The Parkwood had a short run as Chevy’s middle-tier, full-size wagon from 1959 through ’61, with the same basic trim level as the Bel Air. This would be a fun car to pile your friends into for a concert at the Portage Theatre. Fun fact: you can see the lit theater marquee at night from the window seat of an airplane landing at O’Hare.
Six Corners, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, May 30, 2014.
Nailed it Joseph. The muted colours, the shades on the driver, everything makes this pic look like it was taken way back when.
First, what a great shot. However, I can’t get all excited about this generation of Chevrolet, as is well known hereabouts.
But here is my question: How come every version of 61 Chevy wagon used “wood” in the name (Parkwood, Brookwood, Lakewood) but no wood on the body? Ford, on the other hand, regularly slathered wood (albeit fake) all over the outside of its wagons but never named them after any kind of wood or tree. Stop laughing, this is important.
Not every ’61 Chevrolet wagon . . . . Nomad has no wood.
Because it was cheaper?
You’d prefer Parkmetal, Brookmetal, Lakemetal? 😉
They *all* sound like mid-century, Midwestern subdivisions! (And thanks RE: the photograph. 🙂 )
A lot of Joseph’s Chicago pics have matching drivers.
I suppose it’s like the resemblance of dogs and owners. First the driver chooses a car to fit his personality, and then the car shapes the driver to fit even more.
My Aunt had a blue 61 Chevy wagon. May have been a Parkwood as I noticed it said “Bel Air” everywhere in the interior. It was the last full size car she bought with a manual trans and her first wagon. It developed a howl in the dif, so it went away in favor of a 65 Fury III wagon. I have some camping pix of it, but they are on 35mm slides and I don’t have a slide scanner.
’65 Fury III wagon, wow, that’s a lot of car. I’d like to see a picture of that.
’65 Fury III wagon, wow, that’s a lot of car. I’d like to see a picture of that.
If I had a slide scanner, I could oblige. There are pix of 65 wagons on the net. It was a monster. It barely fit in my Aunt’s 1948 vintage garage.
Yup, looked some up. Wow. Found it odd that none of them seemed to have back-up lights even on a Fury III. Not available on wagons? Now I want to see one “in the flesh.”
Backup lights became mandatory somewhere around 65. My Dad’s 64 Galaxie XL had them, but they were optional on Mom’s 64 Rambler.
Found them on the 65 Plymouth. They are on either side of the license plate mounting.
On Mom’s Rambler, the backup lights were mounted low in either end of the bumper, where they did an excellent job of lighting up the driveway so she would see where she was backing up. The 64 Galaxie had them in the center of the taillights. There must have been a subsequent Federal reg that required backup lights be in the taillight cluster.
That image could be any time in the last 50 years, and in fact does have that vintage-film look about it. Very nicely done!
The black steelies and wide whites look appears to work quite well.
So sweet! My favorite year of Chevy cars and wagons!
Nice car , nice pic .
-Nate
I’m not a big fan of the 59-61 Chevy, but I do have to say I could live with a 61 wagon. Make mine a Brookwood, though, in that “ginger” color with a white top that was reasonably popular back then.
The old man bought this model, it was a beige metallic color. 283 two barrel, Powerglide, power steering and brakes, AM radio. $2800. He never could get the choke, choke pull off and fast idle adjusted correctly; it would start and run for about 30 seconds. Then, just as you pulled out onto the two lane road, it would cough and die. Lots of near misses in 9 years…the ’65 Corvair Monza with the 4 carbs; that ran perfectly hot or cold.
So I learned the beige 61 wagon we had I thought was a Biscayne was actually called a Brookwood. More CC education.
The unique wagon names disappeared after ’61, only to be resurrected for ’69-’72, although Brookwood-Parkwood-Nomad became Brookwood-Townsman-Kingswood.
I’m impressed!
Also, note to self: Don’t go up against “Ol’ Quick Draw Joseph Dennis” in a gunfight.
+1
The 1961 Parkwood wagon is one of my favorites. We temporarily relocated in mid-1962, and we were initially given a dark blue 1961 Parkwood to use by my Dad’s employer. I’m not sure why, but after a week or so we were given a 1961 Lakewood 500 instead, which served us for the balance of our 9 month stay back east. I still saw the Parkwood occasionally, and I have fond memories of it taking us to the county fair that fall. I’d love to have either of those cars now.
Thanks, everyone, regarding the photo. My friends always give grief for bringing my camera everywhere, but it can definitely pay off. The traffic wasn’t working with me that Friday afternoon, but sometimes all you need – and all you get – is one usable frame. 🙂
I am a GM factory town kid for life.
It really does look a like a vintage photo! Well done!
The ’61 is my favorite of the 1961-64 big Chevrolets, a nice clean break from the wild 1958-60 models.