By Roger Boylan

09.09.2008

My recent week-long road test of a Chrysler Sebring convertible revived faint memories of another American convertible I once knew, long ago: a 1949 Hudson Commodore.

This boat-like conveyance, quite upscale for the time, boasted Hudson’s then-famous straight-six engine, the finest, creamiest powerplant from the finest American car manufacturer of the day after Lincoln and Studebaker. An off-white Commodore convertible very much like the one in the picture, with red leather interior, three on the tree, and all-tube in-dash radio, belonged to my mother. It transported us in the ’50s up and down the East Coast, from New York and Delaware, where most relatives were, to Miami, Florida, where my father was trying his hand at running a radio station and my mother was a freelance journalist. Continue Reading →