This car belongs to a Mr. Jimmie M. Clark here in Pampa who also happens to be a long-time family friend. (That might be presumptuous of me, but he stated he knew my grandfather and is also a friend of my uncle. Any connection to me should NOT be held against Mr. Clark. -grin-)
Mr. Clark also owns a '57 Bel Air convertible, featured earlier.
At first glance, it looks boxy and nothing like the sleek styles of today, but I'm so glad I gave it some good attention.
(click any pic f/ larger view)
In 1958, Mr. Clark was a young man in the Army, based at Fort Polk in Louisiana. On his last leave before being discharged that fall, he took a bus to Houston and saw this car and bought it on the spot for $950.00.
You can see a doofus taking a photo of that photocopy of the invoice and cancelled check posted on the inside of the window.
(I told Mr. Clark that I wouldn't post that last photo as it had personal info. on it. "I don't care." he declared. "That's not my p.o. box number anymore, go ahead!" )
I like this shot, it's as if the car is smiling, enjoying the attention. It sure attracted a lot of admirers and I had a hard time, especially later in the day, taking unobstructed photos of any car being shown.
The KFC bucket is for donations to the Coffee Memorial Blood Center; you voted for each vehicle with money.
Back to the story: Mr. Clark came back home after his stint with Uncle Sam, and while riding around town in his "new" car, he met his lovely wife-to-be and married her a few years later. (and she's STILL lovely because Mr. Clark also brings along a photo album and will show you her pictures, both then and now. I don't blame him; I'd be proud of her, too)
I had been up at the show earlier and taken some photos, then came home and transferred them to my computer. When I saw the next shot, framed without any intention, I knew I had to go back up there and tell him of the great "accidental" shot I had taken with the Mercury sign in the background.
The car is lovely, but I'm particularly attracted to the bumper, so solid...simple, yet elegant. The hooded headlights also are like sleepy eyes above the "grin" of the bumper, making the car seem to be alive.
I almost expected it to wink at me.
If you've got the time, Mr. Clark will tell you that he took his new bride to Colorado for their honeymoon back in 1960 in this car. He'll show you photos of the car back then, shoe polish messages scribbled all over it (horrible to think of that NOW!) and the obligatory tin cans tied on the rear bumper.
I can just imagine her sitting close to him on this wide front seat on their trip to the mountains.
Thanks to the new innovative automatic transmission, the "Merc-O-Matic", the proud groom could keep his new bride...now Mrs. Clark... snuggled close with his free hand!
Mr. Clark drove the car nearly every day from the time he bought it until '73, then he garaged it until 1991 when he started restoring it, a job that took six years.
He then took his wife on a second honeymoon back to the very spot they had stayed on their first, driving this same vehicle, now beautifully restored. He had a photo of the old motor lodge where he and his bride had stayed the first night, closed and run-down. He said it was now demolished.
Plenty of room in this trunk for a bride's trousseau!
(Heck, it's big enough to HAVE a honeymoon in! *grin*)
Mr. Clark said he once had some different fender skirts for it, but these are lovely. I wrenched my back getting up from this shot.
Love the whitewalls! The hubcaps have the god Mercury on them.
A lovely old car.
(as old as ME *sniff* and in much, much better shape! *sigh*)
One of the best hood ornaments ever created!
The car was featured in some auto magazine, a copy of which Mr. Clark has in the window:
There's one photo I wish I had taken; Mr. Clark's 92 yr. old mother had tatted a beautiful doily for the back seat. You can make it out in the frontal shots posted above if you'll view the large versions.
Hope you enjoyed this! This has been one of my most favorite posts I've done since starting this blog!
Mr. Clark also owns a '57 Bel Air convertible, featured earlier.
At first glance, it looks boxy and nothing like the sleek styles of today, but I'm so glad I gave it some good attention.
(click any pic f/ larger view)
In 1958, Mr. Clark was a young man in the Army, based at Fort Polk in Louisiana. On his last leave before being discharged that fall, he took a bus to Houston and saw this car and bought it on the spot for $950.00.
You can see a doofus taking a photo of that photocopy of the invoice and cancelled check posted on the inside of the window.
(I told Mr. Clark that I wouldn't post that last photo as it had personal info. on it. "I don't care." he declared. "That's not my p.o. box number anymore, go ahead!" )
I like this shot, it's as if the car is smiling, enjoying the attention. It sure attracted a lot of admirers and I had a hard time, especially later in the day, taking unobstructed photos of any car being shown.
The KFC bucket is for donations to the Coffee Memorial Blood Center; you voted for each vehicle with money.
Back to the story: Mr. Clark came back home after his stint with Uncle Sam, and while riding around town in his "new" car, he met his lovely wife-to-be and married her a few years later. (and she's STILL lovely because Mr. Clark also brings along a photo album and will show you her pictures, both then and now. I don't blame him; I'd be proud of her, too)
I had been up at the show earlier and taken some photos, then came home and transferred them to my computer. When I saw the next shot, framed without any intention, I knew I had to go back up there and tell him of the great "accidental" shot I had taken with the Mercury sign in the background.
