1968 Buick Skylark - The Good Old Days Weren't Always Good

I was in mid gestation when JFK was assassinated and was born into a post Cameloton world of an escalating Vietnam War, Nixon, Watergate, a long recession, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and not one but two gas crunches. Even the Yankees stunk. Despite that less than auspicious introduction to the world and mother's constant rowing about how things weren't as good as they used to be (since JFK's death) I managed to find refuge in appreciation of General Motors' finest. However, exceptions to everything being the rule one car I remember not being fond of was the new for 1968 Buick Skylark. So, why write about it? Because it's interesting to me to try and figure out what I don't like about something as opposed to droning on and on about how much I love something. Think of it as a study of abject failure. Anyone can examine winners. Let's look at the losers.

General Motors was originally made up of a series of acquired car companies. Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland (became Pontiac) Cadillac and finally Chevrolet were individual manufacturers each swallowed up by what would become the world's largest corporation. Each of these acquired makes were pushed into a slot in a hierarchy of sorts within the GM lineup. With these "lanes" GM could offer a car for every pocket book. You started life in a Chevy and moved up through Pontiac, Olds, Buick and then finished off a lifetime of hard work driving a Cadillac. Is it any wonder most hearses are Cadillacs?

Not saying it worked but something worked for GM big time for they swallowed up nearly half of American car sales by 1960 and profit margins were outrageous. I never knew anyone who followed GM protocol and moved up in life from a Chevy to a Pontiac to an Olds blah blah blah. Most folks I know who are GM faithful love everything GM and in particular one make so it was more in part GM's terrific styling that drove that market growth not necessarily that pricing hierarchy. 

To understand a "Buick" was (is?) to appreciate the autonomy that each of the divisions of General Motors once experienced. Years ago the GM divisions were little fiefdoms that operated independently of one another. To my still young mind a Buick, Chevrolet or Cadillac (the only domestic GM car divisions left these days) are GM and not individual brands. Back in 1968 when our lovely subject rolled off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan Buick was still hard at work to differentiate their brand from similar offerings available across the hall from Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Chevrolet.

I've always been a fan of Chevrolet's and their clean, no nonsense design and solid value. If I wanted something with a bit of bling I'd look over at Pontiac. I never could understand what a Buick was or was meant to be. And then there's that other conundrum, Oldsmobile. What's an Oldsmobile doing that a Buick or Pontiac can't do? Is it any wonder two of those divisions no longer exist? As a four year non appreciator of the '68 Skylark perhaps I was onto something for the Skylark was little more than a Chevrolet Chevelle with a funky rear end.

GM had been common parting for years after World War II but most folks didn't realize it or care. The sheet metal of each of the GM brands was unique enough that you couldn't tell there was any shared DNA. As the sixties rolled out and fat profit margins became tougher and tougher to achieve GM began to share more and more between the divisions. So much so that by 1968, the Skylark with its common genes to the Oldsmobile Cutlass, Pontiac LeMans and Chevrolet Chevelle looked a lot like her cousins save for a funky derriere. Funny, for that unique posterior is what makes a '68 (and '69) Skylark a Skylark and the one thing on this otherwise handsome mid sizer that I don't care for.

Old Buicks are whimsical. Why couldn't they make this Skylark look just like a Chevy? Because then it wouldn't be a Buick.

GM has been through a lot in my lifetime and I'll never understand how big and powerful it once was. To me it's the beat prize fighter whose glory days are way behind him but still manages to get a solid shot in every now and then. GM today is a lean machine compared to what it was just five years ago and it probably will get leaner before it's all said and done. In some ways it's more in line with what it was prior to World War II. There's little to a Buick that could be confused with a Chevrolet or a Cadillac although there is a fair amount of common parting amongst the three remaining divisions. Next time you see a the spectacular new Camaro know deep down inside it it shares a lot with the Cadillac CTS.

My mother used to complain that things weren't as good as they used to be. I felt guilty about that as if I had something to do with it. Also, I was frustrated that I couldn't do anything about her malaise. Now, it may have been nothing more than the way she would complain and the way that I took it but I wanted to have been born years earlier into a time in the old days when she was happy. I felt as thought I was not only late to the party but I missed the whole thing. That's a lot for a kid to deal with let alone trying to understand why this Chevrolet looks so weird when it has a Buick emblem glued to it.

