Just Cause It’s Vintage, Is Is Cool?
Today’s Ebay find may not be the normal cool thingamagig we find and buy and regret later. Like old cans of varnish! But it does illustrate a point worth making sometimes. Just because it’s old and preserved, is it cool? Now, for the sake of the debate, it is, in a way. This cool and cold Rambler/Seasprite matched set is a time capsule. And very cool that they were a matched set. The owner even has the original trailer hitch.
You can almost picture Earl and Edna Thomas living in their post war home, and Earl who was clearly a out of the box guy, went for it. Got the Rambler and the boat in one crazy move. Edna was not pleased. Not one bit, cause little Claude had just been born. So Earl never really used the boat and the Car and boat became a memorial of manly defiance and so if he sold the set, he would been proven a looser in the argument. So in a way, this matched set is a true metaphor of a long wonderful marriage…..of two ugly boring people. Sorry? If it was a Mustang GT and Glastron, OK, or anything, Even a Skeeto boat would have been cooler. And by the way, Skeeto boats are cool.
The day Earl went out to Sears to buy some shirts and a tool. Edna refused to allow money to pay for the repairs, By this time Claude needed to go to collage. And Thelma and little Earl jr were close behind. The car and boat had to be stored ..”until”
So what is cool here? Is it the fact that this is what history really was? The reality of the mundane truth of real history. We all knew this family, they lived next door or down the street. They mowed there lawn and had good kids. They still live down the street, drive mini vans, live in beige vinyl homes and shop at Safeway. But history won’t remember them, until that Mini van and Pontoon boat matched set show up on ebay in 50 years.
Destined to be in the Museum of the Mundane
I like it!
Matt, your insight into the total family history, with all the minute details, by looking at a eBay photo amazes me. What total creativity! My Grandpa had a Rambler when I was a kid. I thought he was a cool guy with a cool car!
Yes! I thinks it’s very cool, because it’s a pair. Rambler Classics were very cool cars, in a sly understated sort of way.
In my world – If it’s old, and has some resemblance of originality – it’s cool… Like WoodyGal says, the pair mirror their history when it was OK to haul a basic outboard with a four-door Rambler.
(Rambler four-doors were also perfect Drive-In-Movie cars at the lake – right WoodyGal?)
How about a 1960 Plymouth Valiant successfully competing at Daytona the same year. It’s all in the presentation… (Peterson Photo Archive)
I find the Rambler to be kind of cool. The boat not so much, but I get that it can be considered a fiberglassic.
Wait one minute! How can this be a matched set? I don’t see a hitch on the back of that Rambler.
Make fun of Earl all you want, the man has one helluva garage!
For the record, Edna loved that dam boat. Little Claude learned how to fish on it, and lets just say, Thelma wouldn’t be on this earth if not for a sunset ride in 1972.. Now thats cool.
Earl, just think of how many more Thelma’s you could have had if you had this!
Don’t forget the matching sunglasses.
Is that Flo?
Or this.
Hmmm, Ohio plates on the car and Indiana registration on the boat. Maybe Earl had two families??
This set up could have you in a reality show with 20 kids.
Thats my boat! Earl? What is my boat doing with that car? You told me you worked in Ohio.. And who is Edna?
Oh brother! Someones getting in trouble.. Now this set up is getting cooler
Earl raced cars in Florida on the weekends…
one of Mitt Romneys dads creations A product of American motors that also included Hudson.
Yep cool! Not a corvette pulling a cobra (yea you would need a special made hitch). But that was what us average families went boating with. So when are you picking us up we’ll have the lunch packed and ready!
Thats the boat ( almost) i grew up with. we had a fury 3 car dad was a cop. Its cool to see but not for me. no bids
Here I am racing in California!
Don’t have a side shot but here is my 1927 launch being towed with a 1932 Ford. Not such a good idea. Car had original cable brakes and you had to plan stops half mile in advance.
Cool wagon in the background Jim. What’s the story re it?
What a neat way to get int0 a financial black hole. 2 hobbies at once. LOL
Old CJ’s rule!!!
Don’t you mean they “roll?”, Greg? 🙂
With a Rambler you could join the Orphancartour.org
Gee…Didn’t know I was that old….We had a Rambler wagon. Loaned it to a friend and it stalled on a railroad track….Never saw it again. I remember we could put a Sunfish up on the luggage rack.Later had a Plymouth Valient with that impressive ( Chrysler must have thought it was impressive) Continental looking tire frame on the trunk…but the guy I sold it to reported he had 250,000 miles on it.
You guys crack me up ! I am sitting here with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard, especially with the 59 Impala picture and comment! God I love you guys, this I what I needed on a cold grey Saturday morning up here in the white snow covered Lake Michigan coast.
Keep them coming…
At 19, just before I took “The Great Asian Vacation,” I owned a beat-up 1961 Chevy 6-cylinder 4-door Biscayne that I bought for $99. The floor boards were rotted away so I cut up a “Keep Right” sign and covered the holes. I filled the windshield washer fluid container with Old Grand Dad and made a dispenser by re-routing the hose under the dash so the cops wouldn’t find my stash. I proposed marriage to a hot chick in the back seat of that car at what you could call the “perfect moment.” 44 years, two kids and six grandchildren later, I have concluded that that was one of the coolest cars I’ve ever owned. I’d buy it back in a heartbeat.
Hey Nautilus, loved your story. That car rules, in part because it broke so many of them!
Best post ever on Woodyboater!
I’m amazed that no one has brought up the fact that all Ramblers of that era had reclining front seats that nestled nicely with the back seat cushions… 🙂
Thus the Drive-In-Movie reference…
If I’d owned a Rambler, we’d have used those seats…a lot.
I was married by the time we bought our Ramber. Need I say more ?
An awesom day on Woody Boater. By far more entertaining than any “I Love Lucy” rerun on channel 13.
The Italians were smart. The 1969 Alfa Romeo Belina seats could be made into a bed for two. Picture is from the owners manual.
I own the 59 chevy and boat,,I think I did buy from Earl,Bill
the first pic was clayton,this is okla city
Vintage yes, kool, not so much. Now this Rambler is Kool (well, not that excited about these particular wheels)