It’s once again a week for traveling and discovering new places across the US. With that in mind, let’s revisit these travelers of the past with images dating before commercial flights became the norm.
These folk are a good mix; some are swanky, some are laid back, yet all are looking forward to a good time. All thanks to that empowering phenomenon of the 20th Century; the car. Our favorite subject here at CC.
You’d never get all those suitcases in that 59 Ford in any trunk today!
Given the day, no wonder you could pack for a two-week trip and the trunk on cars then could hold it all! I recall my dad loading up the trunk on his new `68 New Yorker for a wife & 3 kids when we went to CA. that year. We had room to spare!
Top Photo:
Getting the vibe she is headed to the train station. Traveling light with just one bag as opposed to a trunk for a cruise ship across the Atlantic or over to Hawaii.
Love the photos. However, the first picture is a poor advertisement for Central Chevrolet!
I had to laugh at the irony of that picture as well.
Maybe they’re taking the stuff out of the dead Ford and they’re loading up a new Chevy.
This is a fun theme and nice assortment. I don’t know the locales, but it’s not too hard to “step into” any of these photos.
Luggage: The gradual move away from linen/leather to plastics…
Valiant: I don’t remember that trunklid handle-medallion thing…it really caught my eye…
Cans/beverages? I wish I could read the labels…
Chrysler triple-stripe whitewalls: I remember when those were the latest thing (not that those are Goodyears pictured)….I see the repro-tire folks are making them here in 2024…
The beer cans have to be Carling Red Cap.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/288582288622394906/
By the way, Carling Red Cap Ale was made in the former Peerless factory in Cleveland!
https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/922
I agree but was unable to log in 6 hours ago to say so. Although this picture is a closer match with the separate banner at the top of the oval banner.
The garage behind the ’59 Ford is unique. The logs appear to be the structural framing, not just nailed-on decorations as they often are in fake adobe “mission” style.
It’s not a garage. It’s a rustic cabin, and they’re staying there on vacation. Cabins were commonly very primitive back then; just boards for walls.
The 67 Chrysler is sporting a Dodge wheel cover.
And the owner of the 59 Ford looks like he’s pulling a few cold beers from a cooler. I hope he brought a can opener.
I thought that can in the ‘59 Ford picture might’ve been STP oil treatment with an older logo. You’re probably right about the beer, though, since he has two more cans in his hand. Any ideas on the brand?
I hope he wasn’t planning on driving!
These photos really speak to me. When I was a kid in the mid-late ’60s, for a couple of years we lived in the Northern Interior of BC. The rest of the family was on Vancouver Island or in the greater Vancouver area. 500 plus miles one way. Airline tickets were prohibitively expensive, as was renting a car once you got to Vancouver.
A couple of times a year Mom and Dad would load up the ’58 Bel Air trunk, park my brother and I in the back seat and off to Grandmother’s house we would go. No A/c, no car seats, parents both smoking the whole way… We didn’t know any better and loved it.
Even today I love a good road trip, though (unlike my wife) I am a proponent of packing light!
Gee, outside the lede picture of the convertible, it seems most all the other cars are the less desirable four doors. Don’t they know what is cool and uncool?
Indeed!
I love seeing your interesting collections of mid-Twentieth Century automotive life. The one theme that this group emphasizes is the car trunk (except for a single photo in this group of a station wagon). Later generations will not remember car trunks and how much they were a part of life, a part now very long gone.
There’s gobs of new sedans still with trunks. Camry? Tesla Model 3? And a whole raft of others. They’re not exactly long gone yet.
Back in the day (early 60s) I remember older guys at the time advocated sipping on a cold one (just one) during a long road trip even though they would not do so in the city.
Oddly, guys my age did not seem to pick up on this habit as I recall and it probably died a natural death. Notice that the fellow grabbing the cans is around middle age. Different times.
There were several states that did not adopt vehicle open container laws until fairly late (maybe in the 1970s or even the 1980s) and it was perfectly legal to drive while sipping on a cold one, as long as your blood alcohol level was still below the legal definition for being drunk.
I still occasionally amaze people in my abilities to make things fit in vehicles. This is where it comes from.
Watching my Dad and in later years myself doing a Rubik’s cube in the trunk of whatever sedan I was loading. Everything being twisted and turned every which way until everything was securely loaded AND you could get the lid to shut!
