Let’s revisit neighborhoods of the past during this holiday break thanks to these images of the past. As in previous installments, this collection mostly features cars parked in residential streets; some suburban, some in what seem to be small towns.
On this occasion, the images were all taken in wintertime. And while a few of the cars featured are covered in snow, they should be easily identifiable. Most images belong to the ’50s and ’60s, with the last one appearing to be from the early ’70s.
Remember as a kid the sides of the roads, when there was snow was black from the oil of the cars. Today as bad as the cars are for the environment we don’t have that problem. Didn’t see that in the photos, but most are driveways and seldom traveled roads.
Freezing after looking at some a these pics! Especially “#’s 2&11”.
+1!
Snow cougars rust quickly.
There’s one photo who show 2 1970s cars, There’s a Plymouth Duster (or Dodge Demon/Dart Sport) and a European Capri.
Of that photo, I’d love to play with the Capri or the Duster, mainly because I’ve never experienced either of them. The two Camaros and the VW Beetle are also tempting but I’ve owned a Camaro and driven Volkswagens.
My brother had a Capri with the 6 cyl and it was great. I drove it a lot. Even a couple of long trips.
But my mind drifts to the bias ply tires in the snow for the other cars. Eeks.
Yes and big rear lights Beetle too.
Those are ’72s .
I’d love to have the A body Dart in picture # 1 .
-Nate
I got my driver’s license in 1959 and lived on the western side of Michigan with lots of lake effect snow. We all drove rear wheel drive cars, most without posi-traction or snow tires. Normally, unless we did something really stupid (which we did from time to time) we did not get stuck. We learned how to get traction from what we had. We learned how to “rock” the car to get it unstuck. We also learned how to do slides and donouts in the snow. Great fun!
My last winter experience in snow was late 1965-early 1966 outside Baltimore. A major blizzard came through. School was out for a week. Town plowed major roads first and then when they did basic roads the berm on either side of the plowed road was five feet high. My grandparents were watching us as my parents were off on a vacation and they returned right after the blizzard. They had to trudge through 4 feet of snow 1 1/2 miles to the house. A friends house was situated just right for the wind and had a snow drift all the way to the roof of a two story house. The drift was there weeks and we carved out rooms inside the drift for ourselves. Quite roomy and I was 12.
I don’t miss snow!
My dad passed on to me, many snow shovelling shortcuts, and timesavers, over the years. Techniques learned by him, over the course of his lifetime. As he recruited me at a young age, to help him clear our driveways. Back when blizzards, and deep snow, was still common in Ontario. Was also such a great bonding experience, for both of us.
One of the nastier snow clearing scenarios, was when the municipal snow grader, would refill the end of our freshly shovelled driveway, with a large mound of slushy snow. That could soon freeze solid, if we didn’t remove it fast! As seen in photo six.
He’d use a relatively heavy steel snow shovel, with a sharp forward edge. Slicing downward into the snow/ice mounds. While removing large cubes of snow and ice, using his legs to lift. As he removed each of these ‘cubes’, it made it possible to get the car out fast. With very little mess. A tidy technique, that impressed his neighbours.
If it wasn’t a school night, he and I would work until after midnight, under the streetlight.
As his car, would be free to go, first thing in the morning.
The ‘D’ handled Western Scoop shovel remains a favorite ~ I still use a steel one although Aluminum ones are *much* lighter .
The ‘D’ handle allows better sideways control of the load .
-Nate
(who doesn’t miss the freezing slush nor the rusted out vehicles)
The station wagon is a 1967 Mercury Colony Park, under that snow. My Dad drove one. I still remember the seats in the back that flipped up facing each other, unlike the Chrysler’s which faced the rear tail gate. The faux wood grain also had these black lines, I suppose that was to indicate a wood board as opposed to a wood panel. What an era.
Great photos, but are we all supposed to just know all the makes and models on our own? Captions would be REALLY nice.
Stay tuned, Ken.