Let’s continue with this series of vintage galleries. I’ll be a bit more eclectic on this occasion, and mix up the makes and decades. We’re talking about the ’60s and ’70s here, with more cameras and cheaper film available. With a good number of these being Polaroids and Instamatic prints, they won’t have the detailed richness of other posts. They make up for that with variety; more spur-of-the-moment images that capture the relaxing attitudes of the period.
A bit of slight color correction has been applied to these. Also, I tried to stick to cars that either belonged or were related to the individuals pictured. Some are guesses, and some have additional photos not included in this entry that suggest so.
All perfect matches except the Datsun wagon.
I was thinking a similar thing – so many of these cars and drivers seem like perfect matches. My favorites are the Opel GT couple and the fur coat-wearing lady with her Eldorado.
Any/ everything matched a “Datsun 510″. A guy I knew in high school; his family had three of them , ((in late 70’s))
One was ‘beat looking”, two were “ok , lookers/runners”.
The white one was the wagon. ((tan inside as I recall))
I love the photo of the guy in the silver Honda. Is he looking over his shoulder because somebody is saying, “Hey, you can’t do a left turn there!”
The Honda Accord pic with the MobilGas $3.99 Olympic hat ad screams California Central Coast to me with those hills and the trees but I can’t place it better than that…
Excellent (and fun) pictures, all of them.
My pick would be tied between the Challenger, the 240Z, and the 510 Wagon if I could have any one of the pictured vehicles today but in their as-pictured condition.
I looks a lot like a few off ramps around Arcata,
The hills are too bare for Arcata.
While we can’t place the location exactly, we can guess the time pretty accurately – with the hat advertising the 1980 Winter Olympics, it was definitely in the fall/winter of 1979-80.
I was thinking the same. San Luis Obispo?
I like the Opel couple, too. You had to be young to get your body into one of those cars! Great collection of photos. I like “Joe Cool” by the Datsun wagon. He looks terrific in his outfit!
Saw an “Opel GT” on the street, in the late “1990’s”. Was quite surprised how small it wasn’t.
In the “early, early, 70’s” when I lusted after them; seemed such small cars.
I wanted an “orange” one.
In the first picture, I think the young guy is as proud of his long hair and beard/sideburns as he is of the car itself. He certainly can’t be proud of that garish jacket he’s wearing…..lol
Wasn’t “so garish” back then.
Well his burns are longer but I think I have him beat in the ‘stache, hair, and glasses. The jacket? Well, no, as I am not going to a prom but a wedding.
Yeah, and your jacket looks a heck of a lot better to me than his! You look too happy to be going to your own wedding……LOL
tbm3fan; I need you to look at your emails and see my comments about your DIY post for Monday.
I love the granny with the Ambassador .
Somewhere there are photos of my wedding in 1976, we had some God awful brightly colored tuxedos my ex wife thought were hip and Billy Bob chauffeured us in his clean white 1972 Dodge ex cop car .
I love looking back at old photos and thinking about whatever foolishness I was doing back then .
-Nate
Good memories!
Mostly yes .
Unlike many I enjoyed the 1970’s quite a bit .
Many stories are still going ’round much to my surprise .
For a brief moment in time, about 1972 wedding dressing meant polish my already shiny Fry engineer boots, put on a clean pair of levies (SP) and a clean white T-Shirt after ironing it .
My ex wife loved all those awful clothes and pushed me hard to wear them .
-Nate
I hated those clothes. Those shoes. That hair. Yesterday, my mom sent me a photo taken at my uncle’s wedding of our family and everything was nasty earth-tones wide lapels, polyester shirts, neckties with knots under your chin the size of a grapefruit. Hideous plaids, checks and floral prints that are about as natural in appearance as styrofoam peanuts.
We’re standing on an organge shag carpet that went up one of the walls. Everyone looks like they are wearing clothing designed by Ringling Brothers if they had a Caveman line.
+1
+2
You have something against leisure suits?
Yes, I hated them. I was 13 in 1978 and my mother made me wear a light blue leisure suit to church similar to this guy’s in your picture!
It is a point of pride with me that I have never donned a leisure suit. For a guy who graduated high school in 1978, that took some effort. 🙂
You had to be stoned to look like this, or to look at it. It’s Jesus after he used a lot of Aqua-Net.
That is one ugly hair do!!!
The growing family with the simple Falcon to me means hope. As it’s probably 60 years old now, I wonder if that hope turned up well.
The ’62 Chevy II 100 and ’67 Firebird with dog dishes tell us of a former, simpler time. Or at least, less flashy.
Calling Herb Tarlek!!
Lead in pic is my “fav, Torino style”!! last pic , beauty of a “Monte Carlo” there.
The lady with the green Toro. The perfect car for that weather.
Would work well in the snow. Was an “ugly time” for that model though. A really beat one like that one, used to roll around “Falls Church VA. Would a been about “1992-4ish”.
CONFESSION: The photo of a young man in a tux and young lady in the long dress looks very similar to what I wore and my date to the Junior-Senior prom.
My hair was not that long, but close!!
Rich, I really do love these collections of people and their cars…and this may be one of the best sets yet.
I had to do a double-take on the one with the lady next to the Ambassador. She’s the spitting image of my late aunt. Although much older than my aunt would have been at the time; and as far as I know, no one in my family would have owned an Ambassador. Otherwise, just the same.
I also like the couple with the Opel GT and how the photo was taken just as she grabbed his hand (in her left hand) to “reposition” it. Let’s hope they were (are) good friends.
Everyone laughs and hates 70’s clothes, but you know what decade it is when you see them. Better than the sweats and pajama’s worn today. Also, you can tell everyone is proud of their cars from the plain jane Challenger to the beat-up Nova.
My favorite is the lady with the big, satisfied smile after her dark green front-drive Toronado got her through the snow so competently and in such comfort.
I had a ’71 Datsun 510 wagon in that exact color. Named it “The Pickle”. Bought it in the late ’80s for $400… needless to say mine was not in the same condition as the one in the pic above.
I love all of these images. Thank you for curating these great finds, Rich.
The ’67 Firebird looks exactly like the one I had as a high school Senior in 1973. Bought used for $950.00. 326 4-speed, Goodyear N-50’s on the back with air shocks, 4″Volkswagen tires on the front, Ansen sprint wheels all around. By no means a racer, but sure looked cool. Boy, wish I had it now.
The guy sitting on the hood of the snazzy Dodge Charger is parked, I think?, at the intersection of Western Ave. and Wilshire, in Los Angeles. The turquoise-colored, art-deco terra cotta building ,to the left, is the beautiful Wiltern Theatre, which came VERYV CLOSE to demolition circa 1978. The Bela Lugosi movie Dracula opened there in 1931. The Pellisier family that developed that neighborhood were immigrant French farmers. Sheep grazed there, and wine grapes were harvested there at the turn of the LAST century!
Love the Dodge Challenger! Mine was black with a red racing stripe down the side.
I’m next to my new 1973 Dodge Challenger as a 2 striper at Mather AFB, CA in the dorm parking lot. I parked it away from the other cars. The big “Nixon” pay raise made the car affordable. Bought at King Dodge in Sacramento. 318V8, automatic floor shift, PS/PB, AM radio, vinyl top and factory a/c. Later in front of my 1989 GMC Jimmy and then lie 1993 Nissan 240SX convertible which we still have.