While looking at a student group's paper documenting Atlanta urban and suburban domestic architecture, (Hang with me--it gets good)(on the DNR's Georgia Historic Preservation page) I chased a rabbit down the yard fertilizer hole. I didn't find the info I was expecting to find, so I decided to check out my own cache of old magazines. As you can see I hit the jackpot with this Scott's ad. According to the ad text, he is in the process of making his neighbors envy him, although why a grown man would want to do that to a bunch of kids is beyond me....
I kept flipping through the pages of this August 1959 'LIFE' magazine, and was gratified to see that what's old is new again....the more things change, the more they stay the same...(furnish the old person cliche of your choosing...here.)
I couldn't wait to show you all.....
LOVE THIS TRUCK! However, throughout the text of this ad, it never says WHAT the mileage IS--It's just "25.3% MORE" than last years model.
As I went through this 50 year old magazine, I was astonished to find the answer to urban sprawl-laid out before a lot of us here in the south even had any!
Then there is the GM post mortem, which I thought we'd done back when '"Roger and Me" came out. Everyone I knew with a couple of notable exceptions, including our driving family, drove a GM car in the mid '70s. Most families had a land yacht of the Impala variety; my Old National cousins had matching charcoal grey sleek burgundy pinstriped Grand Prixs (2) a '75, then the new body style of '78.(click the link for an excellent little history of the '70s Grand Prix) He worked at Doraville on the night shift, so the avocado Trimline would be unplugged for most of the day so he could sleep. Little did I know I'd one day work that shift myself...
Unfortunately by the time of the Iranian hostage crisis, giant gas guzzlers had lost some of their cachet. GM cars, too, were losing things like door handles and various other parts.
More and more harassed commuting dads were checking out little cuties that their dads tried to convince them they should be ashamed to look at. However when Mom joined in, engaged by the novelty of these little foreign boxes, and tired of being stranded by another clunker break down, Celicas and Preludes began sprouting up in the driveways of the newer subdivisions (Deer Glen, White Oak)that were (sprawl be damned) popping up over Fayette County. For sure, in town, all Fayettevillians still had a Ford under the carport, likely with this license plate on the front, (from the Dorsey-Fife House) but these new cars were so good on gas, and never broke down...
No planned obsolescence here, evidently....
And the weird Chrysler/Fiat deal- what's up with all that? According to this Wikipedia article...(I know, I know-look up the refs yourself..) Chrysler's already been involved with Fiat once, and most of us didn't even know... (please click these images so you can read some of the compelling reasons to drive the new SIMCA)
Ok, I'll give you one: You can make the car go-"toot" for in town driving, and "toooot" for ..but you'll have to read the rest...below...
And-when would you reset your tooter? Old National? 314 and Sullivan Road? (remember this is 1959 we're talking about) When you leave Forest Park? What do you think?
Mere gems from the 1959 LIFE magazine, anon...
