THAT NU-CAR SMELL

It’s mid-October 1954 and I can’t wait for this year’s new cars to be delivered for 1955.  Pop Pop Herb and I always went to see their debut.  Mori Motors had trumpeted their arrival for weeks in the Millville Daily Republican paper.  On TV almost every commercial did the same.  II can still hear Dinah Shore singing it in my head now...

See the USA in your Chevrolet

America is asking you to call

Drive your Chevrolet through the USA

America's the greatest land of all

So make a date today to see the USA...And see it in your Chevrolet...

And Pop and I  will be there first in line to see one - this is almost as good as Christmas, well maybe not - but for an October week night it beats watching TV.  Oh boy, the new Chevy's. My upper lip started  to sweat just thinking about one.  I knew those babies were in town delivered in the dead of night so nobody would get a peek at these chrome behemoths of the American by-ways and hi-ways.

The Mori showroom had Bon Ami covering its windows for over a week so no auto devotee could see inside before the official premiere.  But it was time.  We got in my grandfather’s black, overly big ‘49 Buick and drove to the dealership.  As we drove I reviewed in my mind the recognized “pecking order” of cars - Cadillac the best, Buick next, Olds & Pontiac, less luxury but still special and then the common man's chariot - the Chevy - all built by one great company that made our number #1 selling gas gulping guzzlers.

There’s a crowd waiting in front of the large showroom windows - OK,  maybe 8 people but...the big door opened and there they were.  The new model Chevy's had arrived. “Wow  - Pop look at those colors!” As a car connoisseur considered the Buick to be very staid, but a bit stodgy.  But the Chevy, the working stiff's steed – they were "sporty".  And the new models were Perfect this year, a blend of dashing but delicate grill work combined with subtle use of chrome trim  - (There were no soaring monumental pointed fins yet - those came in a couple of years - and that would be a banner car year event).   I sat in the two door BelAir - a two tone green and white honey with white walls and deeply inhaled - there is nothing in a male's life (well almost nothing) that makes one drool like the new car smell!  It can't be duplicated, nor can it be explained - it just is.  I start to dream of getting my driver’s license.  But at nine that was going to be awhile.  But dreams are what much of life is made at any age. Tomorrow night we planned to go to Edwards Motors to see the new Pontiac with its Indian Chief hood ornament which leads  the way to adventures – "Now that car always has something different," grandpa said each year. 

These were the days when the car was king for men and boys and they all were different.  Today they all look the same and seem.   I find them fairly boring.  For my grandchildren they have become just a way to get around while texting friends as they are carted from organized play dates or a soccer game. But for me, back then they were hot stuff -  seeing a new model each year renewed my faith in America and kindled my imagination of what many things would be in the future.