COFFEE TALK for Tuesday March 15, 2022

WHEN A CHEVY IS NOT A CHEVY 

The weather today here in Oakdale, is predicted to be in the 40's, which for Minnesota this time of year is considered tropical.  As I put bread in the toaster while waiting for the coffee to brew, I was reflecting back on summer old car shows.  One in particular made me smile. 

Did you ever have a conversation with someone who is telling you something that you know is bunk?  But they deliver it to you as though it's as factual as the sun coming up in the east every morning.  I had one such encounter with a guy back in 1991 at the annual "Back to the Fifties" car show in St. Paul. 

As we were both watching the old cars play follow-the-leader as they cruised the grounds, he spotted a '56 Chevrolet Nomad of which he started telling me that "this one" must be customized with a different grille and chrome treatment.  I almost didn't have the heart to tell him that it wasn't a Nomad, but rather a Pontiac Safari, but I had to correct him. 

I explained that it was Pontiac's counterpart to Chevy's Nomad and it indeed was a different car.  Well this poor gent wasn't going to have anything of my correction to him, as he stated that it was a Nomad and that it was exclusive to Chevy, being a 2-door new wagon in 1955.  Honestly, he really believed what he was saying, even though I shared a little bit about Pontiac and especially this Safari. 

I told him Pontiac was a division of General Motors which in the beginning was headquartered in Pontiac, Michigan.  When I mentioned that it was originally considered a series of the Oakland automobile and sold with the Oakland, I saw the biggest "Deer in the Headlights" look on his face I'd ever seen.  Though he was the one wrong about the car we saw not being a Nomad, he looked at me as if I was the one that was making stuff up.  But I wasn't going to stop talking, as I felt compelled to set this guy straight and was willing to die on the mountain trying. 

Pontiac began production in 1926.  It was a successful division for General Motors and in 1954 made some history reaching a major milestone, as it built its five-millionth car.  Pontiac even boasted that it had produced enough cars that if lined-up bumper to bumper on a six-lane highway, it would reach from Washington D.C. to San Francisco. 

With that bit of trivia, the guy (who I'd now found out was named Henry) just stared at me as if I should be writing fairytales.  As I brought my story to the 1955 model year, I told him that along with new styling, a two-tone paint scheme and a panoramic windshield, Pontiac produced an answer to Chevrolet's Nomad, they called Safari.  I knew by looking at Henry, that I'd not totally convinced him, and as I smile about that day, he may well have continued telling others that the Safari was really a Nomad. 

As I think today about how people talk of "Fake News" and many will believe what they choose to believe, I'm thinking it may well have started with Henry.  As I buttered my toast and sipped the rest of my coffee, I smiled again, knowing that I tried to correct him, but I doubt I got through.  For me, it's a fun memory.