I recently scanned a bunch of random slides, selected for various reasons. Sometimes I liked the people in the image, sometimes the photo showed a fun location, or a particular scene that is lost to history. And sometimes I just liked an image because it had an old car that I thought was cool. Yes, a low bar, but it's the only one I have. Today's photos are part of the latter group.
This first one is undated, but certainly from the 1950s, and it shows a few classic beauties parked on the street in front of a rather impressive large house. The sign to the left indicates that this was probably the home of historical significance, though I have no idea why. I'll bet one of you knows though! As usual, I don't know anything about the cars either, but I love 'em.
Another undated slide, another unidentified location. It could be anywhere! Not the west coast, I'm guessing. This neighborhood consists of modest, cozy homes (post-war?), with only one newly-planted tree in sight. And another wonderful car that I can't ID.
Well, at least this one was dated and labeled - "Cape Cod, 1949". A boy poses with a customized flivver of some kind. Is it a Model T? It's been painted with cheerful colors and folk flowers. Maybe this truck was used for deliveries, but I'm guessing it was mostly there to attract tourist eyeballs.
I hope you have enjoyed todays Vintage Cars!
Major-
ReplyDeleteSo... you've put me to work. In that first one, that's a 1955 Chevrolet, probably in 'Gypsy Red'; kinda behind it is the right rear corner of a 1952 or 1953 Oldsmobile, probably in 'Acacia Blue'; behind the Oldsmobile is probably a 1952 or 1953 Ford; front-and-center is a 1946-1948 Dodge, probably in 'La Plata Blue'; and finally parked next to the tree is a [1950 - I think] Studebaker, maybe in 'Midnight Blue'.
That two-tone job in the second image is a 1950 Pontiac, perhaps in 'Skylark Blue'.
And that truck in the last image is probably a 1925-1927 Ford Stake Body with Closed Cab. (Obviously the 'stakes' have been removed and the 'body' "enhanced").
Thanks, Major.
1) Hmmm, the house has seven gables. Maybe that is a clue.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like there's a bunch of teens in the car closest to us. I'm sure they're all wearing their seatbelts. ;-)
2) The Practical Pig must have built these houses; they're made of brick. There is no lawn in front of the yellow brick house; just dirt. Either the house is brand new, or the Big Bad Wolf tried to blow the house down, but only succeeded in blowing away the grass. Meanwhile, the house on the right looks like its lawn was sprayed on. Or maybe some moth-eaten outdoor carpeting.
3) With all the flowers, this was obviously a Hippie Mobile. Back then, "Fresh Fish" was slang for marijuana.
Actually, the truck looks pretty cool. I especially like the black engine cover with the big yellow flowers.
Thanks for the glimpse into the past, Major.
JB, yelling out "Fresh Fish!" in a courtroom, will also make Gilligan turn into "Mr. Hyde."
ReplyDeleteThe building in the first image looked very familiar. It is The Market Square Tavern, Duke of Gloucester St., Williamsburg, VA.
ReplyDeleteHere it is from Google Maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.2712743,-76.699271,3a,75y,155.1h,94.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saljJQ0S9dkEegiB9OzOwZA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
I was fairly certain that first image was from Colonial Williamsburg….. but regarding the REAL House of Seven Gables (“the witch house”) ; in the very early 1970’s my California grandparents were visiting relatives and colonial sites on the East Coast and brought me back a T-shirt of the HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES … I think I was 5. But I remember my mom explaining what a “gable” was and sometimes I would count them on the shirt …. I guess to make sure they were still there ? I don’t know. But also I was confused as to exactly what it was and when wearing the shirt I would tell people that “was my grandma’s house” for sone reason I thought my grandma lived in THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES long before she moved to California . The coloring on the shirt was very simple and showed the house with red ( brick red) and a blue shingle roof …. Making the Salem historic structure look like a 1960’s International House of Pancakes! Very different from the dark grayish Brown and white windows it actually had then.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny I was very little and remember becoming “aware” of history and the past very early on…. I knew things changed … but I didn’t comprehend the actual time frame of things …. When we would visit my dad’s side of the family In North Carolina and Virginia there were so many Civil War monuments and cemeteries and both my grandpas talked about being in “The War” ( WW 2) so I as a child thought both my grandpas fought in the Civil War . I also thought unless you were born in California… you “came over in the covered wagons” . I thought my California grandma came over to San Diego in a covered wagon. She actually came to San Diego in a new 1961 Chevrolet Impala! ( white with a silver-blue interior)
ReplyDeleteSomewhere my mother has a picture of my Grandma standing next to a car that looks an awful lot like the red Chevy in the first picture. She always drove a red car, usually a convertible but not exclusively.
