Ford Rangers, Wheelbarrows, and Ersatz Manliness.

We caught a bunch of Ford Rangers this winter in Texas and in California. Such good-looking trucks: form following function, etc. The practical, useful, wheelbarrow truck. Which is what pickup trucks were supposed to be before they morphed into those hulking beefcake symbols of American decadence chasing us down the freeway with the requisite Roganesque, ball-capped, bearded male hunched over the wheel of his  (Raptor... Tremor... Longhorn...Laramie....Ram...King Ranch Edition...Texas Edition.....) and working out his masculinity issues at 90mph. There ought to be a macho truck edition called the Sick Puppy. It did seem to us there are fewer massive pickups on the road in Southern California than in Texas, which makes sense given the price of gas in Cali, even before this evil dumbass war.

Speaking of ersatz manliness, does Little Mike Hegseth actually blow his nose in his pocket handkerchief?

c. 1983 Fiat 1107 Campagnola. Rome.

 

Basha Burwell photographs.

1953 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery. Montréal, Québec

 

Gabor Szilasi. 1961.  View Along St. Paul Street with Bonsecours Market, Montreal

c.1971 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Santa Barbara, California.

We have posted a 1970 Monte Carlo in N.J. And for comparison's sake here a contemporary Ford Torino,

and a 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix.

 

Lobster truck, with drawing

  

“Back in the day, the family car was often born again as a hybrid truck,” a Stonington fisherman says. Illustration by Brian Robbins.

You know how much we dislike massive chrome-festooned pickup-trucks-glistening-on-steroids. And you know our thing for wheelbarrow trucks. This from Brian Robbins' wonderful piece in The Rising Tide–and thanks to Matt Dallet for the heads-up. "When I was a kid, you didn’t see a lot of new trucks on the Island. There were trucks, of course, but it was a big deal for a fisherman to have a brand-new right-off-the-lot pickup to lug lobster gear to the shore with. I have a dim memory of the truck my father had when I was little: a hulking black Dodge with a wooden flatbed body on the back..."

c.1995 Chevrolet Sport Van. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The sport was chevy's Van with windows.

 

c. 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu. Santa Barbara, California

 

See our post on another '71 Chevelle Malibu and why we prefer these relatively plainjane cars that look like they have been preserved, or renovated, rather than restored.