Some things instantly remind me of summer. In the dead of winter here in Chicago, if I hear even a sound effect on television that sounds like a lawn sprinkler (chk-chk-chk-chk-chk-whir-r-r-r-r-r…), or a commercial featuring the sound of steaks sizzling on any kind of grill, my mind immediately springs forward to the warmer months we Midwesterners live for. This is not only because we get to be outdoors more often and experience certain things and places we wouldn’t otherwise in the cold-weather months. In summer, there are the outdoor, face-to-face reunions with people that also make it special. It’s true that winter also fosters a sense of community as soon as we have few other choices on weekends but to stay indoors with each other, play cards and watch movies, but there are so many more options for activities and gathering places from May through September.
Downtown Flint, Michigan. Saturday, June 8, 2013.
Summer also brings me back home, for a time, to Flint, Michigan – the place I was born, raised, and return to every August (among other times throughout the year) for the annual Back To The Bricks car festival. Many friends and loved ones who, like me, had moved away at some point seem to come home around that time of summer, and those who still live in Flint and continue to make it a better place join up with all of us for some of the best times I usually get to have all year. To be clear, though, I have no illusions. There still remain serious struggles in Flint, including the tragic, toxic water situation that continues to afflict a substantial number of residents.
Nonetheless, Flint continues to improve and add new jobs, housing, cultural experiences, educational opportunities, and other worthwhile and essential things. For the first I can remember in my adult life, Flint has made U.S. News & World Report’s survey of the top 125 cities in which to live this year, in 2019! We placed only at 115, but the point is that we made it onto a good survey this time, and so many of us rejoiced, as we love our city and how far it has come since its nadir only two or three decades ago. Among Flint’s good qualities cited in this recognition were its good value proposition, good (and strengthening) job market, and an achievable, good quality of life.
1978 Chevrolet Caprice Classic at a house in my old neighborhood. East Village, Flint, Michigan. Sunday, June 9, 2013.
This featured beautiful, white ’71 Chevelle next to the running sprinklers on the lawn of the apartment building next to it in my Chicago neighborhood of Edgewater immediately reminded me of something I would have seen when I was elementary-school aged. Save for its wheels, which were decidedly modern (but inoffensive to my eyes), when I squinted, I saw a scene from my old Flint neighborhood of East Village when I was still young enough to get away with tearing up the sidewalks on my trusty, treasured, blue Schwinn bicycle.
Sometimes, after I’ve committed in advance to some kind of social activity with others, and while I truly desire their company, I can start to feel a bit of anxiety creep in. (It’s nothing truly crippling, but it’s there.) Mere minutes before I photographed our subject car (almost exactly eight years ago, to the day), I had been riding the southbound Red Line train into downtown to get to the Humboldt Park neighborhood in the western part of the city to visit friends I usually don’t get to see but maybe once or twice a year. As soon as I saw this Chevelle from the train, I knew I immediately had to deboard and take some pictures of it.
It was reassuring how the sight of a once-familiar car from the city and time of my upbringing seemed to put me more at ease almost immediately, as if I was being told that no matter where I am in life, I’m never too far away from Flint, from Chevrolet, from loved ones, from memories of Dad barbecuing on the hibachi in our backyard, and from the little guy I used to be who grew up in that factory town and wanted to work in the auto industry one day. One could say I partially, tangentially succeeded in that mission. I now insure, among other things, classic cars.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, July 16, 2011.
I think for many people, this car (except the wheels) is what comes to mind when they think “Chevelle”. I’m curious about the model breakdown, because the Chevelles I see today I know aren’t representative of Chevelles that were built. I recall thinking that when I saw a low-trim 4 door sedan from this generation a few months ago. Today, Chevelles (and their GM counterparts from other divisions) are amongst the most common old cars, but it seems only the 2 doors survived in substantial numbers, be they coupes, hardtops, or convertibles. I rarely see a Chevelle sedan anymore, and don’t think I’ve seen a pre-colonnade Chevelle wagon this century. Those wheels though *are* quite offensive to my eyeballs (and back if I were driving it). I need some shut-eye now but will return later with my thoughts of Flint….
