Lincoln Continental Town Car - Life is short. Get a Cadillac.

Growing up on Overlook Place in the wilderness of suburban Manhattan there were two families that mother referred to as "The Rich People". They didn't live in homes that were any better than our drafty colonial but those families did have one thing that was arguably better than what we had; they had nice cars.

One family had a Cadillac, the other a Lincoln. That's what rich people drove so therefore they were rich. Right, mom?

The father of the Cadillac family was a delivery truck driver for the Daily News.

The Lincoln family man worked at Kennedy Airport for the "Flying Tigers", a commercial freight company.

My father, who was some sort of an executive for a large textile company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, drove, oh dear...a Rambler. Acck!

Either father wasn't doing as well as a truck driver or a cargo handler or my parents were being modest seeing that they were children of the Great Depression. I think it the latter although I'll never know for sure. I did find out years later that the Cadillac and Lincoln families bought their iron used. And very used too lending further proof to that age old axiom that reality is perception. If you look and act rich, you are!

I loved our neighbor's Cadillac. It was a 1969 Coupe deVille. Black on black, sinister as all get out and cooler than the Batmobile.

 

The Lincoln not so much. Odd proportions, boxy but not good. Silly.

Quick, get Liberace on the  phone!

Ever find your brother George?

Now, there is something to be said for "acting as if", particularly if you choose to keep up with the Joneses, but in the end you gotta have the goods. And the Lincoln Continental Town Car just doesn't bring it.

That luke warm reception to Lincoln went for most of America too for with the exception of a time in the late nineties and into the early 00's, Cadillac has owned the lofty perch as "America's luxury leader" for over 80 years. That's based on raw, hard, dry sales figures. The only time that Cadillac did not drink from that sales trophy bowl was when Lincoln owned the absurd luxury SUV lane with their Navigator. Yuck.

Cadillac reacted with the debatably superior Escalade putting an end to the Ford threat. On the strictly car front, Lincoln has never been able to put a dent in Cadillac's door.

Even when they had the funky four door convertible Continental, most hipsters would opt for a Cadillac over the Link.

Back to Overlook Place, in the late seventies it was time to finally trade in the freakin' Rambler and mother insisted we get a Cadillac. I was delighted! Even though I knew that a much less expensive Chevrolet was very much the same car as a Caddy (see Caprice, Chevrolet). Mother would have none of that talk. She believed Cadillac to be special cars. Hoo-kay, mom. Let's just get one and enjoy it for what it is because we're buying it because we like the car, right, mom? No other agenda?

We found a used 1972 Sedan deVille, blue with black interior. Understated and cool. I loved it.

Driving home from the used car lot where we got it, mother, who up to that point had never been one to try to keep up the Joneses, insisted we tell everyone on the block that it was a 1975 and not a 1972. Whatever.

Life is short. We got a Cadillac.