Cars in my life, Part 1

You wouldn't guess it and I'm pretty sure you don't know it but I am a lover of old cars.  We can all guess where I got there.  This apple didn't fall far from the tree.  Well, maybe not a Lover of all cars but a great admirer! 

It's strange . . . I don't have a good memory yet I have several vivid memories from when I was two or younger.  One early memory had to do with this pretty Chevy.  This is a 1952 model.  Granny and Gramps had 9 children by 1952 and we were going to town and to Gramma's house and on Sunday drives in this two-seater.  Our Chevy, actually, was a four door.  Or as Unc says it "fordor" . . . in contrast to "todor".  Or Two Door.  I thought Unc was being facitious until I found those words in the internet. 

 

Above, this is Chevy Styleline and the first car I remember.  Our maroon Chevy had a black top, Unc says.  I don't know . . .  I just remember the big roomy seats. 

Children, back then, weren't strapped, belted or pinned in.  We rambled and flopped and fought for space (all 7 of us in the back seat) while two lucky little ones sat up front with Mom and Dad.   In fact, Gramps took the door handles off so little mischevious hands in the back seat couldn't open the door from the inside.  One of Granny's dire predictions was of one of us falling out of the car!  On a serious note, this did happen.  Children did fall out of cars and were hurt and killed so Gramps and Granny took off the door handles and protected their little ones. 

 One child would sit in the middle of the front seat and the luckiest of all got to sit on Mommy's lap!  : )  Yep, you guessed it, that lucky one was baby Mary when I could remember.  I suppose before that it was me, with Linda between.  But really.  Can you imagine 7 children in the back seat of a car?  At night, coming home late from visiting an Aunt or Uncle, one middle size person might climb up and lay in the back window ledge and two of the smaller ones curl up on the floor, one on each side of the hump.  Let's see . .. I'm doing my math.  7 - 3 = 4.  That would be just about right!  Four bigger children sitting and leaning against each other in that big bench seat.  Holding each other up, as sleep over took.  Only young heads a bobbing and a nodding.  Oh the good old days!

This green beauty is a 1955 Chevrolet Two Ten fordor.  Gramps fell in love one Saturday night in Kerr-Cochran's Chevrolet show room while Granny shopped for fabric upstairs at JC Penneys.  Unc was sure Gramps was going to drive it home that night but Dad resisted and it was another week or two before he took the car he was driving and traded for this beauty.  Ours was two-toned green, according to Gary Lewis and Unc.  Interesting enough, I don't have a memory of this car . . . but isn't it pretty? 

Children were growing.  Getting taller and wider. Gramps didn't keep the '55 more than a year, he went out upgraded to a 1956 gray and white nine passenger fordor station wagon.  wa whoo!  The Austins were right up town!  I couldn't find a gray & white photo in the internet but while I was looking, Aunt Kate wrote in an email: 

"I liked the gray and white station wagon, too. We traveled in it and I don't remember that we ever saw another one (like it). I seem to remember that Dad ordered it and picked the colors."

Then, I discovered in the internet that you used to be able to go to a car dealer and design your own car. 

from the internet:
In response to Sparkywax. I think most of the Two-Tone (top only) cars were painted at the dealer at the buyers request.

So now we are pretty sure Grampsy did design his own, this one -- the one Kate says they never saw another one like!  I adore the story -- whether true or not, we will never know! 

That's enough about cars in one entry.  I'll write about earlier cars someother time and about later models too.  There's a few more stories to be told! 

Oh, and lest I forget to tell it, it was in this car, in this 1952 Chevy Styline, that Aunt Mary was born.  Born in the car in the parking lot of the old Creston Hospital on North Oak Street.