1959 Chevy Impala Convertible
The hottest family car ever purchased by my father was a sharp black 1959 Chevrolet Impala convertible. This one looks great in red but our black one was super. I know that we bought it during 1959 but I don’t remember taking it to the prom. What I remember most is driving to the Art Institute in Kansas City during summer breaks home from school with the top down and Stevie Wonder on the radio. It was a pretty classy set of wheels that I am afraid I didn’t appropriately appreciate in my youth. All I remember is how hard it was to get the top to latch. I also drove it to Fort Leonard Wood when I was stationed there. Somehow it disappeared by the time I got back from the Army and my father bought me a car. More about that car later.
Here are a couple of youtube reminiscences. The first is Dinah Shore and her backup singers singing the praises of Chevrolet. “Its the one.” The second is a loving caress of an imperial blue four door sedan. Looking back from this era of dull cars all of which look alike, the flamboyance and flair of the late 50’s is amazing. To imagine that the best selling car of the time had those incredible horizontal fins sweeping out from the trunk seems impossible today. And yet today’s folklore is that the 50’s were boring. Maybe some aspects were boring but we had real cars.
Just another in the series of Carlson cars past. Like this. And this.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Related Posts -
Growing Up - 1968 Chevy II [/caption] My first new car was bought for me by my father, the week I got out of the Army. It was not the car... -
United States of Wimps Having grown up in the practically prehistoric 40's and 50's, (For example, my family did not have a TV until I was in the third...
Other Websites You Might Enjoy -
Safety In Inflation Blowing out a tire can be frightening and disastrous. Tires are obviously an important component of your automobile. Frankly, without them we wouldn't get very... -
Extravagant Spending, Is it okay? Photo by: chrisscott While sick last week, I spent the majority of my time reading, working on my StumbleUpon profile and watching TV. One of...
Ralph on 
Sire on 
Julius Kuhn-Regnier on 
[...] My father followed our failed 1958 Edsel with another Ford product- the flagship of the Ford Motor Company, a Lincoln. This was the most magnificent automobile – in my humble opinion- he ever owned. It was huge, substantial with a cavernous interior. It had magnificent broad shoulders and big protrusions at every corner. You were never in doubt about the location of any extremity on that car. It wasn’t lithe. It rode more like a boat – or perhaps a cruise ship but driving that car, I always felt like the center of attention – pretty good for a nerdy 17 year old kid. Ours was navy blue- a more fitting color than the white in the picture giving it an imposing presence. This was the car I drove to my Senior Prom. This car hauled my stuff from Kansas City to Chicago for college and brought me back for summer. My father was on a roll in the late 50’s because our other car was my runner-up favorite. [...]
[...] 70 views for my reminiscences about our 1959 Chevrolet convertible [...]