Text by Patrick Bell.
School starts next week in my part of the world, so it seems like a good time to take another look at station wagons and their various activities back in their heyday. Come ride with us and see if it stirs some memories.
Our first image today is of a group of young ice cream eaters were enjoying their latest treat on a summer day. The boy in black and the girl in stripes must have been fast eaters, as theirs appear to be gone. They were traveling in a clean ’62 Dodge Dart 330 9-passenger model. Including the photographer I see eight passengers, so it had nearly a full load. In the background was a billboard for a radio station; perhaps WKOX 1190, or WEEI 590 from the Boston area. It apparently was advertising a game between the Boston Patriots (now the New England Patriots) and Boston College. Also in the background, around the construction area was a red over white ’53 or ’54 Studebaker coupe.
Everybody and everything is nice and clean and ready to hit the road right after this last photo op. The car was a ’52 Ford Country Sedan with a California license plate and a ’53 renewal tag. It had a load in the cargo area, a rack full on top, and a trailer hitch as well. The style of the houses suggests the location was also California, and in the driveway next door was a ’51 Chevrolet.
Someone had a fancy family car in this new looking ’55 Chevrolet Bel Air Nomad. It was the second most expensive Chevrolet of the year after the Corvette, with a base list price of $2571. Three generations appear to be in the photo with the father of the young children likely the photographer. Perhaps they were showing off their new car.
Here was a fellow loading or unloading his golf clubs in the roof rack on a ’57 Dodge Sierra or Custom Sierra from Ohio. The step pads on the bumper along with the escutcheon surrounding the key control for the power window give it away as a 9-passenger model with the new rear facing “Spectator” seat. It was purchased at Sarchione’s in Alliance, which has a long history and is still in business. The setting looks like a vacation destination, perhaps on Lake Erie.
This well mannered family was posing for Dad behind the family’s ’57 Ford Del Rio Ranch Wagon with a trailer hitch and possibly a California license plate. The photo date is 1961 and the car looks like it was well used in its four years. They may have been in a park or a similar such facility.
A happy looking couple that were ready to hit the road from Parsons, Kansas, per a photo search. Their cruiser was a ’58 Plymouth Custom Suburban 4 door with a load on the roof rack and in the cargo area. It had V8 power, and a bug shield, dual fender mounted mirrors, and window wind deflectors had been added as well. Parked across the street on the far left was a ’48-’54 Hudson 4 door, and to the right a ’57 Plymouth Savoy 4 door sedan and a ’59 Ford Fairlane.
Now we have a lady who was fiddling with what appears to be bedding in the back of this ’61 Chevrolet Parkwood. Somebody’s legs were sticking out of the right rear door, plus some cargo was in the roof rack. To the left was a split rail fence, with a wood plank privacy fence further back. And the house roofs had cedar shingles, the type that are no longer made.
This looks like a roadside lunch stop in the mountains. A dirty ’57 Chevrolet Two-Ten was the main car with another unknown parked behind it with just part of the bumper showing. It may have been a truck, as it had that style of bumper and it was higher off the ground than the wagon. There were six people including the photographer, with men the majority. It is hard to tell what their mission was.
Another 9 passenger model, this one a ’62 Chevrolet Bel Air. It looked like a family fishing trip on a nice fall day, and the young lady on top may have been practicing her casting.
A ’66 Chrysler Town & Country was doing some Cub Scout duty in our final shot today. I can’t quite tell what they were up to, but it was an early fall day in a nice, suburban neighborhood.
Thanks for riding with us and have a great day!
Gotta love long roofs .
-Nate
That 57 Ford Ranch Wagon jogged my memory from those days. My dad bought one in 57. Back before ACs, on a hot, summer day, we would take a ride after dinner with the tailgate window open and I’d be sitting in the way-back getting the cool air and waving at the people behind us.
Oh how I hated those flip up tailgate windows and the noise they made when raised and going down the road! They drove me nuts. Mom’s revenge .
I grew up in 1950s-60s station wagons, so lots of nostalgia for me here. That sure was a time when a “ten year old” car looked old—-thanks for today’s selection.
In Parsons, Kansas (the B&W photo), this appears to be the storage firm across the street:
Liking that red “Chevy”, wagon!
My uncle had a light green 1961 Chevy Brookwood with the rear side windows mocked up for the business he was a part of: Chicago Heights Radio and TV Hospital. Us guys, (7 of us under the age of 8), climbed all over the back as we attended hamfests throughout Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa. He had an old canvas cabin tent with bunks. My mom and Aunt were delighted to have us gone on those weekends!
My parent’s first wagon was a ’61 Parkwood. With five of us kids the roof rack was well-utilized on trips. Later replaced by a ’68 Country Squire… with A/C!
