Got a neat book not long ago that depicts cars from the Fabulous '50s, and thought I'd kick off a thread with my personal favorite: the '51 Studebaker 3-passenger coupe. A guy on our block had one when we lived on Fourth Street.



If you mention your favorite '50s car, I'll try to rustle up a photo.

The Chevy Bel-Air .. about 1957- turquoise blue!

and my own beloved 1967 Chevy Camaro! (I never had either one)







[edited to include photo]

To me, the 1957 Chevy is the gold standard of American cars from the 1950s. The '55 and '56 were good cars as well. I recall my old man having a '53 Ford, among others, but that was uninspiring to me. A friend in college had a '57, with a copper colored Earl Sheib $29.95 paint job, and we had a lot of adventures in that car, so I am nostalgic for the Chevy species.

My own favorite car of the era, however, was the Triumph TR-3. Another friend in college had one and I lusted for it so much that the first car I bought on my own, in 1966, was a Triumph. The TR-3 was gone from the lineup by then, and I couldn't afford the TR-4, so I bought a little Spitfire. I drove it down to Georgia and back and stored it in a garage while I was in Vietnam. When I kicked over the engine and drove out onto Roseville Avenue in August 1967, I knew I was home. I loved that car, but when a guy in a Cadillac backed into me in a White Castle parking lot because he couldn't see me, I gave in and bought a big person automobile.



[edited to include photo]

There was a guy on N. Fifth Street near Seventh Avenue who had a Kaiser Henry J. This is a '51 model, same color as the one I remember:

Hi, My Dad had both a Henry J and a Studebaker. The Henry J was one of my favorites.

We also had a 54 Chevy. To this day the 54 Chevy was the only new car my Dad ever had. My mother drove it. SHE would fly in it. Especially through Branch Brook park. I always wanted to ride with my Mother because I knew that we would get to there faster. They got rid of the Old 54 it in 1968. It needed a new clutch. That was the car that I remember the most. Always wanted my parents to give the 54 Chevy to me. Cars were build to last in those days.



[edited to include photo]

What a boat...wish i had it now...... '58 edsel corsair convertable...They don't make 'em like that anymore...



[edited to include photo]

John, Thanks for putting a picture of a 54 Chevy on the canteen! Ours was green with a white roof and 2 doors. Boy would my mother made her go, especially when she would turn the corner what seem to be 2 wheels! What a blast!

I learned to drive - a column stick-shift -in a 1956 Chevy Bel-Air.
My Dad bought it new and the color - ready for this - was Crocus Yellow and Black with same color scheme leather seats. Not really typical for a Prudential accountant as my Dad was.
Of course no air, no power steering or power windows, etc., but it did have a great AM radio.
When he died in 1965 it became also the first car that I owned myself.
Incidentally, it was really built and no amount of abuse seemed to be fatal to it.
Oh, I did have it over 100 mph for a minute or so a couple of times on the NY Thruway.

John, thought of you tonite. Columbus is hosting the annual Street Rod Expo sponsered by "The Good Guys." One of the main east-west roads here is lined with resturants and hotel/motels and every year it becomes an impromtu parade of the cars. People pull up lawn chairs along the street and cheer thier favorites and the parking lots are jammed with every kind of car you can think of in prestine condition. It's a great weekend and creates a lot of fun and smiles!

Linda, I can just see you there in your lawnchair. Sounds like a blast. Made me think back to my first car, which I got in 1971. It was a 1959 Chevy Impala 2-door, exactly like the one below. Three-speed manual, gearshift on the steering column. Drove it all over New Jersey.





My next car (1972) was a white '58 Impala. I found an ad for a similar model:



Never enjoyed cars more than those two.

The kids my daughter's age (17) are all learning to drive in vans and getting the family van as a hand me down car...so will they wax nostolgic over Dodge Caravans, Chevy Astrovans and Pymouth Voyagers???? Somehow it doesn't seem the same as the snazzy cars of yesteryear!

Lin... is anything as good as the "good ole days?" Why in our time... yada yada yada... The young kids (including us at that age) just never got it. Guess we have now "morphed" into being our parents... and so on... and so on... and so on... by crackie!

To me, the "good ole days" are now. Life down here at the Jersey shore is a lot better than summer as a kid with no money living without air conditioning in the hot summer streets of 1950s Newark. :-)

Joe, I agree with you. There is a lot of sentiment attached to the "good ole days", probably because of our own innocence and close family attachments?Maybe. But in so many ways "the good ole days" weren't so good after all. As you said, no money, no air conditioning, no car (the dream car, was just that.)As a kid I guess we didn't feel it quite so much. But for our poor parents, taking buses to work in the heat, and coming home to hot apts with no air. Yikes!

What I find amusing is that our mom vans are becoming the hand-me-down cars for the kids....will they become sentimental at some future date about the good old 01 Voyger? So while grandpa fondly recalls the 67 Mustang they are saying "yeah but nothing beats my chevy astro" hahahah

Someone in the neighborhood had a Nash Metropolitan, but I can't remember just who. I think it was the same color as the '57 model below:

LOIS LANE reporter for the Daily Planet.

Charlie Bacca's sister had one. She would come and visit his family who lived next door to us on North 11th Street in the Old Peterson House.

Joe Dowdell (father of Judy, Terry, Albie, etc)Had a Nash, too...