Sweet rides...

by Laurie Allee

You know me and old cars...

I have an entire section of my store dedicated to my vintage car shots.  There's even a calendar for 2018.  Check it out!


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South Pasadena: Classic Car Heaven

You guys know I can never resist an old car.  Don't believe me?  Just look at how many I've found:

Noir in Daylight

It's really hard to pick a favorite of all the old cars I've captured in South Pasadena over the years, but this one is definitely up in the top ten. Okay, in the top twenty. Oh, who am I kidding? I love them all.

Originally published on April 10, 2011

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Joy Ride Through South Pasadena

Take a joyride with me through South Pas... and marvel at all the vintage cars.

South Pasadena was part of transportation history -- a destination for early rail as well as home to one of the first freeways.
Oh, and then there are the countless vintage cars...

By Laurie Allee

Spend enough time in South Pasadena and you'll notice that the Rialto, the historic buildings and the classic craftsman houses aren't the only remaining treasures of our past.  This town has more than its fair share of vintage cars.  Hang out on Mission Street on a weekend afternoon, and you'll see a promenade of enough old roadsters, coupes and muscle cars to satisfy even the most persnickety car buff.  I'm not just talking about your standard issue American Graffiti-worthy hot rods, either.  I've spotted a late 30s Peugot 402 and a 1949 Hudson Commodore -- even a mysterious black sedan that two confounded car aficionados argued about while standing nearby.  (One insisted it was an unmarked 1939 Cadllac; the other swore it was a Citreon Traction Avant.)

The South Pasadena Festival of Balloons Fourth of July Parade is Coming!

Buckle up, vintage car afficionados, and take a sweet ride in the South Pas 4th of July Parade

From the 7:00AM Kiwanis Club Pancake Breakfast to the 9:00PM South Pasadena High School Fireworks Show, July 4th in South Pasadena is jam-packed with all-American, small town goodness. There are many great things about the day's events, but I'm partial to the parade.  (It starts at 11:00AM downtown on Mission Street.)  Take a look at my video above for a vintage car lover's dream array of sweet rides, all gussied-up-for-the-4th.

Click here for a complete schedule of all the activities.

The only thing better than watching the parade is marching in it!

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The Classic Cars of South Pasadena

Buckle up, and go for a ride with me...

I see a lot of vintage cars cruising around South Pasadena.  They always remind me of our place in Southern California's transportation history.

I wrote all about it for Patch a few years ago.  You can read the article here.

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And Another One...

I'm on a roll, gang. Yet another beautiful car I had not seen before. Wish I'd had my camera with me, but my trusty iPhone captured the moment in a pinch.

Vroom Vroom

I'm still tickled by all the old cars cruising around South Pas. Every time I think I've seen them all, a new one shows up. I mean an old one.

A new old one.

Oh, you get what I mean...

There Are Time Machines All Around Us

(Look! I caught one waiting at the railroad tracks!)

South Pasadena Fourth of July Festival of Balloons

There is no way that anyone in South Pasadena could possibly be reading this blog post right now ... because half the town is in the parade and the other half is watching it!

Start early with the 7:00AM Kiwanis Club Pancake Breakfast at the fire station, watch the parade starting at 1100AM on Mission and end the day with fireworks at 9:00PM at the high school. For full details on all the day's events, locations and times: click here.

My Kind of Garden...

Maybe it's just me, but I think this fabulous green machine is as pretty as a flower.

Cruising

I've seen this car cruising in South Pas before, but never had a camera handy to get a shot of it. I got lucky the other day and noticed it on Huntington when I was headed toward the Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia. Who me? Obsessed with vintage cars? Nah. I like to think of it like birdwatching. (Only cooler.)

Here's the Deal...

There was a perfect 1940s green roadster driving right here. The blue sky! The pink tree! Those fluffy white clouds! It was a picture made in heaven and I could not stop smiling. I couldn't tell the model of the car because I was trying to keep one hand on the road while using the other hand to grab at the Lumix in my purse in a mad scramble to capture the moment. The roadster sped up and just as I was about to, um, ease through the stop sign, I noticed one of South Pasadena's finest in my rear view mirror.

He was not smiling.

Needless to say, I missed the roadster. So, just use your imagination.

Love Bug

Sometimes I swear I have an art director who goes ahead of me and sets up perfect scenes like this one. I couldn't resist a little iPhone filter magic. Here, I just pointed, shot, and processed the image through the MoreLomo app. (You all know how much I love the free spirit of lomography!)

Update 7:50AM:

Just heard about an event of note:

Everyone head over to our pal Pasadena Adjacent to learn about a fun Garvanza area party/fundraiser TONIGHT! Benefits go toward filmmaker Jake Gorst's production of a documentary about Antonio Corsi, one of our region's weirdest and coolest characters. (He was an early 20th century art model, a silent film star and a true bohemian. Learn more here. )

equally dark view of the car

"By the time of early film noir the internal combustion automobile was already firmly entrenched in the American way of life. The country’s ideals of individual freedom, prosperity, and technological advancement all found a perfect symbol in the car, a liberating machine with the promise of personal mobility and control. But as the automobile began to affect the physical and social fabric of cities and their environs, a film movement focused on the dark sides of the city and humanity would take an equally dark view of the car."

Excerpted from: Driving is Murder: The Automobile, Violence, and the City in Film Noir

Written for Professor Joan Copjec's Reading the City: Film Noir

at City College of New York, December 15, 2006

Happy to Oblige

This whimsical convertible van was parked here for almost 7 hours yesterday. (And yes, that umbrella was attached to it.) Given its choice of parking spot, I think it wanted its picture taken...

White on White...

...on blacktop.

Beautiful Anachronism

I see a lot of old cars around town, but this is the first time I've seen a Kennedy for President bumper sticker. Are we sure South Pas doesn't have a time machine? (I'll lay odds it's here. Or maybe here.)

Christmas on Wheels

Fa la la la la la la la la!

(Full disclosure: I found this old beauty just a few yards over the border in San Marino.)

Time Machine

Kinda makes me want to do this...