Vehicles of the Past

Where’d they go. It is refreshing to hear the new/old Chevrolet jingle on TV: It is sung by someone who may have never heard of Dinah Shore. The ad jingle has been used by other performers, but Dinah Shore and Pat Boone are the ones we recall.

The line “America’s inviting you to call” doesn’t mean a phone call but “calling on” someone was to go see them, a physical visit.

Another General Motors product, the Oldsmobile, stopped production in 2004. In 1905 there was a popular song “In My Merry Oldsmobile.”

The Olds was marketed somewhere in the middle of the GM line-up of what we call the “full size” cars — Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet.

The last Pontiac rolled out in 2010. Pontiac was marketed upon “performance” as indicated by their slogan, “We build Excitement.”

It was difficult to identify a Buick from an Oldsmobile from a Pontiac based upon profile alone.

The car bodies were made by the Fisher company that produced horsedrawn coaches and wagons long before cars came along.

There were thousands of wagon makers that did not jump into motor cars, but one that did was Studebaker. The company transitioned to autos and even built aircraft engines during WWII and the J-47 jet engines for the military.

In October of 1915, my grandfather bought a farm wagon from his friend Mac Abercrombie, who dealt in all things about horses and mules. “Mr. Mac” even supplied mules for the mule trains to the bottom of Grand Canyon. He sold the Studebaker wagon.

Dad said he waited for his father to come home with the new wagon.

When the sound of new steel wagon tires scraping along the dirt road was audible, he strained to determine if there was a clicking sound similar to that of a Mitchell wagon.

There wasn’t. Mitchell wagons were top of the line, but Dad was happy with the new Studebaker.

That wagon had a good, useful life and served my family after pickup trucks made horse-drawn wagons an oddity.

It sat under the wagon shelter until someone helped himself to it one night and took it away. The deputy making the initial report kept asking me, “Why bother?” I believe he thought I was reporting the theft of a child’s wagon. Horse-drawn vehicles were that foreign to his personal experience. There was no follow-up from the Sheriff ’s Office.

I hope whoever has that wagon now appreciates it, treats it with care, drives it in parades, takes kids for rides. He thought enough of it to steal it.

joenphillips@yahoo.com