I like ingenuity. Real, natural ingenuity. Not some designer-approved cooler for the Pontiac Aztek’s center console. And while there’s room for such fancy factory-produced goods, sometimes it’s nice to think of the many times we just had to make do with what was at hand. With that in mind, here’s a short gallery of life in, around, and even above the station wagon (and one Pinto).
While a traditional Luxury Sedan enthusiast, lament the loss of iconic Station wagons. Practical, comfortable and were really CARS. Much better than today’s SUVS and crossovers. But then,we don’t even have full size upscale luxury sedans. Love the 59 Pontiac. God parents had 59 Star Chief Sedan in the same color. Unique colors and also a thing of the past. OLD Dog 🐕 yearns for the GOOD OLD DAYS! 😎
The Argentinean Ford Fairlane trunk make-up girl from a couple of days ago finally made it stateside, but now is living in the trunk of a Pinto . I’m excited to see the next chapter in this developing saga although usually it doesn’t end well, the Jackie Stewart sideburn character seems to be plotting a nefarious move.
Great shots. The ’60 Country Squire has a sexy overtone. I’m guessing the ’59 Pontiac has HD springs, or even more likely, air-lift shocks or such, as its tail is perfectly level.
Life with wagons?
Wagons of life?
There are facets of the malaise era, that aren’t often discussed, beyond poorer performing, and inferior-built cars. The wide adoption of hatchback-style tailgates by carmakers, replacing gates with opening windows, and fresh air, meant kids were now confined in small, hot, and airtight spaces. Coinciding with new seatbelt laws, that (allegedly) now prohibited unbelted kids, riding in the station wagon cargo space. Made for fun-killing times, for thousands of kids. lol
As children, we used to speculate if the police would ticket (or warn us), for riding in the back. Thankfully, neither ever happened. Plus, my mom and dad, were okay with us riding back there. In 1977, my friends and I described riding in the back of Malibu and Volare wagons, as ‘sweatboxes’. I now knew then, what it felt like for pets. And many owners in Ontario, were still not ordering air conditioning. Like, my dad. We’d beg second-seat riders, to keep their windows near fully open, even at highway, or freeway speed. As the turbulence created in the cargo area, made talking at high volume necessary. 🙂
One of my assigned tasks, was to go out to the wagon in our driveway an hour or so before every road trip, and roll down all the windows. So, it was at least bearable, as we hit the road!
Yep, riding in the back is now a crime. Riding without a car seat is now a crime. It’s amazing kids in the 60s and 70s survived!
I will tell you a funny story. Around 1981-’82, there was this bizarre article in the Ottawa Citizen, my city’s main daily newspaper. A woman they interviewed, said the tailgate on her ’76 Volare station wagon blew completely off, while driving on The Queensway (freeway). She said, it was due to corrosion. And there was a photo with the article. Black and white pic, but you could see where the area near the hinges, looked rough. Hard, to see detail though. I recall, hinges on the Volares/Aspens I saw, looked pretty solid. It was the sheet metal around them, that I figured, could possibly corrode. It would have been quite spectacular to see, if it really happened. Haven’t bothered, tracking down the article since.
Don’t recall reading any follow-up story. There were no injuries, or accidents, from the article.
” It’s amazing kids in the 60s and 70s survived! ”
Not to mention the 1950s… and if the car was a two-door model, the front passenger seat backs that the car seat hooked onto also rolled forward and to the left so back seat users could gain entry.
Parent drivers who employed such seats still – to this day – swing out their right arm on sudden stops.
I know I do.
“Tabitha”
Am I safe to assume you and Daniel M are talking about it not being legal to ride in the back where there is/was no third seat?
My parents had only one wagon that I can recall (I was so young at that time). Don’t hold me to it, but I think it was about a 1968 or 1969 Chevrolet Caprice (Impala??) with the third rear facing seat. All I know is that since I was the smallest, I automatically had to sit back there. But I didn’t care as it was so much fun to me. However, what I do remember is that you couldn’t really drive or sit in traffic with the tailgate window down due to fumes.
I believe, Ontario adopted seat belt laws in 1976. I know it took a number of years, before we typically stopped seeing kids, riding in the back. Seated in the open cargo area. Police seemed lenient, for some time.
