The editors of the website "MotorBiscuit" put it simply: “If you’re of a certain age, you remember the days when station wagons filled the roads.”
VIDEO HERE (19:28 minutes)
The editors of the website "MotorBiscuit" put it simply: “If you’re of a certain age, you remember the days when station wagons filled the roads.”
VIDEO HERE (19:28 minutes)
I rode all over the country, on a mattress, in the back of a Country Squire. "Look kids! See the cows!"
ReplyDeleteThat was dodges best idea. Replace the old stodgy wagon with the caravan. Sparking a complete reversal of there fortunes. Or at least for a while.
ReplyDeleteI've never been in a station wagon that didn't rattle in the back. I'm not saying, All station wagons rattled. I'm saying all the ones I rode in did. Regardless, I liked them.
ReplyDeleteI have been driving a 57 chevy wagon for 39 years
ReplyDeleteI miss the old station wagons. Has a lot of good times in one.
ReplyDelete**had
DeleteFolks had a '68 Ford Country Squire, loaded. We rode in the back in the seats that folded up from the floor. The good old, bad old days.
ReplyDeleteWith 5 of use rug rats that is all my Dad and Mom had, great memories.
ReplyDeleteSame here,Country Squire in the back, but because my sisters in the middle seat didn't want their little brother with them. Wish I or dad wouldve thought of the mattress though. Spent half my pre-teen years watching the world go by backwards..
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about 7 my parents took all 10 of us kids to Colorado from Delaware on vacation, We rode in the old ford station wagon. Best memories of my life, I feel sorry for all of these kids that will miss that because their heads are buried in their phones.
ReplyDeleteBack in the late 70's or early 80's, must of been the early 80's cause I got out of the service in '79, I was kind of sparkin this gal that worked evenings at the local donut shop and asked her out for dinner. All I had for transportation back then was a hotrodded KZ1000. Figuring that wouldn't do for a dinner date I borrowed a car from a buddy and it happened to be a station wagon. Don't ask me what make and model because I don't remember. Anyway he had it dolled up to his taste and among other things he had curtains on the back windows.
ReplyDeleteSo I pull up in front of her dad's home and he walks out on the porch, takes one look at the car and told me she wasn't going anywhere with me in that rig, go get something else. So I drove back, fired up my bike, grabbed a couple of helmets and roared up in front of the house the second time at about mach 4 and slid to a stop. He steps out on the porch the second time, takes one look at the bike and say "go get the car".
So I did and we had a great dinner and went to a movie. He was waiting at the front door when I brought her home and I made a point of telling him if she was unsoiled when I picked her she was still unsoiled now so he could relax. I thought he was going to hit me and got set to go tooth and nail with him but he tamped his anger down, turned on his heel and slammed the door in my face. The next day his wife stopped by where I was hanging my hat and asked I not date their daughter any longer as she thought her husband was going to stroke out after I left.
Probably my shortest lived romance. My buddy however, well let's just say he got a lot of use out of that car.
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My folks had station wagons and my first car was a 1963 Plymouth Sports Fury wagon and I removed the back seat, built a platform in place and blacked out the two passenger windows and the back side windows and had a mattress in the back as I use to go camping and fishing with it pulling a small utility trailer carrying fire wood and camp seats and such. I use to have to borrow my dads car to pick up the dates, drive home, take my car out and yes, the back was useful... and then reverse that to take her home. Dads and Moms would not allow me to take their daughter with my brown passion pit...
DeleteI had a 79 Pinto wagon for a couple of years. In 1988 we got a Colony Park, the Mercury version of the Country Squire. It was a great vehicle and we put many vacation miles on it.
ReplyDeleteBest hunting wagon ever.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in HS, I would borrow my dad's AMC Rebel wagon which had the infamous reclining front seats. My GF and I would fold the seats back and basically have a full-length couch to watch movies at the drive-ins (another thing the younger gens have no understanding or appreciation for). One of the best features of AMC cars.
ReplyDeleteEvery town I've lived in since 1981 has had a drive-in fairly close by - there's one in both Ceres and one here in Lafayette even today, believe it or not. There's another one about an hour west in Franklin Kentucky, too.
DeleteIn 1961, dad traded his Chrysler soft top two tone 2 door for a 1961 Dodge Dart station wagon. Betsy sported a pale green coat and sleek roof rack.
ReplyDeleteThe rear window was operated by a never seen before electric switch. 318 cu in and push button automatic transmission, fold down rear facing seat at the rear window.
Dad being transferred from Kaneohe Bay, El Toro, and Cherry Point, we drove across country five times, plus visiting kin in IL, MI, and TX, always by different routes. One trip featured the entire Route 66 with side trips up the Green and Snake rivers. Many treasured memories with Betsy.
My brother bought her for $300 from the folks in 1972 and promptly rebuilt the engine. The 318 had over 300,000 miles by then. New memories, this time featuring carefree teenage boys.
Grew up in the tail gunner position of a blue chevy caprice wagon
ReplyDeleteAh, going to Grandma's house from Santa Maria to Porterville. Three old-school sleeping bags laid out one on top of another in the back for us kids, all the luggage on the middle seat giving lots of separation between parents and kids. Wonderful times. Loved them.
ReplyDeleteThen Congress and the Fed Gov killed the station wagon and minivans became the thing.
`only matters with 6 nuns in it
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised nobody's mentioned what killed the station wagon. Federal fuel efficiency regulation requires an average MPG for each class of car. SUVs replaced station wagons because they're "classed" as a truck, and thus fall under different regulations. Station wagons, being cars, can no longer legally be produced because it would hurt the average MPG, and put the auto makers in violation of federal regulations.
ReplyDeleteNevermind that the station wagon gets much better mileage than the SUV, it's complying with the bureaucratic bullshit that's really important!
The first car I bought with my own money was a '55 Ford Ranch Wagon, I still can't believe I bought that worn out piece of crap but I was young. I had some other wagons and some SUV's but a few years ago my son went through a divorce and I ended up with an '02 Durango. I love it. It takes me back to the '55 Ford, but it's not a piece of crap even if we have spent $7000 on it. Still cheaper than a car payment and I'm not sure I could learn how to operate a new car.
ReplyDeleteCountry Squire to solo in the rear of a Pontiac Estate Wagon with the 454 big block. The sisters would sit in the middle and I would protect us from rear attack. Never used a seatbelt until after we got hit by a new driver in the mid eighties. Then middle amd front seats had to wear the belt.
ReplyDeleteThe Station Wagon: Death of a Leviathan = you can google for where you listen to podcasts or = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mobituaries-with-mo-rocca/id1449045549?i=1000469419746
ReplyDelete