Ahh yes, the station wagon. My first memory of our family car was a 1970s solid chocolate brown Ford wagon, an 8-person land yacht with that way back seat that let you look at the people driving behind you and create elaborate games as to what they will do when you:
(1) Smile
(2) Wave
(3) Give them the peace sign
(4) Flick them off
And got approximately 8 miles to the gallon. Ah yes, the early Reagan years...
Well our awesomely American beast was so 1970s cool that it didn't have one of those new-fangled cassette players, no. We had an 8-track player. Booyah.
I distinctly remember one of my mother's favorite 8-tracks was "The Best of the Carpenters" in all its schmaltzy glory and the one song in particular I recall is Karen Carpenter covering The Beatles' hit "Help!". My mother, being my mother, did not hide the fact that Karen Carpenter had recently essentially committed suicide and my impression of that song is sitting in that very back seat with my sister, "Help!" playing on the sweet 8-track stereo and being totally baffled how no one could have helped this poor girl out...I mean she sang about it. Did no one get it? And thus the song is really freaking morbid to me and I kind of hate it. And I think my mom also had an 8-track of Buddy Holly so for a long time I thought that if you were a successful singer you probably had to die first.
Here's to you, early 1980s.
Here's to you, early 1980s.
1 comment:
So I talked to my mom this morning--the station wagon was indeed a Ford from the early seventies or even late sixties, she didn't remember the year. Apparently though she bought it used from a dealer and they still had it because it was BRIGHT orange. Orange interior, orange exterior. Only way my mom agreed to buy it is if they painted it, and the only color that went with a bright orange interior was chocolate brown. Good to have moms to get such important information from.
Post a Comment