A
look at the Automobiles of Norwalk, CT
over the years.
By Mark Milosky
When
I was a young boy I had a friend named Rob Tobin. Rob at 4 years old would
ride in the back seat of his parents' 1959 Rambler and point at the cars &
call them off by make
and model. I was 5 then and was very impressed by this.
We were neighbors & grew up in Norwalk during the
1960s and 1970s. We
stayed friends and he got me interested in vintage automobiles.
In the early
1970s The Norwalk Hour published a small column by Tad Burness called Auto Album.
Each week the Auto Album would feature a different vintage automobile with a drawing
of it and interesting
facts about the car. We cut these out & kept them
in scrap books that I still have today. Another friend
and neighbor named
Mike Concordia became interested and also collected them.
In
the early 70s I thought it would be fun to go out on our bicycles & take photos
of vintage cars
around Norwalk and vicinity. I started out with a cheap Kodak
124 instamatic camera. After a while Rob
and Mike also got cameras & started
to take & catalog our snapshots in albums. Eventually I worked my way up to
a used Miranda 35 MM SLR camera and with another friend & neighbor named Jim
Taylor we built a darkroom & learned to develop & print film. I used an
old 1950s Remington typwriter to label the photos.
We
certainly learned a lot about the differences between years and models of vintage
cars.
Digging through the archives I have found a good number of these photos.
Some being in poor quality so I had
to convert them to digital images &
then enhance them so they would be nicer to look at.
I
would like to share these memories with you. If you live in or are familiar ith
the Norwalk area I am
sure you will enjoy looking at the photos. Especially
what is in the backgrounds of the pictures. It is a time capsule.
I did not
think I would ever be able to share these or that anyone would ever be interested
in seeing them.
Most of the cars you will see were daily drivers or old
rotting hunks of metal awating someone to come
and rescue them or send them
to the crusher down at LaJoie's Junk Yard!
Most
of the photos
photos were taken between 1973 and 1978 with some earlier and some later.
At the time the pictures were taken many of the cars were worth only a hundred
to a few hundred dollars.
Cars were being sent to the crushers with a couple
of hundred dollars worth of damage to them!
Boy, if we could go back in time
and buy them up! Who knew what they would appreciate to.
Most of the
pictures were taken in parking lots, behind gas stations or on the streets of
Norwalk. I put in some other intersting historical photos of Norwalk for your
enjoyment as well.
I
hope you enjoy the photos!
Mark
Click on any photo to enlarge
|  1937 Buick Main St., Norwalk |
| 
|
 1940 Buick Main St. & Union Ave., Norwalk |
|  1947 Buick Trumbull Mall |
1949 Buick Trumbull Mall |
 1950 Buick Connecticut Ave., Norwalk |
 1950 Buick |
 1954 Buick Ferris Ave., Norwalk |
 1954 Buick Ferris Ave., Norwalk |
| 
|  1954 Buick |
|
| |
 1957 Buick Trumbull Mall |  1960 Buick |
 1960 Buick |
1942 Cadillac Norwalk Library | 
1942 Cadillac Norwalk Library See the Calf Pasture Window Stickers |
 1954 Cadillac Route 1, Stamford |
|  1956 Cadillac |  1956 Cadillac |  1956 Cadillac Pathmark Mall |
Rob's 1957 Cadillac Spring Hill, Norwalk |
| 
|  1978 Cadillac New at the Dealership |
 1978 Cadillacs New at the Dealership | 
| 
1940 Chevy |  1941 Chevy |
 1947 Chevy Woodie Connecticut Ave., Norwalk |
 1949 Chevy |
 1951 Chevy, Caldor, Route 7 Norwalk |
 1952 Chevy Trumbull Mall |
 1952 Chevy Route 1, Stamford |
1954 Chevy off North Taylor Norwalk |
|  1956 Chevy |
1955 Chevy Post Road East Westport |
 1956 Chevy Southport Automotive Southport |
|  1957 Chevy Bradlees Connecticut Ave. Norwalk |
Dear Mark,
I stumbled onto your website by searching for pictures of a 1947 Buick.
The photo you took of a '47 Buick convertible at Trumbull Mall led
me to
your website, and really looks like one my family bought new and drove
for
years. It was dark blue with an off white canvas top and in black
and
white photos looks so much like this one in the picture you took.
Once I
saw that photo, I read your story about how you and your 3 buddies
photographed these cars back when they were still in regular use.
I must
be about your age (I'm 52), and remember this era so well, loved cars,
and
even took pictures like you all did in the early '70s of 1950s cars
still
being driven in my area. The now dated look of the film from that
time
just adds to the overall nostalgia. Some of the photos of you guys
by
your cars (the one of Jim, Mike and Rob in front of a '60 Studebaker
Lark
is an absolute classic...makes you wonder what they're thinking) are
just
amazing and so much like those years for me as a young guy as well.
I first discovered the website at least a year ago and thoroughly
enjoy
coming back to gaze at those pictures. Just wanted you to know that
those
years of your picture taking were not in vain....because I'm sure
I'm one
of many who love looking at them. I thought I'd forgotten how to get
to
the site, then googled images of a '47 Buick, and was taken back.
Your
pictures are an amazing chronicle of Americana and the decay of those
beautiful cars that we loved and love from the past. Not only does
it
make me appreciate the cars more, it makes me realize my own passage
through life when looking back at someone else's experience and relating
to it and seeing how long ago it's been.
Thanks for that.
Mike
