The Family Cadillac
My dad bought my mom a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado, in white, with a white landau top and white leather interior. It mostly went back and forth to church and the grocery store. On weekends in the fall my dad and I would drive it to go hunting in it for dove and quail, he was a small bird hunter. There are few things more Texan than loading up a white Cadillac with shotguns and going out to the countryside to hunt. I suppose going out to check on your oil rigs in a white Cadillac might have been more Texan. Anyway, the landau top on the Eldorado rusted out in a big way within two years. Also, the gas gauge stopped working, and the speedo cable malfunctioned in that wacky way only GM speedo cables can (it made the pointer sweep back and forth across the speedo gauge like a wiper arm). So you had no idea how much gas was in the tank, nor could you guesstimate based on miles travelled as the odometer was tied to the speedo cable. Now for the “One fine day” part.
We had gone hunting sometime around 1976 and had a very, very successful dove hunt. We prepped all the dove on a table and put the breasts and tiny drumsticks away on ice for the trip home. About thirty minutes into the drive home, in the middle of bumfuck, the Cadillac coughed and choked on the last drops of fuel in the tank. Using his best Shakespearian language, my dad described exactly what he wanted to do with our beloved white Cadillac Eldorado. This was Texas in the mid-1970s mind you, so it was at least an hour walk to a gas station down gravel roads. And my dad, not-so-secretly hoping somebody would steal the Cadillac, had me take the shotguns with us on the long walk*. And it was loooong. As the sun went down, we found a gas station. In we went, shotgun cases in hand, clothes speckled with blood from cleaning doves. Nobody batted and eye. It was Texas in 1976. We asked to buy a small gas can full of fuel.
“GM car stranded you. What a surprise!” said the owner of the gas station. He took us back to the Cadillac in his tow truck along with ten gallons of spare gas and a six pack of Coors my dad bought. My dad looked crestfallen that nobody had taken the car. In true 70s Texas fashion, two beers were left by the time we pulled into the driveway at home. Nobody was hurt, no nanny staters became indignant, and the doves stayed on ice so we had a very late dinner of dove breast shish kabobs that evening.
Lightnin’ Hopkins talks about his Cadillac!
* One gun was my dad’s prized Remington semi-auto 12 gauge, and the other was my grandfather’s antique 12 gauge pump. About ten years ago my brother restored the the pump (bought from Montgomery Wards, which proudly etched it’s name on the receiver).
A visiting Glib dignitary came by Stately R.J. Manor this past week.
Thanks RJ. It was a good visit.
In we went, shotgun cases in hand, clothes speckled with blood from cleaning doves. Nobody batted and eye.
As it should be.
Probably should have left some gas in it if he wanted someone to take it.
Back then the big country boys could just haul it off. Although chances are they would push on the trunk to move it and it would rot through due to rust. It do not miss cars from the 1970s.
I miss my 73 Charger, it had a built 440 and was rust free.
I gave it to my nephew when I was moving and had the engine tore out of it.
He is slowly working on it, but it is being kept in my brother’s garage.
On a trip out west in (Checks log book) August 1992 we flew the family Cessna 172 across the country from NJ to Wyoming, and stoped in Cody Wyoming to access Yellowstone NP. When we landed the FBO was out of rental cars, but would lend us their crew car. It was a 70’s Cadillac with the longhorn attached to the front.
My grandfather had a mid-70s Olds Toronado with 455 cu in engine. The doors were about as long as my entire Mazda I drive now.
There are few things more Texan than loading up a white Cadillac with shotguns and going out to the countryside to hunt
Now you do it in a Prius.
I find that there is one hell of a generational gap between those of us that grew up in that time and these darned kids today..
Good story, RJ, I hunted doves in TX about the same time but never kept the drumsticks. I was driving a ’69 El Camino but all the gauges worked, Temple-Stephenville.
My hunting partner was from Stephenville, his folks prepared a great lunch for us but no beer with that crowd. Thanks for the memories.
Ah, 1970’s cars. My first car was a ’76 Plymouth Duster. The dashboard light was shorted out. A new fuse would burn out shortly after installed. I stuck a small flashlight with Velcro on the dashboard so I could see the speed at night, but mostly figured it out by what gear and the engine sound.
