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Just to resolve the questions on the Rollston discussed in posts 11 thru 14, the owner registered the vehicle as a 1931 840.

Hi O_D et al

Thanks for the photos, looks like a wonderful turn-out, killing me I wasn't able to attend!

Steve

I know of only one original car that had the add on fender lights. It was Bob Turnquist's 38 Su8. It was totalled in a car accident when a coal truck rear ended it.

I had heard about that. It was in the early 1960's and the car was a convertible sedan if I'm not mistaken.

Here's a video of a 1957 CARavan on you tube. If you look at the video :43 seconds in, you'll see Turnquist's 1938 Packard conv sedan sometime before the accident. At 1:40 there's another good shot of the car with Bob & Sunny waving at the camera. The fender lights are quite visible in this shot. There are several other 1935-37 Packards in the video and none of them have the fender lights.

youtube.com/watch?v=1F5Fy72fmG8

When I used to hang around with Ted Kavenagh he had slides from the old days. Anyway, the blue 37 Packard Su8 was Charlie Clancy who was one of the earliest CCCA members - even before Kavenagh. He used to be number 3 behind Turnquist. The order was Ted 1, Turnquist 2, Clancy 3.

Clancy's car was also destroyed - by a fire. I drove Charlie's car miles and miles when I was a kid. I also had a little desk that Bob Turnquist gave me.

1508 - thanks for posting that link! I saw a few familiar cars and faces there, several views of George & Bea Jepson in their 734 boat tail, also a glimse of 34 1106 LeBaron. How great those caravans must have been, especially back in that era with Mobil picking up all the gasoline expenses.

Quote:

Yeah, back in that era, 1957, they were driving 1934 Packards - a 23 year old car.

If you formed a tour of 1992 Cadillacs, Lincolns and Chrysler Imperials, then you'd never see a gas company give away free gas, let alone the local town leading the tour with a motorcycle escort. Hell, 1992 autos are daily drivers for a lot of folks today.

So what made things so special back then?

"What made things so special back then?"

Many of the cars on that tour were very special when they were new. The 1934 Packard LeBaron speedster, the 1930 Packard 734 speedster, the Cadillac V 16 aerodynamic coupe, that Rolls roadster. Those cars screamed money when they were new, and the general public generally looked back fondly on them. They remembered you really had to be something to own one of those when they were new. People knew they represented quality and craftmanship. Remember the line from the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard when Gloria Swanson laments new cars (of 1950) being made of nothing more than "chromium and spit." She was comparing these to her 1927 Issota Fraschini in her carriage house. A 1992 Cadillac doesn't look THAT much different from a 2015 Cadillac if you think about it, and it certainly doesn't scream quality and craftmanship, at least not to me. Most of the people on that tour in 1957 were not overly wealthy either. The Jepsons were average people who owned a small gas station in NJ. Look at the motels they stayed at. I bet most of those are in seedy parts of town now that we wouldn't even think about staying in. It's sad we can't have tours like that anymore.

"So what made things so special back then?"

I'll take a shot at this.

World War II made a big difference in the cars being driven in the mid-1950s from those from before the war. The war made a big difference in most things that influenced post-war life in the U.S. The times before the war were from a different way of living. Those years were based on living through hardships brought about by the Great Depression. After the war, it was time to move on to the future, and the the future was bright for the U.S. Things were moving faster than they had before the war. The pre-war automobiles, that survived the war, were indeed old fashioned even though they were only 20 years old. The high-end and luxury automobiles could now be had at very low prices. No one wanted them. Now, a mere service station owner could have an automobile that was far beyond his means before the war.

These were interesting times.

Next.

(o{}o)

You said it better than me.