Back to the 1930s

I know before I write this column that at least two of my grandchildren would be up in arms over it if they could read it. And I know too that it is politically incorrect. I am going to dare to make fun of modern-day icons. For that I make no apology. So here goes…

Whenever I see pictures of life in the Depression Era I am struck by the ugliness of the fashions of that age. The clothes worn by men and women are probably utilitarian, but they are just plain, well… plain. The hats are especially hideous, those of the women being only slightly more so that the male headgear.

But what absolutely makes me gag is the idiotic design of the cars. They are square and boxy and black. Didn’t they have paint colors back then? With rare exceptions all the cars looked just about alike and they all showed a lack of imagination or nonconformity.

Oh there were a few people out there who designed cool cars, but those models cost more than the average guy made in a decade. Fully 99 percent of the automobiles on the road were interchangeable and indistinguishable from all the others.

World War Two changed all of that. After the war, carmakers started putting curves and colors on their creations, and boy did they take off! By the time we reached the end of the 1950s decade, cars had huge tailfins, bullet headlights and taillights and outrageous colors.

Well, maybe they went a little too far – though many of those same cars are considered “classics” today – and the fins and such disappeared by 1961. Even so, every kid could spot and name the make and year of a car from two blocks away. Each brand was a little different from the competitor.

By 1980 there was another trend, this time back toward the “standard” design again, but at least the standard was a fairly nice looking one. Who cared that you could buy nearly any brand and model and it would look pretty much like every other one. It got a lot harder to identify make and year too. The trend persisted for the next twenty or so years.

Then styles changed again along about the turn of the century. People started thinking “green” and the age of the hybrid was born. And along with the new age came a new design. Well, it was supposed to be new, but to my way of thinking it was a throwback to the Depression Era. Square, boxy cars were all the rage, cars with names like Scion, Element, Soul to name a few.

We were supposed to be more energy conscious, but did we have to sacrifice design and good taste to achieve that goal?

Now comes the real rub… Not only did we revert to the box-like, wind-resistant shapes of 1930, other models that had heretofore been pretty neat looking took on the same boxy look as the hybrids. Perfect examples are the Ford Flex and the Dodge Caravan. It seems that Ford and Chrysler took two great looking automobiles, the Ford Excursion and the Dodge Caravan (pre-2010 model) and chopped them up to make them look like the big brothers of the Honda Element and Toyota Scion. All I can say is UGLY!

Ford even makes fun of the “box look” in one of their commercials featuring a couple that bought a new Ford Sedan. In it the man says, “We wanted to get away from ‘buying a box’ and this certainly does that.”

Oh yes, and Chrysler recently announced that it is discontinuing the Dodge Caravan in 2012. Maybe the new boxy look didn’t impress many buyers. You sure see a lot of the older models on the road.

Can you say, “streamline”? Doesn’t that imply that wind will flow past with less effect? Isn’t that why Indy cars are built so sleek and low? Doesn’t energy efficiency depend in large part on less wind resistance? I could go on and on, but I think you get my point.

Please, please go back to a car that looks nice and doesn’t resemble a railroad boxcar.