The fact that a Chevelle sedan with a 307 and Powerglide is more representative of the average Chevelle than an SS396 doesn’t make the sedan any more fun to actually drive or to be seen in. As a collectible, the Chevelle sedan owner is choosing to put the sedan in a garage space that could be filled by any number of fun, inexpensive cars. As a driver in regular use, it will melt like an ice cream cone.
That reminds me of a meme one of my cousins posted on Facebook a few years ago: A picture of a 1969 Chevelle Malibu two door coupe juxtaposed with picture of a 2009 Malibu four door sedan, captioned “This is why GM is failing”. I assume the implication was supposed to be that GM was “failing” because their cars are no longer “cool” like the Chevelle coupe.
I’d say the creator of that meme is looking at the past through rose colored glasses. The car they cherry picked to represent GM past doesn’t represent the typical car GM sold back then, only the car that was more likely to survive. GM’s bread and butter back then was “boring” sedans, too.
If I recall correctly, the hardtop coupe versions of GM’s 1968-72 A-bodies were more popular than their four-door sedan counterparts. The percentage of hardtop coupes versus four-door sedans varied among the divisions, but A-body customers in those days did prefer coupes.
It was the same story at Ford and Chrysler. The only intermediate that was most popular in four-door sedan form during the late 1960s and early 1970s was the staid AMC Rebel/Matador.
The “rose-colored glasses effect” comes into play when people start believing that the SS 396/454 versions were common on the ground. They weren’t.
There were several years where SS396 volume equaled about half of two-door Malibu production (about a third of total SS396/Malibu production). Plymouth B-body and Pontiac A-body had several years where muscle versions outsold non-muscle two doors.
The figures I’ve seen show that, at the most, SS production equaled about 35 percent of Malibu coupe production. (The production figures I’ve seen only break out SS production through 1968, so the percentages could be higher for later years.)
If the production of Chevelle 300 two-doors is added to the totals, it lowers the SS’s percentage of Chevrolet A-body coupe production.
Plymouth I can definitely believe because the Road Runner was very successful in 1968 and 1969, and the division also offered the GTX during those years.
Isn’t it true that our hometowns evoke feelings that no other place can conjure.
I remember a time when these were among my very least favorite cars, mostly because they were so common. I like them better now, although I would probably still prefer a Plymouth Satellite.
And was there ever a car that had a broader array in the attractiveness department? These 2 door hardtops were really good looking cars, while the low-trim sedans were really wretched.
The two doors are on a shorter wheelbase. It makes the difference between a school bus sedan and a rakish coupe.
Not to mention that the sedans got vent windows, while the hardtops did not.
I always thought that the lack of a ’70-’72 Chevelle 2-door sedan was a bit strange since there was a Pontiac Tempest and Oldsmobile F-85 2-door sedan. The only thing I can figure is this was due to Pontiac and Oldsmobile not having their own division-specific versions of the Nova and the low-line 2-door sedan intermediates were to fill that gap until that would happen a few years later.
This is the kind of Chevelle I remember growing up. Two doors were attractive, but four doors? Whoo-wee! Ugly! The earlier generation sedans were much more attractive, and those evoke the classic squared up sedan style everyone returned to in the 1980s and beyond.
And it wasn’t just the Chevelle that ended up with ugly four door cars – the entire intermediate class got really ugly. The Torino and Satellite? Attractive two doors, super ugly four doors. It was almost as if they wanted buyers to have remorse for needing four doors. The wagons were better looking.
The four doors of this era almost looked like an afterthought, as though the designers and stylists decided to put all their talent into the two door coupes and sedans and let the studio janitors and college interns design the four doors.
Detroit during this time owed the 1953-1958 Studebaker four doors an apology.