Got ya. I’m sure when sitting in that rear facing third seat that I didn’t have any seatbelt on, so really no different from what you are saying. I also recall (fondly) of riding around in the back of the farm truck even at highway speeds. We loved that. Also, in my parents 1975 Cadillac DeVille we would fight over who got to lay in the back window on the way home from the Farm and Fleet store. Since I was the youngest, I usually lost but got to use the center arm rest like a booster seat!
Of course, many did not survive, which is why we have the rules. But I’ll certainly agree that it was fun riding in back.
In the late 60s as a little kid I always wanted my dad to buy a pickup/camper for our family vacations to Maine, specifically so I could ride in the sleeping area over the cab and look out as we drove. (Alas, dad was good with staying in a remote log cabin, or in a tent, but not in a camper. That was partly due to his job as a forester, but was cemented when we saw a camper strewn all over the Maine Turnpike with several fatalities. Made a big impression on 9-year old me.)
It’s amazing kids in the 60s and 70s survived!
Many of them didn’t – fatality rates were about twice as high back then than they are now. It’s just that you never hear from dead kids who didn’t survive 1960s/’70s car crashes when they were sitting cross-legged in the “way back” or unbelted in the front two rows.
If I had to choose, I think my kids would have been safer in the 3rd seat of a full frame wagon of the day. As compared to a Nissan Cube or any number of modern cars with practically nothing behind the rear seat. As long as both vehicles had seat belts in the rearmost seat, apples to apples.
You’d think a giant full-frame three row station wagon would be safer in a crash than a tiny little modern tin can like a Nissan Cube, but most of the time, it’s not true because of two things: Intrusion protection and energy-absorbing deformable structures. The big land yachts from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s often had big, thick steel frames, but they were mild steel (ferritic low-carbon) and they were designed mostly for carrying vertical quasi-static loads (body and passenger/cargo weight through the body mounts and suspension forces through the suspension mounts). They were not designed with much consideration for how they deformed under horizontal shock loading seen in a crash, so they usually collapsed in the passenger area, either allowing outside objects to crush the passengers, or allowing the body itself to fold up and crush the passengers. Modern cars have been using higher strength alloy steels, and in the past few years even use boron-containing grades called “press-hard” (PHS) that actually transform to Martensite during the stamping process, allowing the manufacturer to surround the occupants with a true “hardened steel” (heat treated) structure to keep outside objects on the outside. At the same time, in order to prevent the car from bouncing off another object like a pinball in a collision, the “crumple zones” are designed to turn a huge amount of kinetic energy (motion) into bending and heat, slowing the vehicle down more gradually without flattening the area where the passengers sit.
Our 1961 Olds F-85 wagon had a lift gate, but it also had a power-operated rear window. I believe both the power operation and the opening window itself were optional. But we didn’t open the rear glass at speed because it would suck exhaust in from the rear. In those later cars, small flipper side windows (like the colonnade wagons offered) would have made all the difference.
We had a ’73 Century wagon with the little side windows. The exhaust exited behind the rear wheel, so it was okay while you were moving. At speed, they didn’t really let in air as much as let it escape, so the fan needed to be full blast or a front window open to have much effect. Neither happened after the first few minutes of our long trips, in which I got to recline on the floor so luggage could take up 3/4 of the space. O, for a minivan or Suburban!
My first car was a base model 1962 Buick Special Wagon with the liftgate. It’s rear window was fixed. The car only had three options. 15″ wheels, limited slip differential and an AM radio.
On June 12th, 1978, my dad bought a ’78 Dodge Aspen wagon. And a month later, relatives from Calgary drove to our home near Kingston, Ontario, for a visit.
My dad insisted he drive everyone in his Aspen, to the annual Fair in Kingston, in late July that year. So, I as a young kid, ended up sharing the cargo area of that Aspen, with a male adult! The lack of air and space back there, was nuts. To say the least. Thankfully, the 70km trip back home, was after dark. So, the night air, was welcomed relief.
Say what you will about Aspens and Volares, but they were rugged. As it hauled a car load of people on many occasions, without any breakdowns, or issues. With the Super Six, under the hood.
Every trip to Kingston included going down, and back up, this large hill at Westport, Ontario. The Torqueflite-equipped Aspen, always made it fine.