I still have a ’66 Chevy wagon after 51 years. Bought it back when they were “uncool” but it was in good shape and most importantly it was cheap.
Have three others currently in addition and countless others through the years.
My daddy had a 1968 chevy impala station wagon..brand new.in 68..396 automatic..quadrajet.carb 396.300 hp motor..man it would haul and get 8miles a gallon..we fished and lived in that car..to school..everywhere..good Ole car
1966 Chrysler Town and Country – they should have left the wagon models to Dodge and Plymouth. I guess Chryco thought they had to have a market entry to compete with the General.
OTOH a ’66 Town & Country wagon would be my first choice for a 60’s wagon – it would be fully loaded, with front bucket seats, Airtemp dual A/C, disc brakes, tilt/telescope steering wheel, and even power vent windows and all the other goodies… sweet…!!!
That ’62 Dart wagon was rather uncommon back in the day. It reminds me of our ’65 Coronet wagon, which shared the same basic body. What’s interesting about these ’62 B-body wagons is that they were a good 10″ longer in the rear in order to make them roomy wagons with a third seat compared the the rather short-tailed ’62 Plymouth and Dodge. Lots of rear overhang!
My family lived in DC and the parents owned a brand new ‘57 Chevy Wagon. They had enough of the cold weather and decided to move to Southern California. I remember it was the 210 model with three on the tree. My dad was a penny pincher so we spent the nights at rest areas. I took my drivers test in the ‘57 and drove it to HS until I got my own car – a 1965 Impala SS.
that 1966 Chrysler wagon reminds me of the “pagoda” Mercedes – greenhouse wise. low belt line and maximum visibility, a commanding view of the world
that lede Dart is fantastic too, Its’ a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
That 66 Town and Country is fine. It’s a great looking car, well equipped, has one of the all time great dashboards and the best roof rack of the 60’s. When GM couldn’t decide if they wanted to offer full sized luxury wagons, Chrysler always did.
In 2019 l did an AMT 1/25 model of the :55 Chevy nomad kit & painted it identical to the one in the photo, may be my favorite wagon?. Also, hard to top the ’66 Mercury Colony Park wagon that mom & dad wore out after about 13 years and 180,000 miles still sits in our garage, though
The Mercury Colony Park. The KING of the station wagons.
Regarding the first photo…it was likely taken in 1963.
The reason…the other billboard in the shot looks like an ad for ‘Bye Bye Birdie’…which was released in the spring of that year.
Good eye, Chuck!
A vanished bit of Americana that, unfortunately will never return. First the minivans and then the ubiquitous proliferation of the faceless SUV. There just not the same.
My family and I used to take Summer camping trips to the High Sierras in California. One time I remember driving in our 1957 Plymouth wagon, blue like the pictured Dodge. It had a roof rack where we’d fasten down sleeping bags(Sears Ted Williams), some of which would blow off the rack. One time not only did a bag blow off, but the tyranny blew too. Had to hitch hike(safer then) for a tow truck. We were stuck at Bud’s garage somewhere in Mojave for a couple days waiting on parts. Good thing was the hotel had a pool.
Not much of a Ford guy and I despise fake wood, but always liked the Ford Ranch Wagon.
We had family friends who owned an amazing collection of truly awful, almost always used cars, with only a couple of bright spots. The crown jewel of their collection was their bought new 1968 Sattelite Sport Wagon. In awful “XX1 Satin Beige” with fake wood trim, it was like a cockroach. 318 and Torqeflite, it went on and on with almost no problems at all. I spent many thousands of miles in the back end of it, almost daily until it went away in later ’74 after being hit by a Greyhound Bus that slid into it on black ice. The car that replaced it, a “demo” ’75 Ford Country Squire, a really terrible car that lasted barely 2 years before the engine grenaded while on a trip to Holland, Michigan. The 400 M engine tossed a rod on some back road someplace. It was the mom and 5 of her 7 kids, no cellphone and the husband had removed his CB radio, so they had to flag down someone to go call a tow truck. The CS never made it back home, it was traded in up there for another huge POS wagon, another “demo”, a ’77 Pontiac LeMans Safari, which lasted until about 1983, loaded with electrical issues from almost day one. Their wagon history ended with not one, but two stinkers in a row, first was another Ford Country Squire, which was bought with nearly rusted through rear quarters, hilariously “fixed” with zinc coated sheet metal from several garbage cans! And the last one, a Pontiac Parisienne wagon, which, as usual, was bought against the advice of the dad’s brother, who ran many repair shops in the area. The floors were totally rusted through, and were “fixed” with spayed with varnish hunks of cardboard. We thought the garbage can sheet metal was a hoot until we saw the road going by from the holes that soon appeared the first winter they had it. The dad passed away in 1987, and no more wagons for the widow. She had a run of fairly decent cars that she drove into the ground.