Earlier today, Brendan Saur shared a picture of some of the cars on his street when he was but a tot. Which made me think, do we car-crazed people who hang around here ever forget the cars on the streets where we grew up? I know I haven’t.
The cars in the neighborhood where I was raised were somewhat older than those around the home of five-year-old Brendan. But I remember them vividly. I was born in 1959 and lived in a middle class subdivision that was about my age. Most neighbors bought their cars new, and an Oldsmobile or Buick was mostly as extravagant as anyone got. I won’t go into a house-by-house list (although I could) but will share a few of the most interesting. First was the red 1964 Studebaker Avanti that my best friend Tim’s dad bought new and kept until long after I had moved away. The hot one with the supercharged R-2 engine and the four speed stick, it is a car I have never forgotten.
Tim’s mom later got a hot red ’72 AMC Javelin AMX with gold hood stripes, bucket seats and a 360. The ’72 Javelin was not all that common as it was, but the tricked-out AMX was much more of a rarity than I understood at the time.
I also had Pontiac GTOs coming at me from both sides of my house, and can count a 1965, ’66, ’68 and ’71 models, all of which I rode in. The navy blue ’65 was owned by an indulged kid, but the others were owned by a buddy’s mother. Of the four, the ’71 was the only automatic.
Finally, there was the elderly couple a block behind us who liked their Imperials, which they always bought used. At different times, they had a 1964, a ’67 and a ’72, any one of which I would love today.
So, howabout you? What were the most interesting cars on the street where you grew up?
I grew up in a middle- to upper-middle-class neighborhood in the ’70s and ’80s, and there wasn’t anything all that unique on my street (it’s all BMW and Mercedes country now). I remember that an older couple always had big Chryslers (fuselage New Yorkers. probably–I wasn’t a big Chrysler fan at the time), and our next door neighbors had a big 390-powered mid-’60s Ford wagon in the early-mid ’80s–a hand me down from one or the other set of the couple’s parents. A “confirmed bachelor” (in the parlance of the time) down the street had a Bunkie-beak T-Bird for a few years, and then moved on to one of its gigantic successors, and a guy across the street had an AMC Hornet wagon in immaculate shape up into the mid-’80s. And then there was the retired guy up the street who had a whole garage full of Fiat 850s in various stages of repair and disrepair…I can’t remember ever seeing one run!
Not one but TWO Bradley GTs mentioned! I remember those, but never in my neighborhoods.
Would you believe 3? In the list I wrote in this thread, the family with the 1965 Country Squire had their ship come in during the 1970s. A new Country Squire and a well quipped LTD company car were their core vehicles. A Mercedes sedan, and a Porsche 914 came along for the ride. And, they built their own Bradley GT.
I also forgot to mention a full sized ’65 Pontiac (can’t remember the model) 2 door.
When I was a teenager, the neighbors across the street had a 1951 Bentley, complete with semaphore turn signals. Otherwise, virtually all the cool cars I saw were owned by our neighbor Avie Cohen, who by turns had an Avanti; a BMW Bavaria; a Jaguar XK-E; a Jensen Interceptor; and several Lincoln Marks.
Mid Michigan in the mid-late ’70s
We had an Avanti in the neighborhood as well, but it was about 3 blocks away. There was also a ’65-66 Barracuda there, might have been the same house?
My block had a Crosley station wagon for a couple of years that never left its spot in the garage.
My favorite was probably the ’72 Vista Cruiser across the street. When that family moved the couple who bought the house had a ’68-’69 Lemans.
I had a neighbour when I was a boy who had a 1972-73 Opel GT. I remember because it was an ugly dark chocolate. It wasn’t bad looking overall, kind of like a German Corvette, but its colour didn’t do its looks any favours.
In Innsbruck, the most interesting was a Tatra T-600 Tatraplan.
In Iowa City, it was the usual assortment of late 50s – early 60s cars. The most interesting on the block were
A German professor, who had a 220SE and his wife had a ’64 Studebaker Daytona coupe.
A doctor who also had a 220SE and a Model A.
A family that had a Corvair Greenbrier van.
A rich old lady that had a series of Imperial coupes.
The family across the street that had a matching set of Bonneville four door hardtop and station wagon. And their boys had several hot rods and a Lloyd, for a while.
And another doctor had a white ’61 Corvette.
