Here’s a few more from Shorpy, a bit more recent. The captions says: Divorcée Kay Biocini of Redwood City, Calif., chauffeuring some of her five children, John, George, Peter, Rodney and Ann.” 35mm negative from photos by Thomas R. Koeniges for the Look magazine assignment “Divorce Suburban Style”.
Here’s a couple more; this time dads and their foreign cars.
The caption reads: This is my dad as a toddler with Grandpa washing the car, probably around 1963 in Los Angeles.
Nice Volvo PV 544.
This one says: Chula Vista, California, 1958. Grandpa Fred in his MGA on Madrona Street. Photo by my father, home on leave after his second year at West Point.
65 or 66 full-size Ford hardtop in the first one
It’s a ’65 LTD.
I’m not surprised to see Rambler and a Volvo in the same driveway.
Or should I say a Rambler and a Roller in the same driveway, since Volvo is “I roll” in Latin.
Similar sizes, similar buyers, similar names….
Photo number one is a good illustration of the practicality of a two door car even for a family back in that era. Mom appears to have the seat moved forward, but even so there is no headrest or shoulder belt to impede access to the back seat. And those doors were long.
Photo number two – good job on cleaning the white wall! I recall how much trouble the narrow band style were to keep clean, I can only imagine how tough the wide whites were.
Photo number three – nice ’53 or ’54 Plymouth and ’53? Oldsmobile on a typical suburbia street.
I’m with Patrick – a big 2 door car was not unusual for a family with little kids at all.
Great shots, all three. The neighborhood where the third one was taken must have been full of elderly folks, as the cars all look pretty old for 1958. And the one that is fairly new appears to be a Rambler. I’m kind of liking the Olds 98.
Interesting observation. But it makes sense, inasmuch as the houses are from the ’20s. The original owners were now 30-some years older.
What’s odd about the Volvo 544 is that the paint almost seems to have a metallic sheen to it. I only remember very dull colors on those cars; our’s was olive green, our neighbor’s was red, and black, white, tan and a bluish-gray were other colors I remember. Or is this just an artifact of an old print and digitization? BTW the pictured Volvo’s hubcaps are early 544, before the upgrade from the B16 to B18 engine in 1962.
From the picture, I’m guessing he probably polished it more often than yours. 🙂
Katie Eterovich, 1924-2014. Divorced 1962, two later marriages. Oldest child born 1949. Alzheimer’s toward the end, alas: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/mercurynews/obituary.aspx?n=katherine-ann-eterovich-katie&pid=171256398
Thanks for digging that up… I’d looked at these photos several times today and kept imagining what the backstory to each must be.
And in this picture, even dealing with four squirmy kids in the back seat of a Ford, it’s evident that – as the obituary said – she “had impeccable taste and a designer’s eye and flair.”
You’re welcome, Eric703. Actually I continued a little farther, with her sons (surname “Biocini”) pretty easily “findable” online, but quickly felt a bit like a voyeur and backed away and just posted her own story. She was exactly my parents’ age, so easy to compare her timeline with theirs. In my mid-1960s world, divorce among friends’ parents was quite rare, but divorce in the U.S. sure picked up steam over succeeding decades…
BTW, if she was a Ford loyalist, or didn’t have more to spend, I suppose that ’65 LTD would have been just her thing, with the luxury touches just then hitting the Full Size Ford, and “full brougham” on its way…..
I did the same thing. Sad that the children’s father also suffered from Alzheimer’s at the end.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/BIOCINI-Peter-Joseph-Sr-2625126.php
Another example of what a resource the Internet truly is. When that photo of her and her children was published, who dreamed that one day we’d be able to find the story of her life, as well as her ex?
I have fond memories of sleeping on the hat shelf of my parent’s 544 Volvo as a small child, which is probably a jailable offense these days.
I’d love to own a Volvo of that vintage but they seem to have all returned to their ore state.
Great photos, so illustrative of the age. Everyone was more formal and careful about their clothes and hair, especially for photos. In the photo with the Volvo, even the little boy’s hair is perfectly groomed – I well remember how moms would run up and slick your hair down before a photo was snapped. Things changed quite a bit as the 60’s wore on…
Yes they did. I was a child of the 60’s and believe to this day that the decline in our societal norms began during that decade.