It was a rust bucket, including the driver door hinges, so I would climb in thru the open window a la Dukes of Hazard.
It had a manual three speed with overdrive and a slant six engine. That engine was great – couldn’t kill it, even overheated (replaced water pump, thermostat and radiator – with help from a friend). On long drives, put into overdrive, it got great gas mileage.
I thought you needed a Rolls for that.
My grandpa drove a baby blue 1970’s Cadillac, well until someone put sugar in the gas tank.
I took my driver’s test in a 1977 Monte Carlo. That thing was a boat!
I thought it was as big as a whale, and about to set sail.
I HATE that song, Ted S.
That was a Chrysler.
Black Cadillac?
no, pink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk5cIUI6Zac
Don’t forget the back seat!
Car question – I need new tires for my 2018 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road. This is my daily driver, and the daily drive is all city and highway, but I find myself on a lot of crappy gravel and dirt roads on the weekends. Not strictly off-road, but bad roads.
I was looking at the Michelin Defender LTX M/S2, and the Continental TerrainConnect H/T, but a gearhead buddy of mine who has a 4Runner pointed me towards the Cooper Discoverer AT3 XLT.
Any advice/suggestions?
Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiPqToZOhjgMVXSvUAR2eejw1EAQYASABEgIhgfD_BwE&tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=Geolandar+A%2FT+G015&partnum=27TR5G015OWL&GCID=C13674x012-tire&KEYWORD=tires.jsp_Yokohama_Geolandar+A%2FT+G015_Tire&code=yes&ef_id=EAIaIQobChMIiPqToZOhjgMVXSvUAR2eejw1EAQYASABEgIhgfD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!3756!3!!!!x!!&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19641426407&gbraid=0AAAAAD_rH_8gQZABWNQKr7R5Xs_0wGUFQ
I love these. I have used them on Nissan Xterra, Titan, and Rogue as well as Subaru Forrester.
Remarkably quiet on the freeway.
Great traction in wet and snowy conditions. Some limited experience with off-road, but they have always performed well for us.
ES is in MD / VA so snow is not as much of a concern.
I’d suggest he make the highway noise versus snow / mud trade off. If he does need the mud this might be a good choice given you liked them on the highway.
The first time that I put them on, the dealer warned me that they would be noisy as hell. They do have an aggressive looking tread.
But, I thought they were as quiet as the all-seasons that they replaced. And they don’t seem to get louder as they get miles put on them.
They do very well in heavy rain. I’ve never experienced hydroplaning in any vehicle that I had them on.
And they are moderately priced.
The Cooper is an A/T tire.
The Michelin is a all season M/S
The Continental is an All Season
They will all work, but the A/T tire is going to drone on the highway compared to the other two. The Michelin is Mud / Snow rated. If really muddy roads (and your rare snows) are a concern it’s going to be the best middle option. If the dirt roads are mostly dry the Continental should be OK.
The Continental has the best shot of quiet, durability and on road handling.
Disclosure – this is all from the specs I’ve not run any of these.
I just put Falken wildpeak a/t trails on my suv.
Very favorable first impressions.
I’ve used Goodyear Silent Armor (discontinued), All Terain Adventure, Work Horse, Duratrac, and Duratrac RT on gravel roads and (semi) plowed roads on my trucks over the years. All have been fine, all punctures have been nails/screws/vandal.
I was looking at the Michelin Cross Climate (has 3PMSF vs the Defenders) and may put those on my work truck next time.
Guess what vehicle uses that tire from the OEM.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a60928996/2024-ford-mustang-mach-e-rally-drive/
People in snow climates love them on the Tesla 3 and Y. They do knock range down 5-10%.
Interesting. After my experience with the Duratrac, I’m a bit skeptical of OEM factory tires in the details. They were decent all around, but Ford got Goodyear to make a version without 3PMSF (possibly just without the stamp or possibly with a different rubber compound) probably at a lower cost vs retail version of those same tires. Annoyed me when I discovered it because chain laws apply differently because of it.
Few months back I put BFG All Terrain K02s on my Tacoma and I love them. They are a bit more off road worthy than stock and most importantly (for me as we ski and go up to Sierras several times each winter) they are great in snow. I dig the looks of them too, got the whitewall side visible. Costco had a good deal on them last winter. Also not much difference in highway noise I’ve found.
