Curtis Perry just posted this shot at the Cohort, and it marks a milestone in the history of the internet: the first ’62 Fairlane (base model) black four door sedan to make it into the digital age. And why do I care so much?
It’s exactly what all six of the Niedermeyers squeezed into for their epic summer vacation trips between 1962 and 1965; never more than two in the front seat, and the rest in the back (my father couldn’t bear to have someone sit that close to him). I documented those delightful days here, trapped in the back seat (except the one brief leg on the three day dive to New York when my dad offered the front seat to me but couldn’t properly enjoy it because I felt guilty about my 6-month pregnant mom, my older brother and sister and younger brother all sardined in the back. Blame it on my Catholic upbringing).
Now I can use this to update that black chapter of my childhood. And in the future, should anyone want to do a Google search for a black 1962 Fairlane four door sedan, they’ll be sent here. Welcome!
In those days, their were many poor families who crammed their kids into the back seats of cars because they lacked the means to transport them properly. Paul never has commented about the family finances, but since his father was a physician, you could at least assume that a three seat station wagon would have been affordable. Why he chose to put his family through these ordeals is the more interesting inquiry and would require much more information about him. There is a thread of rebellion that winds through Paul’s stories of his youth and it was probably a strong determination not to be like his father that turned Paul away from being a physician himself, a profession at which he would probably have excelled.
What constitutes “properly transport?”
People didn’t have safety belts or child seats. US cars had bench seats. People just piled in.
As a kid in Greece, during the energy crisis, on Sundays it was “Odds/evens”. If the date was an odd number, and your plate was odd, you could drive.
We were and our friends were not rich, or poor (though they had more money). We crammed 8 people, two families of 4, into their 1970 Ford LTD. I don’t remember how we did it.
On OUR Sunday, we crammed 8 people in our Beetle. At 8, I was the oldest kid, and went behind the rear seat. My brother at 3 sat with my mother in front, and our friends squeezed into the back seat…and as I recall, the parents were of at least ‘average’ stature in terms of height and weight (for Americans of that era, not today).
Granted, we drove 5-10 miles, not cross country. And that 62 Fairlane is not as room in back as the 70 LTD. But it’s certainly acceptable for the mid-1960s.
I think, as middle-America generally became more affluent, and wagons got bigger, we had the big 70s wagons with THREE seat rows.
“Poor” families would drive run down cars, when they had a car. That Fairlane could be driven by anyone from poor, to lower-middle class, to frugal upper-middle class or rich.
In the “Millionaire Next Door”, written 20 years ago, the most popular ride was…a Ford F-series. A solid “middle class” car. Large GM cars were popular. The only luxury cars that made the top 10 were Mercedes and Lexus, as I recall. Two cars associated with high quality and low depreciation.
And they were often bought as used 2 or 3-yr old cars.
Wealthy people are often wealthy because they are frugal and don’t spend money on frivolous items….like depreciating cars.
If a car looks like junk, it might have a poor owner. If a car doesn’t, it’s hard to tell how wealthy the driver is.
Driving a BMW means that the owner has the means to make the payment, or to borrow to make the payment, not necessarily that he/she is a person of ‘means’.
As you said, in Europe back then things were very different and I have tales of remarkable sardining that we did in order to take a short outing trip. But that’s hardly the same as a 3 day trip of over 1000 miles in US heat and humidity.
As a kid, in Greece, I remember piling 7 or 8 people into a car on several occasions, for mostly short trips.
As I was 8 to 10, I didn’t take up much space, and other kids didn’t either.
So, we would all get in the back and play, and the adults had the seats to themselves 🙂
Of course, these were roomy cars–no 3rd seat, but station wagons—a 66 Chevy Bel Air, early 70s Dodge Coronet, a 73 Montego. 2 kids fit easily in the back, 3 did OK, and 4–or more in pinch.
As long as we didn’t kill each other in the back, those were good rides.
Mercedes are equated to low depreciation?
How do you think they can make the lease payments as low as they are? BMW and Honda pretty much the same thing. I remember shopping for a used BMW in the 1990’s and seeing three year old lease return cars on the lot for 80% of new sticker.
My father cried poor during the first few years in Iowa City, as they were starting out from scratch and the salary of an assistant professor then at the university was fairly modest. Nevertheless, I’m sure he could have afforded a basic wagon then if he hadn’t been quite so thrifty. Or at least a full-size sedan.
His personality had a decided touch of narcissism, which made it very difficult for him to think about the needs of others. He was always wrapped up in his work or thinking about things that interested him, inevitably not his kids. He was aloof and detached.
I can remember many of our family trips well into the mid 1970’s. Mostly consisting of me and my two older brothers crammed into the back of various and sundry mid-sized two door Fords and Mercurys. They once heard that two door cars were safer, so…
Dad was too “thrifty” to order air conditioning on any of the cars (just something else to break) but once at speed we couldn’t open any of the windows because it would mess up mom’s hair. Oddly that didn’t stop dad from smoking constantly on our trips… Ugh…
We also had a 1962 Ford Fairlane 500. 260 V8 and Cruise o Matic, four doors, red over red, it’s the first car I can remember. We took lots of trips this way, all five of us crammed into one of the family cars. And many of our neighbors, family and friends did the same.
A friend’s family did a trip from Ohio to the Grand Canyon, all five members of the family, but fortunately they were stuffed in a 1969 Olds Delta 88 Royal Sedan. With air conditioning.
