1957 Ford Thunderbird
Thunderbird Time
WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Welcome to the New American Digest: 2003-2020
Gerard Van der Leun
Stone-cutters fighting time with marble, you foredefeated
Challengers of oblivion
Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits, records fall down,
The square-limbed Roman letters
Scale in the thaws, wear in the rain. The poet as well
Builds his monument mockingly;
For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth die, the brave sun
Die blind and blacken to the heart:
Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained
thoughts found
The honey of peace in old poems.
— Robinson Jeffers
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.
— Eliot
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this
air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
— Walt Whitman
The scientists are in terror
and the European mind stops
Wyndham Lewis chose blindness
rather than have his mind stop.
Night under wind mid garofani,
the petals are almost still
Mozart, Linnaeus, Sulmona,
When one’s friends hate each other
how can there be peace in the world?
Their asperities diverted me in my green time.
A blown husk that is finished
but the light sings eternal
a pale flare over marshes
where the salt hay whispers to tide’s change
Time, space,
neither life nor death is the answer.
And of man seeking good,
doing evil.
In meiner Heimat
where the dead walked
and the living were made of cardboard.
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Love the T-Birds! They should have stayed with the sports car. Even so, my favorite run was the 1961-63 space car versions, although the 1964-66 were damn fine also. After that- eh- just another Ford.
JWM
My grandparents had a ’57 T-Bird, baby blue in color. They traded it in for a ’65 Mustang, also baby blue.
I came along too late for the classic two seater Thunderbird, or even the Square-birds (1958-60) , Bullet-birds (1961-63) or anything smaller than the “Bunkie-beak” (1970-71) cars.
I remember the Big Ass Birds that shared the Mark IV platform (1972-76) and the downsized and very popular downsized Bird (77-79)
Being a teen in the 80’s let’s skip the 1980-82 Birds being built in Bob’s video. I loved the Aero-birds (1983-88) and tried to get my mother to buy a 1983 to replace her Buick LeSabre.
Mom bought a Buick Century. With a four cylinder. 🤦🏻♂️
Just another Ford? Maybe compared to the original two seater (1955-57). But don’t forget the original Thunderbird cribbed from the 1955-57 Ford mainline styling and parts bin.
And for a racing crazy 😜 teen, Bill Elliott (aka Awesome 😎 Bill from Dawsonville) driving that dominating Melling Tools/Coors #9 T-Bird made a “mere Ford” a world beater.
I liked the BMW inspired 1989-97, but towards the end Ford lost the narrative and held on too long. But that generation made the Blue Oval a feared threat in NASCAR. The less said about the 21st century reboot the better.
The sad part is everybody wants a CUV or SUV and coupes are passé. I keep my Mustang to enjoy a car with two doors, two windows, and me and my lady side by side.
Ride on all! 👍🏻
Yeah, back when cars were cool!
The T-Bird has some real class.
Now, everything looks the same…a Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Kia, Ford, Chevy,,,,everything looks the same.
Two classic beauties.
Eyes . . . left! Nice T-bird, but the lady in the red dress owns that picture.
Terry:
That’s one of the great things about looking through old magazines. All the car ads featured gorgeous women dressed to the nines.
JWM
1957 was probably the pinnacle of pinnacles for american car design. Across the board, all models were stunning that year.
Was my fambly weerd?
Each year, in Sept or Oct, my dad would load all of us up in the stationwagon after supper and we’d hit the car lots to see all the new models. All the sales dix had left for the day so we could roam as we pleased. It was a big deal. My dad would point out all the new stuff or differences from the last year. He told me how you could look at the tail light lens and see the date of manuf. All that chrome. Jeez, square yards of it. And the sneeky places they put the gas filler. Behind the license plate! Who’d a thunk it? The 57 Chev had it in the drivers side fin. We went to Andy Mohr in Plainfield (top dealer in the state) a few years ago to look at rides and I was bored to tears in 5 mins. There isn’t 5 cents worth of diff between anything now and everything is 5 times more expensive than they are worth. Unless I win a major lottery I will most likely never own another new vehicle. Mediocrity killed the american car, and just about everything else. yawn
Then there was Thunderbird wine whose radio & TV spots ran in dialogue:
VOICE ONE: “What’s the word?”
CHORUS: “Thunderbird!”
VOICE ONE: “What’s the price?”
CHORUS: “Twenty, twice!”
Everybody knows that the bird is the word.
My grandfather was an engineer for Ford in the late 50’s to the early 60’s. He had a hand in a lot of those old cars, including the Edsel, and the Mustang. One of my prize possessions is a rendering of a Ford concept car, The All-Aluminum Ford Piedmont. It’s mounted in a piece of windshield glass. Some miserable POS b*tch I used to date deliberately tried to break it. She succeeded in cracking one corner, but it’s still an awesome piece.
In 1991 I made it back to Detroit on a road trip, and went to the Henry Ford Museum. I went to the archive desk, and after they were sure I wasn’t trying to sell them something I managed to talk my way into the concept car archives. I spent a couple hours looking through some wild renderings of stuff the might have been, but never was. Like the Nucleon atomic powered car, and the Leva-car, which floated on a cushion of air. Fun stuff.
JWM
‘57 was a “woman’s car”.
‘56 chevy had the gas filler in the drv side tail light.
I came along way past the two seaters, the Square-Bird (1958-60), and the Bullet-Birds (1961-63). When I were a lad, the T-bird morphed into Big Bird, sharing a platform with the Mark IV (1972-76). Ford regained some sanity with the smaller 1977-79 and totally lost the theme with the even smaller 1980-82.
Then they struck gold with the Aerobird (1983-88). I loved that generation. I lobbied for my mother to trade in her Buick Le Sabre for one in 1983.
She bought a Buick Century. With a four cylinder. 🤦🏻♂️ Ah well.
I also loved seeing Bill Elliott wax GM tail in the NASCAR Aerobird he drove, becoming “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” in the process.
I even liked the last generation from 1989 that looked like an American BMW. But then Ford just let it fade away. Now everyone wants CUVs and SUVs and Ford is making an E Mustang. 🙁
Ah well, maybe we can have fun, stylish cars again some day.
Of COURSE 1957 was a great year for everything- that’s the year I was BORN!
I was just thirteen when that beautiful car came out. We lived in So. California and were very aware of each new car model that came out. On a particular Friday night in September or October, the long row of car dealerships in our town would hold an evening open house displaying all the new models. We would get dressed nicely and walk through every dealership and learn about the new models. I wasn’t old enough to drive but just two years later, I was learning to drive stick shift in a 54 Chevy!
And then came THE CAR. THE ONLY CAR EVER. . . THE 1958 Corvette! IMHO the designers at both Ford and Chevy had lost their creativity by 1963. However, that was SO California in the time of hope, opportunity, jobs. My dear mom (8th grade education plus beautician technical training) was working in a beauty shop during the day and in between customers she made crafts to sell. She also cleaned commercial offices at night and in 1958 she had made enough money to buy a slightly used 1956 4 door pink/white Cadillac and matching 15 foot Shasta trailer. That was a great California then . . .in those days.
Hey Auntie Analogue:
What’s the word?
Thunderbird!
What’s the price?
Twenty Twice!
Who drinks the most?
Us colored folks!
That’s the complete version of that folk song. You’re welcome.
“what’s the reason?
grapes in season!”
-fin
The gent is wondering why his remote door lock key is not working.
Time slip problem.
“How’s it sold?
Sweet and cold!”
“What’s the jive?
‘Bird’s ALIVE!”