CC Cohort John Lloyd posted this shot of himself and his brother with the family ’51 Ford in the background.
Back in 2013, I invited readers to send snapshots of themselves with a car, preferably the family car. CC Kids ran for awhile, but eventually dried up. Since many of you have joined the CC family since then, if you have a suitable shot and a bit of back story (or not) to go with it, send it to me at curbsideclassic(at)gmail.com.
This would be my Dad and his siblings on and around the family 55 Chev 210. He would have been 10 when they got this car, and he ended up getting it when he was old enough to drive. (His older sister wasn’t allowed to take Driver’s Ed or get her license, because Grandpa thought that ‘women weren’t meant to drive’. She did get her license once she moved out, and as far as I know, has never had an accident in 40+ years of driving. Suck it, Grandpa!) Anyway, the Chev was a 210 post 2-door in light blue, 235/3-speed. It was the family car, used for everything other than Sunday church trips, the only time the rest of the family was allowed in Grandpa’s Olds 98. My dad blew the engine in the Chev drag racing it not long after getting the car. So his father had a rule, “No V8 cars for new drivers”, which is why my dad told me that he sold our 78 Malibu wagon with the 305/4-speed stick as soon as I got my license. I’m sure I’ve posted pics of that car here before. I wish I had taken lots more pics of it though, but at the time i was a dumb teenager and was embarrassed by the old station wagon… kids (smh)
My dad will look at cars at a show, but has never expressed a desire to actually OWN a 55 Chevy like his old one, he’s much more into Jeeps, he’s on his fourth Cherokee now.
The Adair family in Rothesay, New Brunswick, in the spring of 1960, excited as can be with their new 1960 Falcon station wagon.
My parents were the generation that grew up during the depression and went through the WW2 as young adults. They were both from England – my mother worked as a secretary in London through the war years, and my father had enlisted in the Royal Tank Corps just before his 18th birthday in 1939. He was captured early on in North Africa, and ended up spending most of the war in German POW camps in Italy, Germany, and Poland. My parents had met before the war, and were married in July 1945. They left for South America soon after, and after a number of years with Shell Oil in Venezuela and travels around the US in various jobs they ended up in Canada – where according to family legend my mother laid down the law and demanded the my father settle on a career.
So for 5 years in the 1950’s my father worked and apprenticed with a firm of chartered accountants at a salary of $2000 a year, getting his professional qualifications and his first professional employment in 1959. The spring of 1960 then was special – the post war dream (a little delayed) of a real job and a new car. It must have felt like the good life was really, finally, under way.
Me and my family in my grandparents’ 1948 (?) Chevrolet. It looks to be around 1980 or so.
My grandfather’s hobby was restoring antique cars. He owned a small apartment building, but kept the 4 car garage for himself.
Besides the one pictured here, I remember riding on the highway in the rumble seat of a 1928 Model A coupe, and a lot of time spent in the 1940 Chevrolet coupe. There were so many cars and I was quite young, so I can’t remember them all.
I guess this picture pretty much explains my love of cars and vintage campers.
Lae, New Guinea, 1970. The then new Fiat 125S. Our housegirl Esther, Mum, maternal Grandfather Albert.
In front: My sister Andrea, a bored Bluey ,and myself.
I love these old shots. From back before most people were aware that “lawn service” would ever become a thing.