Similar tales to tell from Israel where, of course, distances were nowhere as long as in the US but still, we crammed 4 children at the back and two adults + 1 child at the front into dad’s 64 Fairlane. After a while the vinyl seats were covered with cloth so it least we did not face the risk of 2nd degree burns during Israeli summers.
What really is amazing is that my mother used to drive that car everywhere – no PAS, PAB, recalcitrant 3 on the tree and rod actuation for the (heavy) clutch – no idea how she managed. A 200 mile trip in the recent heat wave we had here in Austria in my 64 Comet (essentially the same car with the same set up) left me drenched in sweat and totally knackered… And for those who ask: I visit the gym 3 times a week and jog 4 miles 3 times a week, so I’m reasonably fit.
People must have been made from a different stuff back then.
My only interaction with one of these was watching the older brother of a neighbor kid trying to keep his 63 running. He bought it cheap around 1971 and it was a worn out sedan except for a cheap Earl Scheib-type respray of the navy blue paint. Bill, the neighborhood guy who would help stupid kids with their derelict cars just shook his head and muttered that the kid shouldn’t have bought it.
It is amazing to me how few of these seem to have survived, particularly the sedans.
The early Fairlanes are homely, lack big blocks, lack convertibles, have relatively few hardtops, and were mostly low option cars. The actual hardtop sits on the car like Elmer Fudd’s hat. They’re about as exciting as Ramblers.
These were less popular than Falcons when new, so there’d be fewer survivors even if the survival rate were equal.
The 64 post sedan that was used as the base for the Thunderbolt drag specials looks good to me. It has the cleaned up 64 body with the clean post coupe roof. The 64 wagon looks good, too.
When an out-of-state driver – actually this was during the two years we lived in Canada, in Niagara Falls, so he was an out-of-COUNTRY driver from Weymouth, MA – broadsided my mom in our ’65 Merc Park Lane, we were given a ’62 Fairlane 4-door sedan as a loaner. It had a 3-on-the-tree.
That – and Paul’s stories – are my entire memory of the debut year mid-size Fairlane.
Although my Not-Niedermeyer immigrant father bought a ’73 T-Bird, the ironic part is that it probably had the same interior space as the Fairlane 😀
It is true that the kind of car a person drives really doesn’t reveal the true wealth of an individual. This is despite the relentless marketing campaigns spewed by the auto makers. I too, would imagine that Paul’s family could have afforded more comfortable family transportation. I remember that he posted a story about a car ride that occurred during his youth back in the old country. If I recall correctly, the car was pretty much stuffed with passengers. I suppose that was normal at the time. I think that Paul’s parents like mine, had lived through the tough financial situation around the War and were leery of becoming enmeshed in debt. My Mother grew up during the Depression and was very cautious about debt. My parents never had a credit card. They just saved to buy the things they needed outright. How I wish that I had learned that lesson!
My childhood during the Fifties was during the growth of the “blue collar” middle class. This occurred when wages from manufacturing jobs increased to the point that they equaled or even exceeded low level white collar occupations. My extended family worked in the auto industry, and they were an active part of the car buying public.
I strongly agree with your parents outlook and your contention that the car a person drive does not reveal their true wealth. I know of many professional people who live on credit, they live above their means and pay dearly for it. I do not consider a car bought on credit as that persons possession until the debt is fully paid off as it can be repossessed.
I to am debt averse, especially since employment cannot be guaranteed and wince when I hear about cars being bought on credit on this site but I have to admit I am unusual even in the UK. Never having had a debt is a real freedom, nobody owns me
Every car has been bought for cash, I could easily afford a new car without credit , but I simply don’t think they are worth it with depreciation and loan interest taken into account when you can buy excellent second hand cars in the UK, and I have not had a mechanical failure in the last 18 years despite visiting clients all over the UK. My cars are well maintained and not abused, but that is how you guarantee reliability
Debt is a four letter word. It is the worst four letter word.
A never-realized commonality with Paul….my father also had a ’62 Fairlane. He purchased it in the early 1970s as a commuter car for his 97 mile round trip to work. It had a six with a three-speed.
Somewhere there is a picture of me in front of that car. His was a baby blue.
We had a ’61 Chevy Parkwood wagon, 283 Powerglide, am radio and nothing else. But it had plenty of room for the six of us. Hot ride to Disneyland from Portland in August, no plastic covers over the vinyl seats, towels prevented branding marks.
The new ’65 Chevy wagon had AC, that made the annual trip a whole lot nicer.
Wish my dad had chosen the one with AC on the lot when he bought a ’65 Impala wagon. “4-70” air conditioning in the stifling hot San Joaquin valley. We did have plenty of room in that car. The rear seat was folded flat for long trips. Big open space for the kids.
That wonderful square mobile should be first when one Googles “car”
My great uncle – my paternal grandmother’s brother – had a white 1962 four-door sedan with a red interior in the early 1970s.
I hated riding with him, because he drove so slowly. He was once pulled over on I-81 for driving UNDER the posted minimum speed of 45 mph! Every time I see a 1962 Fairlane four-door sedan, I think of him blocking traffic on I-81, and being pulled over by the police for doing it!
Reading about your family vacations reminded me a bit of my own. We traveled from Maine to California in a 1961 Rambler wagon. The rear seat was filled with siblings, and I spent the whole trip reclined in the “way back”. We were camping (of course), so my brother and I spent nights there as well. Family fun.
I have always enjoyed the “not-Neidermeyers”, for reasons that may be obvious.