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Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy
Muffy Aldrich
Editor, Salt Water New England - The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy, since 2010. From a 12th Generation New Englander.
- Original Photographs.
- Timeless, Preppy Clothing.
Most Items Sent By Vendors.
Final photo with the dog is marvellous !
ReplyDeleteLove the white Mercedes wagon! Great photos as usual.
ReplyDeleteI'll take that Waggoneer and the basket full of produce, thank you! ; ) I like that yellow vehicle, but admit I don't what it is...
ReplyDeleteVW Thing
DeleteI remember the Thing well! Specifically memories of driving with the front windshield down in the summer as a teenager just before leaving for college. Such a unique vehicle, just profiled in the WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/heres-the-thing-this-volkswagen-isnt-like-other-cars-11600177027
DeleteThank you! ; )
DeleteThe yellow car, as noted, is what VW marketed in the States as The Thing.
DeleteHowever, it actually began life in the Wehrmacht in WW 2 as the Kübelwagen or "tub-car". It was for the German Army what the Jeep was for us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_K%C3%BCbelwagen
On the same day the Normandy landings, the War Department published a manual for the car (in English), presumably for the benefit of Allied troops who might capture one and need use it.
https://archive.org/details/TechnicalManualTmE9-803GermanVolkswagen/mode/2up
I always thought the Thing had a certain creep-factor because it was so completely enemy-military in appearance, and painting it yellow or red didn't change that, at least for me.
In fact the original VW Beetle was born from a order by Hitler that there should be an inexpensive people's car or, in German, ein Volkswagen.
And so it came to be.
Thanks Anonymous. I enjoyed the War Department manual.
DeleteSo is the lone gull! Actually this is just a lovely assemblage.
ReplyDeleteThat's the largest assembly of Egrets I've seen in a while. Nifty Volkswagon "Thing" and the Wagoneer is pretty swell! I notice the requisite number of Volvo wagons and the MG TD or TF is on my "must have" list! Of course the red Porsche might be fun for a spin. Lovely scenery-who wouldn't want to live in the SWNE world?
ReplyDeleteGreat photos as usual but my favorite “vehicles” in this collection are the SUPs!
ReplyDeleteThat deer looks like it has a bad case of mange. Don't go near it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much for the wonderful photos. What a superb way to start the day!
ReplyDeleteThat yellow VW Thing takes me back to when we lived in Hawaii and that was the "in" play thing to own. I didn't know that any of them survived to this day.
ReplyDeleteJust shared above that it was featured recently in the WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/heres-the-thing-this-volkswagen-isnt-like-other-cars-11600177027
ReplyDeleteLove these! I don't live in New England anymore, and your photos absolutely bring it all back in a lovely way. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThere's a joke in there somewhere with the trouble the USPS has been having lately and the bin full of shells...
ReplyDeleteStill don't get the appeal of an SUP but I do hope to have a Model A roadster pickup one day for a summer car.
ReplyDeletePictures produce quite a spread of the SNE ethos as embodied in which appliance one chooses to drive around town. For some, only the understated, but oh-so-proper Volvo wagon will do. Over the years, I have found that a very broad spectrum of Preps drive these cars, from lady realtors in the Berkshires to harried husbands in Cos Cob. Never vulgar, somewhat reliable, always in fashion at any private school athletic event, the Volvo wagon is very important. For others, they play the reverse snob roles laid out over the years and choose to drive 30-year-old Pontiac station wagons with plastic 'wood' decoration. I have seen some of the oldest money on Earth drive similar vehicles, almost as if to scream to the rest of us: "Imagine actually believing a vehicle gives one standing and significance". We move onto to the men who simply must have Wagoneers (these guys are usually engineers or businessmen) or Defenders (investors, lawyers who make too much money for their own good and the occasional dentist). These apparently evoke a rugged, leave-civilization-at-any-time motif while at the same time serving well for a drive across the Island for cocktails in Town. Finally, the Porsches. Some of the photographs here show vehicles in the shape of an SUV with Porsche emblems. These, dear readers, are not Porsches. Rather they were status symbols about ten years ago for dentists and and similar members of the upper, upper middle class, especially among ethnic populations in places like Long Island and New Jersey. The real Porsches depicted in these most recent photos are all air-cooled (pre 1998) and considered 'the thing' among aficionados, real and imagined. I find them to be slow, noisy, uncomfortable and unsafe. The only Porsche worth owning is a 2004 GT, but then what, in God's heavens, do I know?
ReplyDeleteWell done sir, you have nailed it. My daily beater is a 1992 240 Wagon. Road trip 2013 Land Cruiser. Lot of people putting on the dawg with respect to these aforementioned vehicles. Money down the drain. Owned a 1984 Wagoneer made by Chrysler 360 V-8, mechanically unreliable, gas hog, 18 gal tank, 10 mpg. If it was a horse , I would have shot it. Sold it.
DeleteSuffice to say my favorite was a 65 Lemans Pontiac with a 326. Drunk frat rat ran into it parked on the street & totaled it. Neighbors got his plate number.Called his Daddy, he was not amused. Proceeds resulted in a 66 Mustang. Enough of ancient history.
what a happily glorious post!
ReplyDeleteand ending with my favorite... a beloved little dog! XO