[Originally posted 25 December 2017 @ 14:00]
Or actually this might be more of a Chrysmas card. Either way, the more you look, the more you see; click to embiggen. The car nationalities are about as homogeneous as the people—somebody’s dreaming of a white Christmas, as it seems. And hey, what the…?! What’s that non-Christmas-specific expression of cheer doing in the store window?! Wasn’t that a weapon first deployed in, like, 1999 in the ongoing war on Christmas?
Ah, well, it’s all good; there’s ribbon candy for only 79¢. Happy Christmas, Saturnalia, Festivus, Captain Picard Day, and whatever-all else you’re celebrating. May your sealed beams burn nice and bright, and may all your plugs be Autolite.
I see that the wheel-less shopping cart spooked the dog.
Merry Christmas
The two readily identifiable cars are a ’60 Valiant and a ’59 Dodge wagon..
And that looks to be a ’57 Plymouth at the far end of the row..
nice Chrysmas card!
(Insert pic of a Chrysmas tree, with a Pentastar on top of course, here)
Since you mentioned it – “Keep Saturn in Saturnalia!”
One strange looking Christmas card. I can’t imagine any grocery store highlighting their sale price on ribbon candy. Turkey? Yes, Ham? Yes. But candy? Stores back then had the windows plastered with sales posters until it was discovered that the police couldn’t see robberies in progress. And how odd to have the sedan back in to make the trunk more accessible, but not the longer wagon? Aside from the bag boys, the adults seem to be “older” and the children are infants and toddlers.
The reason the adults seem older is the more formal dress standards for the time. One didn’t go out to the store in jeans and sweats. While the women all are wearing hats, the men are some with, some without. I agree this isn’t a very northern climate. The mink coat is for show.
My first thought was that this must be somewhere in Maine because of the lack of racial diversity, but as you point out, this in not in a very northern climate. Likely a place like Mayberry N.C., that never really existed.
Racial diversity in 1962 wasn’t anything like it is today. I grew up in Ohio, and never saw anyone who wasn’t European until my senior year in High School. Our exotic was a Russian who worked with my dad (a ‘good’ Russian; his family had fled the Communists after the 1917 revolution). In my small college, there was one person from another country; a Jordanian. Japan? You may as well have been talking about Mars. There were no Chinese restaurants in town, although you could get Chop Suey in a can. Mexican food? Never heard of it, except maybe for Chili but that was more a Cincinnati thing than a foreign thing.
There was a little more diversity on the car front; our family owned a SAAB, our neighbors (for a brief period around 1964) owned a Citroen, and a family friend bought a Renault Dauphine. The first VW I remember was from perhaps 1965 and then suddenly they were everywhere and my grandfather bought one in about 1967. Frankly it seemed just as weird as our SAABs, but more primitive. In the late 60’s, early 70’s the world expanded a bit – a dentist friend of the family bought a Mercedes, and I took a month study trip to the Soviet Union, and my sister visited Greece.
As for that picture, my dad still wore a fedora in 1962, if I recall, and I know for certain that ‘Ladies’ still wore gloves as well as hats and my mom wore a string of pearls every day. I have family pictures to prove that.
The thing that I remember, looking at that picture will seem trivial to most people I guess but there were no, none at all, plastic bags or Saran Wrap. Bread came wrapped in waxed paper, and meat in ‘butcher’s paper’. There were no plastic trash bags either, so garbage cans were, well…. never mind.
Shopping ‘Plazas’ like the one shown were a new thing in my area too. They were a big change from driving into town and then going from store to store. The World was a very different place then.
Yes, and a lot of men stopped wearing hats while driving in 1968 when the Fedora Motor Vehicle Safety Standards took effect.
“1968 Fedora Safety Standards….“
Oh, boy….
