What car was that?

R

Royal Ryser

Well-known member
I have noticed that many Fordbarners are reaching the upper limits of youth (are getting old), just as I am. I wonder how many of you, when you were kids, could call out the make and year of every car that came down the road?

When I was maybe 10-14 years old, I think I knew tham all. My buddies and I would stand by the highway and call the cars off as they came by. Living on a farm in Kansas, most of the cars in our area were pretty plain and similar, no Caddies or Cords. But we could sure holler, "37 Chevy, 34 Ford or 41 Plymouth." I recall that the Kaisers and Frazers caused a bit of problem when they first came out, but we caught on.

Today, they do seem to all look alike.
 
That was a popular game in the 40's and 50's, as an Army bratt I had alot of time to practice traveling from one posting to another. Even today I can pick out the sound of an early V-8 Ford starter motor from a Chevrolet or Dodge of that era. Mark
 
My buddies and I used to do the same thing - sit on the front lawn and see who could identify a car first that was coming down the road. Great fun then. It wasn't a question of what kind of car it was, most all could be identified when they were close enough, just who could identify first. Wouldn't be much fun nowadays. Thay all look pretty much alike .
 
I still do it.
I can tell most every car from about '35 to '65.
Fords back to maybe '12 or so.
I've been into Model Ts and v8 Fords since about '55.
Now I have 4 of each.
 
This is a fun thread for me because we did the same thing in the early/mid fifties. Even the girls joined in and won the "name the car" first. Then, when the 55's came out the game became easier.
John
 
Remember the windows at the dealers were covered up until a certain date.We would try to see just a little so we could be the first to know the new changes.If you had connections you might get a peek.Now you need the vin number to tell the brand or year.Just my2cents lee34
 
Around here in Western Mass.The trucks would come in with the cars all covered up.
And unloaded in the cover of darkness only lites used were a few Flashlights.
Can't put that type of excitement on a lap top?

BILL W
 
i tell my frends all cars today are like *** holes seen one you have seen them all i have fun calling cars on TV i just see a part of a 30/ 40/50/60 car and i call it. oh how we have changed
 
That must have been a universal, "coming of age" game, during the fifties. Everybody did that ! It's a shame that the kids, of now days, can't play it !
MIKE :)
 
My shop teacher offered a full set of tools to who ever could names the cars from photos he had. We all got 100%, so we got tool-shaped cookies.
 
I also thought I was very good at the game,but usually,traveling with my parents,they wouldn't know if I was wrong.Also,in high school,I enjoyed going to the stock car races,at a dirt track,called Mon-duke,east of Murrysville pa.The cars were all flathead.It was a surprise,after I got out of the navy,and watched cars with 427 c**vys race.I guess this is progress.
 
I seems that the entire family was in the act. By the mid 50's, I was 10, and dad got his first Cadillac...a '55 baby blue Coupe de Ville, and that was really exciting. We were collecting most of the new car photos from the adds in the magazines, and would all get excited at the new shapes, bumpers, grills and so on. Every year, we knew we had another style coming. With this, knowing the car & year was the norm. This excitement is long gone, so for the ones like me to have had the privilege of growing up in the best era that mankind will ever know, I can say.....’Only in America’
....Robert
 
hey, ya im 14. my friends and i gather around a highway corner with our cokes, and say, (well what it is nowadays) 96 dodge stratus! or somthing like that. its always great times doing that!
 
To me, there is only one car built in the last 10 years that is almost instantly recognizable ( sort'a reminds me of a 30's vintage Ford slant-back ) Any body care to guess what it is ?:)
 
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