The rest were not really exceptional. A Lark; ’59 Ford; ’56 Olds, etc….
Another Lloyd, and in the US too.
Growing up in the ’60’s and ’70’s, there were actually a lot of cars in my neighborhood that I thought were interesting. Just a few of them…
Starting with my family which had two cars: a ’68 Olds Delta 88 (with a 455) and a ’66 Triumph TR-4A. The neighbors across the street had a series of Lincolns from the ’60’s well into the ’70’s. Not to be outdone, the neighbors next door always had Cadillacs. Another neighbor had a Model A Ford that he was restoring in his garage. And the teacher across the street (next to the Lincoln owners) had a 1960-something VW bus.
About the time I went off to college a neighbor bought a Plymouth Volare. He used to sing the Volare commercial song while in his driveway washing it. Not sure how long that pride of ownership lasted.
New cars were a big deal in our neighborhood in the ’60’s, but I saw that fade in the ’70’s.
We live in a very rural area, so there isn’t too much.
From when I was a child, I remember two vehicles that stood out to me:
A Yellow 1970s Toyota pickup (We’re a very Anti-Import area)
A Mid 1980s Mitsubishi Mighty Max
That’s pretty much it! I know, boring right!
Keep reading! There is nothing of interest here!
Probably the most interesting was my next door neighbor who had a ’59 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. Black w/black and white interior. He used to swing that mass around our cul-de-sac like it was a school bus. He said that Yogi Berra once owned the car, probably the original owner.
Around 1960 or so, our neighbour had a new Isetta, which was quite a novelty because he normally bought huge Buicks. 2 doors up my cousin always had an assortment of Morris Minors and at one time a TR3. The rest were run of the mill 4 dr sedans, usually Chevys or Fords.
One house had both a Lamborghini Espada and a Mercedes-Benz W111 cabriolet of some sort. This was an otherwise working-class neighborhood in the 1980s, but it was by a lake and they only lived there in the summer.
On our block in a Los Angeles suburb in the 1950s, there was one exotic that I didnt understand at the time, a 300SL Gullwing Mercedes. Dad drove a Pontiac, next door on one side was a DeSoto and on the other a Buick. The car on our block I drooled on as a child was a turquoise ’57 Thunderbird with the porthole hardtop.
Johnstown, PA, being both a conservative town, and a hotbed of both union steelworkers and coal miners was an incredibly boring place for cars. 98% Big Three and American Motors, a few Volkswagen Beetles, and about half that number of Renaults. And a Mercedes or two started showing up in the Jewish suburb.
I’d be in heaven if an old Packard, Studebaker, Nash or Hudson came down the street.
Anything four wheeled and interesting in my childhood was what dad would bring home from the Chevy dealership at lunchtime. Which he did deliberately, just to keep his car crazy kid happy.
Born in 1954 I gremup in a middle class western Canadian city so many of the cars around the neighbourhood with the usual domestics and a few British imports like; Austin A40, Hillman. Before starting elementary school in 1960 I recall a few pre-World War two cars around the area.
What stood out as I recall were the Desotos, big late fifties Buicks and two blocks away there was a gentleman who had a couple of Hudson sedans. In later years he had a Ferrari or what I recall as a Ferrari and even repainted it in his garage.
Down thee block a family from California moved into newer house. One of their vehicles was a Late sixties Lincoln Continental. That car always seemed to be in the garage whenever I rode by on my bike. My earliest experience with a Lincoln in a richer part of the neighbourhood was an early sixties Continental my friend’s mother bought. It seemed so big and hey, it had plastic seat covers just Like our 62 Comet.
A few blocks west of that family, Penny Clark’s father an architect, had a big Cadillac sedan. Just a few years later his wife would drive Penny and her sister to elementary school in a new Mustang notchback coupe.
Just a few of the motoring memories in my part of the world back then…
Not counting the usual Chevies and Fords and Ramblers, these are the cars that stood out: (Not exactly on the same street, but in the same neighborhood)
’54 Studie Conestoga, ’56 Lloyd station wagon, ’50 Studie LandCruiser, an Austin Healey, a Dauphine, ’36 Cord Beverly, ’55 Gullwing, ’52 Mercedes 300 limo, ’37 Chevy, ’57 Caddy Eldo Brougham, a Kaiser Darrin, and an Allstate.
Another Lloyd! Tied with the Bradley GT now.
