Re: If you are under sixty, how did you get interested in Packards?

Posted by Kevin On 2013/5/8 22:31:34

I guess I should chime in here as well. I'm 56 now, but I was 16 when I got my first car, which is also my first and only Packard. I had always loved cars as a kid, and because I had no living memory of new Packards or Packard dealers, I owe my fascination with Packard to the stories of my father. He never owned a Packard, but he always spoke so highly of them. I can never say that I didn't get anything from my dad, because besides his waistline, I also got my regard of Packard from him!

The car that I fell in love with at first sight was the 1956 Caribbean convertible. I saw a picture of one for the first time in 1972, when I was 15. As things should turn out, my father ended up making a deal with a Detroit Caribbean owner to buy his 1955. It was so magnificent I didn't really care that it wasn't a 1956! It was a piece of history and it was a Packard!

My key takeaways are to be sure to talk to young people and share your Packard stories, and I also echo what others have said about letting young kids sit in your cars, or even give them rides. Just before we found the 1955 Caribbean for sale, my father and I attended the 1973 Packard National Meet in Detroit, and we were guests of Roscoe Stelford in the back seat of his 1956 Caribbean convertible! It definitely left a lasting impression!