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6835628,-76.3950404,3a,75y,340.89h,76.75t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sn1pJSSnTqG7euYRz9lXpqQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?authuser=0&entry=ttu
1970s Scouting trip, that’s our 1968 LTD Country Squire being loaded up.
Whoopsie!!!
Great pictures that reminded me of the years spent riding in “the way back” of station wagons.
The top picture features a 61 Chevy painted in that metallic beige that seemed to be on 90% of surviving 61 Chevys during my adolescence in the early 70s. And I’m wondering about the occasion for the “glamping” with the 60 Country Squire.
I always wonder about how enthusiastic the moms were in these pictures.
I’ve written a few little posts about being a kid in a station wagon here at CC. Some of my fondest childhood memories were laying across the back of a station wagon with blankets and pillows – far removed from my parents in the front seat – and dreaming about the trip I was on. It is like an observation car.
The humming of the rear axle and the road noises created through the wind, tires and mechanical whole of the vehicle gave me license to not hear what a parent in the front seat was telling me. My folks knew that I couldn’t hear them, so we tuned each other out and let the trip happen. As a kid, not being disciplined during a car trip was quite a freedom, thanks to the way-back of a station wagon.
I didn’t have to share any snacks, or bottles of pop. I didn’t have to listen to my mom reminding me to look at the herd of cows she discovered along the side of the highway, or the mile-long train of freight cars that sat on the horizon. Instead, I had my road maps and my thoughts. It was quite nice.
My kids have just started to drive. They were all unfamiliar with our little city trips because they never had to look out of a car window. They use GPS to get to the corner, I swear. They grew up watching Disney movies and graduated to playing with their cell phones. Yesterday, we all took a 500 mile trip and I don’t think any of them could tell me where we were at had I immediately stopped.
On the way home last night, my 16 year old told me to stop at a favorite town along the way home. I told her that we couldn’t because were weren’t even on the interstate that town was located on. This was after being an hour on the road. She never realized that we were taking a completly different route through the state. Didn’t even recognize the different landmarks, signs or scenes. Thanks to modernity, my kids couldn’t find their butts without a GPS. This is an entire generation – not a family aberration, by the way.
North?, South?, East?, West? – my kids couldn’t tell you what direction our car was traveling in without their cell phones telling them. They have zero sense of direction.
Thanks to station wagon way-back seating, I can not only tell you where we were going without a map – I could also tell you what it looked like driving from the place we were at! LOL!
During the rides with grandma and grandpa in my other post, grandpa would try to get me lost on the back roads. But I always knew where we were or pretty close. No map, I just had a good sense of direction. As an adult I’ve used the rule of boundaries (or whatever you call it) many times. Keep going in one direction and you will either dead end or end up at a junction of a more major road.
I used to have to transport my daughter for visitation, almost 200 miles one way, 40-50 times a year for 16 years. Even still, she never really developed a sense of where we were. I had hoped something would have rubbed off on her sooner or later, but I guess thank goodness for Google maps. She still missed my house last time she came to visit, but after turning around she got there. She’s got other smarts to make up for it though.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, my sister and I would ride in the back of grandma and grandpa’s yellow 77 Impala wagon. Seats folded down and all our toys scattered over the area. Just putzing down back roads, stopping at fishing holes for trout. Grandma sipping a little Budweiser and ginger ale, grandpa sipping on a little Kesslers. Not enough to get them impaired. Heck as a little kid I could go in and buy it for him. And go straight into the factory through the welding and pick up his paycheck. Us kids would be sipping Treesweet apple juice with the foil pull tabs, and nibbling on Deluxe Grahams. Grandpa purposely hitting the occasional pothole to make grandma’s drink go up her nose, while making up silly songs and stories. Yeah most of that wouldn’t fly these days. Those were some of my best memories, and sometimes I run those same old roads and visit that store for old times sake, which still has the refrigerator case in the same place where the Treesweet was.
This ended in 1982 when my cousin was born. But to this day I have a love for wagons, and have owned more wagons than anything else.
Good story, Sure brings back old memories Times sure have changed,good or bad. But don’t ya missem?
Willys Wagon for the win. Love that pic.
Stopping for the day while heading to the Grand Canyon with the Mrs. and the youngins, circa 2000.
That “61 Chevy” in the “lead pic” is the same color as our neighbors was. By the time I was old enough to notice it. (“65-66) it was showing age.
