It’s time for some family-oriented vintage snapshots; part of a series of kids and cars in the ’50s and ’60s. As some have commented on previous galleries, some of these photos wouldn’t exist in our digital age. Many of the kids are clearly caught off-guard, not quite ready for the moment. Something that makes sense, since there was no chance in the film era for never-ending retakes to capture the ‘perfect’ photo.
Instead, the often unintended results were images filled with the candor of the moment. In many ways, a quality that makes them more endearing now than back in the day and that we truly appreciate here at CC.
And talking about CC, one of these images should be familiar to long-time readers (Yeap, it’s a re-use).
As George Herbert Walker Bush once wished! A kinder, gentler America 🇺🇸 AND world! Those were the days!
…just before he ordered the invasions of Panama and Iraq.
(Apologies, Rick, a cheap one, but I couldn’t resist!)
no kidding. And calling for a new world order out loud. Skull & Bones
to be clear both sides of the aisle are involved
I don’t know any of those kids – but the images are sure familiar. They were repeated on streets and in driveways all across America. Back when kids could sit on a hood or trunk lid without denting it. Our Rambler American may have been one of America’s lowest priced cars. Yet even that lowly conveyance had enough steel in it to support the weight of kids sitting on the fenders.
I’m surprised at all the kids sitting on the cars, that was strictly forbidden in our family, I can’t imagine ever sitting on a car as a child.
That looks like Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky album cover car in photo #5.
I agree – I can’t imagine how mad my father would have been had anyone climbed on his car. But for many kids, being propped up on a car hood for a photo was almost a rite of passage. Just not in my family.
All these kids are so cute!!
I just can’t figure out what car it is in the 9th pic, with the cute little ladies in white dresses? Help me out
1960 Mercury Monterey
correct! 1960 Mercury
Great to see all these—I’m old enough to feel that I could reach back to many of these scenes.
This being CC, it’s also a delight to see all the Ford-Mercury-Lincoln here (perhaps some Easter-best Sunday outfits?), everything shiny and new. I’ll assume most of those pictured are still with us, and I hope they’ve had good lives !
Great memory images…
Great times back then, and a good life since then, thank you.
@ RICK W… yes.
The duck is a big “show stealer”. The two gents in the stylish coats/hats next to a white “mopar” is a cool shot too.
The first picture of the kid on the Olds: peace, or a Nixonian V-for-victory?
I was thinking the same. The rust on the bumper indicates the Olds was many years old at the time.
My cousin had a new 59 white Olds 88 convertible (red vinyl interior) when I and another cousin were 9 years old. We didn’t park ourselves on the trunk of that shiny new beauty but we did stand up on the back seat (the top was down) to encourage her to put the ribbon speedometer in the red! Of course today she would be arrested for child endangerment and rightly so I have to say. Little did we know…
Lol, that kid does look like he’s channeling Nixon in that iconic “leaving the White House for the last time on the helicopter” pose.
The house in the background curiously seems to have modern-style vinyl windows and screen door, not the thin aluminum frames I usually see on mid-century houses of this style.
They’re probably wood. Those wooden casement windows were a big thing around 1960, then went away as most builders favored the cheap aluminum sliders.
It’s sobering to think these children now have grandchildren. Then again when we hit the 70s I could be in “kids and cars” spiky hair and all
Something about these pictures of kids & cars that is deeply nostalgic. It shows how prized and exciting a possession cars were at that time, and how they added a dimension to family life that wasn’t possible perhaps just a decade before. The atmosphere is palpable to those of us who remember it.
Which makes me wonder why there aren’t more pictures of kids with the new IBM PC in 1985? Oh, right…’family’ life. 🙂
I have an 8mm home movie of roughly 8-year-old me and some neighbors jumping off the roof of our black ’66 Dodge Polara wagon. Car was about 10 years old by then, and the thick sheet metal and roof rack made it look so strong; surely it could withstand kids walking all over it without causing dents or anything, or at least that’s what I thought back then. Don’t think I’d want kids walking on my current VW with panoramic sunroof.
I’m not aware of a single photo ever taken of me using a computer, and only one “family life” photo of any of my relatives, but that one (of my niece and nephew on holiday at a resort poolside) is iconic amongst my family.
The two very young gentlemen, obviously brothers, standing by the Mercedes W110 mark the only import of the list. And I wonder if the two young ladies caught crying are lamenting they have to pose with such an ugly De Soto.
The picture of the two crying girls is interesting since they’re obviously dressed in their best (like for a wedding), but posed with a DeSoto haphazardly parked in an industrial area with a Schlitz billboard in the background.
My thought is I wonder if that Mercedes was the last one of these cars to be used as a daily driver, or is my expectation of German engineering too high?
I don’t think they are crying. My very first thought was that they are wiping their eyes of some flying dirt/dust.
Obviously – but don’t ruin the De Soto joke!
I remember the 1956 mercury my dad bought sitting in the driveway I scraped it up with my bike cought hell for that Lol
My wife and her sister really had the fear of God instilled in them when it came to dad’s car. My wife is 73 and still talks about being shown how to properly open and close the car door. Fingers off the glass! I don’t consider this a bad thing. I’m very fussy with my things as well.