As I’ve said before here, I was born and raised in Southern California. Every other summer we drove back to central Kansas to visit my Dad’s family. Route 66 in our then-new ‘56 Ford Fairlane two door hardtop. My Dad had been a hellion in his youth and had driven a tank in the Philippines for the duration of the war, so he liked fast cars (ours had the 312 Thunderbird with a 4 barrel). My brothers and I always felt safe, Dad might’ve been fast but he was safe.
The open road, the desert, then cornfields, streams lined with cottonwoods, the massive expanse of the Navajo and Hopi lands, Flagstaff, mountains, New Mexico, interesting pueblo architecture….so many terrific memories.
Thank you for posting these pictures.
Lovely photographs, all of them .
-Nate
The girl leaning against the green car makes me think early seventies. This is not based on the car, but on what she’s wearing. Sailor shirt and those flip flops scream early 70s!
The green car in the picture with the little girl is a 1967 Chrysler Newport.
Thank you for another great gallery, I really look forward to these. I was 5 years old in 1960, and by that time the only thing I cared about was cars. I could name every brand, model, and model year of 99% of Detroit’s Big Three. I was born in Detroit in March of 1955. My entire family worked in the auto industry, mostly Chrysler and Ford, GM not so much. The family all drove cars built by the Chrysler Corporation. Then in the mid-60s, my oldest brother bought a new black on black 1966 Mustang. A great little car, and from then on we all switched to Fords, Mercurys and Lincolns and F-series trucks. But since this gallery seems to be focused on trunks, it sure brought back some great kid memories. We moved to Southern California in June of 1958. My dad bought a new 58 Dodge Custom Sierra wagon. It was red and white. In 1960, my dad bought the first 1960 Valient sold in L.A County. It was white with red and black interior. I don’t recall what engine it had although I know it was a Slant Six, with a 3 speed manual transmission with the shifter on the floor. My uncle Bob had a 59 Ford 300, very basic but it started my attraction to the 59 Fords, sedans, wagons, and to this day the 59 Fords are still in my all-time 5 favorites. In 1962, my mom and dad, my brother and my uncle Bob, his wife and daughter started our traditional 2 week summer vacations to Mammoth Lakes, which is still my favorite place on earth. But I remember getting ready for those trips, We would shop for new clothes, fishing gear and of course food. Mammoth Lakes is located in the Eastern Sierras and is just under 300 miles north of the San Fernando Valley, on US Highway 395, aka “The Sierra Highway,” it was just a 2 lane highway that cross’ the Mojave desert then north of Bishop California, it the Sherwin Grade climbs about 3,500 feet into the Sierras. The elevation of Mammoth is just over 8,600 feet above sea level, a completely different world in the mountains. It would take us about 8 hours to get there. In the early 60s Mammoth didn’t even qualify as a small town, Mammoth Mountain was just getting started as a ski resort, it had just one rope tow in the front of the mountain for skiing. It started to really develop in the late 60s. We had to bring everything from home, which was in the San Fernando Valley California. Uncle Bob’s 59 Ford was a 312 cubic inch V8, and as we see in this gallery, it had a huge trunk so his car carried all the food, and other supplies. Dad’s Valient was really too small to be a good road trip car, it really had a hard time climbing the mountain grades, and the interior and trunk were really small, the trunk lid had a slope to it so the trunk space was very limited. We would rent tiny cabins, much like the one we see here with the 59 Ford. The cabins were part of the Tamarack Lodge on Twin Lakes which was in the steep Sierra Mountains above the town of Mammoth Lakes. The the main Tamarack Lodge and surrounding cabins were built in 1924. They were built from the Tamarack Pine trees that grew in the beautiful High Sierras. The main lodge was a big 2 story building, with a beautiful rustic lobby and restaurant, with single rooms on the second floor, there was a huge open harth, rock fireplace that always had a fire burning. It was pretty primitive, the electric power came from a generator that the lodge would turn off at night, so after about 10:00 pm we had no power until the morning. Primitive, yes but that was all part of the charm. Those trips really changed me. We ended up having our own place up there that we used for fishing in the summer, and skiing in the winter, plus it was a great family gathering point. In the 70s Mammoth Lakes became a real resort town offering great accommodations and restaurants. Highway 395 became a 4 lane, mostly divided highway, and that carved about 3 hours off the trip. In 1970, I bought a 1969 Mustang Mach l, that I loved, and still do. By the late 70s, I was making the trip 2 or 3 times a month. The new highway, and my fantastic 69 Mach I made those trips the highlight of my life. I want to thank you again for this wonderful gallery. I know all the featured cars like the back of my hand. The cars, and the memories this gallery brought me really made my night. Thanks again!