There’s did not have the ‘white spear/stripe” though.
Believe it was a “Brookwood”, possibly “Parkwood”.
They kept it till “1970”.
Traded for a new “Catalina wagon”. Med green out//dark green in.
That car was a nice ride. The Chevy was a ‘great big rattle”! lol
Not a huge wagon fan but I remember when I was small we borrowed an Olds Custom Cruiser for a road trip. I had a huge play area behind the seats and it was such an excellent way to travel for a little kid.
The other memory is flat fee per carload nights at the drive-in in a couple of different Ford wagons. Very fun place to take in a show with all the neighborhood kids in one car.
Kodachrome kids in Kodachrome wagons…fading gracefully into history, with their picnic baskets, thermos bottles, folding tables, and Coleman stoves. 🙂
If only you knew how good things really were…
The guy in the Willys looks EXACTLY like my dad. What was he doing with the Other Woman?
My first experience with station wagons was my fathers 1957 Ford Ranch Wagon. I believe a heater was the ONLY option. In the summer, we would go for a ride after dinner to get ice cream at Carvel. I would ride in the wayback with the tailgate window open, breathing in those wonderful exhaust fumes!
The ‘59 Pontiac gets my vote as the most desirable car of this bunch, although the girls getting dressed with the ‘60 Country Squire gets my vote for best picture. Funny how that works! Regarding the latter: it looks like a staged promo pic although if that’s the case I can’t imagine what they’re selling? Looks a little too risqué for any staid official 1960 Ford advertising…
My Dad had a ’73 Chevy Suburban back in the day ….I can remember roadtrips where we would arrive at our destination late in the evening.
Our Suburban had two rows of seats with a decent space behind them….The entire floor including the way back area was carpeted.
As a youngster, I would routinely lay down and fall asleep back there….My Mother would pack blankets for me for the trip so I was nice and comfy.
Not a single member of my cheap-assed Irish Catholic extended family ever had a wagon. In my case, I was loaded in the back of a 1970 two door Pontiac Stratochief on hard vinyl between my brother and sister. All the while my parents smoked up a storm. We weren’t allowed to open the windows because that would mess mother’s hair. No wonder I was car sick all the time.
Next was a 1974 Toyota Corolla. Even at age 11 the back was a torture chamber. The good thing was by age 13, I was driving it all over the place, with my father’s whole hearted approval.
In all those aunts, uncles and cousins there wasn’t a single wagon. Lots of Chevies and Pontiacs, but never a wagon. I assume they were all too poor in the 1960s to buy one.
I’ll add one more here as well. This was me at 9 nine years old, along with our dog, in the back of Dad’s 1976 Buick Century wagon. What’s interesting here a few decades later isn’t really me or the dog (it was a ridiculously staged shot not reflective of real life), but rather the wagon’s front seats.
Dad was one of probably 3 people who ordered his Century wagon with bucket seats. I’ve never seen another one like it – and at the time, many people were really puzzled why anyone would want bucket seats in a station wagon. (Dad hated bucket seats, and never wanted someone sitting next to him while driving.)
Anyway, this is the only photo I have of this car’s interior, so I figured I’d share it here:
Cool picture; looks like you had a great dog there. Out of curiosity, what was the purpose of those louvered areas on the back of the wheel wells? Can’t figure out what they are for the life of me.
That’s a great question – I have no idea what those louvers’ purpose was!
Rear window defrosters, with blowers behind the louvred covers.
Fan-driven, with dash-mounted switch.
That makes sense. Thanks for the reply.
Thanks!
So many great photos .
My Uncle Bill was a sailor so he liked and had station wagons .
The oldest one I remember was a 195? Ford, we were allowed to ride on the open tailgate with our feet swinging .
Good times indeed .
-Nate
Much nostalgia about the good old days and playing in the way back of the station wagon. I have fond memories of it, and being wrapped up in blankets on the floorboards in winter. How did we EVER survive? No seat belts!!! We are the lucky ones. The dead kids from back then can’t leave a comment about their car accident that took their lives. I know a woman who as a child was standing in the middle of the front seat when her grandmothers car was rear ended by a drunk driver. Drunk drivers used to be more of a thing in the good old days than today. This poor unfortunate girl was catapulted into the windshield. She suffered extreme facial trauma and brain damage. Today she does the best that she can but due to the brain damage suffered back in the good old days, she doesn’t remember them.
