1953 - part 2

The first two pictures below were taken on the beach in 1953.  I kept these separate from the other '53 pictures because I realized, while viewing these, how 'odd' our family had been about cars.  Though the first family car that I can remember was a '49 Chevy (with a plank for a back seat), after that we seemed to go for 'odd' cars only.   In the early 50's we traded the Chevy in for the first of the small station wagons  built by Rambler.  Later we lost that Rambler (due to not making the payments) and we then went to older cars that always needed some repair (by my father).  My favorite of those was a Kaiser (in a later picture) which had an unusually heart-shaped windshield and had window sills that were low enough for short people to see out (we had a gray version of the one shown on the following).  At one point we also had a Simca (a small French car), and when my two oldest brothers started driving they initially shared an older Studebaker (per my recall -- no pictures of these cars.)   My mother somewhat carried on the tradition after the divorce -- her first car was a VW bug (in 1960, before they were popular in Florida), followed by a Plymouth Valiant (with push-button transmission), and then a red Rambler Classic convertible.

It is hard to believe that we loaded two adults, 4 noisy boys (and sometimes, other friends), fishing equipment, and beach supplies all into this car!

Mother, leaning on the Rambler  -- she would have just turned 40 in June of the summer that this picture was taken.

This was labeled "December, 1953" -- I have no idea where it was taken.

And finally, for 1953, the requisite 'four boys' picture -- this was probably taken around Christmas time. (I think I look particularly 'evil' in this one, with my long, double-breasted jacket.)

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