Hey everyone. Sorry I am late. I do this thing called “work” sometimes.
Some of us also have jobs… mine is sitting in front of a computer and they don’t care if I have Glibs open, so it may not be much of a comparison.
Oh look, the vendor finally fixed their query!
I spend all Wednesday and Thursday running meetings and giving guidance. It’s brutal. Thankfully one or two got cancelled today because of some independence thing.
Well, freedoms just another word for nothin left to lose.
Back then the big country boys could just haul it off. Although chances are they would push on the trunk to move it and it would rot through due to rust. It do not miss cars from the 1970s.
Or they could have just used it for target practice.
Yes, that did happen a lot.
Baffling
“The electorate has changed a lot in the last 20 years in San Francisco,” said Jane Kim, a former city supervisor and head of the progressive California Working Families Party. “We’ve lost the middle class. It has become a city of the rich and poor. That makes electioneering much more difficult for progressive candidates.”
On Wednesday, a day after Mamdani’s win was solidified, the San Francisco chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America gathered over craft beers and ciders at a dive bar in the Mission District.
The mood was a mixture of progressive soul searching and celebration — roughly 50 socialists around picnic tables on a patio sharing their hopes that San Francisco would be the next DSA conquest, while bemoaning the uphill battle with “tech capitalists.”
“This is a very contradictory place, it’s a very unequal place,” said Aditya Bhumbla, co-chair of the local DSA chapter and a software engineer. “San Francisco, because of its symbolic role, is just worth fighting for. What better place to be a socialist than the heart of capital?”
They live in their own little world, don’t they?
1. Socialism “lite” starts. All forward progress for business at the city stops. The city basically suspends in time, nothing new moves forward as money begins to be redistributed along socialist guidelines, taxes go up, regulations get out of control.
2. The city starts to move backwards. Crime goes up, homeless appear, middle class leaves. Nobody in power notices.
3. Socialists now no longer can support their own shitty programs with tax dollars. So they start to borrow money at an alarming rate to promote their version of equity.
4. Crime and homelessness soar. Businesses leave. The city goes bankrupt. Congratulations, you have now recreated Detroit.
At least in the region, every couple of months there will be some puff piece about Detroit’s renaissance and revitalization. I don’t even think the people writing those pieces believe them.
Cleveland’s downtown is currently on the upswing (likely about to peak and start collapsing in the next couple of years). It’s funny, the cool places become trendy and popular, more people start showing up, which means more assholes start showing up, business makes more money in the short term, people move on to other places, the asshole population increases, and the place eventually closes (either due to legal issues or financial ones). About 5-10 years later, something new moves in and the cycle repeats.
Renaissance and revitalization in this context means:
They spent an enormous amount of Federal and State money building a handful of sporting and entertainment venues for white people in the suburbs to visit 4 or 5 times a year. The rest of the city isn’t even profitable for the metal thieves who looted the ruins.
I didn’t know you had visited Arlington, TX!
What a shock, Kim is a parasite from NY that hates the America that her parents voluntarily came to. And Aditya Bhumbla is a commie from the subcontinent.
Palmer was right all along. Deport
anarchistscommies.An imaginary world where all their support is not coming from rich wypipo, apparently.
“…it’s a very unequal place…”
And it got that wayyyyyyyyyyyy….how?
The hard core progressives had almost completely taken over here during the so called “libertarian moment” years when the tech bros were supposed to be all about teh liberty. They fucking were very much not of course. 2020-2023 in the City showed them and enough others here that progressivism sucks. And now with the changing political winds it is out of favor. It is not disappeared by any means and I expect a return of it before long.
Craft beers at a dive bar? Riiight
They do…why the surprise?
“We’ve lost the middle class. It has become a city of the rich and poor. That makes electioneering much more difficult for progressive candidates.”
What???
See comment above. They are at stage three. It gets worse. So far a bunch of businesses are still there, hoping they can change the descent into insolvency. They should all leave ASAP.
From the same brains that name a party for indigents and the idle rich after “working families”.
