'59 Chevrolet Impala, Cocoon of Comfort

The "great finned one" was the first car I remember. I was three years old (at right in the photo). We lived in St. Louis, but my parents bought the car on a lark during a trip to Fremont, Ohio. They insisted on air conditioning, a massive unit that hung below the dash, equipped with four circular vents adjustable to shoot columns of frigid air anywhere you wanted. I remember snoozing while stretched across the front seat, my head resting on my dad's leg, as we made the 600-mile drive from St. Louis to Ft. Worth to visit my grandparents' farm. We were cocooned in comfort, safe from the blazing Texas heat just outside the glass. The car had a cavernous trunk, a V8 engine with plenty of oomph, and a style that would make the '59 Impala an American classic. --Scott S., Bethesda, Maryland.