a Happy Days morning in 7H
Long years since I rode in a DeSoto. Walter, a colleague in my Charlie-Four Company of our OCS class in Newport Rhode Island the summer of 1957, owned a 1953 DeSoto six sedan exactly like the photo above, same two-tone colors, a popular combination that year. A heavy automobile with automatic Fluid Drive and a six cylinder engine, that was one sluggish car on the take-off.
Walter's last name I don't remember, but he very kindly rode me in his DeSoto one Saturday morning, from the naval base, across the Jamestown Ferry, across the Jamestown Bridge and on over to South Kingstown, RI, where Linda was waiting for me.
Driving through South Kingstown on Main Street, Highway 1A, Walter dropped me off at the intersection of our road heading south, and I walked down the several blocks to the brown clapboard house where Father David Damon, first Rector of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, PC, had lent us the upstairs apartment.
Anyway, the DeSoto, as we drove from Newport to South Kingston in Walter's car, over the radio, Debbie Reynolds singing "Tammy", the most popular love song that summer 1957. It was a happiest Time of my life. I guess you had to be there.
All this came to mind with the picture of a 1954 DeSoto a friend sent me:
Straightway I saw that the car is not stock legit: the front grill has been removed and replaced, with what could be an adaptation of Chrysler's current Pacifica minivan's front grill.
The stretched-wing design has a trademark feature that is the old Chrysler logo:
With a FOR SALE sign in the windshield, the car would need to be enjoyed as a driver, as the front end modification destroys its value and appeal as a show car and would greatly annoy any DeSoto enthusiast purist!
And another:
After a period of flat head eights in their early years, DeSoto cars were flat-head six cylinder engines until the Powerdome V8 was made available for the 1952 model year. The 1954 DeSoto pictures above, the cars have that V8 engine, as indicated by the "V" on the front end of the hood. DeSoto six cars had no "V" and a larger DeSoto emblem like the 1953 at the top.
Our DeSoto dealer in Panama City during my growing up years was Sala DeSoto Plymouth, which was in the quonset hut building that still stands, next door to Innovations Federal Credit Union at the southeast corner of Harrison Avenue and 11th Street. I remember their daughter, Grey Sala, as one of the prettiest girls at Cove School, in Bill Guy's class the year behind my Class of 1949.
Chrysler Corporation's policy in that day and age was to always pair the Plymouth dealership with their three other car lines; so it was always Chrysler-Plymouth, DeSoto-Plymouth, and Dodge-Plymouth. Offering the Dodge truck line, the Dodge-Plymouth franchise was probably the most desirable. In fact, W&W Motors, the Dodge-Plymouth dealership where my father bought cars and trucks, was right next door just south of Sala DeSoto-Plymouth. We did not have a Chrysler dealership in Panama City my growing up years until I was graduated and away our Navy years; I think Buzz Leonard Chrysler-Plymouth was first.
But DeSoto. In the TV show Happy Days, Howard Cunningham drives a 1948 DeSoto Suburban, which he proudly called "my DeSoto." The DeSoto Suburban was a limousine stretch-length car with three rows of seats.
Another,
My growing up years America generally had three price ranges of cars: low price, middle price, high price, and DeSoto was in the middle price range with Buick, Oldsmobile, Mercury, Nash, Hudson, a price step above Chrysler Corporation's Dodge cars. Generally in those years, the DeSoto shared bodies with Chrysler, and Dodge with Plymouth.
As 7H reverberates with the chaotic noise of kitchen cabinets being torn down, this DeSoto exercise stirred all my best childhood and early teenage memories, a happy morning on a beautiful Wednesday of July 2025.
RSF&PTL
T89&c
Here's our gospel reading for next Sunday, which thanks to the DeSoto got pushed aside in this morning's thoughts. Another day perhaps.
T+
Luke 10:38-42
As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."