{"id":84448,"date":"2024-11-16T15:16:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T22:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=84448"},"modified":"2024-11-18T09:08:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T16:08:30","slug":"sylmar-here-we-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=84448","title":{"rendered":"Sylmar Here We Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At 5:00 am, our Alexa went wild, saying we had to get up and move.\u00a0 I threw a pillow at it, but she kept squealing!\u00a0 We gave up and assumed the vertical position.<\/p>\n

We prepped for a full day like we were training for the Olympics and then picked up Dianne at 6:40 am. I was so tired that I almost forgot how to drive and thought Mary would guide the sleigh this morning.<\/p>\n

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We made it.<\/p><\/div>\n

We rode to Sylmar in a friend’s 1951 Packard, which was interesting; it reminded me of the old days when I drove with my parents.\u00a0 That sucker is a beast!<\/p>\n

The Packard 200 was an automobile model produced by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan between 1951 and 1952. Models in the 200 designations represented the least expensive Packard model range, on the firm’s shortest wheelbase, and least powerful 288 cu in (4.7 L) 8-cylinder in-line engine. It replaced the Packard One-Twenty and the Packard One-Ten and was renamed the Packard Clipper for the 1953 model year.<\/p>\n

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It floated down the freeway!<\/p><\/div>\n

We saw the Rolls Royce collection first, and they were beautiful! MAry of course found a green Rolls Phantom IV.<\/p>\n

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Mary Rolls found her Rolls.<\/p><\/div>\n

Most of the Rolls were black and a seemed like 30 feet long.\u00a0 I was surprised they sold for about $6000 in 1962, or three times the price of my first car, a 1962 Chevy Impala SyperSport.<\/p>\n

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I love the old cars.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the old movies, all the cars were black but that is because the film was shot in black and white.<\/p>\n

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Not all cars in the past were black; the cameras were black and white.<\/p><\/div>\n

This car would have looked like this:<\/p>\n

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I was still classy in black and white!<\/p><\/div>\n

Al Riley, a sales director n for Whitman Publishing, was a friend of my parents, and he always drove a new Packard. BTW, Al and I went to Hawaii for a week in 1955 as had to sell books and had an entire suite set up for the displays.\u00a0 I slept with the books.<\/p>\n

Whitman Publishing is an American book publisher that started as a subsidiary of the Western Printing & Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. In about 1915, Western began printing and binding a line of juvenile books for the Hamming-Whitman Publishing Company of Chicago. A few years later, Hamming-Whitman went bankrupt. Western took over the company, found success selling its inventory of low-cost juvenile books, and formed the Whitman Publishing Company.<\/p>\n

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Paul’s dream car, a 1955 Packard Caribbean Convertible<\/p><\/div>\n

Old cars were indeed bright.\u00a0 From 1914-1926, there were only Black Ford Model T’s. The 1920s saw the first use of color to reflect personal taste. The economic boom of the period (the “Roaring Twenties”) following World War I increased the demand for automobiles.<\/p>\n

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You could order any color your little heart desired.<\/p><\/div>\n

Overlooking the showroom, the marble floors shone with the reflection of the chandeliers.<\/p>\n

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All smiles!<\/p><\/div>\n

The showroom was a sight to behold.<\/p>\n

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A typical 1920s\/1930s showroom.<\/p><\/div>\n

We walked up the stairs into the music room, a formal dining room where the Nethercutts would host dinner parties.\u00a0 The kitchen in the next room is almost 3,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

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Dinner ready?<\/p><\/div>\n

After listening to the fantastic music boxes, we ate lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and enjoyed an excellent meal.\u00a0 Mary spotted the wings, and I could not resist!<\/p>\n

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Indeed an angel!<\/p><\/div>\n

We had a two hour ride home as the traffic, even on a Sunday, was heavy!\u00a0 We dropped off Dianne and went straight to Campus Jax to see Matt Mauser.<\/p>\n