Saturday, January 26, 2013

Ford Ranch Wagon - The Company Car




When the mechanic at Stu's Gulf gave the diagnosis that the Rambler had a cracked block, he gave my father two options. He'd either replace the engine at considerable cost or he'd take the car off his hands for $150. Sitting next to my father in the greasy office of that long gone service station at the corner of Merrick Road and Silver Lake Lane back in Baldwin, I could hardly contain my excitement when my father said he'd take the money.



Despite a push button transmission, I was never impressed with the gray on red, 1961 Rambler "Classic" that was the Connolly family ride when I was very young. When you grow up on a block loaded with automotive talent from Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, Lincoln, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Ford and Plymouth "The Rambler" seemed woefully if not painfully inadequate.


What's more, back then my father was an executive for Burlington Industries. At least once a month if not more it seemed, he'd fly to North Carolina for several days and return home in a "company car". It was a rental from Hertz but since "the company" was paying for it that's what we called those cars. For the most part he came home in something that was much more interesting to me than the Rambler. From time to time though he would bring home some clunker like a station wagon or little foreign job. One of those "little foreign jobs" was a 1973 era Mercury Capri btw. I hated it at first because my father, who was a big man, hated it. What did I know. This is a story for another time.

 

With the Rambler finally gone I was giddy with anticipation as to what we'd get. How exciting it would be go car shopping! Would we get that amazing Impala Sports Coupe he had brought home not so long ago? Perhaps that gigantic and magical Fury convertible he brought home in the middle of winter! Oh, sweet joy, the sky was the limit!

 
Our Ranch Wagon looked EXACTLY like this except ours had blue rims not black and did not have whitewalls.
 

So, when a blue '68 Ford Ranch Wagon showed up one day I simply shrugged my shoulders that it was one of the clunkers he'd get every now and then from Hertz. You can only imagine the crushing disappointment I felt when I found out it was in fact our new family truckster.

 
I found this quickie shot of a '68 Ranch Wagon from an epsiode of Kojak. Who loves ya, baby. Note roof rack, chrome rub strip, black rims and whitewalls. This is probably a Ranch Wagon 500. We had the bone stripper Ranch Wagon.  



Turned out my father was such a fan of Hertz' rentals that he bought one they had for sale. It was the company car that came to visit and stayed for a long, long time.

Forty plus years later I'm still reeling from it.

1 comment: