Silver Streak

In the 1940s and 1950s a joy of going to the postoffice was the sometime opportunity to rush across the street to the Lloyd Pontiac Cadillac showroom,

look at the cars, peruse the brochure rack quickly, and take any new car folder that wasn’t already in my stash. The building is a Merrill-Lynch office today.

Much of that stash is stored safely upstairs in the car trunk Joe gave me some years ago, one of my treasures.

Seems to me Rayford said his father got into the car business in 1935, and they sold one car their first year, the worst part of the Great Depression.

My guess is, it was a Pontiac. The 1935 model was the first year Pontiac used the “Silver Streak” and it lasted through the 1956 model year.

From the 1935 model on, GM cars, including Pontiac, boasted the solid steel “turret top,” a huge design step forward from the old fabric tops.

My friend Weldon once told me that he had a 1935 Chevrolet Standard, which did not have the turret top, and the roof leaked on the passenger side; on dates, his girlfriend had to scoot over close to him to keep from getting wet. So maybe the turret top was not a step forward after all.

Distinctive to Pontiac cars, the silver streak was a wide ribbon that started in the front of the car with the grill and hood ornament, and swept down the hood to the windshield. For some years but not all, it picked up on the rear of the car at the back window and flowed down the trunk lid.

The 1955 and 56 models had dual silver streaks. The distinctive Pontiac ribbon was discontinued with the 1957 model year.

For the 1935 model year only, GM cars, including Pontiac, had what now is called “suicide doors” - back-hinged, front-opening doors for the front doors. They were unique to that model year. Rumble seats were still in vogue too.

Offering both six and eight cylinder flat-head engines, Pontiac was then called a “medium priced” car in the GM line (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac). It was always one of my favorites.

During our Pennsylvania years, Linda and I had two Pontiac cars, one a gold Firebird. But in my growing up years of the 1930s, 40s, 50s, the only Pontiac we had was the 1936 Silver Streak business coupe that my father bought used in the forties and converted into a pickup truck for use in his fish business.