Thunderbird Landau – The American Dream Car(first posted 7/2. What exactly is the American Dream? Was it easier to answer that question fifty years ago? If you were seven years old, and had just arrived from Austria at the same time the 1. Thunderbird first appeared, the answer is definitely yes. What more was there to aspire to then this? Seeing fifty ’6. 1 Thunderbird convertibles in Kennedy’s Inaugural Parade only cemented the image. Only in America could one could realistically aspire to own a car that actually looked like a Dream Car in a car show, one that would glamorously jet you away from the humdrum of ordinary life, if not exactly rocket you to the moon. Yes, in the fall of 1. Ford was building my dream. And then I was rudely awakened. Oh, what a night Late December back in sixty three What a very special time for me As I remember, what a night Oh, what a night, you know I didn't even know her name But I was never gonna be the same What a lady, what a night Oh, I, I got a funny feelin' when. Click here to read the all-new, heart-stopping final scene from HIDDEN. In the must-read tenth installment of the #1 New York Times bestselling vampyre series, Darkness won’t stay hidden for long The Poetry Book Society was founded by T S Eliot in 1953. We are a unique poetry society, providing guidance and discounts on the very best contemporary poetry. Founded by T S Eliot and friends in 1953, the Poetry Book Society is a unique poetry society. TheGROOVEshack.com Karaoke JUKE Box - Thousands of Songs (Midis) with Lyrics. The GROOVE Shack - Groovy Gifts. The songs in this index are listed alphabetically by last name. For songs whose names begin with the word 'The,' ignore the first word and alphabetize by the second word (for example, 'Day That the Rains Came Down, The.') A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T. Just three years later, both the stunning 1. Bullet Bird” and Kennedy were gone. The squared- off, fussy 1. T- Bird confirmed my defection to the Church of St. Mark of Excellence with its holy trinity of 1. Riviera, Grand Prix and Corvette Sting Ray. My brief childhood love affair with Ford was mostly over, especially after one too many vacation trips jammed into our black stripper ’6. Fairlane. In my dream driveway, the T- Bird was replaced by an ever changing palette of GM’s finest. My feelings for Ford’s late fifties styling has been well documented, and that extended to the 1. Square Bird”, regardless of how revolutionary a car it was. They impressed me on some level, the interior, mainly, but I though their front ends looked like a hideous creature from the depths of the ocean. I guess the public didn’t quite agree with me, because the Square Bird outsold the Bullet Bird, right through its last year. Everyone’s dream is different. The highlight of my fling with the 6. T- Bird came when we were on vacation in NY, and I saw a red Sports Roadster in the flesh for the first time (there were none in Iowa City). Available for 1. 96. T- Bird. Of course it was a bit ridiculous, but don’t tell that to an eleven year- old agog, or the proud driver. It evoked the classic roadsters of the thirties, with their long tails and no pretense of practicality. And it was about as sporty as they were, but who cared? The T- Bird had long ago ceded that role to the Corvette, while it was laughing all the way to the bank. The big Birds outsold the . Mc. Namara made the right call when he backed the big change to four- passenger Birds in 1. And the T- Bird practically owned the market segment it created, for way longer than GM would have liked, despite everything they threw at it. Has anyone thought about how the poor Mercury dealers felt during the T- Bird’s heyday? What was Ford doing selling such an upscale and exclusive car anyway, especially when it sported the optional (and popular) Landau package? Sucks to be them, then and more recently. Mercury was doomed anyway; Ford just didn’t do the multiple brand thing well, and at least they’ve finally embraced that reality now. But where’s today’s Dream Car by Ford?(odd color artifacts due to a malfunctioning camera)Looks like someone else is wondering what happened to the American dream. The 1. 96. 1 Thunderbird might well have looked very different than it turned out. Elwood Engel’s design proposal (above) lost out to the winning one by Alex Tremulis. Ford President Robert Mc. Namara ran into it by accident, liked it, and had it turned into the 1. Lincoln. That was convenient for production reasons too, allowing both cars to share aspects of their unibody innards. Just as well it turned out as it did; I deeply admire the ’6. Lincoln Continental, but it somehow lacks the Dream Car quality of the . Maybe because it actually was a Ford? Tremulis was a brilliant and eccentric character, having designed the Tucker earlier in his career. The most dramatic and original feature of the Bullet Bird is the sharp blade that serves as its belt line. It rises from the steeply sloping front end, that was way to un- American for Americans, lacking a big open mouth. It may well be why the Bullets sold less than both the Square birds before it and the Flair birds after it. I’m sure you’re not surprised when I reiterate that it’s by far the best of the bunch: