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BangShift Question Of The Day: Do You Have Any Good Station Wagon Memories?


BangShift Question Of The Day: Do You Have Any Good Station Wagon Memories?

The timing was off, I guess. When it comes to discussions on who rode in what growing up as a kid, most people my age rode around in minivans or the early smaller SUVs of the early 1990s. Older than me, they rode around in station wagons. Younger, probably a Toyota Camry. I grew up with young parents…outside of an extremely shitty 1985 Chevrolet Cavalier that needed to meet a crusher the day it was made, we didn’t have your typical “family car”. My dad drove a stepside Ford from the late 1970s. My mother had a ’75 Olds Omega two door. Stepdad had many cars, but he hung onto a 1969 Chevelle longest. I had a friend in elementary school whose mom owned a Buick like the one pictured and that was it. Station wagons are, sadly, before my time…they were uncool when I was born. But I’ve heard the great stories of being piled into the car for long trips, of sitting in the way-back seat and flipping off traffic much to the annoyance of everyone around you, and so on and so forth. I didn’t see any of that. I got a wheezing 2.0L four and the lingering smell from when I threw up in the backseat after eating bad food at a Rax in Carbondale, Illinois. That’s my station wagon moment right there.

Please, tell me some better stories. I could use them. And, if you like, check out RCR’s review of a Buick wagon. Be warned, he’s grunting like he ate some fiber bars again…

 


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15 thoughts on “BangShift Question Of The Day: Do You Have Any Good Station Wagon Memories?

  1. Spaceman Spiff

    WHY!! does he keep calling it a small block Chevy…when it’s clearly an Oldsmobile engine…. it even says it real big on the air cleaner lid….

  2. phitter67

    All the stories could fill a book. My parents bought a 1962 Bel Air wagon new after I was born and I drove it to high school. About six months of that the powerglide had no second gear. I slid off the road in the snow and hit a telephone pole and two trees. Pulled out the dents some, replaced the rear window with plexiglass, and drove it about a year longer. Pulled the engine for the Camaro that replaced it, and the Camaro is in my daughter’s garage now, forty years later.

  3. Kenneth Clark

    My parents bought a 1960 Ford Ranch Wagon in 1962, there were four of us kids, but when we went to the skating rink, swimming pool, drive in movies, hunting, fishing, etc., etc., we were allowed to bring \”all\” our friends. Many a childhood friend says to me now that if not for that old station wagon they would have been stuck at home a lot more. Many kids learned to skate, fish, hunt, and swim because of my parents and they still think me for it. It was ugly, white, no A/C, 352 V8, 4 door. I hated it then, but love the memories. It would spin one tire if you were on a dirt road, turned hard in one direction.

  4. Kenneth Clark

    My parents bought a 1960 Ford Ranch Wagon in 1962, there were four of us kids, but when we went to the skating rink, swimming pool, drive in movies, hunting, fishing, etc., etc., we were allowed to bring “all” our friends. Many a childhood friend says to me now that if not for that old station wagon they would have been stuck at home a lot more. Many kids learned to skate, fish, hunt, and swim because of my parents and they still think me for it. It was ugly, white, no A/C, 352 V8, 4 door. I hated it then, but love the memories. It would spin one tire if you were on a dirt road, turned hard in one direction.

  5. Matt Cramer

    My best wagon road trip story may have been an Atlanta to Yellowstone trip in an ’81 Datsun 210 wagon. My parents talk about how much they hated the trip and the weather was horrible – I just remember seeing the geysers (and the marmots that lived under the boardwalks), and some interesting stops along the way. It looks like, having experienced it as a kid, I managed to blot out the bad parts of the memories.