I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in the 1970’s and ’80’s. It was full of midsize and full-size cars from the Big 3, as well as plenty of Japanese subcompacts. By far the most interesting were the two oldest ones–a 1960 Plymouth Valiant and an early ’50’s Packard. To me, the Valiant (still a daily driver) was the strangest looking car I’d ever seen, and the Packard (which wasn’t driven daily) was the coolest because it was the only one of its kind left.
The cars we had in the 80s are more interesting now than then and my parents often had the most interesting whips on the block.
That being said, I was very impressed by a neighbor’s LeCar at a young age. A younger woman had a gorgeous red Dodge Daytona I loved.
My grandma’s neighbor painted an old Dodge Dart Swinger blue using house paint and a brush. It looked bubbly and bristly.
Carlisle, PA, late 60s to early 70s, my street was near the small college; there was a mix of upper middle class homes and rental properties (professors and law students). So some cool stuff: an Avanti, Renault 16, Fiat 850 coupe, Triumph TR-4, 2nd gen. Corvair, and 2 different families had Dodge A108 Sportsman vans at the same time. But the most interesting was a ’64 Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible that had received a purple paint job, surely not at the factory. My jaw was on the sidewalk the first time I saw the choreography of that top folding into the rear-hinged trunk.
My old next door neighbour’s partner had a Triumph 2000 sedan when I was a kid. It was painted this faded grey/brown colour and reminded me of a faded, floppy hat. Down the street, one guy had a 1970s Jaguar that was always covered by a tarp except for the rear end poking out… And those chrome bumpers and menacing taillights made it look so evil!
Probably in the mid-90’s or so, the people across the street from us had, at various times, a Lincoln Mark VII, a BMW 6-series, and a Saab 9000.
The only other car that really sticks out was someone who would occasionally visit the neighbors next door to them and drove a Maserati Quattroporte.
Some of the more notable cars on my street during the mid 60s would have been my parents 1960 Sunbeam Rapier convertible One of my friends parents had the first Mustang I ever saw or rode in, they later bought a beautiful dark blue/white top and interior 66 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. A couple of the older guys had a 65 Corvette and an Austin Healy. The rest were your average early to mid 60s sedans and wagons from the Big Three. Being western New York, it didn’t take long for the tinworm to consume cars.
In the early 70’s living in suburban Delaware there are only a couple that stick out. The neighbor across the street had a 68 Shelby, his kid also had one of the first Powerwheels. Down at the end of the Cul De Sac there was a MGB that one of the dad’s used as his summer time car. I specifically remember he had the tonneau cover on it for most of the summer. He would unzip it at the middle and roll back the passenger area when he drove it and then normally parked it with it closed. The “Buick” Opel Wagon someone brought home was interesting since it certainly wasn’t like anything else I knew as a Buick since we had a 65 Sportwagon. The other vehicle that interested me was a F250. It was mainly used for hauling a camper and towing a boat. It sticks out from remembering watching him put the boat in the back yard using a ball on the front of the truck and remove the camper. The bigger thing is that was the only pickup on the block.
Later 70’s in a small town in Kansas the big ones that stick out are the Opel GT owned by a spoiled older kid he once took me and my best friend for what seemed like a really fast ride laying in the back of it. An old lady down the street had a 50’s Buick fastback that really interested me. She let me play in it a couple of times. I specifically remember the roof mounted antenna with an inside knob to swivel it down in front of the windshield to park in the garage. A couple of streets over across from the town baseball park there was a guy who drag raced Mopars complete with super chargers sticking through the hood. He worked at the gas station down by the Quick Trip and despite the fact that he had slicks on it he would drive it to work on occasion. He also would practice launches/do burn outs in the ball park’s parking lot. One was a late 60’s Charger and the other a ‘Cuda. A little farther away an old lady had a 59 Glaxie 500 complete with the Continental kit. A neighbor of one of my Friends had a 70’s Travelall 4×4 with bigger tires that really interested me. A fire fighter at the local house had an early Bronco with the half cab. My older cousin had a 70 Cougar XR7 and then a TR7 when he got his first job out of College.
Finally I moved to the Exurbs of Seattle in the late 70’s. The ones that stick out from there are a 57? Caddy coupe and old Studebaker Hawk non runner in one of the garages that I’d see on rare occasions that door was up. Another project car was a 57 Pontiac Safari, the Nomad style version, that was pretty rough.
