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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

1963 Corvair And Vw On Shoulder Of A Volcano


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This video is longer than I recommend, being about 2 ¼ minutes, but it has the virtue of including lots of shots of a 1963 (or 62) Corvair in action.

 

This clip is edited from about 45 minutes of a movie of my college friends and me on a trip to Mt Lassen National Park in 1963. Forty Five years does dim the old memory a tad, but we traveled from San Jose through the East Bay, along Old US99 and what is now State 36 to Mt Lassen. We spent the night at Childs Meadows Lodge (since burned) and then joined other college friends at the Manzanita camp ground, behind the Manzanta Lodge (since torn down by an overly protective NPS administration fearing Mt Lassen would fall on it).

 

As for the movie (Click Here):

 

Opening scene is along old US 99

 

Next is on State 36 as we climb out of the Central Valley of California into the foothills,

 

The “road race” scene is of me in my 1958 MGA chasing the Corvair (1963 or 62, Roadmaven?) along a winding section of State 36.

 

The next series of shots is in the park.

 

The shot with my friend’s bugeye Austin Healy Sprite is on the way home, probably on State 36

 

The shot beside the railroad track is probably on US 99

 

The vintage Southern Pacific Locomotive in action is for Ray

 

The bridge will be familiar to Roadhound, and is the still in use today between Benicia and Martinez.

 

Comments and observations welcomed and invited from all...and expected from Pat. :P

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Keepers, that would be a '62. I really dig the luggage on top! The train shot was a nice added bonus. Wow, I almost forgot what a caboose looked like! :goodjob:

 

Pat,

 

I note that the video is a little dark. I'm not sure why, but I'm going to look into it.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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You keep sending out videos from one of my favourite states (outside of the major cities and their suburbs, anyway). Those yellow and white centre markings do look nice against relatively new asphault.

 

Am I the only one who thinks of Herbie the Love Bug when seeing the Volkswagen racing around the curves (minus, of course, the white paint, racing stripes and the number 53)? It helps that the movie also took place in Calif.

 

Nice fins on that white car that drives past the camera. Yes, I am a fan of the fins, including those from General Motors for the 1959 model year.

 

Great footage of the freight train as well. I'm very familiar with Southern Pacific since many of my travels to the West have been along their old lines. The streamlined era of locomotives is the one I like the most.

 

Thanks for another great video! I know it's not easy going through hours of footage for a few minutes of road scenes, but those scenes are much appreciated.

 

Tracy

Edited by cityboy1986
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Cool stuff. Kids, there's proof that, in the distant past, toll takers actually - with their own hands - took tolls.

 

Tracy, I believe those white fins are on a 1959 Plymouth. The fins would survive one more year; The brand forty-two.

 

And Dave, I know that gals sometimes date guys because of their cars but I have a strong suspicion you may have been dating your companion for her hat. I know I'd have found it hard to resist. :)

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And Dave, I know that gals sometimes date guys because of their cars but I have a strong suspicion you may have been dating your companion for her hat. I know I'd have found it hard to resist. :)

I wasn't sure whether that was a hat or a lampshade :P

 

Chris

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Denny,

 

Thanks for the correction on the fins. I'm not that big on Chrysler products (it goes back to my grandparents not liking them), and my carspotting isn't the best in the world.

 

There are still human toll collectors at the northern end of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. If I remember correctly, there are still some on the Greater New Orleans (er Crescent City Connection) Bridge as well. Luckily, we in Miss. have no toll roads.

 

Tracy

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I really appreciate the comments! And they often draw my attention to things I didn’t notice, or more often to things I didn’t know.

 

I did notice the hat! Dah! For you single males with convertibles, or any married guy thinking about buying one, I have one word of caution. The passenger babe with her hair blowing in the wind in promo photos is not a wife. Wives wear hats.

 

In fact, you can tell how long a couple has ridden together in a convertible by the size of the hat she wears. (You are looking there at a three year hat.) He will have a captain’s cap or British topper, and she will be wearing a hat the size of a lid off a garbage can, tied down with a mizzen sail. Of course she won’t get skin cancer, and he will.

 

Not only are road lines often missing, note how narrow those roads were and the absence of shoulders. Those were heavily traveled roads.

 

I was a little surprised that we didn’t have a VW Bug fan out there.

 

One of the touches of sadness that accompanied my converting these movies was the realization that four great old wooden lodges in and near the park have burned or been torn down. Somewhere out there among our guests or members there may be someone who remembers the original Childs Meadows Lodge with its pool, the Manzanita Lodge in the Park, the St Bernard Lodge, and the Viola Lodge.

 

I think the next movie will be of an authentic old time roadside attraction right out of the 1940’s, which is still in operation...on US101 in the Redwoods. Right.....The Trees of Mystery! The smallest bar in the world will also be briefly featured, not to mention the biggest babe you ever saw!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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