'59 Plymouth Forum

Two years ago, my father sent me some old car stuff that I finally looked at. I have the Warrranty brochure, Seat cushion IBM card and on it had the old 59 VIN on it from our old 59 wagon.Just like Roger Howard, my family had a White 59 Plymouth wagon to tool around in back in the day.

Short story on how we we were able to get this vehicle. My grandfather, who worked for Chrysler as a Stamping Plant Mgr. bought the car as a gift for my parents thru the Chrysler employee purchase plan and gave the car to my parents. It was a late in the Model year vehicle having been built in July of 59 before the change-over to the 60 models. My father had just switched from Ford to Chrysler as a stamping engineer in January of 59 and he had an old 4 door 55 Ford he drove. My father could not park the Ford in the Chrysler employee parking lot since it was "a Ford". My grandfather, stepped up and bought us the new 4 door wagon (white like Roger's family wagon) to fill this gap and also my mom had 3 little boys (grandsons) to carry about, (later to be 5 Grandsons)

With the 59 Plymouth, my Dad could dump the Ford and drive in Style with a brand new wagon! And also could park in the Twinsburg Ohio plant parking lot with his fellow engineers. The car was bought by my grandfather in his name and then transferred to my parents name. Nice Gift!

Note that ton the warranty card there is no Dealar mentioned. Since it was bought right from Chrysler Company sales plan. Iater on in 1962 we moved from Cleveland,Ohio to the Detroit area and kept that 59 wagon till we got a brand new 64 Dodge 880 Custom 9 passenger wagon and sold the 59. We kept that wagon till the mid 70's when we got T-boned in it and it went to the scrap yard. My Dad had qualified for Company Cars in 1968 when he brought home a new 68 Charger. Us boys were exited about that! The 64 wagon was the car my older brother and I competed to get the drive in. I lost most of the time
Now that I have the VIN, keep and eye out for a white wagon with a VIN M276 137130. Doubtful it still exists with the Michigan weather and salt on the roads, but its worth a shot to broadcast the VIn in case someone spots it.

I have no located a picture of it yet. My parents live in North Carolina now and have boxes of old pictures I need to go thru then next time I am visiting them.

John Q.

(the 1959 howard family wagon was actually powder blue, with white roof)
I used to wonder what happened to our car after Dad traded it in. It was 1964, and the car had rust-thru in the rear quarters, 58k on the odometer, and there were lots of travel decals and some college decals on the rear windows. Sidney Poitier drove a '59 Plymouth wagon in the movie "Lilies of the Field" , and it made me smile to see how he kept that car going, tying the door closed when the latch mechanism failed, etc. I think that car was powder blue also?

Roger, I have some vague memories of our 59, But is was white, I, like you, hoped it survived all these years but the years in Michigans salt winters probabley consumed it up. Still trying to dig up some pictures of it in some of the boxes of pictures my parents have.

We never went on the long trips you went on. Only to Northern part Michgan (still the Lower Penisula) to the family cabin. It was a 3 hour drive and it took forever for us to get there! (pales in comparison to your cross country trips)

Played games like "Slug-a bug" (VW spotting) arm puching, Or looking for cars with one headlight burned out, Another arm puching event. My parents had 4 boys (at that time) and that is what we did to each other, is punching each other during the entire trip. If we only had a sister to settle us down...Or my fathers "8 foot long" back hand. Or at least it seems that long at the time...."Do I need to pull over and settle this!" was a constant comment from my Dad.

Refueling/bathroom breaks was like a Chinese Fire Drill for us. Just to stetch our legs and walk the dogs. And it was only a 3 hour trip! Sheesh! we were winnies!

ahhhh Memories...Like the corner of my mind...

John Q.

Denver 59 Fin Convert wrote:Played games like "Slug-a bug" (VW spotting) arm puching, Or looking for cars with one headlight burned out, Another arm puching event. My parents had 4 boys (at that time) and that is what we did to each other, is punching each other during the entire trip. If we only had a sister to settle us down...Or my fathers "8 foot long" back hand. Or at least it seems that long at the time...."Do I need to pull over and settle this!" was a constant comment from my Dad.

Refueling/bathroom breaks was like a Chinese Fire Drill for us. Just to stetch our legs and walk the dogs. And it was only a 3 hour trip! Sheesh! we were winnies!

ahhhh Memories...Like the corner of my mind...

John Q.

Great memories! But it makesme wonder, would your shoulder be in better shape now if you would have had sisters instead of brothers? Sisters don't punch as hard as brothers

Ron

Great reply, Ron!
3 hours in a car with three brothers and some dogs is possibly comparable to three boys and two girls (no dogs) for up to three weeks in the car.
I never heard of SlugBug until my daughter was eight or nine. We played the alphabet game alot, and on one trip my younger brother wrote down the name of every different type of gas station we saw. I dunno what else we did to pass the time. No iPods, or CD players back then.
I remember one stop at a diner which had a jukebox. We discovered that if you gave it a hip-check right at the end of the song, it would start over. We heard "Roses are Red" by Bobby Vinton a dozen times before we were stopped! We also occasionally put pepper in the napkin dispenser, and loosened the tops of salt shakers. Mom was pretty good at keeping us entertained in the car, but Dad did have to pull over a few times to get us to settle down.
Dad was happy to trade that car in...it used a ot of oil (as 318s were prone to do), and the drivetrain developed a shimmy that scared him.