And Henry, he said, ``I'm inventing the Chevrolet''

[austin_dern]

Thinking back to the grand trip to Cleveland, which is another extraordinarily drawn-out tale because, well, a lot happened and it was denser in content than my usual sorts of puttering around the house, there was a bit in the history museum. In wandering about the Vatican Treasures, I naturally lagged behind my mother -- who figured we'd probably take the whole thing in in an hour -- and my aunt, and even my father. I'm a lingerer, and I like reading all the display labels and such. You knew that. But it did mean by the time I got out I had no idea where anyone was, so, I decided to try going downstairs where there was an exhibit of old cars. I figured the odds were good my father would be there, and even if he wasn't, odds are he'd come looking for me there because he'd know that I would figure it was likely he'd be there. Trust me, that makes sense. And in fact he was down there, talking with a person I imagine was a docent or at least a security guard, if the person was lucky, and they were going on about the 1922 Maxwell Corporation Touring Zeppo Four or whatnot.

They had row after row of old cars, many of them the charming old kinds from before the first World War when they hadn't quite got the whole car concept sorted out just yet. Unfortunately, I think this was a temporary place for the exhibition, as there were no labels for pretty much anything: about all I had to go on was looking at the car's corporation name, when that was visible. If I did get close enough to my father, he'd certainly start explaining things to me, although I figured it would start out with his explaining which of these old cars he'd owned when he was younger. In fact, when he did catch up with me he pointed to the orange '59 Ford Behemoth and identified it as one of the cars he used to own.

They had a classic-style Volkswagen Beetle, so I got to attempt to take pictures of that weird matting pattern in the back-back seat, and to marvel at the simple fact that not only did I used to fit in that, but a brother and I could fit in it, if we weren't fighting over who got to sit back there. Also somehow in the 1970s it was viewed as sane to let people ride in the back-back seat. Or else it was easier for a mother with three, then four, kids to let them ride than it was to argue the issue.

Trivia: The Detroit Automobile Company, Detroit's first auto manufacturer, lasted fifteen months (from 1899 to 1900) before collapsing under a loss of $86,000. Source: Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire, Ricahrd Bak.

Currently Reading: The Most Famous Man In America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, Debby Applegate. Now, here, I'm glad there aren't more pictures, because if there were I'd be more seriously distracted by how much Henry Ward Beecher looks like Bill Murray. Would anyone rise up to the challenge of abolishing slavery if they were urged to it by Todd DiLaMuca?

Comments

[orv.livejournal.com]

Didn't VW officially refer to that as a luggage shelf? :)

Every so often when I'm looking at old cars I'm startled by a name that had different connotations then than it does now. I'm thinking, in particular, of the 1936 Studebaker Dictator 6.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I don't care what VW officially called it. Everyone knows it was the back-back seat.

And, wow. You have to look back and marvel at a time --- even though I know, intellectually, that it existed --- when Benito Mussolini was looked up to for anything other than inspiring those funny scenes with the Curly-like guy in The Great Dictator.

[spaceroo.livejournal.com]

Studebaker seemed to have a thing for authoritarian-sounding names for their cars. The short list includes "Commander", "Dictator", and "President".

A current example of a car name with questionable connotations to me is the Buick Enclave. In modern usage (generally in news stories) "Enclave" often sounds nearly synonymous with "Ghetto", and raises mental images of dirty, dangerous places where people either isolate themselves out of or are isolated because of hatred, fear, and distrust of their neighbors. Yes, technically it can be a "neutral" term, but even the non-negative reading of it implies some level of divisiveness, be it political, racial, whatever. Does Buick *really* want to associate their product with balkanization, racial strife and ethnic cleansing?

Although come to think of it I guess if they did it probably wouldn't be the worst management decision ever made by GM. Might not even make the "top ten" list.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

President would be pretty near fine for a car model, although Presidential probably flows better. I may be thinking of the cachet it picks up from things like the Continental, though.

I hadn't thought of the Buick Enclave, but, yeah, it's not a good connotation. Bad, certainly, because of the ethnic-tension implication, but also bad because an enclave sounds like something you hunker down in, rather than going out and exploring and driving on muddy hills through unmarked trails like they try to sell SUVs as doing. But I'm also shocked to learn that --- if Wikipedia is to be believed --- the Enclave was a 'strong' seller with 29,286 sales in the 2007 model year. That's all it takes to be a strong seller?

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Back-back seat is how I certainly referred to the rear section in The one of these we owned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:88-90_Ford_Escort_Wagon.jpg). I seem to recall it had a fold-up and two rear-facing seats behind the back seat, but it could just as easily as not have.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Back-back works for that too, but, wow, does that ever look like they really didn't want to make a station wagon and were making the smallest effort possible to satisfy the legal requirement?

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's by far not a weird station wagon as they go, but it does have that cobbled-together look about the windows and C-pillar, yes.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, I think there's an illustration of the ``station wagon'' version of my Sable in the driver's manual, and that doesn't look any less of a slightly incidental thought rather than a particularly integral design.