Others that stuck out were a Colonnade 442, 70’s Corvette, Honda Z 600 and friend who’s dad was taken by the Mazda Rotary so they had a REPU and a Cosmo. The people who lived in that house before them had a 1965 Sportwagon which they put up for sale for $600 when I was getting near 15 that I tried to get my dad to let me buy. I was able to get him to go and look at it parked out on the street but he looked at the globs of silicone around the vista windows and nixed that idea.
My first girlfriend got a nicely redone 67 LeMans with the 326, metallic blue with black buckets, when she turned 16 that her dad surprised her with. Another girlfriend from the neigborhood got a 55 F100 that had been customized. Of course that happened after we quit seeing each other. She actually picked it out and bought it with her own money that she saved up for many years and it was exactly what she had wanted for some time. Another girl I hung out with for a while had a Toyota Carina.
Another car that really caught my attention was on my first paper route in another neighborhood. It was a 50 Merc mild custom. It was another one that I tried to talk my dad into letting me see about buying. It didn’t have a for sale sign on it but it was unused. Unfortunately they were a “pay by mail” and only took the Sun paper so I never actually talked to them. By the time I decided that I wanted it and my dad was finally starting to give in and maybe go with me to take a look it was gone.
Forgot about a couple a friend’s dad had a 928 and a basket case Model T in the second garage next to their house.
The other thing I’d see daily in the Summer in the Seattle area was the Joe Ice Cream trucks. The were the pickup version of the Subaru 360.
Growing up in the ’50s in a working class neighborhood in Suburbia virtually all the automobiles I saw were Chevys, Fords and Plymouths. In the late fifties-about 1958 I did begin seeing some Volkswagen Beetles and occasionally a BMW Isetta. I do recall seeing one of those Heinkle bubble cars; but I only caught a glimpse of it from a distance. It was definitely the exception to the rule.
Carnegie Avenue, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, 1973. Across the street, the widowed Mrs. Blank (yes, that was her real name) had a pristine ’56 Sixty Special. Next door, the retired Methodist minister had a triple green ’67 LTD 4 door hardtop, while his younger successor down the street drove the first Subaru wagon I’d ever see. Our other next-door neighbor had a gold ’65 Electra 225 4 door hardtop, and their son frequently showed up in his Series II Land Rover wagon, with the spare on the hood.
Across the alley, there was a guy with a white TR-3, sandwiched between the Galusick’s ’63 Impala Sport Sedan and Joey Toth’s ’73 Riviera. At the end of the block, the Merriman’s had a 2nd gen VW Bus, a ’63 split-window Corvette, and an orange ’73 Mercedes 450SE.
That was a pretty exotic driveway in a Pittsburgh steel town, not to mention the ’73 911 in “raspberry” my uncle kept a block away, or the local pimp’s raspberry (again!) custom Eldorado, or his full-on Superfly Mark IV, both of which made frequent appearances parked in front of First Methodist Church at the end of the block.
Mid-60’s through around 1980…….mainly mundane family sedans and the ubiquitous station wagons. A few Willys wagons, Broncos and, later on, K-5 Blazers. Beetles were all over the place as well.
A 50 MGTD followed by a 59 Morris Minor Ragtop, then a 69 Fiat 124 Spyder graced our driveway over the years. My Dad seemed to like one foreign make and one from the big three at any given times.
Things got a little more interesting in the surrounding neighborhoods. A 914/6, 1970-ish XKE and a 1970’s Citroen Wagon on the cul-de-sac. A TR3, Orange Honda 600 coupe, a 29 Ford Model A, and a couple Greenbriar Vans were up the street. The folks with the brown Greenbriar were also VW devotees and had the first 411 in the ‘hood. A little further up was the family with an early ’60’s Chrysler 300 and a fine silver 68 GTO. I remember riding in it a few times. The bachelor dude a few houses up had a nice 65 ‘Vette.
Heading around the other way you could find a 1960-ish Mini, another Greenbriar (this one with a stick instead of a Powerglide) an early 50’s DeSoto, and a government surplus Dodge TownWagon. Rounding out that block were a Porsche 912 and a very rusty ’53 Lincoln Capri ragtop. A couple living a few blocks away had an XJ-6, a TR4 and her Sunbeam Tiger, medium blue, as I recall. A few blocks the other direction, on the way to my Junior High School, sat a raggedy MG Magnette (?) sedan. A buddy’s dad liked his Renaults, but added an early Capri to the fleet.
