Hupmobiles, Kaisers, and Other Family Cars

Sorting through the stash of family photos I inherited when my parents died,  I came across lots of pictures of really old cars.

My parents' first car was Hupmobile.   It looks like something out of a gangster movie. It had a running board. Here I am with my mother and the Hupmobile, in front of my grandparents' house in Oakland in 1952:

Note running board (no machine guns)

 


A close-up of the hood ornament on this baby:



What is it?

A look online:  Hupmobiles were named after Robert Hupp, who founded the company in 1908; production was suspended in 1939.  I think my parents bought theirs in the early 1950's.

After a few years,  my dad got rid of the Hupmobile (he was in charge of car acquisition, and for years my mother didn't drive), and bought a Kaiser.  I ran this past Jerry.  A Kaiser?  "Oh, they were losers," he said.  "People made jokes about them."

Turns out they were produced by Kaiser Industries from 1945 until 1953, when Kaiser could no longer compete with GM, Ford, and Chrysler.  Among the model names: Carolina, Traveler, Dragon, and Manhattan.

Here we in Santa Cruz,  c. 1955, with our Kaiser, which was sort of a dried-blood color:

My mother, my sister, and I with our Kaiser

 

 

 

Not a very good shot of the car, but here's what a similar model looked like:

 



With bench seats:

No seat belts, but my sister and I survived to adulthood

A few more years,  and my dad traded in the Kaiser for a brand-new 1959 Ford.

My sister and me with bikes, two-toned car, and tract house, c. 1960

This tank cruised on for ages.  My sister drove it to high school, and it didn't bite the dust until the early 1970's when she and her friend Margaret were broad-sided by a teenage boy who ran a stop sign.  They were unharmed

I'm amazed at how many photos there are of the family standing next to the car of the moment.  That ended with the Ford.  After that, there are no people-and-car shots, although my parents had several other cars over the decades.

The last car, which my sister and I sold when our dad died, was a Volvo station wagon.  All white.  No photos.