The good old days, when pickup ads were trying hard to convince owners and buyers that it would be ok to use them for other than work.
Vintage Ad: 1968 Dodge Adventurer – “If Your Pickup Heads For The Barn With The Livestock At Night, You’re Missing A Lot”
– Posted on July 7, 2021
I don’t know if there is much difference between livestock and a Cornhusker based on those pictures.
Hey, for some people heading to the livestock barn is just the beginning of their night.
as a youth we described those people as “two balers” because they stood on hay to elevate to the proper height. The reason we came up with that measurement is a farmer caught his hired hand (who lived in the hay mow) flagrante delicto on said hay bales. True story.
You know what they say… “love where you work!”
When men were men and livestock were nervous.
Even in the less litigious ’60s, you couldn’t park on the 50 yard line of a college football stadium.
But maybe the farmer is also the groundskeeper for the stadium. The nice “lawn”?? of the farm appears to have been mowed by the same machine as the football field.
The ’68 D series was a bit of an oddball. The trucks still used the ’61 hood but with a new grille, and a straight bodyside molding on the deluxe models de-emphasized the beltline dip at the rear of the quarter panel. A flat hood came in ’69 and with that the truck looked somewhat contemporary though still a bit quirky.
Compared to the new for ’67 Ford and GM truck styling, this poor Dodge is really showing its age, new trim or not. At least the “pie tin” headlight surrounds are gone.
I don’t ever recall anyone who parked their vehicle in the barn with the livestock. People slept in the house. Livestock were in the barn. Vehicles were left out or housed in a garage or barn of their own. The last thing a farmer needed was a backfire out the tailpipe spooking the livestock or worse, igniting hay.
My thoughts exactly.
A 383 and a TorqueFlite in one of these would have been a long-lived and stout drivetrain. At least that’s how I would have ordered it. And dual gas tanks plus a highway friendly differential ratio.
Only football players were tough enough for Dodges. Basketball players (at least the centers and power players) could handle Fords, but everyone else (shooting guards, tennis, soccer, baseball, golf) were best to stick with the more civilized Chevys. 🙂
Though I’ve always owned and loved GM Squarebodies, I had a huge crush on a 1971 Dodge Sweptline short box that lived by my junior high. It was a greenish gold color, V8 powered and an automatic with that spiffy dash mounted shifter. I’ve always liked 1970-71’s, but I’d rock this one… and I don’t even have livestock for it to snuggle with at night or whatever they were on about in this ad.
My inner pedant also notes that the truck at the very top of the ad is a 1968, but the parking lamps don’t stay on with the headlights, and those chintzy reflectors they used on sides of 1968-69 trucks are absent as well. I wonder if Mopar waited until Jan 1st of ’68 to implement those changes?
I remember these fondly .
Pretty stout no matter how you powered them .
-Nate