I've come to the hard fought realization that things back then weren't nearly as good as she remembered and the future not as bad as she would make it out to be.

Chuck Collier and the Car Show

Boys Night Out

Chuck Collier and I worked together for only about a year and a half but in that short period of time we became very good friends. We'd often say to one another that we had to get out of the office and have dinner and tilt one or two but time flew by and we kept putting it off. He was as guility of putting it off as I was. There was always something that got in the way of our boys night out.

Me and Chuck at work (of course) goofing around with cigars and a bottle of Crown Royal given to us by John Rich

I love cars and old car shows and I had heard great things about a car show Tuesday nights during the summer in Solon. With some free time on my hands one Tuesday late last July I made plans to go out to Solon and enjoy some of Detroit's finest old iron. I invited Chuck fully expecting him to say he was too busy to go but much to my surprise, delight and thrill he said he would join me. Yes! On the way to Solon we were as happy as a couple of high school sophomores playing hooky from school.

If you look closely you can see Chuck on the left in the reflection of the hood on this spectacular '57 Chevy

Despite agreeing to go Chuck seemed a bit apprehensive because he had never been to car show before. "I don't know anything about cars!" he repeated over and over. "Chuck", I assured him, "Relax! You'll be fine. It's a bunch of people with old cars who love showing them off and talking about them. Trust me. You'll love it".

Chuck and a 1950 Chevrolet

The Solon Commons Car Show is fantastic. Hundreds of  cars of all  sorts of makes, models, vintages and condition. The painfully perfect, "trailer queens" along side the hopeless rust buckets in  my opinion make for the perfect car show. The weather on that  warm summer Tuesday night was spectacular too so that meant the die hards who only take their cars out on the most perfect of nights would be there. Chuck was in awe of all the old cars and he was also taken back by how friendly the car owners were and easy he found it to make small talk with them. Small talk being a Chuck Collier trademark.

 I took this photograph of a 1972 Chevrolet Impala's 400 engine tag. In the photo you can also see Chuck's signature summer docksiders.

"This...this is fantastic!" he said over and over again, "I grew up with a lot of these cars!" It was neat to get Chuck's point of view on the cars from a someone-who-had-been-there perspective. He told me  what cars were special when they were new (not all of today's collectible cars were well received when new), which ones weren't. Chuck wasn't into horsepower and torque or size of engines and types of transmissions but he was into the memories that the cars brought back for him.

Chuck's father had a '55 Dodge just like this

As we were making our way out of the show Chuck stopped cold in his tracks when he saw a purple and white sedan. "My God...that's my Dad's car!" he said. "I haven't seen one of these in years!"The car was a 1955 Dodge Royal Lancer.

Chuck and the owner of the Dodge, whom he never met before, talked for over half an hour about the car

Chuck went right to work gabbing away with the car's owner. They chatted away like old friends. In no time Chuck found out that the owner had found the car at an estate sale outside of Kansas City.  The original owner had passed away and the family put the car in a barn where it stayed for over 40 years. Yes. The Dodge was literally a barn find. It had only 30,000 miles on it when it went into the barn and was was all original except for the tires, hoses and brakes. Chuck gushed about the great condition the car was in and how much it resembled the car his Dad had when he was a boy growing up in southern Ohio. The car was for sale and there was glint in Chuck's eye. He scratched his chin and looked at me with a "what do YOU think" look. I shrugged as if to say, "what are you, nuts?" He laughed.  

 Mr. Collier's Royal Lancer was the top-of-the line 1955 Dodge.

After the show we went to dinner and on and on he went about that Dodge and all the memories he had of it. We agreed that an old car was a better time machine than seeing our childhood homes again because chances are our old homes have changed a lot from when we lived in them. The cars of our youth whisk us right back to when we kids.

As we drove back to the radio station after dinner Chuck thanked me over and over for asking him to go to the car show. Funny how he was a bit nervous at first about going but afterwards he wanted to go back another Tuesday and check the cars out again. Maybe the '55 Dodge Royal Lancer would there again. Afterall, it was for sale.

Miss ya, buddy.