Sepia Saturday 590 - Old Cars

 

 Above: The prompt picture for Sepia Saturday 590 -
"a photograph of a couple sat on the running board of a car"

My mind went searching for memories of photos of cars in my family albums, and the first (and oldest) that came to mind was this one, from one of my grandmother's albums:

 It's a black & white photo in the album, but I think it comes out even better in sepia:

My grandmother's note below the photo only says "old Ford visiting" [at the farm where she grew up and lived until 1930, when she got married], but nothing about who the people in that car were. I would date the photo to the late 1920s. My grandmother is the young woman in the dark dress in the front seat, closest to the camera. I don't recognize any of the others. The photo is signed by a photographer whose name is also unknown to me.

Next, I wondered if I might have a photo somewhere of my parents', or dad's, first car. I found two blurry ones in mum's photo album, from shortly after she and dad got married, in the summer of 1954. They called the car Patrick.

I'm not sure I ever met Patrick myself; I think he was exchanged for a slightly more modern Volvo around the time I was born (1955), or not very long after. 

However, even if perhaps I never travelled in Patrick myself, I still remember him as spoken of by my parents; and also as a "character" in a small picture story book that my mum made during her first year/s as a young teacher in a countryside school, while she and dad were dating. She hand-made a few picture books for the children she taught back then, because there wasn't much of a library available (or at least not that kind of books). That was some years before I was born; but she kept those books, and took them out to show me sometimes when I was little - and I still have them.

This is a photo taken outside that school house in 1952, when my dad and his parents came to visit. It shows mum, dad, my grandmother (dad's mum), and my grandparents' dog Zepp, a collie. I assume my grandfather took the photo (he usually did). 

The children my mum was teaching at that school in 1952.

And here are the pictures from the book "Bumse and Patrik";

The book (7 handwritten pages) is in Swedish, but here is a summary for you:

Bumse, a young troll living in the forest, decided to go off seeking adventure. When he got out to a road, he came upon a car parked there. He had never seen a car before, so didn't know what it was. He started talking it, and the car, Patrick, offered him a ride. He could jump up at the back, Patrick said, after the family he was driving had got in, and then they wouldn't see him. But after a while, excited by the adventure, Bumse forgot to hold on - and  fell off. He did not know where he was, or what to do. Another car came driving in the opposite direction, and Bumse asked it if he could get a ride back. But that car (it's name was Dollar Grin) just answered "No lift" (in English!). Just as the little troll was getting very worried about how to get home again, he heard another car nearby coughing and stopping, and a man's voice saying "I can't understand why it stopped". Bumse crept up to have a look - and found Patrick standing there, blinking at him.  "I thought it must be around here that you fell off," Patrick said. "But hurry up to get back on now - I don't like causing a delay for the family!"

On the Road - Sepia Saturday 477

It's Saturday. It's raining. I'm packing for a road trip; and trying to get it into my head that this year is going to be different from last year, when the whole of Sweden was stuck in an abnormal heat wave all summer. This year, I'm likely to need umbrellas, rain-and-wind-proof jackets and warm sweaters - as well as sandals and lighter clothes and sunglasses. It's that kind of summer: One needs to pack for all eventualities. 


We'll be skipping the bikes and canoes, though! 
As if the thought would ever even have entered my mind! ;)
 

This is a car spotted on last year's road trip.

Neither are we (brother & I) bringing all the stuff involved to set up roadside picnics like those in our childhood:

 Dad and my brother near Dartmoor (Devon, England),1971. 

 Same trip, up in Scotland near Loch Ness

Looking back at our family holidays in the 1960s and 70s, I'm at awe with all the planning and packing it must have involved for our parents. (And no internet to help back then, either!)

Linking to Sepia Saturday 477

Shadow Shot Sunday

 

...Another cold and sunny day...

Shadow Shot Sunday 2 

Engines & Automobiles – Trollhättan (6)

After our visit to the Falls, we decided to also pay our respects to the Saab Car Museum – located at the Innovatum Science Center, on premises that back in my youth used to house another of Trollhättan’s historic heavy industries – Nohab, manufacturer of things like turbines for power plants, railway locomotives, and also aircraft and ship engines.

If we hadn’t had a car, we could have used the new cableway (400 m long, 32 m above ground) that nowadays connects this area with the tourist attractions on the other side of the canal (power plants, falls and locks).  

I was glad we did have the car, though – and not just because of the rain! Have to confess I’m not keen on dangling in a little cable cabin up in the air myself… Even if I suppose it really is a rather clever solution in a town where they can only have a minimum of bridges because of the boat traffic in the canal.

As tribute to all the locomotives once produced at Nohab, there is still one standing outside to be admired.

I’m afraid my photos from the Saab Museum are rather random. Apart from never having been very good at telling one car apart from another, I was very tired by the time we got there. I just strolled around a bit and pointed the camera at a few things that caught my eye; and then I sat down and waited for Per, who probably had a better idea of what he was looking at. He told me afterwards, for example, that some of the cars were prototypes that never actually got out on the market. Whether that includes any of those I happed to snap with my camera, I dare not say…

Linking to:
Our World Tuesday
Ruby Tuesday Too 

Vintage Cars Nostalgia

Citroën “Dolly”

 

Volvo PV 831

 

SAAB

Buick “Skylark”

Another Volvo

Morris

Messerschmitt FMP

At the Railway Jubilee last weekend, there was also to be a parade of vintage cars. We did not have time to stay for that, but walking through the parking lot near the station we found several old cars that had probably come for that purpose :)

If you missed the steam train post, you will find it here.

Linking to Our World Tuesday and Ruby Tuesday Too.

Saturday Surprise: Mini Meeting

It soon became obvious that the many minis seen in town today must be more than a coincidence!

Typically I had left my camera at home, but fortunately I did remember to bring my mobile phone (cellphone).

(A maxi mini?)

 

Linking to Straight Out of the Camera Sunday.

Convertible

Last Sunday I came upon this beauty parked among all the typical family cars outside the supermarket. I’m embarrassingly hopeless at identifying cars – but surely this must be a Cadillac, right?? Coward that I am, I didn’t dare go too close (like lean in to take photos of the interior) – fearing I might set off an alarm or something! … ;)

http://youtu.be/Qe6UpGFlRGM

Cadillac – Hep Stars*

I’m dedicating this post especially to two of my blogging friends: Eva of Eva Ason’s Art who paints charming water colours of old cars (among other things) – and GB who might be missing his “handbag” (recently having returned from New Zealand to his other home in the Hebrides).

* The Hep Stars was a successful Swedish rock groups in the 1960s; outside the Nordic countries probably  best known as a launching point for keyboard player and composer Benny Andersson, who went on to enjoy worldwide success with ABBA. 

They were the first pop stars I “worshipped” back in my pre-teens … ;)