I have rich memories of cross-country vacations in a 1957 Olds Fiesta (age 9) and a ’61 Pontiac Bonneville wagon (age 13). Irreplaceable. Nice piece, Rich.
Back then it was when the whole family went together and familys seem to be more close and more family unity………also cant help noticing people were more slimmer
Station wagons. Yankee Stadium. Schwinn Apple, Orange, or Lemon Crates (take your pick). Electric football (mine came with the Browns and Giants, there’s a couple of winners). Real Louisville Sluggers that cracked when you connected with the ball on your your first ever home run (not a ping). You were either there or you weren’t. Your fondest recollections aren’t made at the granular level. They are not made up from a strict examination of the evidence. They are a somewhat whimsical interpretation of events that you stored in your memory bank with plenty of artistic license based on a true story. Some names have been changed to protect the identities or whatever (Dragnet). As far as our kids getting it, probably better forget that. We want them to get it because we think it’s so cool (and much of it really was). But you had to be there to get it. If you were and you meet someone else who was too, count yourself lucky. Just like “pig latin”, it doesn’t matter that others don’t get it. The only thing that matters is the person you’re talking too gets it. Oh yeah, the ’61 Chevy (same color) was our family’s vehicle after a ’55 Bel Air two door and before it was traded for a ’67 Impala wagon.
Mr. Campbell you are so right. As a child of the “sixties” I can remember hearing cars (muscle cars) and knowing what they were before we even seen them! As a small group of boys would try to be the first to “dibs” them. Ah the memories. My parents had a 1973 Ford LTD Country Squire wagon. 400m V8, Firestone 500 15″ radials, 4000 lbs. plus land yacht! We could fit six young men with shotguns & gear plus food and drinks in it and with a little finesse drive it across most corn fields that we hunted on. That car was a beast! I even used it to pull out stuck 4×4 pick-ups here in Minnesota. Such foolishness but great memories.
’58 Pontiac Chieftain,’65 Pontiac Tempest, ’72 Plymouth Fury, ’74 Pontiac Lemans; these are the station wagons that my parents owned as I was growing up. I don’t recall traveling with the family in the last one as I was grown and gone from home. They drove some kind of sedan for the rest of their lives after the kids were all gone. I remember all of those wagons somewhat fondly, mostly about the cars, but not so much traveling in them. My life got better when I was old enough to legally do most of the driving, and I didn’t have to sit in back with the whining younger siblings any longer. Yeah, the good old days!!
Oh, how I envied those kids whose families owned a big American wagon with a third-row seat and an opening rear window! But we owned a ’74 Mazda RX-4 wagon, which had a hatch with fixed glass, no third-row seat and a pretty cramped space for my brother and me in the back there. This was especially uncomfortable on long trips when every inch of interior space was stuffed with luggage. We never packed suitcases, clothes and blankets would be layered on the trunk floor and my brother and I would sit on top of them. At least it was soft and comfy if we wanted to take a nap. And it was always a lot of fun despite the close quarters. But man, was it a major upgrade when we replaced the Mazda with a Suburban!
I am often annoyed with modern nanny laws when they go beyond what I consider logical. I am OK with some of the limits placed on the free-range upbringing we have experienced growing up, but there’s no reason why today’s kids shouldn’t still be able to travel in the backs of much safer and more spacious modern SUVs. And enjoy a little freedom, instead of always being strapped-in within an inch of their lives and numbed with a screen in front of them. We grew up loving cars and traveling, even in cramped and stuffy little import wagons, because it was always an adventure. They grow up mostly indifferent or even hostile to cars because they never got to experience any fun in them.
As far as the idea of those old-school body-on-frame wagons being safer in a collision, that just doesn’t fly. Old cars were better in a minor fender bender, where you could usually drive away with a dent, instead of having to get towed and dealing with thousands of dollars worth of damage. A cheap junkyard fender and a spray can of Dupli-Color and you were done. But in any serious crash, you want to be in a modern car. Nostalgia is all well and good, but progress can be useful, too.
Hi there! I was wondering if you know where the first photo is originally from? I would love to purchase the image rights for it to use for a personal project. Thanks!