Family wagons through history...
1959 Pontiac Catalina, Dad purchased new, and we had that thing for 5 years; he sold it to his brother-in-law who had it another 10 years, at least!
Me wanting to ride in the front seat, which I was never permitted to do at that age... This was in the days of metal dashboards, no seat belts, and car seats were for infants only and faced forward and
might have been tied down by straps that they came with.
Moving forward several years, I'm almost in high school, now. Only picture I can find of this car, and it has these morons standing in front of it blocking the view.
1971 Chrysler Town and Country, 440 cubic inches with a 4-barrel carb. Had a rear-facing third seat, and a 2-way tailgate that was magic or something; it folded down like you'd expect, or opened out like a regular door (although a pretty dang BIG door.) This is also the first car I ever drove solo. Unsupervised, as it were. First car we had with power windows and cruise control.
Almost out of high school, having graduated just a few weeks after we got this car. 1975 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, a genuine land yacht. 455 4-bbl engine, had the GM disappearing tailgate where the window slid into the roof and the tailgate slid down and went away under the car. Front-facing third seat, one side of the second-row seat flipped up for access. (Bonus wagons with the VWs next door!)
Here it is loaded up for my move to college, with only room left for the driver. I rode up with my roommate in his car, a Rabbit, which was loaded almost as heavily. I had
furniture in there, and my bicycle
and my roommate's bicycle! There was also a desk and two chairs! And the normal stuff, like clothes, books, tools, typewriter, records (this is
way before CDs,) although I think the stereo and speakers were in the Rabbit.