These little trucks remind me of my hometown of Albuquerque New Mexico. Simple, rugged, and reasonably sized. Nothing like the massive, jacked up trucks l load on a daily basis. I’m glad they work, but needing a forklift to load an average pickup is just crazy to me.
CC Effect*: My wife and I were driving around Northern Baltimore & Harford Counties on Saturday in the Mustang, and I spotted one of these going the other way on a twisty stretch of Harford Road near Fork, MD.
*Although on Saturdays, these are not uncommon sights. After the Hunt Valley Cars and Coffee breaks up, you see many classics driving around, especially during the spring, summer, and fall.
She noticed the Chevelle and even pointed it out to me correctly identifying it! I was kinda shocked, as she is NOT a car person. That said, she can recognize a ’69 Charger and a ’72 Skylark, the latter of which would be this car’s stablemate. I said to her my ultimate Chevelle would have a ’70 front end, and a ’72 rear end; 2 door hard top, of course. It wouldn’t even need to be an SS.
Great read as usual Joe, and +1 on “tearing up the sidewalks on my trusty, treasured, blue Schwinn bicycle”. I concur, right down to the color! My ’71 Sting-Ray looked exactly like the one pictured below. It was replaced as my DD when I turned 17 with a ’77 Varsity in the exact same color. Of course by then I was “tearing up the streets” as well as the sidewalks. ;o)
Rick, I was in Harford County this past weekend and was shocked to see… a Citroen 2CV! It was headed southbound across the Conowingo Dam bridge as I was heading northbound, and unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture of it.
Hunt Valley Horsepower was fun last year — I hope to make it up there sometime again this year too.
Eric,
I’m planning on going to Hunt Valley Horsepower’s thing on Saturday Morning, August 10th, as my wife is going to be out of town, and I’ll be looking for something to do. I’ll probably wash up the Mustang and bring it…
Although it’s tempting to take the Civic EX-T Coupe out there and park it with the Type-R’s that show up, just to ask the question, “Where did we go wrong?”
i.e. How did the 4-door hatchback end up as “the sporty one” and the coupe end up as “the normal car”? Well, at least you can get an Si in a coupe. ;o)
That’s good to know — I’ll try to go up there too. If I’m feeling ambitious, maybe I’ll bring our ’95 Thunderbird.
That would be a nice blast from the past for me. My ex had a ‘94 4.6L in Pearl Opalescent, and after we split, I traded my Black ‘88 5.0L T-Bird in on a ‘97 3.8L in Pacific Green Clearcoat Metallic (I think that’s what it was called.)
If they still made ‘em, my handle here would be T-Bird Rick. (No “Retro” as I was not a fan of the 2002 to 2005 ‘birds 😉).
Hopefully I can make it with the T-bird… I need to get new tires for it, since the current ones are dry-rotted (10+ years old, so I don’t want to do much highway driving until I get new ones).
I read a while ago that those ‘stick-shift’ bicycle shifters were quickly legislated out of existance for safety reasons. They look cool but I can sure imagine them easily doing some damage to a rider with that top bar location.
Three on the Tree? How about “Three Between the Knees.”
Yeah, they weren’t all that safe, but we all survived. We all rode without helmets back then too! ;o)
The couple of times I had a minor incident sliding off of the banana seat into the shift lever, it was ok, as on the 3 speed, the shifter moved out of the way very easily. However, the “Crates” and “Peelers” (The Stingray ZR-1’s if you will ;o) had a 5 gear derailleur on the back, and the shifter was harder to push forward. My next door neighbor found out that one the hard way with his Lemon Peeler. It could be a real ball buster.
I just came this close (thumb and forefinger 1/64th inch apart) from spitting iced tea all over my lap top. The Stingray bikes were after my time but my younger brother and his friends all seemed to have them at some point, and yes that stick shifter could cause problems.
