Today’s gallery is quite literally, just kids in the hood. A few adults and additional kids are standing around too, but I believe they don’t spoil the effect.
On a personal note, I’m slightly jealous of these kids. I never got around to posing with our family’s car, much less sitting in the hood. First, Dad wouldn’t have ever bothered to spend film on something like a car. Then, our Datsun’s hood would have certainly buckled under my weight.
But such is life. Enjoy these shots, as they’re all far better-looking rides than my family’s Datsun.
Once again, nice to see a 60 Pontiac! A set of those hubcaps hung in the garage for a decade after dad scrapped ours.
I’d be pretty nervous about putting my children on top of a 59 Buick. That’s the champion for evil looking car, and it might eat them!
Or….it might protect them from, I don’t know, you? LOL!
Before my Dad bought the ’64 Catalina (see comment below) he had a ’59 Catalina. Like the Buick it, in my very young mind at least, looked evil. I think it was the skegs on the rear that I found so alarming.
My brother and his girlfriend on the hood of my 63 Comet I owned in 69…
I really like the one with the toddler sitting on the trunk lid of the T-Bird. He seems so happy and carefree. My father had a 1964 Catalina (Ventura trim) but it was aquamarine and a two-door hardtop, not a convertible. He also had a towhead son about the same age as the lad in the picture. That would be yours truly.
Of course the kid’s happy. He has the best seat outside of the house! 😉
There’s something about the kid’s clothes and hair in the last pic that says ’70s/early ’80s to me (having been born in ’74 myself), meaning the ’64 Catalina ragtop is already a cherished old car. Come to think of it, its’ square amber foglights are of that era too.
Agree. And the T-bird photo is showing a Colorado plate that’s from the late ‘70s at the oldest (and should have a year sticker on it but doesn’t). That, the careful composition and the kid’s non-period clothes indicate that the photographer wasn’t just a parent taking a snapshot of their kid on the family car (did parents of young children buy Thunderbirds in the late 50s?).
The blue `55 Chrysler Newport HT is the same shade of blue my Dad’s Windsor DeLuxe was.
I love the photos—the cars seem to be at least a bit upscale (rather than mostly Ford/Chevy).
This ad (May 1953) just *might* have the nearly-new Pontiac seen in #4:
That’s a good point about the cars here all being rather upscale. And everyone purposefully positioned the kids so their shoes wouldn’t scratch the car’s paint.
We have a great picture somewhere of my wife and her brother perched up the hood of her uncle’s late-60s Chevy as toddlers – it’s a picture I love, and maybe I have a bit of jealousy like Rich mentions since I never got to pose on the family car.
It makes sense that the cars would be upscale. All of these pictures are in color which was an expense that someone who could afford an upscale car might splurge on.
Neat ad – I had some time tonight so I looked up the history of Bianco’s Garage. Emil Bianco was the proprietor – he immigrated to the US from Italy at age 16 in 1908, working a series of odd jobs before opening an auto repair shop in 1913. He gradually improved his business, adding some sales franchises (Hupmobile, Studebaker) before obtaining a Cadillac franchise in 1936. From there, he dropped the others and concentrated in GM brands. In the 1950s he sold Cadillac, Pontiac and GMC trucks. He retired in 1956 and sold the business to some of his employees.
Nice pix all .
-Nate
Makes one wonder how these kids’ lives turned out – I hope they were/are all happy and fulfilled and got to take pics of their own little ones…
The 1959 Buick photo is quite remarkable.
What the kids are wearing is something you don’t see anymore.
The background is also very unique – it is incredible how many folks don’t look behind their subjects and ask themselves, “Is this really what I want to photograph?”
The whole effect of that car, those kids and that power station looks like it could come right off of a rock album.
That is correct….I;m thinking a band along the lines of UFO
You’re so right about that – definitely gives off a rock album cover vibe.
“How about both of you pretties sitting on my hood for a photo in front of this power station?”
So cute. But would anyone try this with today’s vehicles? For some reason I feel like the metals were just a little thicker back then. Just a little! haha.
You Americans had much nicer cars to pose on – all I had was a Ford Popular.
Buck ;
I see a well tended shiny Ford Popular and two well dressed/groomed children .
Many had a bus or bicycle to ride at best .
-Nate
Did that single wiper really do the job?
No – and it was vacuum powered and so slowed down when you were accelerating or going up hills – I recall my father cursing it.
Love them all! My favorite is the wonderful composition with a toddler perched perfectly in the middle atop the white T-Bird’s trunk lid. Its styling frames the child with emotion – the large round red taillights give a protective sense with the angled fins adding a ‘don’t mess with the kid’ manner.
The Keystone Klassic wheels on that 64 Pontiac look like the ones I had on my 1967 Coronet R/T. Prior to 67 or so these wheels had a larger dust cap in the center. Seems the picture then is later than 64. My uncle and aunt had a beautiful beige Bonneville sport coupe. Very pretty car.
Agree Real cameras and film was expensive compared to digital phone cameras that you can take as many pics as your SD card can hold. Born in 1956, most of my childhood pics are from special occasions which I was usually dressed up for. My parents and their brothers and sisters were proud of their cars and loved showing them off. One would buy a new car setting off a chain of purchases by their siblings. There are probably more pics of my parents 1969 silver Cutlass convertible with black top and red interior than there are of me that year! 😥
My aunt and uncle had a new 1959 Buick convertible and I remember sitting on top of the backseat with my cousins when we went places together.
Nowadays, who would be excited to take pics of their black, white or gray lookalike SUV? If you’ve seen one, you’ve them all!