Cars my father drove

In the early 50's when gas prices skyrocketed to 18 or 19 cents a gallon dad bought a 1950 Hillman Minx similar to the one above, at the time we were living at 4045 Northcliffe in Notre Dame de Grace. He was trying to save on fuel costs by buying a 4 cylinder economy car. 

The car was an absolute sloth with the 4 of us in tow. But we had great times in it.

I loved the signal arms that, when the switch on the centre hub of the steering wheel was flipped, would pop out from the centre post indicating the intended direction of the turn. In the winter we would have to clean the snow and ice away and make sure the signal arms were not frozen. Or its anemic little engine and how it struggled on hills.

We lived above Notre Dame de Grace Avenue and had to climb Decarie Boulevard, as we ascended the hill the little Hillman would begin to struggle, dad would down shift attempting to maintain speed as the car grunted and groaned. The poor little sloth would nearly come to a standstill when mom and dad would say "OK everyone lets help the old girl up the hill, come on kids lets rock" .... and all four of us would rock back and forth, back and forth as that little Hillman struggled up Decarie, as we reached the crest she would pick up speed and we would all breath a sigh of relief.