Cars from the street where I grew up

General Discussion
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I was talking today with a coworker about the cars we grew up around. I realized I was born into a “blended” family, meaning my folks had a Ford and a GM car, and we started talking about all the cars our neighbors and friends had. My house had a 63 Fairlane and a 69 Skylark. The Ford was replaced with a 75 Regal and the Buick was replaced with a 78 Caprice, the first of 3 my dad would drive.

To the left of my house lived two single women, one with a 73 LTD and the other with a 67 Galaxie 500 fastback, beautiful pale yellow with a green interior. Behind the gate next to the garage was a pink 56 Ford wagon that didn’t run anymore.

On the other side lived Dick and Nina. Dick had fantastic taste and horrible luck with cars. From being a toddler to a high schooler I remember a 68 Chrysler Town and Country (that got wrecked), a real beauty 70 300 in red/black with Appliance wire wheels (stolen at gunpoint), a 70 Town and Country (caught fire in the driveway either immediately before or after the battery blew up in his face), and at least 3 other fuselage era New Yorkers that only lasted a few years each. He also had a 53 Studebaker Commander that he was perpetually restoring.

Next to them was Mr. Monson, the street drunk. He had a 69 Fury that sat in the driveway while he walked to the liquor store (too much gas money that could be spent on booze). The family that moved in after he drank himself to death had a Toyota Hilux and a Datsun B210.

Then was Terry and Grace. Terry ran the Texaco down the street and drove to and from work in a 64 Chevy II. Grace had a silver 70 Chevelle with rallye wheels and a black vinyl top. Two of their sons had a Camaro and a Monza. The third, I assume black sheep of the family, drove a 1st gen Celica. Next to them were the Jariquis. He was a gardener, in the evening I could watch him unload his California Trimmer from his 71 Chevy pickup. She drove a Nova, and later on an 80 Citation.

A couple houses down from them were some old folks I never saw but they had a 68 Polara that had those old Venetian blinds across the back window. I thought those were the coolest things ever. On the other side of them was a family whose granddaughter I went to school with. I thought they must be rich because of the 70 Fleetwood in the driveway.

After that was Mr. and Mrs. Monroe. Theirs was the first house built on the block and the 59 Galaxie they had in yellow and white matched their house. He also had a 69 Ranchero. Next to them was Dr. Joe’s family. They had matching 69 Chevys. He drove an Impala with hidden headlights and that beautiful concave rear window. She had a Kingswood wagon. Both cars were the same dark blue.

On the other side was a family whose kids I knew. Mom had a 68 Fairlane woody wagon, and dad had a Chevy Beauville van, blue and white. In the late 70’s the van was traded for a C10 pickup with the 5.7 diesel. You can imagine how that went.

Across the street lived Simon and Sunny. Simon was an aircraft mechanic who was a cheap as the day was long. He drove a 62 Dodge Dart that he kept running until the early 80’s when he retired and treated himself to a used 78 Cadillac. That Cadillac had a transmission failure on a vacation, and rather than pay a shop to fix it, he had it towed home (from Las Vegas to LA) to fix it himself. Meanwhile his wife drove around in an Austin America until he finally upgraded (?) her to a Monza Wagon.

What I wouldn’t give to see some of these cars again…

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I had an Austin America during my Sophomore and Junior years at college. While the Austin was a great drive, it was typical British Leyland junk. It needed a new head at 7000 miles and had other problems. I found a head at a local junk hard, had it refurbished, and installed it. A friend was laughing at the Austin at a cocktail party after college. A Brit at the party said cars like that were the usual in the UK. Yeah, just about anything would be an upgrade. Still, it was a great example of how much fun it is driving a slow car fast.

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I knew someone who bought a new Austin Marina, and w/in a few months, the crankshaft snapped. Of course, it was repaired without charge under the warranty, and he thought that this was a freak occurrence. But, a few months later, the replacement crankshaft snapped. Clearly, the manufacture of those engines was highly flawed.

The dealership–which was a multi-line dealer–offered him a good trade-in value on the year-old Austin, and he decided that he wanted a “reliable American car”. Unfortunately, he chose a Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen (I don’t recall which of those identical twins he bought), and the “reliable” American car was almost as bad.

W/in a couple of years, both front fenders rusted-out, but the biggest problem was that lemon’s tendency to stall-out on the entry ramp to the interstate highway. After he came very close to being flattened by an 18-wheeler, he traded the Volare/Aspen for a used Caddy, which turned out to be a very good car.

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You clearly did not do enough drugs when younger sir, I can’t remember all the vehicles we had growing up, much less any of the neighbors or any other family members… :rofl:

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I can remember the manufacturers - GM, FORD, CHRYSLER, RAMBLER and some scattered VW bugs thrown in. Before I turned 12 we lived in the city of Syracuse in a very residential neighborhood. Most families had large station wagons. My dad had a Chevy. Most had Fords or Chrysler’s. I do remember one guy owned Nomad - At the time most people thought it was UGLY. I’d LOVE to own one today. When we moved north to farm country - most everyone was driving Chevy or Ford pickups. My dad kept his wagon though.