I have to be careful as a Diplomat here… Given your Imperial status around here, I am concerned that everyone will get into a Fury and attack fast as Barracudas if I don’t applaud your Valiant attempt at humor. There’s no way to Dodge the fact that the CC Demons would throw Darts at me -and not just in cyberspace either. I can clearly imagine a Caravan of Chargers trying to Ram me on the road to Aspen. I hope I don’t come off as a Challenger to you as a comedian – I want to make it clear in big Neon letters that I’m not. I really don’t want to annoy the New Yorkers in this crowd – they can really act like Vipers if you make them mad. I don’t want to have to worry about Prowlers, so all the Acclaim is yours. I’m just a Scamp trying to be funny now and then, but usually…. Crickets.
So, MOPAR to ya Daniel, and Merry Christmas!
I LUV it! “Just a Scamp?” No, no; you are a Matador of words. Keep your Focus and fly like an Arrow towards a Happy New Year!
Let’s stay away from being a Duster or a Lancer of anyone’s dreams here. I am sure there are 300 reasons to enjoy being a Voyager to Sapporo or Monaco, perhaps even the Dakota’s with some amount of Fury. After all being a Swinger is so 20th Century. I will just have to settle for expressing a Satellite orbit of interest here. Let me just get on my Colt and scidaddle. This article gets the Corinthian leather award of excellence!
I grew up in Ferguson, Missouri (until 2014 a place no one had heard of) in the late fifties and early sixties and this illustration could have been from our nearby Northland Shopping Center (close enough for me to walk there to purchase my AMT and Revell model kits). VERY Mid-Century Modern, with low, boxy architecture built with red bricks. Apparently when it was demolished the demolition company had trouble tearing it down.
http://www.tobyweiss.com/northland-shopping-center/
https://www.google.com/search?q=northland+shopping+center+st+louis&client=firefox-b-1&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU35jQ4a_YAhVEOSYKHW0OC2MQsAQIPA&biw=1920&bih=940
Oh fer chrissakes.Do we HAVE to focus on racial identity so much? What if there was a Christmas card with nothing but Black people shopping? Or Hispanic people with lowriders?. Cards portraying both exist. Would you notice the lack of racial diversity? This subject tires me out as it is not making a difference in anything. It’s just flying the flag of “me too”
Amen to that. I don’t know why people can’t just enjoy life without always looking for things like this to worry about. I find it tiresome, too.
Easy to say if you are not a person of color.
Our country was more binary then, but there were still two races, for lack of a better word, but typically only one was shown. Even as a pasty white guy, I see the wisdom of the comment, “Easy to say if you are not a person of color.”
Now “color”, or as I tend to refer to it, completion, has changed dramatically since then, it’s not black and white anymore, it’s a whole range from light to dark. And if you’re in SF, maybe even pink, blue, orange, green and more!
> The reason the adults seem older is the more formal dress standards for the time. One didn’t go out to the store in jeans and sweats.
Don’t be so sure…. I’ve seen lots of photos of grocery stores from the 1950s and 60s that look like this one, with women with rollers in their hair and wearing what are practically pajamas…
Formal clothing might be part of it, but people got older faster in the past.
Yes they did. Blue collar workers were worn out from manual labor and white collar were old before their time from a sedentary life. Plus it was just accepted.
Also, the air and land and water and food were all a lot more toxic. I look at old pictures of my grandparents: They’re 45 in that pic?!
Reminds me of this- On August 14, 1963, the Hills Department Store opened in Sandusky, Ohio in the Perkins Plaza. In a small town like this, (my hometown) it was a HUGE deal. Here is a link if anyone is interested, lots of classics in this picture!
http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Hills%20Department%20Store
Well! That’s just grand! Nevertheless, I prefer this:
I just read there are only 6 Kmarts still open in the mainland U.S.
As far as I’m concerned that’s still 6 too many. Now Sears I liked, Kmart, uh, not really.
There are two Chevies in this picture that always make me wonder. A 4 door 53 210 and a 2 door 56/57 150. In my country Chevrolets were expensive. As such, Bel Air was almost the only model imported. Were lower line models very common? Id look at production figures and see top lines as leaders in the US.
