1962, On The Way to Work

Click photo to see FOR SALE signs in window

I pass this house almost every morning on my way to work. It's a corner house with a big driveway and a side-lot. There are always vintage 1960s cars in the driveway and parked at the curb nearby. Sometimes the cars are perfectly maintained and preserved. Other cars have been tricked out with suede paint jobs or fancy wheel rims.  You can almost see an old Chevy in the driveway that doesn't have wheels or windows. It will probably be looking good in a few months. Yesterday I spotted this 1962 Thunderbird in, what looks like, nearly perfect condition (as far as the body is concerned). $14,000. Yikes! That seems a lot for a car that is 54 years old. I wonder if the engine has been rebuilt?

I've had a long love affair with Thunderbirds ever since the first generation, 1955-1957, came out. What an adorable two-seater that was! This looked like a perfect car for my Barbie doll! Barbie ended up getting a 1962 Austin-Healey Roadster. Silly girl. Barbie may have been foreshadowing the upcoming British invasion. 

Barbie would have looked so cool in this car!

Our next-door neighbors had a 1959 Thunderbird. I remember watching Mr. Brown attach ropes and pulleys to the roof of his hard-top, convertible T-bird and lifting the roof to the rafters of his garage for the summer. Magic.

The 1962 Thunderbird

Later, when I was ready to purchase a car in the early 1970s, one of my Dad's friends was selling a 1957 T-bird. It was the same price as a new compact at the time. I wanted that car so badly. My Dad said that buying a car that was 14 years old couldn't be as reliable as a new 1971 Dodge Colt. Since Pop was paying, I couldn't argue. I settled for the red Dodge compact. Sigh.

Once, at the end of the summer session at Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, I helped a friend out by driving his 1966 Thunderbird to Los Angeles. Whoa! That was one long car, especially driving it down the hill around all those curves on the Idyllwild highway!  I managed to make it to L.A., but I really wished he'd had the smaller, cuter '55-57 model.

The 1962 model is not as adorable and small as the '55-'57 model, but it's a nice, medium-sized car, perfect for a matron of a certain age, like me. Hmmmm? Wonder if I could trade this guy for a 1955 Chevy that's molding in our backyard. Larry might have something to say about that! A girl can dream...