AT THE WHEEL

 

The cockpit of a 1929 La Salle. I thought that its age and monochrome interior made a B&W rendering appropriate. Strange controls. The spiky thing in the center is for the headlights. There is another dial to advance or retard the spark (who can remember that?). And not a lot of us Americans know how to drive a manual transmission any more.                   

'57 Chevy

 

Another entry at the Missouri History Museum's classic car show. The cafe au lait brown color is unusual.  Note the top center, with the 50s-early 60s fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror. Since I am a Frank Zappa fan, the meme reminds me of one of my favorite Mothers of Invention tracks.                    

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN

As Ben Stein used to say. (Whatever happened to Ben?) We live in a small condominium development, 45 homes. Most are two townhouses in a building that resemble the style of our town, Webster Groves, one of St. Louis' oldest suburbs. Then there are six detached homes that are still condos, like ours. We were having our semi-annual block party on a gorgeous evening yesterday when this ice cream truck drove through. The driver did not know that were no children in the development save for one 5 year old and granddaughter Ellie a night or two a week. That's Chez Crowe in the right background.

ULTRAMATIC

 

This is the rear of the automobile seen in yesterday's post, identified as a Packard by a friend. The antique car license plate indicates 1949. Just what Ultramatic means was left to the imagination of the buyer. Marketing hooey has old roots.                   

THIS THING COULD KILL YOU

Big, elaborate hood ornaments used to be a thing. I remember that my family's first car, a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air (we lived in NYC and didn't use it every day), had one that looked like a chrome jet plane with twin vertical tails. I'm sorry that I didn't note what this car was, but you can imagine how it could eviscerate a pedestrian in an accident. Now the marques are all flat.