Our Cars--Uncle Myron's Cadillac
I was only three or four the first time I rode in Uncle Myron's Cadillac. Since I was born in 1961 this must have occurred in 1964 or 1965. I vividly remember sitting in the back seat and playing with the power window.
Of course, there's a bit more to the story than that.
Uncle Myron wasn't really an uncle--I called him "Uncle" even though he was no relation to my family at all. I grew up calling a lot of people I wasn't related to "Uncle" and "Aunt" as a mark of respect, so this in itself was nothing unusual.
I can't tell you precisely what year and model Cadillac it was, but I very clearly remember that it had four doors. I had a toy '62 Caddy hardtop that I used to push around on the floor in the living room, and Uncle Myron's car had the same sort of tail fins and headlights, so I think we can narrow the model year down to the 1960-63 period. It was either a Series 60 similar to the one at the top of this article or a Sedan DeVille like the one pictured below. I seem to remember that it was a rich gold color, with a beige/buff/light gold/cream interior, and the part of the rear window that rolled down was rectangular.
Even though I wasn't very car-aware at such a young age, I perceived that the adults talked about Cadillacs with a certain respect that they did not pay to more common conveyances such as Dad's '49 "Oldredford." The fact that Uncle Myron had one--he was the only adult I knew that had an actual Cadillac--signaled to the world that he was someone important.
Out of all my uncles and aunts, honorary and otherwise, Uncle Myron was one of my favorites. I'm not quite sure of the exact business arrangement, but he either owned or co-owned or at least managed the concessionaire that sold beer and hot dogs and peanuts and such at Forbes Field. That meant he could get us Major League baseball tickets and all-you-can-eat popcorn and soft drinks during the game.
And what tickets they were! I saw two or three dozen games at Forbes Field while I was growing up, thanks to Uncle Myron, and I was never more than a dozen rows back from the field, either right behind home plate or along the third base line behind the Pirates dugout. Best seats in the house. Close enough to see the beads of sweat on Roberto Clemente as he was taking practice swings in the on-deck circle.
Usually we took the eastbound morning train on the B&O to Pittsburgh and then, after a brief because-we-can joyride on the incline, made our way to the ball game by a combination of streetcar and taxi. On this particular occasion, however, we drove to Pittsburgh with one of Dad's friends. Dad's friend had a son who was a bit older than me. We parked at Uncle Myron's downtown apartment and rode to the game in the Cadillac. It must have gone into extra innings, because we left the ballpark after dark.
The adults were in the front seat having a conversation about grownup matters, and the other boy and I had the back to ourselves. The back seat of a Caddy of this vintage is the size of a small basketball court, and when you're three or four years old a space like that is positively immense.
At some point, the other boy directed my attention to a small, square chrome gewgaw in the middle of the door panel. "That makes the window go up and down," he told me.
I was ever a curious lad, eager to learn how things worked by either taking them apart or turning them on and fiddling with the controls--sometimes both at once. I pushed the lever in the middle of the square down, and the window dropped open, letting the Pittsburgh night air blow in. I pushed it the other way and the window closed up. I pushed it the other way again, amazed at my good fortune to live in a world where such marvels could exist.
Just then, my father told me to stop playing with the window, and Uncle Myron used the driver's override control to close it again.
For many years after that, I thought power windows were the Coolest Thing Ever. Every so often, I would ask Dad why we couldn't have a car with power windows. He always gave the same answer: they were expensive, and they broke down too easily.
In the early 1960s, Dad was right about the "expensive" part. The power windows on Uncle Myron's caddy were an $85 option in 1961, $118 a year later. That's $612.20 and $841.44 in today's dollars, respectively. Power windows also had a reputation for being failure-prone back then which was largely deserved. That continued well into the 1970s, though by that time it wasn't the power windows so much as it was the whole car that was failure prone.
Today, things are much different. Electric and electronic devices in general are dirt cheap and stone-ax reliable. As a result, power windows are--well, try to find a car that doesn't have them as standard equipment. Only the most humble of entry-level econoboxes still has manual-cranked windows. I've been told by more than one person that some smaller children today find hand-cranked windows as fascinatingly unique as power windows once seemed to me.
It's also interesting what happened to Cadillac. Circa 1964, Caddy was a high-end brand, deliberately kept a little rare to preserve its exclusivity, with a level of opulence in its appointments and precision in its fit and finish that few others could approach.
A decade or so later, this was no longer true. My father had a '75 Ford LTD--a Ford! one of the traditional "low-priced three" brands!--that, except for the lack of power windows, had every luxury feature Uncle Myron's Caddy did. The Ford's build quality was no great shakes, but neither was the build quality of a contemporaneous Cadillac. Indeed, the Cadillac brand was at that time losing its air of exclusivity, a victim of volume production, platform-sharing, badge-engineering, the rococo horrors of 1970s design, and the general decline of GM quality control--and the next decade would bring even worse offenses against Cadillac's brand equity. Somewhere in there, people stopped talking about Cadillacs in such reverent tones.
