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Showing posts from July 21, 2013

The station wagon's Very Back was very dangerous, very awesome

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This column first appeared in The Dallas Morning News and on DallasNews.com . ------------------ In a time when cars can be equipped with satellite radio, Internet access and DVD systems, I know this is going to be a tough sell. But as the ultimate family road-trip vehicle, I’m going with a 1978 banana-yellow Ford Fairmont station wagon that guzzled gas, dripped oil and smelled like french fries and Amway cleaner. Nostalgia is distorting my logic, of course. The Fairmont, although often described with expletives by my father, was the main vehicle of my childhood. But there’s more to it than that. And as thousands of families head out on road trips this summer, I think the new generation of parents in the front will understand why I have such fond memories of the back. Maybe they even took trips in a car like the Fairmont, which had a feature you can no longer find on any vehicle: My family's wagon was yellow, so not nearly this retro cool. Blissful ignor