Was just looking thru old family albums the other day. My brother and I awkwardly posing in front of our new Coppertone color 1960 Chevy Bel Air could fit right in with these pix.
Is that a Lincoln in photo #2? Guessing 52 or 53?
Not a tattoo or piercing in sight! Those were the days.
I love all of these shots, but am especially nostalgic over the one example here taken by my father. My, what an incredibly handsome lad in the football helmet in front of the neighbor’s 65 GTO. 🙂
I am also loving the picture of the two young ladies behind the 60 Mercury.
Does he still wear that helmet, one wonders.
I have pictures of the cousins and I all over my uncle’s 64 park lane convertible from a camping holiday in 1971. And yes I remember sitting on the top speeding down the beach til somebody bounced off. Luckily it was soft sand and no major damage done.
It was a different time and place. Would I have done something like that with my now 30 yr old son when he was little. Not in a million years! But it still is a fond memory.
As the youngest of six, I’ve got vivid memories of riding on hoods and trunks of sibling cars, usually on holidays, but sometimes in suburbia. I can picture my flip-flops dangling half-off above a dirt road as we hit maybe 15mph, warm wind surprisingly strong, thrilled, a bit terrified. Fell off at the end of one ride, mild grazing (“don’t tell dad how!”)
With mine, like you, there was no chance! The very thought gives me the heebie-jeebies, despite the good memory.
Ah well. Like most, a slightly dull parent (but with mostly-intact kids).
I sure enjoyed seeing all these beautiful old cars..We had a ’57 Baby Blue Ford, with the chrome down the sides..I remember in summer my friend and I would sit on her grandmother’s grey Plymouth..big fenders and hood..it seemed to be the thing to do seeing these kids sitting on their cars..Great memories!..All.of you are right…growing up in the fifties was just keen!
If there are any Mopars in the article, would someone point them out to me please? Model and year if I’m not pushing it 🙂 Thanks in advance!
The 1952 DeSoto in the black and white photo (#4) with the two girls clearing their eyes.
These pictures look like they’re from a postage stamp.
It’s mock tears for a bigger sister who is going to leave home after the wedding…
I well remember those land yachts as they are called. We had a 63 Buick. Stupid as it sounds when I was a kid I would climb up on the shelf at the back glass and ride like that for a couple of miles. Not thinking of the danger in that. Back then it was common for kids to ride in the rear of pick up trucks too.
The girls in that very first pic are wonderful. There’s just something very characterful about that lot.
6th Photo: Black Ford Fairlane
I can clearly relate to the boy with suspenders. Two mean, grumpy older brothers!
However, what goes around, comes around!
Won’t give details, but I still get a laugh each day as I was able to retire way before they did!!
Could it be that I would put my toys away at the end of the day while their side of the room looked like a disaster area!
Go figure.
Love these photos. That second picture from the top, is that center girl Darla, from The Little Rascals? What a resemblance.
Most of these were a bit before my time, or I was too young to remember. I wish I could step right into those photos and (re)live the Era.
Life was real. Grounded. I remember marking up the new TV Guide each week for the shows we wanted to watch.
Isn’t it nice to see children without cell phones in there hands?
The two little girls wiping their eyes while standing next to the DeSoto are probably coming from or going to the First Communion of the girl on the right. Note her veil, as well as the white dress — that was typical attire for a little girl’s First Communion in those days. As far as the gritty surroundings, they were pretty typical of many industrial cities in the US at that time. My maternal grandparents lived on the near west side of Cleveland and I well remember how gritty and dirty everything was, despite my grandmother’s constant cleaning. And when the wind was blew just right, the stench from the steel mills in the Flats was pungent. All windows and doors were closed, even in the hot summer.
Love the one of the boy with the duckling. Cowboy boots too.
The 6th pic of the 57and 4 kids could be my family. My parents had a black 57 just like that .two more boys came after that. 5boys & 1 sister. Now we’re all in late 60s & 70s
Love these pics and the stories they could tell. Especially like the two young fellows in their car coats and caps in front of the Mercedes, and the 3 siblings in front of the 62 Pontiac. I’m attaching a pic of me standing in front of our beloved 61 Electra 225 – the pic was taken in the summer of 65 at the San Francisco wharf – fond memories from a challenging time in our country’s history as we had just returned from our annual cross country drive in the Buick to visit our family in rural Alabama where the civil rights drive was in full effect!
Great photos. Mikle P – you were adorable. Here is one of my favorites. That girl’s hat! Is this the last hat in the hast at J. C. Penney, so Mom relented and bought it? Sweet children.
Would had my backside tanned for sitting on any of my family’s cars.
Great pics!
My first thought too was “damn kids, first walking on my lawn and now scratching my Oldsmobile !” =8-) .
These are all great, I’m trying hard to figure out the best one, mayhap the Buick Electra, it looks so good .
I hope to never own another black car (or truck !) but they look -so- sharp when clean and shiny ! .
Thanx to all who posted pix .
-Nate
This is amazing! The kid flashing the peace signs on the classic Oldsmobile looks like he lives in Levittown, New York.