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Customs What were your grandparents driving when you were a kid?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Lebowski, May 21, 2016.

  1. Atwater Mike
    Joined: May 31, 2002
    Posts: 11,625

    Atwater Mike
    Member

    Paternal Grandfather Mike (my namesake) drove a Depot Hack for U.S. Postal Service in Hammond, Ind. Later bought a Packard roadster. Grandma never drove.

    Maternal Grandmother was born in a Prarie Schooner in San Helena, CA.; last trip for her Dad as Wagonmaster from Indepence, Mo. to Seattle, Wash. They were headed to his new farm, in Santa Clara: 80+ acres in Silicon Valley! (back of their farm was 'Second Creek', 280 freeway today.
    The house was on Scott Lane & Kifer Rd., other end was Santa Clara-Sunnyvale Rd.
    Grandma was born in 1876, married Grandpa Bob in 189o, 14 yrs of age.
    Grandpa was the first butcher in Santa Clara, used to deliver meat to SARAH WINCHESTER personally in a sprung 2 horse 'buckboard' with built-up body, later a 1914 Model T C-cab panel. Grandpa later bought a '28 Model A Phaeton, had it for the rest of his life.
    My Dad met my Mom in '37, he had an awning business: ACME AWNINGS. Honest.
    Grandpa liked Dad (Joe) as Dad's business truck was a '28 Roadster Pickup!
    My Mom had 2 hopped up Model A's, got the first one at 17. So, there were Fords.
     
  2. not that one guy
    Joined: Mar 28, 2011
    Posts: 293

    not that one guy
    Member
    from So NV

    Before my time


    [​IMG]

    41 pontiac ?
     
  3. Karrera
    Joined: Jan 19, 2008
    Posts: 184

    Karrera
    Member

    My grandfather drove race cars - until he married my grandmother and she made him quit driving those.
    He continued as a car owner and had drivers for his cars in the late 20's and early 30's. Here's a shot of him standing behind one of his Millers (with a Frontenac engine). He's the one in the middle.

    [​IMG]

    and that car on the track:

    [​IMG]

    Later on he had a series of Packards and switched to Cadillac in the early 50's.
    My dad's first car was a flathead ford powered midget racer.

    [​IMG]

    My mother's father passed away before I was born but my grandmother drove her 1949 Studebaker until the late 1960's and then replaced it with a red 1961 Corvair Monza coupe.
     
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  4. arkiehotrods
    Joined: Mar 9, 2006
    Posts: 6,803

    arkiehotrods
    Member

  5. deuce666
    Joined: Jan 10, 2008
    Posts: 158

    deuce666
    Member
    from Oregon

    My only living grandparent drove a '64 Plymouth with a six cylinder and push button automatic. It was white with a blue interior. I got paid to wash and wax it for her. When my Grandmother died, my Mom got the car. I kept it maintained and polished. It was low mileage and very clean when my Mom got remarried and sold it.
     
  6. welderup!
    Joined: May 20, 2015
    Posts: 24

    welderup!
    Member

    My grandfather was a Packard man, then later on mopar, then Pontiac. He delivered papers and loved his cars, but was never loyal to one brand, whatever got the papers delivered faster was best. My grandmom a cadillac gal.

    Remember being knee high to a grass hopper riding around in pop-pops 1959 Pontiac Catalina. 389 with an automatic. She was a 4 door, but damn she was pretty. Sold it to pay for my grandma's funeral. Sure wish I knew where that 59 is now
     
  7. manyolcars
    Joined: Mar 30, 2001
    Posts: 9,174

    manyolcars

    My grandfather drove a 1937 Ford pickup, a 1954 Ford and a Farmall tractor and I have all of them
     
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  8. Ha,only one grandfather was alive when I was a kid and he was a wino drunk and didn't drive. Neither grandmother had a license.
     
  9. My grandpa quit driving the year that I was born. My dad's mom (sorry don't like the bitch RIH) drove a Maroon Mercedes until she traded it in on a valiant, she liked the Valiant better, it was late model.

    My grandpa drove my car once before I got a hardship license and could drive us around legally.
     
  10. LAROKE
    Joined: Sep 5, 2007
    Posts: 2,079

    LAROKE
    Member

    This truck was my paternal grandfather's daily driver for many years. It was also the first vehicle I ever drove and I had to stand up to do it.

    [​IMG]
     
  11. BAC ( big assed chuckle) life on the farm. :D

    It would be interesting to know how many took their first drive in a hay truck or on a tractor, long before they were in Junior High. Hell in todays atmosphere of safety and child endangerment I wonder how many of us would admit to letting them do that. ;)
     
  12. BigDogSS
    Joined: Jan 8, 2009
    Posts: 979

    BigDogSS
    Member
    from SoCal

    On my Father's side, my Grandfather was gone by the time I showed up. But I heard he worked at a junk yard....hmmmm, that may explain a lot :). I think my Grandmother drove a mid-60s Rambler before she gave up driving in the early 1970s.
    On my Mother's side, it was Pontiac's all the way for my Grandfather. I remember their 1968 Bonneville before I was double digits. Their last car was a 1973 Grand Ville Brougham. My Grandmother did not drive.
     
