Buick STOCKING STUFFERS!

Giving someone a Buick for the holidays? Need some stocking stuffers? How about seat covers or a center bumper guard for a 1936 Buick from the Buick Magazine?

Click on image to see it larger.

What? You say that now that you've been on that Paleo diet and exercising 3 hours a day your socks are too small to hold a center bumper guard?

No worries. Just point your recipient to this helpful video teaching them the rules of the road. It shows you care...and you don't have to spend any cash. And they'll be convinced big brother is always watching which in many cases in many cities is absolutely true.

Get more JUNK IN YOUR TRUNK with Buick

Inside back cover of The Buick Magazine from December 1936.

Click on image to see it larger.

And when you think about buying that iPad, remember at one point you could buy a Buick for $845. Can you imagine with what gas cost in 1936 how far you could drive for $845?

I'm guessing the trunk of this car was packed by an engineer with a slide rule or someone who worked at a sardine factory. You judge.

Click on image to see it larger.

Your Source for STUDEBAKER JOKES!

Wondering how you're going to deal with the relatives on Thanksgiving? Have nothing to say to them that doesn't begin with "You know what ticks me off about you...?"

Well, worry no more. I'm making it easy for you. Here are some jokes from 1937 courtesy of the Studebaker Wheels magazine. Thigh slappers every single one of them!

Click on image to see it larger.

The EXTRAS for YOUR STUDEBAKER

Go in to buy a car and just when you think the price is set they start in with the nickel and dime stuff.

“Do you want carpeting? How many speakers do you want? Undercoating? We recommend undercoating. We can’t be held responsible if you don’t get the undercoating."

What if they offered you luggage? Custom-built luggage for your Studebaker. Would you buy it? Made to fit. And yeah, if you don’t buy it you don’t get the blond dame in the passenger seat. She's an extra.

It’s up to you big spender.

SOURCE: The Studebaker Wheel, July 1937

MEN and THEIR STUDEBAKERS

I've been doing a series of posts at my vernacular photography site about men and their cars; old snapshots of men standing next to their pride and joy.

This weeks Sepia Saturday has inspired me to post the following from the July 1937 magazine called "The Studebaker Wheel." According to a site called The Studebaker Wheel there were a total of 117 issues of this promotional customer oriented publication. I have only one, but it's a gem. You can see a previous post I did about this issue here.

The images below are mostly of men and their Studebakers. Do click on the images to see them larger. The captions are well worth reading.

Click on either image to see them larger.

LET'S GO FIRST CLASS across America: Part 6

I think we need to redefine what's first class.

We've been touring around looking at large hotels, all claiming to be first class locations. Now, if you're a hotel kind of person that's great. If you need someone to carry your luggage, order room service at all hours, and maybe have a view of the big city, a hotel is what you're looking for.

Me...not so much. Though hotels can be interesting, I'm just not the sort of person who gets jazzed about them. I like the open road, out-of-the-way motels, and campgrounds. The fewer people the better.

Raise your hand if you ever stayed at a motor court. Not a motel, a motor court. If you have to ask the difference you haven't stayed in one. These days most motor courts are gone. If they're still standing they've been turned into run-down apartments or left to gather amongst the native weeds. It's all pretty sad, because I have fond memories of motor courts as a kid. I loved the fact that it was a little bungalow, sometimes attached to other bungalows by an open front garage. My favorites were the detached bungalows, especially those that looked like log cabins.

As cars got larger the little garages were too small to accommodate what was coming out of Detroit. These days my little car would fit fine and dandy into one of those snug garages.

I recently found this brochure at an estate sale. I've not been able to find anything about Best Camps other than that this brochure is in some archives at UCLA. The brochure was valid until the end of 1933.

Best Camps was an organization extolling the virtues of motor courts and lodges up and down along the Pacific Coast from Canada to Mexico. They provided various listings along various highways; all the courts were individually owned, no chains. There are actually 7 pages of listings.

Click on any image to see it larger.

Click here to see a wonderful article in the November 1936 Modern Mechanix about motor courts.

Click here to see Wikipedia's entry about motels.

And stop in at Vintage Roadside to see some wonderful articles about motor courts and motels, diners and drive-ins, and roadside attractions; all the things that made cross country travel in the US so wonderful.

Or try Motel Memories or visit Motel Americana.

Give me a two lane road and plenty of time!

Tomorrow: Who knows? We're on the open road and we stop when we stop.

It was the GREAT DEPRESSION and they were still MERRY

I promised another card which might offend some. Not me, but some.

Again, this card is from the same scrapbook as the one yesterday. Early 1930s. The Great Depression. A jackass, some booze, and a wreath. That about sums up the holidays for many a soul.

Enjoy!

And for those closing up shop to rush away to loved ones I wish you all a Merry Christmas. Now that I have net access again, and as long as the rains don't take my signal down, I'll be able to go back through a few weeks of posts to catch up.

¡VIVA FIESTA! and CHAPULTEPEC for Some Fine Mexican Dining

Let's say you were in Dallas, Texas back in the 1930s. Hankering for some good food. Well, here you go.

This vintage menu was glued into an old scrapbook I bought years ago, thus the damage to the back of the menu. But how about those prices? An entire dinner for $1.00. With what's in my wallet right now I could order the entire menu.

I think the illustration on the front is stunning and decided to create some items in my Cafe Press shop, Tattered and Lost. Take a look!