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Interesting posts! Ford LTD’s and Oldsmobiles mostly in my neighborhood in those days. There were a few VW air cooled Beetles as well, popular among the neighbors frequently driving to the ski resorts. .

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When I was a kid (1950s), the cars in the neighborhood represented every domestic manufacturer, although GM products predominated. In my town of ~75k people, we had dealerships for Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, Buick, Nash, Ford, Plymouth/DeSoto, and Studebaker. A few miles away, in the next town (actually a mid-size city), there two more Chevy dealers, as well as Ford, Mercury/Lincoln, Dodge, Pontiac, Buick, and Cadillac dealers.

By the late '50s I began to see some foreign makes (Vauxhall, Sunbeam, Opel). By the early '60s, there were the occasional Renault Dauphine or Volvo 544, and then VWs began to show up in ever-increasing numbers. For a brief period of time, there was even an Edsel dealership in the next town.

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one neighbor had a lot of dodge chargers. his nose was like an emissions sniffer. when i’d park my ford up nearby, he’d say "its running a little rich today, eh? ", or “it’s running a little lean today”. He never said it was running perfect. Which it was.

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If I wanted I could have gotten them from the son of the Chrysler guy next door. He was always up to no good, OD’d himself in his 30’s.

Apparently I always had an eye for that. When other kids were learning to talk and saying words like ball and tree, I was pointing and saying Pontiac or Dodge.

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I grew up in the country. No street or neighborhood. And even if I did I wasn’t into cars so I wouldn’t have known a Ford from a Chevy from a go-kart.

That said, just on the basis of “memorable” things…My uncle had an early '70s Gremlin in the bright yellow. I might remember because I vaguely recall people picking on it. One was my dad who was a die-hard Chevy pick-up guy.

Another uncle had a VW bug (late 60s/early 70s) that he turned into something of a “dune buggy.” He stripped the body and fabricated a roll bar and some oversized wheels onto it. Forgive my memory of it - I was like 5 yrs old (early 70s), but I got a ride once. He made me wear a helmet and goggles.

I can also remember that same uncle who was wildly proud to have just installed his first 8-track player in something…No idea what the car was, but for some reason I do remember Neil Diamond because of that. That was early 70s (obviously).

One other vague memory was his brother who installed an add-on cruise control into a Duster. That was something of a novelty for the time.

More up-to-date, one of my mom’s favorite memories in life was probably when my dad came home one day with an '88 Chevy Celebrity wagon fro her. My dad was small business - first motorcycles and then lumber & building supply. They had six kids. My mom was really freaking tired of only having pickup trucks to drive. Perhaps especially the late 70s/early 80s GMC 3 speed flatbed with the dump bed. LOL. I once had to take that one to pick up some girl on a high school date. She was a snob. It ended up being…well, weird.

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When I was growing up, these were two of the most common cars in my neighborhood:

93 Dodge Shadow-8
93 Dodge Shadow-81200×799 155 KB

1991 Corolla-driver side
1991 Corolla-driver side1200×900 195 KB

Now, after 33+ years, finding either of these is a rare sight.

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I never thought the K-cars, once they had a reliable fuel injection system, were bad cars. But by that time they had garnered a reputation as cheap, almost disposable cars. Very few people kept them once they passed 100K miles.

As for your second picture, I’m sure George would agree with you!

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I see the toyota version every day … lol … And not unusual to see others still on the road, especially the camry from the same era. .

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You see a Toyota version of a K-car every day ? I doubt that because no matter the vehicle in question you claim to see one a lot.

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My family moved to a house outside the city limits in the summer of 1948. I was a car freak at age 7 when we moved into the house. Here is a list of the cars owned by our neighbors:
1 Model A Ford
2 1947 Pontiac
3 1936 Chevrolet rumble seat coupe
4 1941 Pontiac
5 1947 Chevrolet Fleetline
6 1941 Chevrolet & Model A Ford
7 1937 Pontiac
8 1937 Ford

At the time, my parents had a 1939 Chevrolet.

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It’s kind of amazing how many memories you have just because of certain vehicles
Growing up I had a neighbor across the street who was a farmer. we use to sneak in and eat strawberries and play hide and seek in the corn crop. he would get so mad he came after us with his shot gun and shoot with a salt round. well, he got old and sold the farm and houses were put up there. When I was a teen, I would go over and cut his lawn without him asking me. he would then argue with me to take the $20 from him that he wanted to give me. I never would take it even though it was a lot back then. ok here is the car part. LOL he had a nice 1959 caddy. he always brought it to the mechanic to have any work done. but at his age he could not wash and wax it, so the paint started to fade. well, he got to the age he could not drive anymore, He called me over one day and told me If I wanted the caddy I could have it for free. I had gotten my 72 RS/SS Camaro about 6 months earlier and didn’t need another car. plus, at the time I was into muscle cars.

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I don’t think I’ll ever forget our neighbor’s '55 or '56 Olds. The rear fenders rusted-out really badly, so he riveted pieces of scrap sheet metal onto the fenders. He didn’t grind the rivet heads off, and because he painted the patches to math the car’s Battleship Gray paint color, it really looked very much like a battleship.