  13. arkiehotrods
    Joined: Mar 9, 2006
    Posts: 6,803

    arkiehotrods
    Member

    A 1954 Dodge Coronet (cream with maroon top) and a black '46 Dodge pickup (both in background of this photo)
    [​IMG]
     
  14. finn
    Joined: Jan 25, 2006
    Posts: 1,280

    finn
    Member

    Grandpa Matt worked as a metal finisher for Ford (used to call it "Fords") and later Packard in Detroit until the hour reductions and pay cuts brought by the depression meant that the pay in the Auto Factories was no longer enough to support his growing family (ultimately @ eight kids). After that he moved North and became a dairy farmer.

    He had a '28 Olds sedan until it was scrapped with a broken axle. The farm truck was a '28 Model AA with a high speed rear end. Burned out the clutch delivering firewood to "city people " on a hilly street. He thought the gearing made that AA a poor excuse for a truck. I remember seeing the chassis supporting a homemade hay wagon when I was a kid in the late fifties. He also had a 37 Ford half ton with the factory flatbed, a 35 Ford flatbed 1 1/2 ton potato hauler and a 46 tom and a half flatbed before he retired from farming.

    My mom learned to drive in a 36 Ford with a rumble seat. How they got eight kids in a rumble seat Ford coupe is hard to imagine. Her brothers drove a '29 Model A that they eventually replaced the A roadster body with a Deuce roadster body. I never found out what became of that 32 roadster body. Probably one of the only A framed Deuces ever hot rodded!

    Grandpa Matt eventually upgraded to a 53 Buick, 58 Mercury (lots of issues with the Merc), and ultimately a 352 powered '63 Galaxie, all four doors.

    Grandpa Kalle (Americanized to Charles) was mostly a Chevy guy. He and his brother took a train to town, 22 miles away and bought a Model T. They learned to drive on the trip back home. Told me they ran over several trees learning to drive. When I was a kid he had a 53 Chevy and later a 62 Nova that he totaled when he turned left in front of a car on his way to the Township dump. A few months later, after he got out of the hospital, (I was in college at the time) I took him to the Chevy dealer to help him buy a new car. He wanted another Nova.

    The salesman suggested we take a test drive, so Grandma and I hopped in the back seat with Grandpa driving and the 23 year old greenhorn salesman riding shotgun.

    Grandpa had never driven a car with an automatic before, so he proceeded to brake torque that poor Nova and lurch forward with the engine at half throttle and controlling the speed by alternately stomping and releasing the brakes. The salesman was petrified, sitting in the death seat, with grandma yelling at grandpa in Finnish. as we lurched through town.

    When we (somehow safely) returned to the dealership, he announced in broken English, that he didn't like that car.

    Next day we bought a new Comet. He asked me to deliver it so he could learn to drive an automatic in private.
     
  15. 48 Tucker on the road.jpg

    '48 Tucker
     
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  16. Petejoe
    Joined: Nov 27, 2002
    Posts: 12,263

    Petejoe
    Member
    from Zoar, Ohio

    My grandpa lived in a small Ohio town and worked as a mechanic in a Bakery 2 blocks way. Only had one car his whole life in his early years. Spent the rest of his life walking. He always seem to have a lot of money not spending it on repairs gas and insurance.

    Now my other gramps I never met. He passed before my birth. He ran a service station in the mid 30's. Pretty cool pic of him grinding his 8 hrs.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: May 24, 2016
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  17. I don't remember my fraternal grandfather ever owning a vehicle. My maternal grandfather had several cars in my early childhood. The oldest I can remember was a 35 Ford 2 dr. slant back. Then there was a 41 Ford four dr. I remember it because I almost fell out of the rear door one day he was taking several of us kids to the movies. He then owned a 50 Chev. 4 dr. and when my grandmother died he sold his house and moved in with our family. As part of the payment for the house he got a 57 Merc. Turnpike Cruiser. It was aqua and white and had Cadillac wires. The was the first car that belonged to my granddad that I was allowed to drive. It had a huge trunk, sneaked kids into Dreamland drive- in in it. He did get a 62 Valiant Station wagon that he owned until passing in 69. This is a little off the path but my Mother just passed a couple of weeks ago at 88 and my Dad 10 weeks ago at 92. I knew that one of the first cars they owned was a 39 Ford convertible. Now Dad raced stock cars(37 Ford coupes) from 1949 till 1959 and had a reputation for being pretty fearless. Mother told me a few weeks before she died about the time she drove the 39 from Greenville S.C. to Tryon N.C. in a race with a 41 Buick straight 8. She said she won and Dad was holding on to the passenger door with white knuckles.(very curvy mountain roads) I really got a kick out of that story.
     
