The Woodie

In a parking lot at Congress Square this woodie, with its rear bodywork of wood, sits waiting for the surf to rise. The vehicle had its birth somewhere in the mid- 1930s but reached its zenith of sales in the '40s and '50s. There were versions of it in sedans and convertibles, but the most popular, at least in the US, seem to be the station wagons. The older guys on Mayfield were always tinkering with old cars trying to convert them into street rods. Us little guys were always around, it seemed, to help push their cars down the road to get them started. The payoff for us? Once the cars were rolling, we got a free ride! That was 50s cool! One the of their cars was an old woodie from the 40's, I think. It was a Ford, as I recall. It was faded-maroon with all that rear wood. The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean in the 60s made the woodie quite a popular icon of the surfing crowd, by putting them all over their album covers. Jan and Dean would have been envious of that maroon woodie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxMyFe81FUg