ReplyDeleteThe houses in the second picture have a "company housing" vibe. I can practically smell the salt air from the Cape Cod photo.
Any old car pics get my attention.
ReplyDeleteNanook, thanks very much for the id’s, both today and all the other days when I forget to say thanks.
Mike, the pioneer cemetery in my northern CA home has a number of Confederate veterans graves, as well as many Northerners too. California supported the Union while gold and silver from the mines here and the Comstock in NV financed the Union Army. But many Southern soldiers came west after the war to escape the terrorism of the Reconstruction. It’s curious to see these graves for both sides now side by side in the same cemetery. By that time, maybe most came out by train.
Melissa, here’s to women with red cars, Mrs. G drives her bright red MINI Cooper!
Major, thank you for these interesting pictures and Gojira for the ID of Williamsburg!
JG
Nanook, thank you as always for your deep knowledge of classic cars! Look at all those kinds of blue. Acacia, La Plata (whatever that is), Midnight, Skylark. “Gypsy Red” is a cool name, though I guess not politically correct these days. The stakes from that truck have all been used to kill Draculas.
ReplyDeleteJB, are those gables, or are they dormers? What I am interested in is the “house of the seven bathrooms”. TMI? I don’t need a lawn when I have such awesome bricks, grass would just take away from the beauty of the masonry. 1949 seems a bit early for hippies to be involved, maybe they were “proto-hippies”? Well, I’m off to have some “fresh fish”!
TokyoMagic!, I should get that reference, but I haven’t watched “Gilligan’s Island” for several decades. My loss.
Gojira, THANK YOU! I knew somebody would know!!
Mike Cozart, I confess that while I am aware of the name “House of the Seven Gables”, and know that it is by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I have never read the book. I’m assuming that it is about seven gables who grow up as friends, but as the years pass they go their separate ways. You know how gables are. Funny that your grandparents would buy a five year old a shirt celebrating that novel. I guess the gift shop was out of Huckleberry Hound shirts? ;-) Maybe they served delicious pancakes and waffles at the real House of Seven Gables, thus the coloring on the shirt.
Mike Cozart, my gosh, I sure don’t recall when I became aware of history as a concept… I think it happened gradually. “A lot of stuff happened before you were around, kiddo”. As a child I was fascinated by ancient Egypt (after seeing the mummies at the Natural History Museum in L.A.) and of course every kid loves dinosaurs. Eventually history became one of my favorite subjects. Math not so much. Sounds like your grandma came to California in STYLE!
Melissa, I just asked my mom if she had a red Chevy (because I thought she did), but she says it was a Ford, so now I have tears streaming down my cheeks. I remember seeing photos of it, it had some rust. Or as I call it, “patina”. “Company housing”, interesting. They do kind of remind me of the houses in Austin, Minnesota, where almost everybody used to work at the Hormel plant.
JG, Mike’s comment got me thinking about my relationship to history, but these days my memory doesn’t go back quite as far as it used to. Confederate veteran’s graves in Northern California, interesting. For some reason I am mostly thinking about what a horrible waste war is. But maybe that’s not a topic for this forum. In fact I know it’s not. Let’s talk about the Peoplemover! A red Mini Cooper, Mrs. G is pretty sassy!
Major: the souvenir shirt was from the ACTUAL house museum of “The House of Seven Gables” in Salem Massachusetts that happened to be featured in book of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The book was written in the 1850’s. The actual house was built in the late 1668 for a wealthy merchant and ship owner. It was a well known structure in New England long before the book was written, but the house became world famous after the book made use of the location. I don’t think I even knew it was referenced in a book until I was in high school or later.
ReplyDeleteIn the early 90’s on another trip back East those same grandparents brought me back a paper architectural scale model kit by Dover Publications “cut and assemble your own HO scale model of The House of Seven Gables “ .. which I liked much more than the t-shirt 20 years before . I still have it , but never assembled it.