clean, original, (mostly) lacking the clutter of group- think throwing too many styling gimmicks at it. The blade does double duty as my favorite door handle ever. Maybe the least ergonomic ever. Don’t the doors open telepathically? Nothing’s ever been done just quite like this, although the ’6. Conti does give it a run for the money. Gives the term “knife edge design” new meaning. Mustn’t neglect the Bullet’s red- hot jet exhaust with after- burner nozzles. Sadly, there was only an internal combustion engine at work under the hood. I have vivid memories of gazing into the T- Bird’s engine room as a kid hanging out in the work bays at the Ford dealership. I always felt sorry for the mechanics that had to work on them; they were the most crowded of any car back then. The giant flat air cleaner and the separate tank for the side- flow radiator were distinctive, concessions to the tight clearances around the 3. CID FE motor. Rated at 3. This was a porky fowl (4,0. Galaxie. Their unibodies didn’t necessarily save weight, having been designed in the pre- CAD era. No, that’s not diesel soot, but an FE at full chat, in the pre- EPA era. And watch where you drive that thing; these cars probably set an all- time low for clearance, which only got worse as the springs sagged in old age. Who cared about such mundane matters, when you’re ensconced in that cockpit, the swing away steering wheel back where it belongs, and piloting down that glassy smooth new pavement of the just- built interstate? The Thunderbird’s interior was at least as enchanting for me as the exterior. When you’re used to being packed into our 6. Fail- lane sedan with too many siblings with whom skin contact was not exactly desirable, just the idea of of bucket seats separated by that huge expanse of console was dreamy. Now that I really think about it, that may just have been the biggest attraction of the Thunderbird to me. It represented true freedom. All my dream cars back then had bucket seats, even the lowly Falcon Futura. My brief infatuation with a neighbor’s ’5. Impala coupe ended with the front bench seat; what! I arrived in America exactly at the right moment: the beginning of the bucket seat era. And the T- Bird played a key role in ushering it in. All that glitters is not gold, but the Bullet’s pointy and bladed front end is gold in my book. That hardly applies to the Landau’s padded top and ridiculous bars. Maybe the Great Brougham Epoch actually started in 1. And take off those horrendous trim pieces slapped on the door. No wonder Bullets are popular with customizers; a great shape that just needs a bit of cleaning up. I had a fleeting thought when I saw this Bird: maybe I need to act on my childhood dream? No; what I need is a new dream. Martin Luther King I Have a Dream Speech. Martin. Luther. King,Jr. I Have a Dreamdelivered. August 1. 96. 3, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D. C. Video Purchase. Off- Site audio mp. Address. Plug- in required for flash audio. This momentous decree came as a great. Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One. hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a. One hundred. years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation. America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the. Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take. Now is the time to make real the promises of. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of. Now is the time to make justice a. God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until. Nineteen sixty- three is not an. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our. But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the. In the process of gaining our. Let us not seek to satisfy our. We must. forever conduct. We must not allow our creative. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights. We can never be satisfied as. We can never be satisfied as long as. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And. have come from areas where your quest - - quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of. You have been the veterans of. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Let us not wallow in the valley of. I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day. Alabama, with its. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation. With this faith, we will be able to work. And this will be the day. God's children will be able to. My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride. From every mountainside, let freedom ring! And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of. Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow- capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens. God's children, black men and. Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and. Negro spiritual. Free at last! Quotation marks are excluded from part of this. King's rendering of Isaiah 4. KJV version from which he quotes (e. King's rendering of Isaiah 4. KJV. 3. http: //www. Copyright Status. Text and Audio = Restricted, seek permission. Martin Luther King, Jr. Intellectual Properties Management. One Freedom Plaza. Auburn Avenue NEAtlanta, GA 3. Fax: 4. 04- 5. 26- 8.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2017
Categories |