What I didn’t see around the neighborhood I saw in the various car mags my dad brought home. Who can forget pictures of the Miura, the Espada, and the Ferrari Daytona?
Thanks for the question. It prompted some great memories.
The three cars from my street were my grandfathers 56 ford pick up. A neighbors 67 teal and white ford pick up and the guy across the street had a first year faded lemon yellow Chevette. Mostly there were 5-10 year old American cars in my area. We had a lot of brougham material growing up in the 80’s in the working class neighborhood
Reading through these reminded me that we had two Model A’s within a block or two. They seemed like very old cars, but in hindsight they were the same age as the 2 door GM B body I just spotted in my own neighborhood tonight. Which looked old but not antique like those A’s.
from when I was younger not sure but there where 3 Isuzu Impulses on our short street rarely all there at the same time one dark red one dark blue and a 3rd one a lighter blue. Also not technically on our street as the garage backs onto a differing street as the house did (house is on or street on the corner) was a Oldsmobile Starfire Hatchback coupe from the late 70’s
There were a few very interesting ones that I remember…
in the early 1970s my dad bought two identical midnight blue 1958 Mercury Montereys and built one pristine mint condition car out of the two of them. He made custom clear vinyl seat covers and bought clear plastic floor mats to protect the interior. That was my mother’s car
On my paper route, a very very old man had a pink Edsel convertible in really rough condition but he still drove it. I remember the rear bumper was patched with fiberglass like you would patch a boat, and then painted silver…with a brush.
Also on my paper route was a mint condition 1950s red&white Ford Galaxie starliner(or something like that) with a retractable hardtop and every option you could think of…fender skirts, continental kit, curb feelers, white walls, spot lights, etc
My uncle stored his V12 jaguar in my parent’s garage…an early 70s vintage convertible.
More memories are coming now
not on my street but nearby there was:
Opel GT
Ford Pinto Sport wagon
a custom VW bug that was converted into a pickup truck with a wooden flat bed
a late 60s vintage black Cadillac limousine
a home made camper trailer out of plain wood 2×4 construction and asphalt shingle roof(looked like a garden shed on wheels)
a typical 60s era dune-buggy style VW custom
A jeep pickup truck vintage late 60s early 70s
my friend’s step dad who had an early 50’s era cadillac collection(3 cars I think)
For me growing up is was a draw between my neighbor’s 1970 Chevelle SS 454 or our family’s 49 Dodge B Series pickup or our 92 Ford C350 Centurion. Sure our neighbor across the street has an award winning 55 Ford pickup hotrod (as the trophies on his garage wall can attest to…) Currently I would venture that the most interesting vehicle is the second generation Chevy C10 flatbed that is still seeing daily use.
Setting: Midwestern booming 1960s suburb (mixed blue/white collar, and when a 10-year-old car was fairly uncommon):
Amid the standard 65 Impalas and plenty of station wagons, the standouts were the ’60 Impala convertible; the guy keeping up a mid-50s two-tone Buick; the occasional MG that would be someone’s hobby car.
Standout cars from neighbors: the ’62 Olds with all the stainless trim (Starfire?), and the no-kids (“get off my lawn”) 50-ish couple with a ’64 or ’65 T-Bird. Because A/C was not so universal then (homes or cars), it was quite a sight to see either of those two cars on a hot day, the windows rolled up being the tipoff of driver’s A/C use–what a luxury!
We’re talking mid seventies. Another one that stood out, besides the Range Rover I posted above, was a copper metallic Opel Rekord C 4-door with a vinyl top and an automatic. Driven by an elderly, retired and rich farmer. He bought it new and had it for a very long time, it was always in a shiny and immaculate condition.
The guy across the street had a white Renault 6. A square-lined hatchback, somewhere between an R4 and R16. (Picture below)
Furthermore mainly small, cheap and basic Euro cars. No one drove Japanese, in the days that an automatic was for the elderly, disabled and folks who just couldn’t drive a manual properly. Our first car back then was a used Simca 1100 3-door. It served us well.