For some reason the story of sliding off the seat and into the shifter reminds me of a friend from long ago. He spent an entire morning detailing his motorcycle (I don’t even remember the brand at this point), including applying Armor All to every surface, even the seat. The first time he applied the brakes he slid off the seat and onto the gas tank, nearly doing a header over the handlebars. Once his breathing and heart rate returned to normal he spent a couple of hours scrubbing the Armor All off of his seat.
I had an identical bike for a short time, I hated it so much I went back to the bike shop and traded it for a candy apple red 3 speed 24″ Schwinn that I quickly outgrew. It was uncomfortable to ride so back to the bike shop and traded it in on a ice pop blue and chrome 10 speed that was my last bike. Why did I hate the Sting-Ray? I hated the seat, and the riding position bugged me too. I purposely had “normal” handlebars put on my 10 speed versus the stock turned under ones, just so I could ride it comfortably. Aero be damned. I’m picky about handlebars and in cars, steering wheel position.
Understood. I was 10-1/2 when I got the Stingray for Christmas, so size-wise it was fine. But by 17, I could no longer extend the seat high enough having gotten taller, so like you, I outgrew it, thus the switch to the Varsity.
Funny, I still have the vintage Varsity. Mine has the ram horn handlebars, but most of the time I rode it in the upright position with my hands on the crossbar, rather than in the aero position. When I got my 21 speed ‘91 Miyata, it was no ram horns for me.
… or in my case trusty blue Raleigh …
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bicycles/curbside-classic-1969-raleigh-rodeo-my-first-new-set-of-wheels-direct-from-england/
I really need a road trip right now. I’m 56 and this adulting thing still sucks sometimes!
RetroStang Rick, thank you for this. I think in many ways, bike ownership as a kid is like a prerequisite to being a car fan in adulthood – especially if you had a really cool bike.
A year after I graduated from high school in 1973, I bought a original bronze with white stripes 1971 SS 454 LS5 with M22 4 speed Chevelle. One of the most beautiful cars I ever owned. I ended up totaling it out a few years later. Never have seen another that color. Will buy it if I ever do!
I love how you love your roots, I also very attached to place. Somehow the first picture made me think AMC..
The 1974 AMC Matador coupe featured two round taillights on each side, too. Whether AMC stylist Dick Teague intentionally copied this from the Chevrolet intermediates (which sported the same design feature from 1971 through 1973) is an interesting question.
Thank you, Pikesta. I like the round taillamps on the Matador coupe (I like the Matador coupe), but I always thought it was such a uncharacteristic (for AMC) styling cue. I thought of the twin round taillamps as being almost exclusively a Chevrolet thing (in the U.S. – kind of what Opel was doing with the Manta and GT in the early Seventies).
When I was a kid we lived in a small house near the village tennis courts. A persistent memory of summer is falling asleep with the late evening sun coming through the open window, accompanied by the regular rhythm of tennis balls being hit – back and forth, back and forth, back and f…..
I loved those tennis courts. I remember riding my bike around the neighborhood, past Gilkey Creek, up the drive to the adjacent golf course, and past the tennis courts. East Village seemed so magical and beautiful. I hope they do something good with the old golf course clubhouse.
Thank you for this.
SS 396’s were pretty common around Toledo, with a neighbor having a black with white striped SS454 for a short time, before he got a ton of tickets and his insurance went to the moon. It was gone in like 6 months. It was one of my dream cars, after the ’68 Charger R/T and Roadrunner, both with 440’s in them. It was faster then the Mopars, but it just didn’t look quite as good to me. Now all those cars look better than anything made today, regardless of cost.
Hi, everyone. I’m late to my own thing (yesterday was busy), but thanks, as always, for your perspectives, memories, impressions, and the like. I have a few minutes on this morning commute train, so I’m going to re-read the comments. Have a great one.
The second movement of Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony was later set to words, the title of which was “Going Home.” The lyrics are somewhat appropriate to your article as well .
https://youtu.be/FfFKM3_Ay8g
Lee, I like this very much. Thank you for posting this.