the band that played live that day in maybe April 1968. By the time I left high school in June 1971 I had a friend, Ron, who had a massive record collection already and received Rolling Stone so I got up to speed very fast. Today I listen to all my music from the 50s on up on my vintage stereo receivers. LOL, 10 cars and 10 vintage receivers. Music is an amazing time machine like cars.
Oh, by the way the name of that band in April 1968 was Iron Butterfly. Theirs was the first record I ever bought in January 1969 along with buying Led Zeppelin I and Grass Roots Golden Grass. Still have them 10 feet away from me.
My high school years spanned 1969-1973. I grew up with all the Sixties music, POP, the British Invasion, psychedelic rock (remember light shows?) R&B, soul, everything including the Oldie’s from the 50’s and 60’s. But it wasn’t until I was out of high school and now had more control of my life that Disco arrived in the mid 70’s. That was the music that I chose to listen to, in my car on my stereo. Camaro, Firebirds, Coupe de Villes, Grand Prixs, these are the cars that stand out in my memory. Some I owned, others were owned by my siblings. What is sobering, if not down right frightening is that my FIFTIETH high school reunion will be in 2023. That’s only three years out, though who knows what will happen. I wasn’t a rah-rah, popular guy who’s best years were in high school. In fact, I couldn’t wait to put all that behind me. Still, I did enjoy my 10th, and 20th. reunions. That kind of nostalgia I can take for a couple of hours. 1973, the year of Tower of Power. You’re still a young man…. Maybe not.
Jose, I was not the “rah-rah popular guy”, either (that’s golden), but I think that if I had been, my life wouldn’t be the great thing it is today. The thing is that I actually like and appreciate my former classmates (including the former mayor) and myself much more now than I did back then. That’s called a blessing.
I have been to one light show before! When I was in college, I went to a (again, referencing them) Beatles show with some friends. I can only imagine what that kind of experience might have been with some more psychedelic sounds and perhaps other things.
As I have witnessed over this past decade, many cars from the ’90s and even a few from the ’80s (or even earlier) are still chugging away on the road every day, pickups & vans especially. Some are still in *almost* new shape while others probably need to be retired when a major mechanical component finally gives out. Not too long ago I saw a VW Beetle–NOT the New Beetle or the car that came after it–on US 378 when taking my car trailer to finally get brakes installed on it (WHY was it built WITHOUT brakes?!). And every so often I still see a fairly clean 2nd-generation Taurus when I pass through Gilbert County on US 1. If lucky enough to have been kept up, the Fox-Body Mustang and Taurus still look like fresh designs in basic appearance; only when compared with much newer cars do they actually show their age. For just a short while it’s like you’ve time-traveled back to the 20th Century.
Below: 2010-12 Taurus SHO (left), 1989-91 Taurus SHO (right)
I’m a ’76 HS grad myself, though I don’t mind people knowing how old I am, my twin sister does (and people in general know I’m her twin so I have to keep discreet…though I know I just blew it by mentioning my HS graduation year).
One of my co-workers bought a brand new 1992 Ford Taurus SHO…he was really proud of…had to learn how to drive standard, prior to that he had a Buick Century (maybe ’87) that just a few months before he bought the SHO I helped him replace the alternator on the Buick when his battery died. I was in mid-ownership of my ’86 GTi, which I kept till my current ’00 Golf. A few years before my Father had started his Mercury Sable run having bought 3 new ones in a row, starting in 1989 when my sister totalled his ’86 Dodge 600 (he’s gone now, after finishing his ’96 Sable, he bought two Chevy Impalas in a row (’01, and ’06…which my Mother currently drives).
I had a bad bicycle accident that year, a car turned left in front of me (going opposite direction, guess she didn’t see me and I couldn’t stop fast enough) where I broke my scapula plus a couple of ribs, even having survived my childhood without a single broken bone. My ’86 GTi was not a good car to have when disabled in upper body; it had manual steering and (for the time) wide 60 series tires, plus it was a manual…I got a steering wheel spinner from a coworker who’s son was badly injured in a diving accident, and coped with it. Probably because of this experience I’m thinking I have to get rid of my Golf (which at least now has power steering) to get my first car since 1981 with an automatic…nobody in my family can drive my current car, and I’ve had some leg pain issues where using my feet has been painful, much as I hate to admit it the clutch pedal is one too many when dealing with leg infirmities (even if they are temporary, they hurt like anything at the time).
I think I did the timing belt on my GTi that year…the next year (March) changed the clutch…it got fouled by gear oil, so replaced all the bushings, and tried out synthetic gear oil..man, I can still remember the stink, it smelled like nothing else. I was also sick as anything so it took me a full month to get the clutch changed (I had a conceptual error in my head, ended up doing the job 3 times but I’d actually gotten it right the first time, but doubted myself)…good thing my recently retired mother was nice enough to lend me her car so I could get back and forth till I could get my own car working again.