Saturday, May 3, 2014

Pale Green

When did color enter the scene in the automobile world? 
In his autobiography, Henry Ford said, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants  so long as it is black." I guess he was a visionary with a sense of humor. 

Black was the preferred color, because it dried faster than colored paint jobs. If you wanted it, the Model T was actually offered in the color red. I did not know this. The Chevy my Dad pulled into our Allen Avenue apartment, his first car, was basic black, as was all the coupes my grandfather took me for spins in. He liked the Pontiac and I loved that Indian hood ornament. The Willy's Jeep that was parked at our Stevens Avenue address was a gray number with a convertible top, and later, as the family grew, the station wagon that was parked in the garage was a Chevy in cream with red highlights. These days, you'd be hard-pressed to find a new, black vehicle in any showroom, I bet.
Oh well, I like this pale green.
There's a bit of me in it too!
Say, "Hi". 

*It's a '39 Plymouth.

15 comments:

  1. love that shade of green. Pure cool

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  2. The first few cars I remember my dad driving were all black. This really is a nice shade of green though.

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  3. Hi! :-) My father's Packard was green. Remember that one?

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  4. It's a lovely shade for a car.

    My dad didn't like black in any car my parents had. They had quite a number of cars, but only one black one.

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  5. Cool color, cool car; looks a lot like one of my parents' first cars but ours was gray. I remember the day Dad brought it home. What excitement!

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  6. I've been driving black cars since 1985. Nothing like a clean black car!

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  7. I wish that we had retained the classy hood ornaments.

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  8. Wrong wrong wrong wrong. Black cars are great. Until February I drove a black Acura MDX, an SUV, for thirteen years. Sadly, the transmission blew, so I was forced to send it to the automobile graveyard. My new car would have been black, too, but in Florida it seems more sensible to have white, to reflect the light.

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  9. Birdman, that is a classy looking 1939 Plymouth in your fine photo. Cars were all about style back then. Now they are all about aerodynamics and are not so interesting. My Dad was Plymouth dealer from 1945-1952, Ah, those were the years. Our family had new cars all the time. Don't remember any of them being black.

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  10. My car is black Birdman, I had it in my head that I wanted black and I got black.. now I'm thinking I should have gone with the steely grey.. too late she cried :) Meanwhile that green is to die for, j'adore!

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  11. My dad had a red Ford Taunus and then a green Ford. I don't own a car myself.

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  12. Back in the day my folks had a blue 46 Plymouth. I don't think we ever had a black car. My youngest daughter has a huge very shiny black Dodge Ram 10 cylinder truck. I don't know why. MB

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  13. Great photo, fantastic post. Thanks!

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