This picture was taken in the fall of 62. My dad took the picture at a ceremony for my Jesuit Uncle Tom (who just died last month after a good and full life). Beside my uncle is my grandfather (also Tom) who still had 22 years ahead of him (he made it to 99).
Beside them is my dads then brand new parisienne ragtop. Dark blue with a tricolored blue interior. Nothing special option wise; 283, power glide, buckets and console, steering and brakes etc. Good looking car and 9 months later it brought many mom and brand new me home from the hospital.
My dad traded it in a year later for a Delta 88 hardtop, he didnt like driving a cold and noisy ragtop during the winter. He came up with an ideal solution by buying my mom an A body ragtop every two years (a mix of chevies and Buicks) until 72 while he traded his big olds hard-tops every two years. He'd borrow my moms ragtops on nice summer days. Ironically my mom was always the very well coiffed type so she never ever put the top or even a window down, probably had the only air conditioned convertibles in the neighborhood.
-- Edited by North on Thursday 1st of April 2021 10:42:51 AM
Rare colour I think, nice to see one real new one, instead of the brochure pictures, nice picture too.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
I think the picture was taken in either Ottawa ( where my uncle was in seminary) or Westmount (were my grandparents lived). This is a scan from a slide. My dad was a camera junky young and all his old slides from the 50s and 60s are like new. They are all Kodak film developed by Kodak (they had a Mail in program back then for developing.
In the 70s he started using those chain store photo shops and all those slides are all washed out junk now. Kodak was the gold standard back then.
Somewhere I have the original order form when he bought the car, funny that things like oil filter were optional! The color is a very dark blue but not as dark as the lighting in this photo suggests. Ill try to find another pic with the top down somewhere, really attractive color especially with the tri-blue interior.
Funny thing is it was the only Pontiac he ever owned. Before that his first new car was a plain Jane 57 chevy 2dr sedan, followed by a 58 and a 61, all new. He was making good money working in the article as an engineer on the Pinetree and dew lines (back when Canada stood up to communist dictators instead of sucking up to them). After that it was oldsmobiles, then eventually a caddy or two before switching to European when GM went front drive on their big cars.
He is still kicking (and driving) today in his late 80s and is back to Cadillac. Sort of a mystery why I became a car guy (my dad liked having nice cars but is no car guy, never owned a screwdriver), or especially a Pontiac guy, none in the family.
That is a sharp looking car and even a better photo. Nothing like a true picture of family history. I particularly admire the way people dressed in this era and in fact I try to dress in a similar manner today, my winter top coat is tailored near identical to your grandfather's and I have to admit to owning three fedoras.
As for a convertible in Quebec in winter I can relate to your Father's sentiment. When I was billeted for hockey in the 70's the mom had a 64 Impala SS Convertible and the Dad had a big Lincoln. Too many fridged drives home from games at the Colisee in the dead of winter, drafty beyond words.
My granddad was always impeccably dressed and perfect posture literally till the day he died at 99. I found out later that he was quite a stick man as they called it back then which might explain his attention to his appearance. Not related to hockey!
By the way he smoked two to three packs of unfiltered Players and drank a bottle of scotch a day for his entire life and he was never sick, never got cancer and died in his sleep, go figure?
Ill try to find some other pictures of the car. Being a Montreal car Id image it rotted away got crushed within a few years of its birth.
Interesting that the car, as new, had wider whitewalls on it. Conventional knowledge says that the wide whites were gone after 1961, and by the 1963 brochure it appears that the narrower whitewalls are what it would be equipped with. The tires in your pic look like the whitewalls are somewhere in between.
I bet he looked quite dapper driving around in the '63. I could just imagine your Mom beside him with white gloves on.
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
My parents were both quite the lookers in those days. I have a picture somewhere of the same car the following summer, at the hotel where they honeymooned on the Maine coast.
Funny comment from my dad recently when I asked him why he switched to Oldsmobile after only one Pontiac, Pontiacs were great looking in the brochures but they looked like the body was way to big for the wheels when you actually saw it in person. Without knowing it he had discovered the Chevy chassis on pontiac body nature of Canadian ponchos!