Cadillac has recovered from its low point--build quality and engineering are improved, and the new "Art & Science" look has restored a measure of distinctiveness. Cadillacs are interesting again. Today, however, the "luxury" market is a lot more crowded--there was no Lexus or Infiniti in 1964, Mercedes Benz had little presence outside Europe, and no one could imagine a Korean-built luxury car in their wildest dreams.
Perhaps more importantly, technology has advanced to the point where gadgets and features equal to anything that once could only be found on the most tricked-out Caddy--power windows, leather seats, and such--are commonly found on such democratic rides as the Volkswagen Passat, Toyota Corolla, or Chevy Cobalt. The build quality and durability of the basest of today's base-model Hondas exceeds anything Cadillac could have delivered back then.
In a world where the radio--just the sound system, mind you!--of a humble Ford Focus has more computing power than Neil Armstrong's lunar module, it is unlikely that any car will ever again stand so far above its peers in reputation and gadgetry as my uncle's Cadillac with the power windows did back then.
The photo of the '62 Sedan DeVille above came from Flickr user Blue Tsu Studio; the vintage ad came from AdClassix; the other photos are from the invaluable John's Old Car and Truck Pictures.
--Cookie the Dog's Owner
That Car Guy on September 15, 2009 at 09:31 AM
I think the 1960s Cadillacs were the marque's last great stand. Maybe Lincoln's as well. http://www.carlustblog.com/2009/08/1969-lincoln-continental-executive-limousine.html
I remember riding in a 1968 Fleetwood that had 8 power windows, footrests for the rear passengers, plush as anything on the road, and was as big as a barge. Seems that, starting in the 70s, these cars became a higher-trimmed Oldsmobile, Buick, or Mercury, rather than the standards of the world that they used to be. And the build quality went down faster than Wall Street stock values did this time last year.
Were cars better before federally-mandated bumpers, emissions controls, and safety features? In some ways, yes. It took the car makers years to get those things right. And during those years, we drove some pretty awful stuff. I don't know anybody who thinks 1970s American cars were the best decade ever.
Thanks for the memories, Cookie! Great post!
Peteski on September 15, 2009 at 11:11 AM
Great post, thanks.
ps. My Uncle Sammy's 1958 Sedan de Ville is sitting in Aunt Yolanda's garage. It was driven once a year from 1960 to his death in 1980, and not driven since. It's still there. Factory Air!
Steaming Pile on September 15, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Our '09 Corolla has hand-cranked windows. It's not the cheapest car Toyota makes (anymore), and the base model has most of the same toys the LE has as far as I can tell, except for the power windows/locks. My wife considers this a desirable feature on a car because it's one less thing to break.
And the Honda Accord it replaced did indeed have one of the power window motors go bad on us. An aftermarket motor costs $90 for one window, makes a different (and not as nice) noise as the OEM motors, and was probably made in China. I don't even want to know how much an actual Honda OEM power window motor costs.
The cool thing is, the Corolla's hand-cranked windows only require (about) two complete turns to roll down the window. My son's 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 requires something like six or seven complete cranks. Ain't that something?
Jed on September 16, 2009 at 06:41 AM
I love the touching article on your uncle's Cadillac. When I was growing up, I never knew anyone who had one, but I would see them drive by and long to have one someday. I have since owned many of these fine cars and have loved every one.
To reply to That Car Guy, I think that 1970's big American cars are the best. At the time, they must have seemed less powerful and more plastic-laden, but from today's standpoint they are well put together, more opulent than anything today, ride beautifully on radial tires and run well on today's E-10 gasoline, thanks to electronic ignitions and low compression engines. They are the last stand for old Detroit, the newest cars made in the old way.
I owned a 1976 Coupe DeVille and it was a great car. I measure a car by how it makes you feel at the end of a long trip. In the 76, you would be refreshed at your destination. It was truly a class act, with it's soft leather bench seat, zero-effort steering, and the silent, torquey 500 under the hood. In a world of hard-edged sport sedans, a big 70's Cadillac is a rare treat.
Paul A'Barge on September 16, 2009 at 12:29 PM
You like Cadillacs? How about a nice red one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZliu_TA2I
Chris on September 16, 2009 at 01:09 PM
My father bought new Cadillacs every two years in that era. He had a '63, '65, and then a '67. The '67, a Persian Ivory Calais, was the best of the bunch. He liked it so much he kept it five years. He maintained Cadillac went straight downhill in the 1970s. By the 1990s, he was a Toyota customer.
Bob on September 16, 2009 at 01:12 PM
Loved the comment about kids thinking hand cranked windows are "cool". I had that very experience with my young daughter. We were borrowing an older pickup truck for some yard duties.
When it became stuffy, I asked her to roll down her window. She looked at the door and said, "How?"
I showed her the "wonder mechanism" of a hand crank and she begged me to get that on our next car.
She's fascinated when I tell her stories about the "pioneer days" of not having a car phone.
