Classic cars came with luxury items

No doubt, the average modern automobile has more luxury accoutrements than most top of- the-line cars had a generation ago. Or did they?

Recently, while watching episodes of 1950s TV classics, “M Squad,” starring Lee Marvin; “The Untouchables,” starring Robert Stack, and “Perry Mason,” starring Raymond Burr in the title role and the gorgeous Barbara Hale as his assistant, Della Street, the thought occurred today’s cars lack much of the “stuff” yesteryear’s cars had.

Like external windshield visors, driver-side spotlights with easy driver-accessible controls, and radio whip antennas that allowed us to listen to big city radio stations, like Chicago’s WLS, at night.

As recently as the 1950s, some cars and trucks had starter pedals slightly to the right of the accelerator, meaning that cranking standard- transmissions vehicles on a hill was a major test for even the best drivers.

Back then, headquarters for one Enterprise taxi company was a telephone inside a wooden box on the southern external wall of what’s now Lanny’s Gym.

One driver had but one arm, but was able to make a living without benefit of an automatic transmission. What else did cars of the mid-20th century have? Steel bumpers. Yep, steel bumpers, even on cars with Continental kits, that allowed us to play one of our favorite games - likely mentioned here previously - in which we eased up behind an unsuspecting buddy at a red light and gave his car a gentle love tap with our front bumper.

What else? Fender skirts, full-size spare tires, and a kind of tire that’s now so uncommon, grandson Lane Marler, 10, recently observed upon seeing a set of them, “Papa, those tires have white rings around ‘em.” Sixty years ago, doctor’s cars had white, sidewall tires; others came with black tires like those we see almost exclusively today.

Daddy’s 1956 DeSoto road car, used to tow cars bought at auctions home to City Auto Sales, had a steering wheel the circumference of a No. 3 washtub, with a suicide knob firmly attached to it, a radio

“Wonder Bar” that, when touched, performed seek/scan options common today but rare then, and a trunk big enough to hold more than half the length of the 12-foot jon boat we hauled to local waterways.

When homes built in the 1960s began having central heat/air conditioning systems and when most new cars came with factory AC; there was no longer a need for those efficient oscillating, dashboard fans. And as we continued to “progress,” first four track then eight-track tape decks and rear speakers became popular accessories, in part because automobile phonographs never really worked very well.

Dashboards of modern cars aren’t particularly well-suited for compasses that were once common, and there’s scarcely room for a bobble-headed dog on the rear window deck. The rear window what?

Yep, a deck, that in cars of the 1950s was large enough to comfortably hold a sleeping child, one of whom lived to be able to write these words, despite not being tethered in cars as law now mandates.

Cars didn’t have seat belts, typically, until the 1960s but somehow even some of the rock and roll era’s speed demons made it through unscathed and now enjoy watching “Doo Wop” programs on PBS. And “Perry Mason” on DVDs.