The beach at Nantasket, Massachusetts was brimming with Ford motorcars on The 4th of July 1925. After a dip in the ocean, how would you find your way back to your car? With such lack of variety in models, how would a 50-year-old man buy a “crisis car”? Could you steal another’s spare tire and afix it to your own vehicle? When did they start marking parking spaces with white paint? Didn’t the black absorb the summer sun?
Fifteen more years would pass before the 1940 Packard offered factory-installed air-conditioning. But even by 1969, only half of all new cars had it. We never had it in our cars in the ’70s. That metal lapbelt clasp would scald the bejeesus out of my skin. Remember how it felt when the vinyl seat ripped the top layer of your thigh skin off?
P.S., where can I get a brassiere like this? This defies gravity.
I Don't Get It 
What a great pic –all those black look-alike cars and people in their overly modest and cover-some bathing costumes. How dreadful! Roll the clock forward a few short years, and ladies are accentuating certain assets with atomic cones! (And bejeesus is one of my favorite words, so props for that!)
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Oh, thank you. We can’t let that word die out, can we?
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The first air conditioned car that I owned was a 1974 Firebird. I felt decadent the first few times that I turned the air on.
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I bet! I still never turn mine past level 2 bc I feel like levels 3 and 4 are wasteful, even when it’s 105 in Texas. When I get in my husband’s truck, he always has it cranked, and I wonder if he thinks he’s the King of the World.
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PS have you ever looked at Elila USA’s website? Just a though.
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No, I never had. It says they have bras available at Kohl’s, where I get mine anyway. I’ll have to check it out. Bras are so expensive! I just did an hour jog, and that jogging one was over $50.
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I hear you. The manufacturers treat them like an investment.
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it is amazing that people thought nothing of driving long distances on mediocre highways without AC. Now folks seem as though they can’t go to the grocery without it. My dad’s ’66 New Yorker had AC. It wasn’t all that effective Dad used it just because he had it. The kids thought it was a cool novelty. My first ride with it was a 73 Caddie. The only times I used it was in the dog days of Summer. Bad mileage don’t you know. Great picture by the way. I am going to use bejeesus at least twice today. See how people react.
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Awesome pic Kerbey.
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Thanks!
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OK, this one is about things changing and not staying the same. Good question about how to find your car? Don’t suppose there are keyfobs that will set off an alarm to lead you to your vehicle?
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I thought about that, too. But no. I think I’d tie a yellow ribbon around mine, like I do on a black suitcase at the airport.
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