Art & Inspiration Coolest driveway? Or, What's in front of your garage?

We've never seen one of the crew working on our place, but the guys doing the pavers around the pool and patio next door do. I wouldn't be irked, if when we got here we discovered one of the electricians (the only guys to have been in the house) took a dump in our on-suite bathroom and didn't flush it. We had some words with the general contractor about that, but can't do anything at this point.

 

Hello,

The Westside of Long Beach where we moved to in 1953 was a very early version of a set of tract homes. They were built in early 40s and every third house looked similar to the front façade of our house. Some did not have front porches or a two car garage. But, for all purposes of identification, this is an early version of a Tract home build. The homes covered a 7 block listed street area. Names starting with A and going to G.
Poured concrete with scoring lines, plus a median grass area between each tire path. For some reason, over the years of owning the house, that grass was never replaced and got hose spray water once a week. (Rain or shine, any time of the year ) The front yard got a sprinkler system, but not this grassy median.

These homes in numerical blocks went from 20th street to six blocks past the elementary school around 26th street, as an overall area of similar homes.

It certainly was a larger home than our old late 30s-early 40s Craftsman Home several blocks away. But, larger than 600 square feet was large back then, but miniscule by today’s standards. Our first married couple apartment was 700 sq. feet, which for two of us and a small dog, was fine.

Jnaki

In a way, the grassy median strip had two fold reasons. One, it looked good as a path to the large backyard. Two, if any cars, old or new drove on the two concrete poured strips with the grass area between, the grass was a receptacle of random droppings from the cars, such as dirt, mud or heaven forbid, oil.

Any oil or gas instantly killed the grass, but as hearty as that grass is/was, we never had to replace that grass. It got rolled on with normal tires, wide tires with deep grooves, and even an errant Impala with Bruce Slicks that flattened the grass, if it wandered off slightly. Ha!

Some folks poured the concrete to fill up the grassy area. It was totally smooth, but left the house with a bland, no style look of an industrial parking spot. So, the grass for the median strip stayed even to this day, on the homes still standing.

One other good thing was the immediate driveway with the grass strip was a coveted spot for the teenagers who drove their hot rods to our house for the weekly film showing. It was a great place to park as the hubcap exchanges and sit back and admire the car(s) was a central teenage thing to do. Plus, it was out of the way of the dreaded Jacaranda trees this whole Westside of Long Beach is famous for its street side beauty and longevity.

Hardly anyone parked on the curbs, due to the droppings leaving some awful residue on the paint. But, after the first driveway spot was taken, then all other teenagers had to park under the dropping purple flowers and residue. Yuk!

Our dad’s huge Buicks were inches away from the stucco house and wooden slat neighbor’s fence, but he never hit either one, in or out of the garage from 1953 to 1984. Our Oldsmobile, Impala and sedan delivery hot rods also never hit the either. The only one was our mom, when she got her own car and the neighbor’s wooden fence turned into a red brick wall.

 

I remember seeing driveways like that here in Michigan also

 

Back in '20 when it seemed like there wasn't jack squat to do - I invited a group over for a cookout - I cropped out a few of the O.T. cars....

 

When I built my shop after I retired I had to post a bond with the city. After the final inspection I couldn't get the bond back until the Porta Pottie was removed.

 

@Bandit Billy
What’s the story on that ‘50 coupe? Gotta be more than interesting.
Always wanted one…….

 

I don't believe in babying my critters......

 

Some of my past and present cars parked outside garage
from different times. Top pics is my current cars.

 

PM @Kim Strobeck and he will fill you in. All I know is he replaced the original plug wires and houses recently as well as new gas tank. Original flat head, the only fender that was red painted is the front right. The rest of the black is thin but legit patina. I hate that word, but this one? There’s just no better word to describe it.
Check with Kim. Every now and then he talks of selling it so he can build a roadster.
Other than a museum, I don’t see how there could be a more original hot rod show box.

 

Driveways like that were also common on this side of Michigan for houses built in the 1930's up until probably about the mid 1950's.
We called them "ribbon driveways"

 

Wow! lots of very nice cars but most look like garage cars parked in front of the garage for a picture.
This is what is actually parked in front of my garage.
Also a pic of what is actually parked inside the garage. [/ATTACH]

 

My other garage:

 

Cleaned out the construction materials from house renovations from the shop behind the Desoto..pics tomorrow...

 

On the side of garage?

 

. Couldnt move around.. Now i can walk around the cars.. feels great..

 

I didn't even notice till you said something. I think that's the exact same model as the one behind my cabin in WV?

 

Nice rides, but the comment is a pretty big leap. We've been down here less than two weeks and I've filled the roadster up twice. It's not just a "garage car"...