Some Wheels Just Stay Cool

There's a sort of standing joke on our block, that "if it ain't 40 years old, it don't sit in our driveway."

And I suppose there's something TO that.............from my earliest memories, I've been behind the wheel of SOMETHING.  

Growing up when I did, exposed me to a lot of really cool cars that are CLASSICS today.  That's Dad & I with our '46 Plymouth, and on the right, I'm standing with my cousins, Linda & Carol in front of Uncle Warner's '52 Chevrolet.

Everyone you might visit, was driving a REAL car, not the "plastic & fiberglass of today, and you could tell a Hudson, from a Ford, from a Studebaker.

I liked playing with toy cars back then............and "collect" them today.  It's in my blood......when I nick myself shaving, I don't bleed "red", I bleed "30-weight!"

Think ya didn't get your money's worth back then???..There's my Mom with the old Plymouth,,,,,and look at her STANDING UP in the backseat area, (I don't recall what she was doing), but just look at the ROOM those old cars had!  NOT the little "snot-boxes" you're paying twenty or thirty thousand for today!

I grew up on "the hill", around class act rides like this red '59 Impala, but as we got up into the late 70's, 80's & beyond, they all started looking alike to me, (like that '86 Lincoln there).  TODAY I can't tell a "foreign from a domestic."  There's no definition....no class,  and they're WAY too "computerized."

Most of the cars I've owned have been 50's and 60's, and I'm eternally comfortable there. 

As I was browsing through some of my old "black & white" shots, I've seen some "genetics" here.

Dad's '39 Plymouth coupe, taken around 1949.  The color photo is my 1937 Dodge coupe, taken in 1971

The family '53 Chevy Bel Air in 1955..........and my OWN '53 Chevy Bel Air in 1970

Dad bought this '57 Chevy station wagon new in 1957.  I bought MY '57 Chevy wagon in 1969

Dad's '55 Oldsmobile "rocket 88" taken in 1958----------I bought a '56 in 2005

In front of the '64 Ford just before I left for 'Nam.-----------but here's another one in 2009 (I just drove it last Sunday).

Some of the cars I've bought over the years, were because I remember some of the BETTER ones my Dad bought when I as a kid, and I recall how GOOD some of them ran and rode......and ya know what?.....even after 40 years or so...they still DO!

They were built GOOD to begin with.....and more importantly, built in the USA, when "craftsmanship" counted for more than just a name on a tool from Sears.

40 years later, they''re STILL "cool!"...............to ME anyway!...................Wolfman Jack never died,,,,,,,,,not really.