Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

San Chez Studebaker above probably not long after he got off his dads car lot.....must still have the Ardun.

 

Willie Borsch before Winged Express.

 

Hello,

When we moved to this 2nd So Cal home in 1953, we did not know it was going to be a forever home for our mom. We grew up from elementary school until college, then both brothers getting married, and finally, trying to get our mom to move to a new condo near us in the OC. She actually bought one, and watched it being built from the ground up. It was about 5 minutes from our old house in 1997.

She was finally happy that she was going to live in a new condo close to us and that she could drive over, most anytime. Obviously, for us, it was a miracle, as we had kept asking for the previous 14 years for her to move closer to us. That old neighborhood was good for us growing up, but it had changed over many times and was not the most appealing place to live, day or night.

But, in 1953, when we moved into the 2nd Westside home near the speed shops of Joe Mailliard, Speed Engineering, and Mickey Thompson (later) as well as Clay Smith Cams, that is where we grew up. The family next door had an older station wagon a 52 Ford Station Wagon. But, as the years rolled by, by 1956, they purchased another red/white combination station wagon for their 4 people family

I had taken the film of my brother and his teenage friends getting into the 1951 Oldsmobile sedan and then going off to the cruising scenes in Bixby Knolls. But, for the life of me, the Oldsmobile sedan always took precedence over anything else in the film, well, except for our mom, waving good bye to the teens.
In 1957 a Lime Green Olds/Moon Discs + Ford Wagon at the beginning...

But, recently, doing a digital frame by frame movie editing, I finally saw the Red 52 Ford Station Wagon of our next door neighbor. By the end of the year, 1957, they had moved to a new tract home in Lakewood, So Cal.

Similar in looks, but it was parked in the driveway almost daily. The garage was full of boxes and their own Mom’s other family car. So, the daily driver station wagon was always parked in the driveway.

So, if we wanted to throw a baseball farther than one yard in a game of "catch," we had to wait until the neighbor moved his station wagon. That way, we had three yards to throw a baseball, as if we were in center field and made a home plate throw for accuracy. YES !

Jnaki

The Lakewood neighborhood tract homes were the latest development in a huge, barren location near the Douglas Aircraft Manufacturing Plant and the Long Beach Airport. It was very popular, since it was a new home development, not one like ours built in 1946. The lure of new homes in a new location with the job close at hand is nothing to scoff at during this time period. A family friend also moved to the same development back then, too.

It was the “official” start of the whole area being called a “tract” home build. Then nearby was the largest outdoor shopping center in the whole area and/or the So Cal. It seemed like the two major department stores were like giant office buildings and were the largest in the So Cal, let alone anywhere in the world at the time. It was a huge center that drew folks from all over So Cal. But, now, it is enclosed as a normal indoor mall. Still large, but moving on with the times… YRMV

 

I call Photoshop Ai fake boooooo
thatz not a" Traditional Image that need no explanation"

 

Not AI but the truck certainly has been photoshopped into the older background pic.

 

Two quite different 200+ MPH roadsters trying to escape the LA Fairgrounds.