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  18. Gramps on dad's side drove a mint 52 ford pickup in the orchards and a "even more mint" 50 ford club coupe to town and on vacations.
    Gramps on the other side drove used flathead plymouths/dodges until they blew up [drove 'em HARD!]
    He graduated to overhead valve 6 banger Ramblers. They held up better.
    Grandma divorced his ass sometime in the 40s and married a well-to-do wheat farmer who bought a new Buick every 2 years....people would line up to buy his used Buicks. When he died, he was driving a new 57 Buick.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2016
  19. Deuced Up!
    Joined: Feb 8, 2008
    Posts: 4,206

    Deuced Up!
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    On my Father's side, Grandad was a Buick man. The car I remember the most was light brown 1967 Buick Lesabre. I used set on his lap and drive that old boat home from church every Sunday. Fun thread here, thanks for the memories. :)

    Buick.jpg
    FYI...I swiped this image from Google, but this is a dead ringer for it!
     
  20. Lebowski
    Joined: Aug 21, 2011
    Posts: 1,564

    Lebowski
    BANNED

    My condolences on your loss (or actually losses). At least they made it a few years longer than average. My Mom was only 69 when she died from breast cancer in 1997. My Dad died 4 years ago last month at 84. May they rest in peace....
     
  21. Mark Hinds
    Joined: Feb 20, 2009
    Posts: 616

    Mark Hinds
    Member
    from pomona ca

    What grampa drove before my mon was born.... Grampa Tegler and Gramma 1927 San Pedro.jpg
     
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  22. 1949 Cadillac Sedan
     
  23. Thrift-King
    Joined: Feb 16, 2015
    Posts: 122

    Thrift-King
    Member

    Maternal Great Grandparents had horse wagons, then a small assortment of various brands until they bought a brand new Fury Sport in 75. They drove that until 1991 when they bought a Buick Century and gave my dad the Fury. That fury was perfect until we hit a patch of ice and ass-holed an S10 4x4. He sold it for $300.

    Maternal Grandparents: Grandpa had a lot of stuff, but he told me they bought a 65 mustang in red 6 banger auto new for my grandma, he had a 59 elky that according to my dad was very "healthy" with a 409 swap. In 77 he bought a new 3/4 GMC longbox 4x4 to use as a work truck (they sold it shortly before he died for $300, I was pissed ..) traded the mustang for a 1972 beetle in 1994 (which I still have) and a 1980 Datsun flatbed (which I also have).

    Then a friend of theirs named "Swamper" due to his Louisiana background died and they inherited his 1986 Ranger 4x4, which my grandpa drove up until he died in 2014 and which my grandma still has.

    Great grandpa on dad's side never drove, grandpa had a 37 Chev 4 door, 57 Chev bel air 2 door, 60 Chev short wide, then got into jap cars until he died in 2014. Grandma died in '65 due to an accident.

    It all gets a lot less interesting from there.


    Sent from a Glade Air Freshener
     
  24. Gman0046
    Joined: Jul 24, 2005
    Posts: 6,256

    Gman0046
    Member

    When I was young my Dads parents had a black 36 Ford tudor sedan. Their next car was a green Ford Falcon tudor. My Mom's parents were pretty well off they always had big Buicks and then they bought a pink with a white top 56 Cadillac Sedan Deville.

    Gary
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2016
  25. misigis
    Joined: Nov 20, 2009
    Posts: 157

    misigis
    Member
    from NY

    Both grandfathers had '55 Chevys. 1 stick, 1 auto.
     
  26. 48jeep
    Joined: Apr 3, 2009
    Posts: 66

    48jeep
    Member

    Only my paternal grandfather drove. The earliest vehicle I remember him owning was a Crosley station wagon. Next up was a 56 rambler station wagon followed by a 58 Dodge( I ended up with that one). My grandmother felt that the Dodge was too fancy so she made him buy a 64 Rambler station wagon with the 196 c.i. six cylinder. I don't know how they managed but they used that Rambler to tow their camping trailer all over the southwestern U.S. As a side note, my grandfather had a trucking buisness in the twenties and drove a Chevy truck to deliver milk and passengers to El Paso, Texas.The biggest problem he had was that the seat was right over the gas tank and he had a chapped butt continuosly.
     
  27. 1959 F100
    Joined: Feb 21, 2014
    Posts: 121

    1959 F100
    Member

    Wneh I was 5, My grandpa had a '56 Pontiac, then a '54 Chevy. He later had a '59 Bel Air, then a '62 Biscayne. When he died in '83 he had a 1966 Ford Custom 500
     
  28. 31Apickup
    Joined: Nov 8, 2005
    Posts: 3,366

    31Apickup
    Member

    Not sure what my maternal grandfather drove, he passed away when I was pretty young but did have a jailbar grill Ford stakebed truck. My Paternal grandfather had a 63 Savoy 4dr, then moved on to a 67-68 Fury 4dr.He passed away in 71, so my grandmother who never drove before that got her license and a 72 Plymouth Scamp with a 318 auto. She was a lead foot. I drove her up to northern Michigan in the early 80's to visit my aunt, we were on some 2 lanes roads, and she would say if it's clear put that pedal down and blow some carbon out of this thing. Later that was replaced by a used 80 Malibu with that little 267 V8, she didn't like that at all, said it was way too slow.
     
  29. southerncad
    Joined: Feb 5, 2008
    Posts: 949

    southerncad
    Member

    My Maternal Gramp, always drove Caddys....guess that's why I built my '49...one excuse is good as another, I guess :)
     

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