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With so many of us posting in the forums, I was wondering if fellow Packard enthusiasts would like to contribute their own Packard 'story'? I'll bet there will be some fascinating tales out there.

For myself, my Packard experience started when my father came home with a new 1956 Packard Executive 5672A in late 1956. I was probably just about one year old. My parents had just returned from a trip to Reno, NV. in a late 40's Plymouth (that almost didn't make it). The Packard was apparently the last one sold in the Santa Clara valley.
I have such fond memories of that car and is the reason why I own one now. When I see my Packard, it is home for me. Anyone else feel this way about their Packard(s)?

My story is very similar. Dad had a pair of 51 Packards and took one to the Albuquerque dealership for service. Wish I could remember for sure which year but he came home in a 55 or 6 "on tryout" since his car was going to be laid up for a few days. Oh, the things dealers did back then.

Anyway, I was 9 or 10 and fell in lust with the car. Mom took a look and was not impressed but she and dad went to the store in it. Came home and she put her foot down and said no because it was too flashy. Apparently in that small town the trip was the center of attention & she didn't want to have everyone staring at her and think she was putting on airs. Price probably had more to do with it, but I digress.

Talk about your basic blue funk but ever since then, I have been a fan of Packards. Even driving that "old mans car" thru high school while my social crowd had Dodge, Chevys & Fords didn't spoil it. I wanted to trade the 51 on a used 56 Clipper that had been sitting on the Chevy dealers lot but alas, Packard was already gone so that was a resounding NO from the parental units. My first Packard I actually bought was in the early 70's after I was out of the service. A 56 Patrician.

yes i deffinently feel at home in a Packard.

my story starts with my grandfather and his father. His father owned several 20s model Packards, of which i have pictures of them. With my Grandfather standing on the foot step when he was about 5 maybe.

His father died in a car accident in a 40 Ford and my Grandfather always said...had he been in a Packard....if only....

well when i was born i stayed alot at my Grandfather's house when my parents worked. so i got to spend alot of time around them since i was born, 30 now. i spent alot of time around Mopar as well as my uncle still lived at home and had tons of those as well. but even though my dad had mopars and we went to all those shows etc...the Packards are what i loved the most.

i'm in love with that era, what they represent, etc. but no disrespect to what mopar meant during its time.

I think also the fact that my Grandfather named them was another reason they stuck....the 56 Patrician....Dolly. solid black. man i miss that car, but i do know who owns it and will take a trip to see it again one day.

i have several pictures of me infront of the 47 clipper. one of me on the hood when i was about 2 whith my Grandfather and Dad holding me up. I got to reproduce this photo with my current car i'm restoring....although it was just the finished frame, but it was me, my Dad, and my son in the middle us holding him up...and we were in front of the old Fort Worth Packard dealership. it was for Father's day a couple of years ago. He was just about 1 years old.


i went on several road trips with my Grandparents as well and my Grandfather always had on the Packard gear...hats...shirts....belt buckle, etc...most of which i have now and fit me and i wear them as much as one can without ruining them. they are old and some have holes..but i don't care.

the last memory i have is riding in his 1937 Packard Limo 138CD to his funeral. i was in the back with my cousin and my late uncle was driving and my dad passenger. they had to hold up the funeral line cause the damn thing vapor locked. A final protest of the fact that its beloved friend had just died, but it had nothing to fear....as I have found it also, so it is not lost and is in good hands up in Detroit.

i have yet to see any of the Packards i remember as a child....not even the 1947 clipper....which stables only a few hours from Salado.

But when i think of my Grandfather and Packard, my eyes well up....welling up even while writing this. i really really miss him and i wish he was here to help me put back toghether my 55 and see me rebuild the "unrebuildable" TU. But i have spent time with my Father on it...and my Uncle helped me remove the motor. so needless to say, its in honor of my Grandfather first, then my Uncle....and a memory for me and my Dad to share, unless the good Lord takes him home before i'm done....hopefully not.

and not to mention fun for my family to ride the roads across America to all the Packard fun events. visit Detroit, etc....stuff my son will do with us in the back seat of the old girl....Constella.....to look back on...and...maybe...just maybe....have one of his own one day....

till then....Ask the Man who owns one...

Hank

Howard, and Hank, and anyone else who responds with their story, I am proud to call you my friends. Every word draws me in and I am somehow part of it. How can this be, do these cars reach so deep into our being?

Packards have been always there in my life. The first i remember was my fathers clipper fastback bought in Florida. He kept it until the end of the war and sold it as part of financing his own construction company. I can remember the Cloisonne hubcaps, the skirts over the back wheels. It was a metallic green. At the same time my mothers family had only driven Packards. My Aunt had a silver metallic 110 convertible her grandfather had given her when she graduated from high school. My Fathers mother at the same time had a 38 v-12 four door convertible. Again the cloisonne caps, the window that rolled up and down between front and back. She kept it until about 1947 and traded it on a chevy business coupe with my father and uncles pleading with her not to let it go.


My maternal grandfather had a 47 packard, a 48 convertible, a 51 200, 52 250, 53 cavalier, a 55 clipper custom. These were the ones i was able to see. I was able to drive the 53 and the 55. My father was finally flush enough to buy car and bought a 56 Executive sedan, with a lot of goading from me. My first Packard was in 59-60 and it was a 51 convert that i got for 100.00. THe next Packard was 56 Patrician purchased in 66. A driver that was really driven. Tucked in there was 53 clipper that needed everything but ran. In 90 i purchased a 54 convertible that has proved to be the hole that sucks money. And that is the last remaining Packard in the family. My maternal great grandfather started buying Packards to the best of my knowledge around 1913-14. His last car was a Packard blue 7 passenger 1947 limo. I only saw it once and that was after he died. So if i can hang on for another year or so it will be a century of Packards in 2 families.
THis year I was able to go to the national Packard meet in Galena, Illinois for the first time. It was a great experience as i was able to see so many of the cars that marked different times in my life. I have always loved cars, but Packards have been my total favorite.

Packard Frankford was the dealership that my great grandfather and grandfather used. The 38 12 convertible was purchased from Goldner Packard. These were Philly dealerships.

Like others posting previously, my father influenced my love of Packards.

He owned a 1951 200 4dr 3spd for several years when I was a pre teen...until my mother decided to "play chicken" with a palm tree, which the palm tree won. The fact that she was drunk out of her skull probably explains the game and her scratch free survival...but, I digress a little. Prior to the 51 Packard, she had crashed into something (I was too little to know what exactly) with my Dad's 49 Kaiser, totaling it. Do you see a pattern here?

Later, he owned a 1955 Clipper Super with T-L, T-U and BTV. I drove that car through high school years and it's large interior space was great for cruising with friends. The T-L with manual control impressed the few girls I could get to go to the drive-in movie with me. My mother had given up driving by that time having had another game of "chicken" with a telephone pole with the family Willys (owned between the two Packards) --which the Willys also lost, so the 55 Clipper survived until something "expensive" broke and it was sold for cheap to a collector as a parts car.

My mother survived all these car crushing collisions with immovable objects with nary a scratch. That says something for being drunk out of your skull as a pre-airbag "safety measure".

I never personally owned a Packard until 1999 when I purchased my 55 Pat. I also have 3 56 parts cars, a 55 parts car and a 56 "Panther" that will get completed someday. I also have a 55 Clipper Super here that I am storing that I could buy for cheap from the owner, but that's too many projects and too much $$$ in the future to think about.

Craig

P.S. Sort of sorry for the info about my car-killing mother, but its "Just the facts, mam!" (Joe Friday).