Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandy G
These cars are all MILD compared to this Caddy my Granddad & Mamaw had back in '68. Avocado-It was "Not Quite" a whole bunch of colors-Not quite green, not quite Gold, & not quite Brown. Actually, it was about the most faithful reproduction of Babyshit I ever saw. Worst thing of all, it was THAT color inside & out, NO relief at all. The Caddy they had before it was a 1960 Sedan De Ville, that was tan, & chrome. THAT car was a Cadillac ! Lotsa chrome, rocketship fins, Are-You-SERIOUS ?!? compound curve windshield. Love it or LOATHE it, you COULDN'T ignore it. They kept the Steaming Pile til '73, when my granddad Fritz pulled a Fast One. He ALWAYS wanted the biggest, nastiest, most OMG Caddy they made, but Miss Izzy-my Granny-NEVER let him get one..Well, they had to go to Louisville on business once every six weeks/2 months. They went up in like April '73, Fritz dropped Miss Izzy off at Rich's Dept Store, & then HE had a couple hours to kill. He drove by Cal Connell Cadillac, there was this gorgeous big 60 Special Brougham sitting in the showroom. Navy blue interior, top, silver body. It started Talkin' to Fritz, & lo & behold, shortly thereafter it was HIS, & the Babyshyte Special was ADIOS. Fritz went to pick up Miss Izzy, & made a DREADFUL mistake-He left the Window sticker layin' on the back seat. It was something like $10,243.79, she saw THAT & blew TWO gaskets ! She was one of these who thought that if you DIDN'T save a dollar & a quarter outta EVERY Dollar you made, you would LIKELY end up Going to H3!!, in a Handbasket. She was SO tight w/money, she SQUEAKED when she walked.. "FRITZ !! Are You Outta yr MIND ?!?... TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A CAR ?!? It took her about a month to cool off after that. Worst thing was, I guess, poor Fritz only got to drive his junior grade Aircraft Carrier about 18 months, & then my Dad & Uncle Karl took his keys away. It REALLY wasn't safe for him to drive anymore. I still have that Caddy, '73 w/35K ACTUAL on it.. I would be happy to GIVE it to any of you who agree to the following-Keep it Clean, & Keep it FED. It gets 6 MPG in town, & a rousing 8-9 on the Hiway... Took ME going as hard as I could, literally ALL DAY LONG to properly clean it, inside & out...
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Babyshyte green....When I was maybe 2-5 years old I used to call the avocado green in my grandma's house garbagey green.
I always LOVED the look of the '59 and '60 BIG fin Caddys...About as cool and audaciously American space age as you could get.
You've gotta give Mr Fritz credit the last car he owned was his dream car!
Mr Fritz's 73' Caddy reminds me of my Grandpa Ed's last truck...Grandpa Ed and grandma Irene had a lot of hard times in their and when they could afford to get another car or truck it was usually used (think they had a VW beetle or two new), Ed was a jack of all trades, an artist (he did some of the wood carvings on Macanac island, and advertising, and diorama work for various companies), and a carpenter. Mom who had her own recruiting business at the time helped Grandpa collect payment on some of his old work, and it was enough that Grandpa was able to buy his first new Truck. He was only able to use it for a year or two before he fell ill and passed away, but he was VERY happy and proud to have it.
I briefly considered a '73 Caddy when I was looking to buy a car. There was one at a used car lot near my workplace, but it was at the edge of my budget and it said 'not-running' on the windshield so I dropped the idea.
They are nice enough cars that I'd agree to those terms for one any day of the week.
And you are right those cars are a LOT of work to clean...My '78 Lincoln Mark V is about the same size as that Caddy, and during the warm months I wax it my self every 2-5 weeks....Waxing that boat is usually an all-day affair, and I'm usually kinda sore at the end....The nice part about the wax is washes after it usually only need to consist of a rinse and towel dry to get it back to spotless and shiny.