If David Gusset the violin maker drives a Tercel Wagon, what would the proprietor of Papa’s Soul Food Kitchen drive? What else? I should say, driven, in the past tense, as “Ted” Lee or just Papa Soul, a very gifted restaurateur and patron of the local blues scene passed away a while back. But his ’69 Caddy is a perfect fit (not so much in the small driveway) for his expansive personality. This reminds me I have to get busy writing up some of my stash of Cadillacs. Can’t let them get musty. Another angle of the tight fit:
Maybe I should start a series of the business owners of Eugene who drive interesting cars. I can think of a few already…
Murph & The Magictones!
Are those Cadillac wheels?
They look Buicky to me, but still nice on that car.
The last of the great Pininfarina Cadillacs. The next year they turned into GM corporate crap. Too bad, really, these cars had cachet.
err, isn’t that a 1969 Cadillac?
That is indeed a ’69. Just 2 short years later Caddy morphed into Chevy.
Umm; of course it is. I hate having to rush out the door for an appointment when I’m trying to get a post up.
Very nice contrast to the junkyard Caddy on TTAC today.
Murph’s Caddy was a ’67.And,the ’70 Caddy was a mild restyle of the”69.The ugly Caddies didn’t start until the ’71 models,
You gotta love cars that were a block-and-a-half long!
My friend Raymond’s Aunt has a Champagne colored 1970 that she fits into a Doelger House Garage in the Sunset District in San Francisco. I Consider that an act of true skill being able to maneuver a car 20 ft long by about 7 feet wide through a garage designed for Model As and such of the 1930s.
Years ago when my Great-Aunt Martha passed, I was the one elected to take her car out of the garage. 1970 Malibu Coupe. Less than 2″ clearance on either side. Not a mark or scratch on either mirror (and she drove it regularly) I was impressed.
In the city of Cincinnati, the older neighborhoods have very small garages similar to what you describe, and if they park a car in there, half of it sticks out! Pretty funny. Somehow, when I was in the service on the west coast, I managed to drive my 1964 Impala SS convertible down Lombard St. many years ago with a carful of guys. That was fun, too. That, and having my brakes fade coming down one of those hills, finally coming to a stop halfway through a Van Ness Avenue intersection!
The house I grew up in (built in 1908) has a two Model A car sized garage on the end of the lot. We could only fit one car in the garage. When my folks got the house aluminum sided in the 50’s, they put a wider rollup garage door on the structure. There are many houses here in Grand Rapids in older neighborhoods that are ‘bumped’ out with a modern rollup door on them,.
Ate at Papa’s once. I enjoyed whatever small pieces of ocean-life I could find amongst the deep fried crust. I can’t say I was exactly surprised to read of Papa’s demise.
When I was a kid, our next-door neighbors had two of these behemoths, a red one and a white one. Imagine two of these battlecruisers parked in front of a 1,000 square-foot postwar prefab. They really stuck out, and in more ways than one.
I had a ’72, and three things stand out. First I was at a red light one day, and a guy drops a soft drink on the floor of his car and hits my caddy in the rear, no damage
much to my car, major to his. While having the rear brake drums turned, the counter guy asked if they were off of a one ton truck! No, but that car was built like a tank. The heater was so awesome that I could have driven in shorts and a t-shirt in winter.