Mid trim models were often the biggest sellers. For example, in 1957, the 210 two door (post) sedan was the best seller. These were cheap for new cars here at the time. Those with a little more money to spend might go with a lesser trim more premium brand rather than a top trim Chevy, Ford or Plymouth. For example, my father bought a new low-end Pontiac in 1955, a step up from Chevrolet.
Somehow the four GM cars in a row display four clear generations of GM style, and in order right to left. Ten years between the oldest and the newest. Car styles changed far faster in those days.
My brother worked for Hills in western PA from late 80’s till Ames came and took over.
I remember quite clearly that “Season’s Greetings” was very commonly used back at that time.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Somewhere, in this labyrinth of a house, I have a vintage greeting card proclaiming “Season’s Greetings!” featuring a candle on the red and white (and lots of thick 3-D glitter, forming mountains, perhaps drifts) cover, in it’s original envelope, from our Jewish neighbors (the Meyers) whom I always played with (cars and trucks of course) every day. It’s postmark is from 1961, IIRC. The “Season’s Greetings” was used back then between Jewish and Christian friends, as tbe holidays generally overlapped. I remember it taped to the Oak mantle above the fireplace, with the many “Merry Christmas” cards, above the platform and the tree, with my father’s Lionel trains, running thru the Christmas villiage (courtesy of Plastiville USA, and his handpainted figures made of lead). This card taught me, at an early age, that even folks who don’t celebrate Christmas can be good folks too. To this day, I only consider how folks treat me, not their race or religion.
Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward man
I never noticed “Season’s Greetings” had fallen out of favour.
I know this is a simplistic breakdown of the whole “war on Christmas” thing, but I think the backlash is all because of “holiday party”. It never ever sounded right, it doesn’t flow from the tongue properly, it seems forced and it couldn’t possibly be less specific – what holiday? Labor Day?
Season’s greetings sounds nicer than happy holidays too, and it could be said that many people enjoy the season more than actually celebrate the holiday days in it. Myself included, I’m not even remotely religious but the lights, food and festivities that come with the season are enjoyable nonetheless.
That scene could have been at the local Piggly-Wiggly when I was a kid…
Still can’t get over the name of that store. Just sounds so…wrong… to foreign ears!
Haha! I grew up in the part of America where Piggly-Wiggly thrived, and I always thought the name was totally bizarre too!
Piggly-Wiggly always struck me as the kind of name best used by a chain of BarBQ restaurants.
Piggly-Wiggly was the first grocery store to provide shopping carts, in Oklahoma City in 1937. My Dad stocked groceries in one for a while in 1946, after he got out of the army. Said it was one of the hardest jobs he ever had.
According to Wiki, the chain was Humpty Dumpty and inventor was Sylvan Goldman, but 1937 is the correct year. They had trouble getting folks to use the carts at first, until they hired models to push them about and convince customers it was normal. After all, Real Men don’t need carts when they have strong arms.
“Mee ‘n’ Jimmy-Joe’s gonna g’wan dayown to th’ Piggly-Wiggly ‘n’ baah sum smowkes.”
The husband outside is telling the lady I guess his wife (this is like 1960) that he see’s Martians or Communists beyond the MOPAR creampuffs.
I got quite a kick out of your comment. That’s both truly hilarious and most certainly seems correct for that period in time. Best comment I’ve seen on this site for some time!
I first notice the 1960 Plymouth Valiant and the 1959 Dodge wagon. This brings back memories of Dad getting Mom a 1961 Valiant in 1961. Which I really liked, and so I found and purchased a 1962 Valiant in about 1975. Speaking of Valiants, I found a 1960 Valiant listed on the Columbus, OH craigslist only a few weeks ago. But never quite found the time to go look at it. Seems like it was out of town a little ways. Then, just last week, I saw a 1960 Valiant being driven down the street in my hometown which looked kinda familiar. It was the low-mileage Valiant at a reasonable price which seems to have set outside (or perhaps in a barn) for many years as it had a light amount of surface rust. To better describe the body, I’d have to say that I couldn’t tell what the original color was. Yet, the online pictures showed it had a really great, unmolested and not worn out interior. And these old Mopars powered by the venerable old Slant 6.