Growing up in my mundane middle class Brooklyn neighborhood, there weren`t many interesting cars, just an assortment of rather average Fords, Dodges, Olds, Chevys , Buicks and some Cadillacs.An occassional GTO or 442, maybe a hot Mustang or a Challenger,but thats about it. There was a `55 Packard Patrician , a `56 Continental and an Airflow 4 door in my grandparents area , but that was a few miles away from me. I probably had the most interesting cars if a `64 Riviera, `64 Pontiac Tempest conmvertible with air conditioning,a`66 T Bird Landau or a `73 Citroen DS19 count. Almost forgot! A neighbor had an `84 MarklV Continental with a diesel. Sounded like a locomotive when idling, and like a tugboat while underway. Interesting for all the wrong reasons.
One neighbour had a purple XB Falcon wagon, we had a 1965 Datsun Bluebird wagon, then a 180B and then a Chrysler/Mitsubishi Galant. The other side had a SWB Landrover, a Valiant ute, a rear engined Mazda Bongo, then finally a XD series Falcon.
Behind us had some Chrysler Valiants and a Chrysler Charger at one time.
From the mid 70s into the 80s, there was a pair of Austin Somersets, one a four door and the other a two, always parked together. In the other direction from our house there was a Humber Sceptre and similarly-bodied Hillman wagon parked together. Directly behind our house was a 1973 Porsche 911 which the owner has only recently sold, there was also a 1965 Parisienne and a dark green HQ Monaro GTS.
In my early nineties western Europe street, most cars were European cars so common I don’t recall many of them. Our next-door neighbour, however, was some sort of manager at the big Ford dealership in the city nearby and he often brought home the latest Fords for a few days. Saw a very early Mondeo, updated Escort etc. but the ones I remember most were a dumb-bull-faced Scorpio and a dark blue ’94 Thunderbird, not a common car at all.
Southern England, 1970s. We had a series of Rootes Arrows, then (oh joy) a Rover 2000, plus a series of Imps. Neighbours drove a Wolseley Six in a mustard colour. Elsewhere, a Ford Executive with the aircraft carrier bonnet. A Ford Anglia in off-white. Loads of ADO16s. Everyone had a British car until the widow across the road got herself a metallic Datsun Cherry, which she called “my little Datsy”. The end of the world was nigh…
Growing up in the sixties, there are several that pop into m mind as stand outs.
First a 59 Silver 300 GullWing Mercedes that had red leather iirc. This family also had an early black bug with a sunroof and wart front blinkers, think it was a 56. Their main car was a Torino Squire Wagon, like a 69.
My favorite I discovered tucked away in a garage while playing hide and seek; 1965 Emberglow Thunderbird with White Top and Parchment interior. The also Had a White 60 Cadillac.
Behind us on one side lived a Black 56 Mark 2 which Mom was infatuated with. This woman also had a silver 63 Riviera.
The other neighbors, going up one side of The street and Down The other consisted
of the Following;
1965 Mercury Breezeway sedan in aqua
1960 Chevy Brookwood Wago, 65 Impala Conv, and later a 72 Malibu in copper.
1963 Bug in seafoam, later a 68 lemans Coupe in Avacado with Black top
Next to Them The Fuscos had a Kennedy Lincoln, then a Rover sedan of all things.
Next house was The GullWing House
1968 newport conv in dk green , black top for the wife while the huband tinkered first with a 56 dodge lancer, then a 58 blue belair; his wife was more prosperous.
1961 country squire
65 catalina, then a 69 mustang
1969 tbird 4 door
1958 chevy wagon, then a 66 ranch wagon
59 chevy kindswood estate, then a 68 country squire
63, 66,69 lesabres for the zabriskies
63 olds wagon, then a 65 ninety eight
finally old mrs chase had a 56 olds 88, until she traded for a 68 nova.
i could go on, but yes i can rem the cars, and talking the neighbors up about them until they were blue in the face and insisted i run along now….
