Downtown Lead, South Dakota, 1976
This isn’t exactly an orgasmic CC photo, but it was taken in 1976 while the lusty Suzy and I were on our mega Elopement Tour in my (but by then, our) 1972 Fiat 128.
Not a whole lot of curbside hotties here, but the yellow bike appears to be a Schwinn Continental. I bought one of those new while I was designing bikes for John Deere. Heavy, but lovable. I’m sorry to have sold the thing to buy my Albert Eisentraut. If you are into bikes, you will know what an Eisentraut is all about. I still have Albert.
My wife and I beat the shit out of Tony on the long haul. Would a Toyota have been a better choice? Maybe, but so what?
To this day I have never owned/driven a car that I loved more than my 128.
I think it a a very cool photo. So crisp. I love seeing older streetscapes and comparing cars from now and then.
is it me or are there fewer pickups with campershells on them now a days. I seem to remember as a kid in the 70s, every other truck had one.
I agree. I think the hard bed covers have taken the place of the camper top. Also you would see a lot of passengers in the bed of a pickup with a camper top.
Today’s pickups don’t really look right with a “topper”–it’s part of the chiseled styling of old 60’s-80’s pickups. I mean, my grandfather had a topper on all four pickups he owned: his ’51 Chevy 3100 and ’74 Ford F-250 often exchanged them for stock racks, but his ’86 and ’97 F-150’s kept them on all the time. He’s no longer with us, but his ’97 with about 30,000 miles is–and the ’97 and newer Fords only look good with a curved fiberglass topper. And even then they end up looking like a hearse.
The topper makes up part of what I call the “Grandpa package”–a late-model, regular cab long bed 2WD pickup truck with a topper. Long and low.
I think that extended cabs and crew cabs, as well as SUVs, led to the near extinction of shells. For many, the point of having one was to have a dry place to carry things that would crowd a regular cab (think groceries and luggage).
And like you, I associate the combination of standard cab, long bed and shell with older gentlemen. I’ve owned two as used trucks – both lost their shell before I bought them – and they make good second vehicles. They’re often well maintained, if a bit improvised when it comes to cosmetic repairs. And both of mine came with the required “Indian blanket” seat covers protecting the indestructible vinyl on the bench seat.
That is kinda the standard “go-to” old guy style truck, a baser 2WD long bed with a topper. My 78 F100 is an old guy truck, except the topper, which is off, but available to me if I want to drive the 150 miles to pick it up, I’m thinking about it.
Quick, get this man a seed corn hat! 🙂
Kevin! These kinds of pictures need to be bigger! 🙂
I am loving the Dodge Town Wagon (parked behind the two pickups). Someday I am going to find one for a proper CC.
Try it now. Bigger.
That’s better. Our max image size is 1200 pixels, so for nice shots like this, feel free to go up to that limit (if you upload one bigger than that, it automatically sizes it down to 1200.
Funky stripes on that ’66 Beetle. I love vintage street scenes
There is no town of Lead in Montana–do you mean Lead, Colorado?
Kevin, are you sure you’re not in Lead, South Dakota? This Main Street looks very “Black Hills” familiar to me.
Picky, picky, picky. But since the saloon is the “Dakota Territory”, you are undoubtedly right.
shame there is no recent photo to compare it with. it looks like it could have been taken yesterday.
I took a cross country trip in ’77 and remember those Rexall Drug stores signs in every small town in the west…I don’t believe they still exist.
My vintage buddy and riding partner also has an Eisentraut. I dream of the day I’ll get one of my own.
And I really want another Grand Wagoneer someday. Hopefully the next one won’t have 14 years of Maine rust hidden in the bodywork.
“…are there fewer pickups with campershells on them now a days?”
Yep, SUV’s have taken their place. But pick-up shell covers are like auto Landau tops, out of style and old fashioned.
This somehow reminds me of the film “Misery”. I know the town in it was never this big, but its probably the setting, Jeep, and Chevy pickup. No blue Mustang though.
I’ll take the ’66 Beetle and the Schwinn. An Eisentraut too, if I had a choice.
I had a friend with a yellow 4-door 128 back in the day. He didn’t keep it long enough to see if it was very reliable long term, but it sure was a hoot to drive. Designed for heel and toe pedal usage. I was sorry when he sold it.
Enzo drove a 128 as his daily driver.
I had a red one in the late 80s. Never registered it, so unfortunately I can’t provide a drive report.
The one thing I do remember about it was that most of the mechanicals, especially the engine, and most of the fender and other sheet metal attachments, were put together with undersized bolts. Almost all of them 10mm. They would easily break when applying the kind of torque you would normally use on a non-Italian car. “Fixing” it was an exercise in progressive disintegration.
Yup. Those 10 mm fasteners tend snap when you use a 3/4″ breaker bar on them.
Could’ve taken the same sort of pic, but of Park City, Utah in the Summer of ’76, while sitting with my new bride in our ’74 X1/9.
But I didn’t. Almost pulled the trigger on a new ’78 128 for my wife, but bought her a new Buick Turbo Regal instead and man, did I ever regret THAT decision!
Nice shot Kevin. Sounds like you need to find a new 128. Have you tried out a new 500 or 500L? I wonder how different or similar they are to the old classic Fiats. I must admit I kind of like the new 500. There are a ton of them around here, due to the ex-Hummer dealership in Davenport getting a franchise.