International Station Wagon Club Meet Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS7oxN2rLL8
International Station Wagon Club National Meet Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLeeE2Wa4mA
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Love will keep them together with their wagons and tunes
Love will keep them together with their wagons and tunes
By Taryn Plumb, Globe Correspondent June 22, 2008
STURBRIDGE - When Eric Ringstrom climbs into his liberty-white Buick behemoth with faux wood paneling and tan corduroy seats, he's fully drenched in the '70s.
The click of a key prompts the back window and tailgate to slide open like a yawning clamshell. A dashboard 8-track grooves with Barry Manilow and Captain & Tennille.
"It's the whole nostalgia thing," shrugged the Wallingford, Conn., resident, leaning up against the 1976 wagon's hulk during the International Station Wagon Club convention at the Publick House yesterday. "I love the styling. I love a big car."
Drivers of about 75 station wagons - one from as far as Ontario - gathered to gawk at one another's wagons. They arrived Tuesday and wrapped up yesterday. The group claims 175 members from the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia.
In the parking lot behind the Publick House, station wagons from various eras sat in diagonal rows like an out-of-sync timeline. Chrome, fins, and hardtops glared with the afternoon sun; propped-open hoods boasted HEMI and V8 engines. There was a 2000 Mercedes-Benz E320 silver wagon, a lipstick-red, 1957 Chevy Bel Air, and a1966 Pontiac Bonneville in fountain blue.
"Every one of us grew up in wagons," said club president Charles Snyder, who motored his 1974 Montego up from Pittsburgh. "That's why we like them."
Despite the gas mileage.
"We used a half a tank on the way up," lamented Ringstrom, who said his trip from Wallingford was about 65 miles, and he got about 8 miles per gallon. "You can't afford to drive them anymore."
Ringstrom drives a 1991 burgundy Ford Country Squire named Jerry, which has logged 208,000 miles. "We got a lot of thumbs-up on the way here," he said with a laugh.
Station wagons, designed to carry luggage, first appeared in the 1910s as "depot hacks," or taxicabs, at train stations, according to stationwagon.com.
Later, after World War II, the mass-produced station wagon many Americans loaded into as kids, meant to be economical and functional, rumbled onto the roads. There were hardtops, soft tops, "compacts," two doors, four-doors and "woodys." The original family-mover, they prospered until the 1980s, according to stationwagon.com, when minivans began to bump them off the roads.
Franklin resident Jack Lane is proud to say he owns a very rare version of a woody.
A 1953 Ford Country Squire - tan, with a bulbous hood and maple detailing - he says it is one of only four of its kind in the country. And don't be fooled by its antique look: It can roar up to 70 miles an hour.
"This car going down the road," he grinned, eyes shielded by a straw hat, "people notice it."
www.boston.com
By Taryn Plumb, Globe Correspondent June 22, 2008
STURBRIDGE - When Eric Ringstrom climbs into his liberty-white Buick behemoth with faux wood paneling and tan corduroy seats, he's fully drenched in the '70s.
The click of a key prompts the back window and tailgate to slide open like a yawning clamshell. A dashboard 8-track grooves with Barry Manilow and Captain & Tennille.
"It's the whole nostalgia thing," shrugged the Wallingford, Conn., resident, leaning up against the 1976 wagon's hulk during the International Station Wagon Club convention at the Publick House yesterday. "I love the styling. I love a big car."
Drivers of about 75 station wagons - one from as far as Ontario - gathered to gawk at one another's wagons. They arrived Tuesday and wrapped up yesterday. The group claims 175 members from the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia.
In the parking lot behind the Publick House, station wagons from various eras sat in diagonal rows like an out-of-sync timeline. Chrome, fins, and hardtops glared with the afternoon sun; propped-open hoods boasted HEMI and V8 engines. There was a 2000 Mercedes-Benz E320 silver wagon, a lipstick-red, 1957 Chevy Bel Air, and a1966 Pontiac Bonneville in fountain blue.
"Every one of us grew up in wagons," said club president Charles Snyder, who motored his 1974 Montego up from Pittsburgh. "That's why we like them."
Despite the gas mileage.
"We used a half a tank on the way up," lamented Ringstrom, who said his trip from Wallingford was about 65 miles, and he got about 8 miles per gallon. "You can't afford to drive them anymore."
Ringstrom drives a 1991 burgundy Ford Country Squire named Jerry, which has logged 208,000 miles. "We got a lot of thumbs-up on the way here," he said with a laugh.
Station wagons, designed to carry luggage, first appeared in the 1910s as "depot hacks," or taxicabs, at train stations, according to stationwagon.com.
Later, after World War II, the mass-produced station wagon many Americans loaded into as kids, meant to be economical and functional, rumbled onto the roads. There were hardtops, soft tops, "compacts," two doors, four-doors and "woodys." The original family-mover, they prospered until the 1980s, according to stationwagon.com, when minivans began to bump them off the roads.
Franklin resident Jack Lane is proud to say he owns a very rare version of a woody.
A 1953 Ford Country Squire - tan, with a bulbous hood and maple detailing - he says it is one of only four of its kind in the country. And don't be fooled by its antique look: It can roar up to 70 miles an hour.
"This car going down the road," he grinned, eyes shielded by a straw hat, "people notice it."
www.boston.com
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