San Francisco Street Sighting - 1971 Ford LTD Country Squire

I often find myself becoming nostalgic for the days of the traditional American station wagon. They're big, spacious and to me they just look cool. Of course, I never had to ride in one on a family road trip, frying my backside on hot vinyl seats through untinted windows, getting carsick on the highway while choking on exhaust fumes sucked in through the open tailgate window. My parents both owned at least one compact station wagon each years ago, including a Chevy Vega Kammback, Ford Escort and Chevy Cavalier RS. But that was before I was born, and neither of them ever had a monster barge like a '71 Ford LTD Country Squire.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1979 Ford LTD 2-Door Sedan

When I was a kid I saw a lot of the boxy 1979-1991 Ford Panther platform cars. FoMoCo sold a ton of LTDs, Crown Victorias, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars, and their Ford Country Squire and Mercury Colony Park wagon variants. What I didn't realize though, for a long time, was that Ford sold a coupe version (actually a two-door sedan) of the LTD/Crown Victoria. And what took me the longest to figure out, was that for the first few years of production there were two different front ends offered. Base models received a two-headlight front clip with its own unique eggcrate grille and turn signals mounted inside the grille. Fancier Landaus and Crown Victorias got quad headlamps placed on top of large amber blinkers. This base LTD became the LTD-S in 1980 and lost the hood ornament seen on this '79 car. Note the free-standing side mirrors (passenger side is a non-factory replacement) and funky 1970s holdover hubcaps. Those caps were apparently still used until 1983 -- in my opinion they looked dated on day one.

Danville Street Sighting - 1967 Ford LTD

Meeting the owners of the cars I photograph for California Streets feature articles can be a touchy subject. It can go either way. Some owners are really cool people who get excited that someone shows interest in their vehicle. Others may be skeptical or downright hostile about some strange person taking pictures. For that reason I've generally preferred to shoot cars in public places without meeting their owners, but doing so misses a great opportunity to learn far more about that particular car than I would otherwise.

San Jose Street Sighting - 1968 Ford LTD Country Squire wagon

It's still summertime, and summer is the season of the road trip. Unless you're me, in which case my road trips usually seem to occur in winter. But that's another story.
Back in the good old days, road trips were the domain of the family station wagon. I could of course wax romantic about traveling hundreds of miles in the back of a big station wagon with no air conditioning, the rear hatch window rolled down to let in all the exhaust fumes, and the sun magnifying its rays through the untinted windows in an effort to fuse the children to the vinyl seats. Why? Because I'm 24 and that was before my time. My family road trips happened in a 1985 Pontiac 6000 STE, a 1994 Ford Taurus GL, and later a 1999 Buick Regal GS. All had air conditioning and some kind of music player, but they pale in comparison to the infotainment systems available today to keep kids occupied on long journeys. Honestly, I'm not really a fan of TVs and video game systems in cars. In my youth I'd look out the window and try to enjoy the ride, provided it wasn't all just Interstate 5 for six hours straight. I'd usually arrive at our destination with a sunburn on one side, a neck ache and a severe case of boredom. Road trips have gotten a little less boring in the years since I got my driver's license and a digital camera.