The car is lovely, but I'm particularly attracted to the bumper, so solid...simple, yet elegant. The hooded headlights also are like sleepy eyes above the "grin" of the bumper, making the car seem to be alive.
I almost expected it to wink at me.
If you've got the time, Mr. Clark will tell you that he took his new bride to Colorado for their honeymoon back in 1960 in this car. He'll show you photos of the car back then, shoe polish messages scribbled all over it (horrible to think of that NOW!) and the obligatory tin cans tied on the rear bumper.
I can just imagine her sitting close to him on this wide front seat on their trip to the mountains.
Thanks to the new innovative automatic transmission, the "Merc-O-Matic", the proud groom could keep his new bride...now Mrs. Clark... snuggled close with his free hand!
Mr. Clark drove the car nearly every day from the time he bought it until '73, then he garaged it until 1991 when he started restoring it, a job that took six years.
He then took his wife on a second honeymoon back to the very spot they had stayed on their first, driving this same vehicle, now beautifully restored. He had a photo of the old motor lodge where he and his bride had stayed the first night, closed and run-down. He said it was now demolished.
Plenty of room in this trunk for a bride's trousseau!
(Heck, it's big enough to HAVE a honeymoon in! *grin*)
Mr. Clark said he once had some different fender skirts for it, but these are lovely. I wrenched my back getting up from this shot.
Love the whitewalls! The hubcaps have the god Mercury on them.
A lovely old car.
(as old as ME *sniff* and in much, much better shape! *sigh*)
One of the best hood ornaments ever created!
The car was featured in some auto magazine, a copy of which Mr. Clark has in the window:
There's one photo I wish I had taken; Mr. Clark's 92 yr. old mother had tatted a beautiful doily for the back seat. You can make it out in the frontal shots posted above if you'll view the large versions.
Hope you enjoyed this! This has been one of my most favorite posts I've done since starting this blog!
7 comments:
I was sitting here looking at these photos, proud of myself for taking them (and I may have a bit too high opinion of them AND my meager talents) and an old joke came into my head.
The funny thing is that it's one of those very odd coincidences, where something triggers a memory in my head. Sometimes it's a smell or sound, sometimes it's thinking of something so relatively insignificant as a word...and that word is "trousseau".
I was studying words and momma was helping me. I don't remember the year or why I was studying the words. I *think* it might have been for some interscholastic contest because I doubt I'd have been studying for something so mundane as homework. -grin-
TROUSSEAU was the word, and I wasn't familiar with it. Mom knew what it was and how to spell it and then told me this joke as an example of how to "use it in a sentence"; I was JUST old enough to "gettit".
A young bride returned from her honeymoon and her mother was helping her unpack. The older woman was horrified to see all of her daughter's clothing ripped to shreds.
"Why is your trousseau tore so?" she asked.
"My husband liked my torso better than my trousseau." said the blushing young bride. "That's why my trousseau is tore so."
So, I have my momma to thank for my alliterative genius. (or obsession, however ya wanna look at it)
Lovely story. I bet you had a great time at that car show. I'm gonna check back later as is might be a fluke but 3 of the pics aren't showing for me. I'll check back and let you know.
Well, now the missing three are shoing so all's good. Not sure why they didn't show earlier.
I don't know either Barb; trouble around Blogger seems to be very infrequent. They DO have a sponsored help group and a notification system in place, SO unlike MSN Groups.
I've had a couple posts not go through, some error messages while posting...but the funny thing is, sometimes the posts go through. I still copy stuff before I hit "send" though, old habit.
BTW, got a nice email from Mr. Clark about this post and he said he was going to pass it along to his friends.
I'm figurin' if he sends the link to six people, I will double the amt. of people visiting the site. -grin-
Also, bought a copier/scanner and the first thing I copied was the "sign" shot and it turned out lovely.
Then, after about ten copies, I ran outta ink.
What smart cars you have been featuring the last few days Mike, and it got me to remembering a couple of the old style cars my dad had...well they were no where as good as those you have shown ! I think he had a Singer Gazelle and a Hillman Minx, well one thing I remember was that aqua/blue green shade that seemed to be popular for the interiors back then, I see it on that Chevrolet you have there ....
well they were wonderful designs I think and you're right they almost look like they are winking at you.
Well Mr Clark should feel very proud of keeping that car and bringing it back to tip top condition , would have loved to have seen his wedding album showing his wife ....lovely story.
I spoke w/Mrs. Clark on the phone yesterday, to ask if they had a computer (they do, as said above) and if they'd like to see my photos. She was as gracious as she is lovely, and invited me out to their house to see some of their other collections of things.
What the fine lady doesn't realize is that I bring my appetite every where I go. -grin- It took every bit of my slim tact to accept her invitation and NOT say
"Thanks, what's for supper?"
Very nicely done. I just loved how you weaved in that story about the Clark's. You are a very talented writer!!!! I was hoping that the Clarks saw your post, so I'm glad I read the comments and found out they did.
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