The other memories that Christmas card evokes is that of going to the grocery store with Mom back when my brother and I were pretty young. Like about the early 1960s, as depicted on the Christmas card. In those days, Dad’s job involved travel, and he was only home on the weekends.
Very close, but there is actually nothing such as a 1960 Plymouth Valiant. The 1960 Valiant was…a Valiant. Badged, marketed, and sold as such. If you were in Canada or Australia it was a Valiant (by Chrysler), but the Valiant didn’t become a Plymouth in the United States until 1961, and not in Canada until 1967.
You are, of course, correct. And, the reason I know is because I have my Dad’s collection of car sales literature. But, I simply got in a hurry to post.
While I hesitate to correct Daniel, there was no Valiant in Australia under any name in 1960. We didn’t get them till the end of ’61, and yes then it was Valiant by Chrysler. We could only dream of Valiants in 1960….
Unclear writing on my part five years ago—I didn’t mean to suggest there were ’60 Valiants in Australia.
That’s a shame, it would’ve been great to get them a year earlier. We went wild about them when they did arrive, and their popularity took Chrysler by surprise; a year earlier and Ford and Holden’s new models might have met quite a different reception. This or a Valiant? No competition!
Upon more careful observation, I notice the sale of cut, live Christmas trees. Seems like it’s been quite a few years since most people bought the cut, live trees. Don’t think I see many places selling the cut trees these days, as so many of us find it easier to put up an artificial tree which you don’t have to water, and can thus leave up much longer.
Real trees are still pretty popular in the PNW, but then again we are surrounded by them daily in most parts of the area so a fake tree just doesn’t compare.
Weird. Here in Austria it is almost always a real tree and selling those is big business for nurseries and farmers.
Must mention that I saw no places selling live trees this year. Seems to me like a sort of gradual decline in the past 40, 30, 20, 10 years and to date. Don’t even see that many homes with the strings of colored lights or other decorations. Myself included. However, this year, some of the homes with lights and other decorations went Really, Really overboard with the quantity of lights and other Christmas decorations and displays.
Still plenty of places selling cut trees in Northern California in 2021. Given the propensity for many of us to have lots of stuff, myself included, I wonder if back east/midwest with basements might contribute to the artificial tree and someplace to store it. Although I’ve never liked them myself and I would buy a real one even if I did have somewhere to store an artificial.
But they’re alive and well in some parts of the country, at least as alive as a recently cut tree can be.
Live trees were readily available for purchase in southern Arizona this year- a quick Gargle search reveals that they were mostly shipped down from Oregon. I’ve never purchased a live tree, though have gone out and cut them a couple of times back when I lived in Montana… the process usually involved a full afternoon of plowing your way along remote roads in search of a tree that wasn’t too tall, too gangly, or growing sideways out of a hillside. We’d get home with our $35 tree a few hours after dark, having burned $40 worth of fuel… but it was probably worth it in the grand scheme.
I had a girlfriend whose dad was exceedingly proud of his artificial tree. It was quite old by his recollection, and was assembled out of a whole bunch of sections and “limbs” that all screwed into each other and made a whole. I remember it taking just about as long to assemble as one of my deep woods excursions, but it could could be done without 4 wheel drive, a chainsaw, or wet feet. The thing stored in a fairly small box that was stashed in an apartment bedroom closet the other 11 months of the year.
My pragmatic inner self leans toward the synthetic tree, but it still is fun to take a spent live tree down in the first week of February and set fire to the needles out in the driveway… Decisions, decisions.
Not so venerable when it came out in 1960. But I believe one reason for the slant was that it was based on the old tall flathead 6 probably from the 1930’s. One reason for not starting from scratch was the investment in the very expensive machine tools designed for a particular engine. Ford on the other hand did come up with completely new thinwall cast 6’s for the Falcon.
You’re mistaken. The Slant-Six was a clean-sheet design, started from scratch, sharing nothing at all with the flathead engine, and with all-new tooling.
I’ve only seen the “Slant-Six was based on the flathead” claim one other time, and it was in April of this year in QOTD: Len’s Top Five Engines – What Are Yours?.