  6. Bill warburton

    I had a 69 Chevy Kingswood wagon that I used for towing my trailer with my A/FD in it . It had a 427CI , 335 HP , Hi performance Block with a 400 turbo with a 2.50 rear . On the interstate, with loaded trailer, it could go 90 MPH without breaking a sweat . On push starts it could get up to 60 MPH quickly , which was needed when you had a “load” in the tank . At the track fans would see the 427 emblems and think that they were bogus but when I showed them the motor they would be blown away . I got as many questions on the wagon as I did on the dragster . The funny part about this car was , I bought it from a minister !

  7. Piston Pete

    The first car I drove was my Mom’s ’63 Polaris wagon, 318, typewriter Torqueflight. She sent out spies and I got busted doing 80 out in the sticks first day with my license. The rest of my wagon stories involve a series of half fast Malibus that mostly succumbed to a serious lack of funding.

  8. Brendan M

    I grew up with wagons. My mom started with a Caprice, then slimmed down to a Chevy Celebrity wagon with a 2.8L.
    Her last official mom-mobile was a 1989 Pontiac Safari with a 307 and the timeless fake wood siding. I used to flip the air cleaner lid to give the quadrajet that special “woosh” sound!

  9. Scott Liggett

    If I were to get a station wagon, it would have to be just like my Mom’s 64 Buick Skylark Sport Wagon. These had the longer back doors and sky lights like the Olds Vista Cruiser. They had this wagon before I was born until I was 9 when we sold it when we were leaving Kadena AFB back to Omaha NE. It didn’t have the aluminum 215 V8. It had the boring 301 2 bbl V8.

  10. Tim

    In the late 80s I had a 77 Cougar Villager with a 400M. Driving home from work on the swing shift I was stopped in the middle lane at a stop light when an Audi Quatro Turbo pulled up in the right lane which ended 100 yards after the light. The light turned green and, while I wasn’t racing, I wasn’t wasting time going home after a long night at work. The Audi was even with me as I was accelerating to the 55 speed limit and tried to get ahead but he didn’t have the power to pass and expected me to slow for him to move over into my lane. That didn’t happen and I just kept my lane and continued accelerating, not to the floor but obviously accelerating faster than he could. After slowing and moving over to the left lane, he honked as he passed and I’m sure flipped me off. I don’t know why he was mad. It wasn’t my fault he spent almost $40K for his Audi only to get beat by my $500 station wagon.

  11. Gazoo

    As a kid we had a 68 Pontiac Laurentian Safari wagon with a 327. We pulled our tent trailer camping, or went fishing when we would sleep in the back. Plain Jane but a very handsome car. My dad thought it used too much gas and traded it in on a POS 72 Ventura sedan with a gutless 307. We got rid of that dog a couple of years later.

    Right now I am rebuilding a 72 Gran Torino wagon with a 351 Cleveland 4v. Another handsome car.

  12. Jammen J

    My parents bought me a 56 Ford Country Squire Wagon from my Uncle for several Hundred Dollars in early 1964 . As a Lifelong SURFER it was Ideal . But when my life shifted to the Icey Waters of Inland NorCal my intrests shifted to HOT RODDING .After Blowing the 2 speed FordOmatic and hundred thousand mile 292. I sourced a Low milage 352 out of a wrecked Tbird . Slapped on 3x2s from a wrecked 406.mounted a B&M 4 speed HYDRO. Had Vic Hubbard Freshin the short block & install an ISKY 505 Cam. Dyno pulled 400 hp.LOTS of Fun at FREMONT and East 14th St. Stop light JAM !! THE GOOD OLD DAYS !!

  13. Art Ist

    I remember my parents buying a brand new Chevy Wagon just before our trip from SoCal to Kansas. We had the burlap bag full of water mounted to the front grill, the ice chest full of sandwiches and the thermos full of coffee and a slop bucket for us kids as my dad did the 24 hour drive only stopping for gas and everything.

    On the trip back thru the desert we hit a big sandstorm and when we were able to finally stop the entire side of the wagon had all the paint and chrome sandblasted off down to bare metal and all the windows were frosted.

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