Suspenders

Suspenders. (Photo by Richard Lentinello.)

The first thing I said when I took my April Hemmings Classic Car magazine out of my mailbox was “suspenders.”
The car, pictured above, is a 1955 Pontiac Safari stationwagon, Pontiac’s version of the Chevrolet Nomad.

Silver-Streak illustrated.

“Suspenders” are the twin silver-streaks on the hood, the last vestige of Pontiac‘s “Silver-Streak,” whereby a chromed fluted silver streak was applied to the center of the hood. Bunkie Knudson (“NUDE-sin”) had been brought in to reverse Pontiac’s reputation as a stodgy GrandPap’s car, make it more appealing to the youth market.
The ’55 and ’56 models were the last Pontiacs with Silver-Streaks, but two instead of one.
Knudson was making the car very appealing. I had a young cousin in the Air Force who had a ‘56, a very attractive car.
The ’57 Pontiac did not have the Silver-Streak at all.
“Suspenders” goes back to a friend I had at the Messenger newspaper, Kenny Rush.
Kenny was a car-guy like me; his pride-and-joy was a black ’56 One-Fifty Chevrolet two-door sedan in his past, a “Post.”
He had removed the original motor, and wrenched in a 350 SmallBlock.
“The only thing wrong with that car,” he told me; “was it wouldn’t stop.”
He also told me about beating a 383 RoadRunner with it in a streetrace. He thereafter couldn’t stop.
Kenny was the “Golden-Boy” of the Messenger’s paste-up department. The newspaper was not yet computerized — it was the late ‘90s.
Typesetter machines made galleys on photographic paper, and those galleys were cut and waxed so they could be pasted to a full-page cardboard dummy of each newspaper page.
The completed page-dummy was then photographed to make a full-size negative of each newspaper page. The negative was used to burn a printing plate.
With computerization newspaper pages were “paginated” in a computer with Quark® software.
The completed pages were sent from computer to an image-processor, which generated a full-page negative of the page.
The negative was developed and fixed in a film-processor, then used to burn a printing-plate.
With computerization paste-up ended. The paste-up tables were removed.
By then the original Messenger offices were doubled, and the image-processor put in a separate room.
A second image-processor and developer was added.
Kenny was kept on to tend the image-processors.
Other paste-up people quit. I and the head of paste-up fell into other computer functions.

Harry Founds’ ’56 Two-Ten. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

Kenny had a picture I took long ago posted on the wall in that image-processor room: a mildly customized ’56 Chevy Two-Ten Post. It wasn’t his One-Fifty, but it looked great.
I took the picture in high-school.
As I recall, my ’56 Chevy picture was only a four-barrel 265, but four-on-the floor. The guy sold to a high-school classmate so he could buy a 409 Chevy.
Sadly Kenny developed ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. Kenny was my age, and the last I saw him he was in a wheelchair, no longer working for the Messenger.
Kenny eventually died, but I had learned a lot from Kenny — despite noisy badmouthing (see profile above-right), I got so I could paste-up pretty good.
The guy who followed me was also badmouthed, and used to kick trashcans around.
“Suspenders” was Kenny’s word, the hood-trim on ’55 and ’56 Pontiacs.
Other Kenny words were “four-holer” versus “three-holer.”
“RoadMaster” Buicks had four portholes on each front fender. Anything less, like a “Special” or “Century,” had three portholes per side, a “three-holer.”
RoadMasters were more powerful.

• Over ten years ago I retired from the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper. Best job I ever had — I worked there almost 10 years (over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern [I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I recovered fairly well]). (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 14 miles away.)
• The Chevrolet “SmallBlock” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first to 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The SmallBlock is still manufactured, though much updated. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the SmallBlock. It was made in various larger displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation. The “Big-Block” could be immensely powerful, and the “SmallBlock” was revolutionary in its time.
• “Nosing” the hood of a ’56 Chevy was big-bucks. The hood-ornament was on a quarter-inch emboss that had to be cut out and replaced. The car’s previous owner did it, not Harry. —Harry totaled the car, a tragic loss.
• Dudes, click the “409-Chevy” link.