Bill T. on September 16, 2009 at 06:38 PM
Not to disregard this particular model, but the favorite old Caddy still seems to be the whale-tail '59. A friend of mine worked at an all purpose service station back in the late '50's and early 60's. He was the detailer, and he remembers the grilles of the '59 Caddy as a nightmare. I personally like the '60 just as much.
For sheer size of car, I had a '60 Continental. The parking lot attendant where I worked referred to it as the two-family flat. The steering column was somewhere around 6 - 8" in diameter. The Lincoln and Continental shared the same body (and probably engine) from '58 through '60, and mine, being a '60, had a two barrel carb, which did surprisingly well on gas.
Some time later, a neighbor had a '68 New Yorker hardtop, which was as comfortable as any Caddy I had ever been in. Her husband was a repossessor and his company had repossessed a '69 Cad convert. I bought the Chrysler, and they got the Cadillac. It turned out to be a bad deal for them, and a number of times she told me she would have rather had the Chrysler back.
Neshobanakni on September 16, 2009 at 07:15 PM
Had a '93 Fleetwood. It was an excellent car. Comfortable, handled well, had every amenity, and drove 500 miles on a tankful. That kind of machinery spoils a man forever. It was easy to just stand dumbstruck by its beauty.
Hale Adams on September 16, 2009 at 09:19 PM
My first car was a 1965 Cadillac 60-series Fleetwood. I bought it in August of 1982, when I was twenty years old. I would have preferred a smaller car, but my father was insistent that his only son not drive a "rolling coffin". I didn't mind that a whole lot-- I *love* '65 and '66 Cadillacs, which are probably the best-looking cars that Detroit made in the forty years or so from the '40s to the '80s.
And it ran reasonably well, for being 17-18 years old when I bought it. The odometer showed 58,000 miles, and she was a bit worn, but the "Queen Mary" got me where I wanted to go for three years and about 25,000 miles, until she died on I-10 in El Paso one day in the Fall of '85. I sold her to a junkyard for $50. (I wince at that memory.) I hope she got a second life as some Mexican kid's "low-rider".
Man, the memories come flooding back.....
--Nineteen feet long from nose to tail.
--A cast-iron b*tch to parallel-park in a world sized for 1980s econoboxes.
--The 3.3:1 rear-end allowed me to blow the doors off 5.0-liter Mustangs napping at traffic lights. (429 cubic inches and a 10.5:1 compression ratio mean major motivation, even if the car weighs damn near three tons.)
--18-19 miles to the gallon on regular gas, if I kept a light foot on the throttle.
--Having to manually down-shift under heavy acceleration-- the electric downshift switch must have died sometime during the Ford Adminstration, I think.
--Trying to get the electric clock to work, just for the hell of it. I never did get it to work right, even after going so far as to rewind the little electromagnets that worked a lever to wind the clock every 30 seconds or so. Tickticktickticktickticktick ka-ching! Ticktickticktickticktickticktick ka-ching! I still have the clock-- I pulled it out of the QM before I sold her to the junk-man. One of these days I'll put a modern battery-operated movement in it, and make a desk-widget out of it.
--A trunk so large I was able to fit two Army foot-locker end-to-end across the width of it.
--A backseat so large four big guys could sit on it somewhat comfortably on the way to Veterans Stadium for a football game. Alas, I never did have the chance to put it to other purposes. ;-)
--And driving the QM was fun. She would cruise easily for hours (thanks to a 26-gallon tank, I think), and the seats were comfortable.
I think I'll stop now, before I bore you all to tears. ^_^;;
davis,br on September 16, 2009 at 11:28 PM
I learned to drive (well, on roads) in a '59. And took my drivers license test in it.
...and washed it. And washed it. And washed it.
That Car Guy on September 17, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Hale, if I may make a suggestion that would hopefully fix your clock, please clean the internal contacts. A light sandpaper or even a pencil eraser and/or rubbing alcohol could clean them so that the clock points will touch, make a tiny electrical connection, and rewind itself.
Hopefully the original movement is still good, and you will hear the Ticktickticktickticktick ka-ching! sound again.
A 9-volt battery is sufficient power to run your clock for months. I still have mine that came out of a Vega GT, and it runs when hooked up.
Alan on September 17, 2009 at 05:57 PM
Mid-Sixties Caddies never went out of style. There were always some guys who came into money, or just wanted one, and had one. Fifties Caddies disappeared into the collector firmament, Seventies-and-later ones disappeared into the junkyard, but there were alyays Sixties Caddies around and there still are now.
Robert on September 18, 2009 at 11:43 AM
I could see myself cruising one of those bad boys with Elvis playing on my way to Graceland. Nice car!
tomm on June 17, 2010 at 10:59 AM
Yes, Cadillacs became more common in the 70's. My parents were pure middle class in the 60's and we had Ramblers and Plymouths. By 1975, we could afford a used '72 Sedan de Ville. My dad always wanted a Caddy.
But, my folks were a little shocked at the gas mileage [8-16 mpg] and parts were more expensive. They went back to Buick/Olds cars afterwards. {Just as good, they said} Mom now has Avalon and Dad in a LaCrosse.