When Holyoke was a thriving industrial city much like the rest of the Pioneer Valley. Miss those times.
It is/was very rare to see a two door ambulance in service... Hello, Mortuary ambulance similarities… a two door Chevy ambulance from Louis Richard Mortuary. The other photo is of Mr. Childers at the late 1950s early 60s with his 2 door Pontiac Ambulance from Dilday Mortuary Services in Long Beach, CA. The Dilday Mortuary Building was in downtown Long Beach about 6 miles from Lion’s Dragstrip. We knew of the owner's of the ambulance service, as the two sons were in our high school classes. they were well known and the building was a few blocks from our high school. It was one of the most popular services with a large fleet of ambulances and mortuary vehicles. The two door versions of ambulances were rare as most were 4 doors. The Pontiac Ambulance got replaced by 1964 at Lion’s Dragstrip with a larger 4 door version. Jnaki Mr. Childers was a nice guy and allowed me to stand next to him during the races and between the races, talking about all sorts of things. That allowed me to be steps away from the dragstrip to take films of the drag racers and the full acceleration from the starting line. The two brothers, standing next to Mr. Childers closer to the starting line. The location allowed me to take very close action shots of my brother racing in his class. Then as it was “waiting” time between elimination races for our classes, the position allowed me a great place to get shots of one of a PNW FED coming a few feet away from my position: The photo shows the security patrol standing next to his friend, Mr. Childers, while I had already moved farther down the track. The tower location was a great place to film the starts, but that was it. Everything was not clear in a few seconds. But, the sound and action so close by was a little thrilling. A 1960 Lion's Dragstrip photo... The security force (dragstrip police) did not like it that I was standing on the dragstrip while filming. But, if I was standing next to Mr. Childers, the ambulance driver, it was ok. If the other shift came on the job, he was a stickler for rules and even with my "Pit" pass, I was told to go back to the real "Pits" area behind the chain link fence and Tower. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