The claim was challenged at that time, too. I’d like to see a reference to some proof of this claim, otherwise I’ll file it with “the ‘62 Chrysler products were changed after comments overheard at a garden party,” “the Caprice was created so that Chevy execs wouldn’t drive Cadillacs as their company car,” and “the Nova failed in Latin America because its name translates to ‘doesn’t go’ in Spanish.”
The same guy (Michael Allen) made the claim at that time, too. I have shelves and boxes and hard drives full of primary references refuting it, and on my to-do list is a comprehensive article about the Slant-Six engine. For now, here’s enough of a sneak peek to utterly demolish the claim that it was a reworked Flathead motor. He who wrote this what you’re about to read held the following positions at Chrysler:
• Managing Engine Design Engineer (1955-’62)
• Assistant Chief Engine Design and Development Engineer (’62-’76)
• Chief Engine Engineer (’76-’87)
Things were apparently merry, and they were certainly white.
+1
The bag boy, with the celery in the bag…and the mayhem-threatening dog. Almost makes me wonder if the artist was Art Frahm.
https://www.lileks.com/institute/frahm/index.html (pages 4 and 5 are most relevant)
Hopefully the bag boy is wearing a belt.
No cheesecake (not the dessert kind). The Car Style Critic/Art Contrarian blogger is big on illustrators. Bet he might know.
Looking at the storefront signage, I’m thinking “That’s an absurd price for ribbon candy if it were 1960”.
Then I Googled. That’s cheap compared to today! Yikes…
Not really. 79 cents in 1960 translates into $7.49 in 2021.
Exactly. A decent box of the stuff is more expensive than that these days…
Impossible to tell, it just says “box” and no indication of how much or how little ribbon candy 79 cents got you.
I noticed a ’60 Valiant and maybe a ’57 Plymouth-I’m not sure. The scene reminds me of the shopping centers that existed back then-maybe the Mid-West as the weather was variable and on a lot of Christmases there was no snow.
I just heard a parody of 12 Days of Christmas on the radio, where the “Partridge in a Pear Tree” was replaced by “Parts for a Mustang GT”. The others were non-automotive so I so I don’t remember them. Season’s Greetings!!
Most parodies’ gift lists make more sense than the original song. All. Those. Birds. What does the singer give in return, a book of carwash coupons to get rid of what must be a thorough coating of guano inside and out?
The funniest parody of that song I have heard is “Christmas Countdown” by Frank Kelly, sorry I don’t know how to post links, but its easy to find, You Tube, Spotify etc. and its hilarious.
My favorite parody of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was the version by Foster Brooks. They don’t play that one on the radio anymore.
This one still gets played every nigh and then up here:
You mean there wasn’t actually a spare tire attached under the Valiant’s trunk lid? I am sorely disillusioned!
I have a memory from when I was 1 or 2 years old, seeing a trunk lid of a Lincoln with the hump and assuming it was a clock, because I didn’t know letters or numbers yet,(or that clocks needed “hands”) but I had a sense that there must be a functional reason for it being there. Part of me still sees that trunk lid like a rolling, friendly Big Ben, kindly letting everyone behind know what time it is.
I wish more of me saw the world that way.
Happy to learn of Art Frahm. Thanks, Jeff !
What do I see ? School buses [sic], far upper left. Did a shopping mall and a school ever share the same parking lot ? Inquiring minds want to know . . .
Like the red, Dodge Lancer up front in the pic!!
That’s a ’60 Valiant, the Lancer’s older brother.
I like the detail on the Valiant’s tire.
What was this made to promote? I don’t see any store or shopping-center signs.
Odd touch – the shopper behind the dog that spilled their groceries.
I worked at an A&P in the mid 70’s. The first thing I would do was put on an apron to keep the muck off from bottle returns, putting out frozen foods and dairy products.
One day, we got a solid bock of ice containing processed whole chickens. I got selected to chip away and bag each chicken for our upcoming 88¢ sale. I doubled up on the aprons and hacked for the better part of a day.