Working, workers, people’s, families…..all code words for ‘commie’.
Parsing all the words and splitting hairs about policies etc. is a waste of time. They are all people who intend to take your property from you, and that includes your person.
Haha. Exactly what I thought. A rich/poor city is the absolute ideal for progressivism to thrive.
Sure, we can fence this for you. What’s the worse that can happen?
Stolen gold from 18th-century French shipwreck could lead to charges for U.S. novelist and her husband
I say the only sovereign with a legitimate claim on the gold would be the Bourbon heir, and only if they restore him to power.
“They don’t make them like they used to.” – people who forgot or never really knew how bad cars were manufactured at one point.
Good Lord yes. They were horrible.
Depends. I had a ’69 Rambler. That thing had a mouse on a wheel for an engine but it was dependable as hell. I loved it.
See below. American Motors pioneered a lot of process improvements.
I remember when I was a kid, seeing a broken down car was a common occurrence.
Also you would never buy one with 100,000 miles on the odometer.
Odometers didn’t go that high.
You never bought a car that had rolled over.
You know what I meant.
I did, but the young whippersnappers around here wouldn’t.
You
neveralways bought a car that had rolled over.Because they were cheap and expendable.
The first three cars I ever owned totaled up to $1050 and just short of 600K.
The ’66 dart had 300k and was $150 and got me thru my summer at FT Story Virginia. It had Fred Flintstone style floorboards.
The Autopian and Autopian – adjacent people have released their four part documentary on American Motors to Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/automoments?app=desktop
And it is good.
It was good.
My first car that I didn’t inherit from a parent was an ’80 AMC Spirit hatchback, and my family had a couple of other AMCs at various times. Sadly, no Gremlins or Pacers.
NYT – If FedGov doesn’t pay for unnecessary medical care who will?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/07/03/business/economy/healthcare-jobs.html
https://archive.fo/j5Bfp
“That blistering growth could cool, however, if Republicans in Congress succeed in passing their flagship tax and spending bill. The Senate version is estimated to cut Medicaid, which accounts for about a sixth of total health care spending,…”
So, an industry growing on money forced from taxpayers instead of voluntarily given by consumers. I dont think this is the good news they think it is.
Yeah, the growth could cool. Might. Maybe.
Ok, it is going to be a disaster.
Cars from the good old days.
5 digit odometers — why would you need more?
Would it collapse from rust before the engine died?
Adding a quart of oil every time you filled the gas tank while getting 9 miles per gallon.
🙂
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/us/politics/house-trump-bill-obbb.html
Trump Policy Bill Clears Congress After House G.O.P. Quells Revolt
The House on Thursday narrowly passed a sweeping bill to extend tax cuts and slash social safety net programs, capping Republicans’ chaotic monthslong slog to overcome deep rifts within their party and deliver President Trump’s domestic agenda.
The final vote, 218 to 214, was mostly along party lines and came after Speaker Mike Johnson spent a frenzied day and night toiling to quell resistance in his own ranks that threatened until the very end to derail the president’s signature measure. With all but two Republicans in favor and Democrats uniformly opposed, the action cleared the bill for Mr. Trump’s signature, meeting the July 4 deadline he had demanded.
Elections have consequences
And we feel them equally
Ages ago, a buddy of Pater Dean’s (a farmer and rancher) had a Cadillac (not sure which model). They, too, would take it hunting. Only he would drive it cross country behind the dogs while they looked for quail.
If memory serves, he made a bunch of money on wheat futures, and, predictably, immediately lost all of it and more on, you guessed it, wheat futures.
That car is everything it needs to be.
And that’s a damn fun story, well-told. Belongs in a movie. (Something goes awry at the station, add a hot chick with ya.. your plot’s pretty much there.)
Welp, the Big Busty Beautiful Bill has passes. They are pretty happy on my family text, outside mom and dad who are skeptical that their taxes are being lowered and who are convinced everyone has been kicked off Medicaid.
https://x.com/virginiafoxx/status/1940802909358404083
Well played.
Cool story RJ. I confess I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Monkey Wards firearms. Sears had a line of Ted Williams guns, I’ve seen a few of those.
And kudos for saving the dove “drumsticks”, we always saved the whole birds, skin on