Panther Rio
Ferrari 400
Volvo P1800ES
Panther J72
Bentley S3
Audi 100CS
Citroen SM
Hillman Husky
Allegro Vanden Plas
Citroen DS Safari
Matra Simca Rancho
I grew up in Hadera, israel and in two different streets; in the first we had a garage owner neighbor who had a very well-kept 1947 Ford tow truck. Even in those days (mid 60s) such old trucks were becoming rare and certainly in that condition. In the second street a neighbor has a Mercedes Benz 450SE (W 116) which, in 70s Israel was like something from outer space… His father had a Dodge Coronet, also a luxury in those days. Up the street one of my mom’s friends husband had a 1961 Lincoln, another exotic vehicle for Israel. Opposite their house there was a doctor with a VW Beetle cabrio. Further up we had a cab company operating 7-seater inter-city cabs, so there was always a selection of Exner creations and – later – Checkers, all powered by clattery Perkins diesels. And just before school (also on that street) lived a gent who had the world’s dustiest PA Vauxhall Cresta, a car which seemed to move once every blue moon.
The rest of the cars were typical Israeli porridge: Renaults, Fiats, Simcas, Israeli-made Susitas and other such devices, none of which sticks in memory…
I grew up in Toledo, OH and moved when my parents built a house just across the border in Michigan in 1994. In Toledo I remember that down the street there were two interesting driveways: One house had a late 80s Toyota Camry, and although I wasn’t yet in my teen years I could tell it wasn’t a base model (interesting because this was late 80s/early 90s Toledo, home of Jeep, GM Powertrain, and kind of Ford’s Maumee stamping plant, Delphi, etc etc, most cars were rusting, old American barges). Next door to them on the corner was the owner(s?) of a 280ZX from back when they were still called Datsuns. I can’t recall if it ever ran or if it had what I now know must have been a donor Z parked next to it. It seems like there was. Directly behind us was an older couple who disliked kids an awful lot who had a second generation Ford F100 in bright red. It was very shiny. There was also at least one AMC Eagle rusting away on our street, right alongside a bona fide Cadillac Cimarron complete with gold decor keeping it company.
When we moved to Michigan in a typically middle-class subdivision, all the cars were boring, they may as well have been beige Caravans or Camrys (Camries? whatever), except for one: a neighbor owned a Ford F-150 Lightning in red. It was a very nice-sounding truck, much more exciting than the white Expedition his wife drove. And across the street there was a man who worked at the Powertrain plant who kept the ’68 Chevelle SS396 in a very pretty wine red in his garage, lovingly washed and waxed and almost never driven in all the years he had it there. It had to be sold after I left for college and I never saw it again, but the few times he did fire it up, oh did it sound glorious, like someone shoving all the world’s suffering and oppression into the carburetor and having pure, unfiltered freedom bellowing out the tailpipes. Bald eagles flew overhead and red, white, and blue fireworks exploded when he turned the key. Yeah, that thing left an impression. Anyways, another neighbor, a different man, now has a modern Camaro, but I don’t care enough about those to get close enough to check the badging. I’m sure it’s V-8 powered, though.
There was an older guy with a 1967 Buick Electra 225 coup, metallic dark green with black interior. I was in love with that car, he traded it for a new 1977 Seville. I remember a 1965 Mustang convertible that was pretty beat up by then (mid Seventies), but I didn’t care, it was a mint blue with pony interior, so cool. My uncle had a 71 or 72 Buick Riviera, which I must have liked, because I got in it one time and put it out of gear and went backwards down the driveway…I was about 4 years old…lol. Never leave your keys in the ignition…
It didn’t use to matter if the keys were in the ignition. In the 60s there was no steering wheel lock, the ignition switch was in the dash not the steering column, and there was nothing preventing you from pulling the lever out of park when the key was not in the ignition.
Over the years I have had neighbors with interesting cars. As a kid, my neighbor drove an old vegetable truck. My brother and I built an 8 second street 66 Mustang (even passed emmissions) later, after moving, one of my neighbors had his AMC AMX factory race car converted back to street (put in real headlights and a horn) which his widow now drives to the supermarket and another that has his fathers (original owner) 57 T-bird. Where I am now, there are old Mustangs, Vettes, Galaxies, MGs, and others all owned by old people and taken good care of for the next generation of car lovers.
My parents bought a 51 Buick Super sedan brand new. I was born in 55 and they didn’t buy another car until the new 61 Rambler wagon. My best friends parents had a habit of buying used American luxury. The same year my folks bought the Rambler, Kenny’s bought a big black 59 Lincoln sedan. I was fascinated by it and never cared for the Rambler, which my Mother continued to drive for eight years before the tinworm finally killed it.
In a central Ontario town of 15000 the white collar addresses were clustered. Ours was a small crescent of 22 houses. When I was 14…
1969 maroon over white Marquis convertible.
