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Santa Cruz Woodies on the Wharf 2009
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Woodies on the Wharf, 2009 Santa Cruz
I love Santa Cruz, my wife and I visit frequently to walk the boardwalk or dine in one of the restaurants along the wharf. We like to eat saltwater taffy while watching the parade of people along the boardwalk.
Everywhere in Santa Cruz people are sporting T-shirts with the slogan “keep Santa Cruz weird” emblazoned across their chests. From the beginning of the hippy movement through today weird best describes Santa Cruz and we feel right at home.
On a recent trip to Santa Cruz we discovered the Woodies on the Wharf, a collection and show of over 200 old woody cars some from as far away as British Columbia.
I am a fan of the woody. I had one, not a one like these, but a clunker that ran when it felt like it and I wasn’t able to run the wipers and the radio at the same time. I vaguely remember three tone mismatched paint and a missing chunk of wood that fell of the tail gate.
As I looked at these slick, beautiful cars I wish I still had my old clunker.
I remember the good times my girlfriend and I had cruising the streets of Hollywood, watching the other cars and praying the thing would not break down and embarrass us.
The going prices for these beauties ranges from $50,000 to $200,000 a piece, they are turning out to be the ultimate collectible car.
A woodie is a type of car, more specifically an early station wagon, in which the rear portion of the car's bodywork was made of wood. Frequently this wood was visible, just covered in a clear varnish, either over the entire wooden area or sometimes just on the framework with the interior panels painted.
Earlier cars generally had aluminum or steel panels bolted on top of the wood framing. Woodies were originally cheaper because they didn't need these panels and painting.
Railway stations used them to shuttle luggage and petty shipments; thus the name, station wagon. This car body style was popular both in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Woodies were produced from all kinds of cars, from basic to luxury, but the most popular conversions in the US were large, powerful but not highly luxurious models. By contrast, in Europe early woodies were usually built on luxury car platforms such as Rolls-Royce.
By the 1960s and to some degree the 1970s woodies were considered undesirable, unfashionable old vehicles. California surfers, among others, realized the potential of these cars; they were cheap, large enough to carry a good number of people, surfboards and equipment, and could be fixed up with woodworking skills.
Thus, the Woodie became known as the surfer vehicle. There is probably a higher population of surviving woodies in California than anywhere else. Although collectors, are grabbing them up worldwide.
These cars bring to mind the California way of life. They awaken in us an earlier time when we were young and our whole lives were ahead of us. Holding my girlfriend’s hand, our first kiss on the beach and glorious California nights.
The Woodie was a part of our adolescence. Just looking at them remind us of our dreams, the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean and the summer of 1969.
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