GOOD-BYE DINAH SHORE or (THE DEVIL’S STAFF CAR)

When I was young, cars were fun (before we knew their environmental cost).

I rode to nursery school in a Ford Woody station wagon, the car later loved by surfers.  

Our 1956 Buick Riviera seemed too big to fit through the Garden State toll booths but did.  

My boyfriend’s mother had a 1963 Ford Thunderbird convertible.  Riding in it listening to the Four Tops was bliss. 

My best friend’s mom drove a 1959 Cadillac de Ville. It had fins to spare.

So did my dad’s 1959 Chevy.  

Wild horses couldn’t keep us away from the Ford Mustang.  “Mustang Sally you better slow your Mustang down!”  

A boyfriend tried to teach me to drive stick on his Corvette Sting Ray .  (Yikes! I learned later on a VW.)

Each year we’d eagerly await the new car models. Through time this changed.  Cars melted into aerodynamic shapes then grew into SUVS that all looked alike.  An exception in the 90’s was the “urban assault vehicle”. 

Today we have the Tesla Cybertruck, a gut punch of flat sheet metal in black or silver with no visible driver.  Seeing one strikes fear.

So much for Dinah Shore’s “See the USA in your Chevrolet!”.  The Cybertruck looks like the Devil’s staff car.