1969 red over white Monaco convertible.
1969 jewel blue over white Cougar convertible.
1969 triple white Parisienne 2+2 convertible.
1968 forest green over white GT 500 KR convertible. (story there as I got to assist in changing the plugs in that car without drilling the shock towers). He added a weird Lambo 400 SUV to that garage in the eighties.
1970 SWB XJ6 in maroon.
Middle age crazy never looked so good or struck more uniformly.
Funny how a simple memory can really grow on you. I had never given another thought to the weird Lambo I referenced in my earlier post. Seem the 400 moniker I applied to it was incorrect. Upon further research it was called an LM 002. We had moved on when Tom bought that thing but I spotted it when cruising our old street . He was home at the time so I enjoyed 10 minutes kicking tires with him. Sounded like nothing else in those parts. You could buy a decent home there for the price of it.
I remember a neighbor had a Mitsu Credia, another a Nissan Stanza, another had a Daewoo Lanos and we of course had a Toyota Previa. My great Aunts neighbor had a Subbie Loyale which got traded for a Kia Sephia
I grew up in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, a small college town located about 30 miles from the Mason-Dixon Line in southcentral Pennsylvania.
Our neighborhood included some interesting cars in the 1970s. The domestic cars that still stick in my mind are the 1970 Corvette owned by the son of a neighbor; the 1968 Chevrolet Impala Super Sport with bucket seats and a floor-mounted four-speed transmission owned by my friend’s family; and the very clean 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air sedan owned by an elderly woman up the street from us.
A few faculty members from Shippensburg University lived in our neighborhood, and they were more open to owning a foreign car. That was still a big deal in the early 1970s in our town, unless it was a VW Beetle or MGB. The most interesting cars were a 1960s Citroen DS Wagon, and a 1960s Saab 95 Wagon.
Neighbors had a 48 Continental convertible, traded for a 53 Lincoln convertible. They also, at different points in the alte 50/early 60s had a Renault Dauphine, a traction Avant, and a number of Panhards. Last I knew, they had an 88″ Land Rover and an Alfa Romeo Spyder (with the long tail).
Next door to them were a Henry J, a 53 Rambler hardtop, a 56 Rambler Custom sedan, a 59 Rambler Custom sedan and a 64 Rambler Classic V8. Those were th wife’s cars. The husband had a 52 Hudson Hornet, a 55 Pakcard 400, a 60 Olds 88 and downhil from there!
A doctor on the corner had two 52 Packards when he moved in — a plain 200 two-0door and a lovely Mayfair. The Mayfair got traded for a 58 Lincoln. Downhill from there!
A new family in the neighborhood arrived with a 60 Chrysler 300F hardtop and a Porsche 356 convertible. The Chrysler was traded for a 62 Lincoln sedan and the Porsche for a 63 Corvette convertible.
I could go on, but I think those are the highlights!
Grew up in a middle class neighborhood in the Baltimore suburbs (sound familiar Paul?) Lots of Bethlehem Steel, Martin Marietta and GM employees. The usual Detroit iron, with nary a foreign car in the bunch. Here are the memorable ones I can recall:
1955 Packard Clipper. Weirdly optioned with a 3 speed on the column.
1961 Olds Dynamic 88. Neighbor won it at our church carnival raffle. Was donated by a dealer who was a parishioner. Nice gesture perhaps, but he didn’t go overboard as the car had only one option – Hydra-matic. Blackwalls, dog dishes, no radio, ps or pb.
1953 Pontiac Chieftain Deluxe. Dad’s first car. Hydra-matic, light-up indian head on the hood. The straight 8 had such a distinctive sound.
1965 Chrysler Town & Country wagon. Next door neighbor got it to pull a huge Airstream trailer. 440 TNT and that cool full length roof rack.
1965 Chevy Impala. Now ’64 Impalas are a dime a dozen, but this one was memorable. Lady across the street knew little about cars and had a pretty spartan 1960 Belair 6 cyl. Wanted a new car in ’65 and said she was going to the dealer at the end of the model year to see what they had left over. She came home with a ’65 Impala in this hideous yellow with a black (no vinyl) roof. Pretty basic options, but then I saw the 396 flags on the front fenders. When I excitedly asked her about the big block, she looked puzzled and just said “it was an 8 cylinder”.