Jenny, the Rogers Family's Star Car! 45th edition, Carnival of Genealogy

This is the 45th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy. The theme: Cars as stars! Next to purchasing a house, a "new set of wheels" was the next most significant purchase for many families. What car played a starring role in your family history and what role did it play?

Well, I’m not a motor person, I’ve never had a car, never wanted one and never really driven a vehicle, and to tell the truth, I don’t remember much about the family cars. However, ‘Jenny’, our 1952 Pontiac, is definitely the Rogers family's star car, and thinking about her brings back a few memories.

First off, I should mention that Jenny is still very much a part of the family. My baby brother has her and he shows her off whenever he can. My father bought her when she was ‘almost new’ from Bow Mac (Bowell MacLean Motors), then one of Vancouver, B.C.’s biggest car dealers. Jenny’s a Canadian Pontiac Model 2250 bustle-back 4 door sedan. (I got those details from my brother, of course - he always loved engines and now he's a Pontiac collector - although I remember the 4 door part.)

I do remember many a Sunday afternoon drive in Jenny, sometimes out to the country (now all part of the big city here), all of the family together, usually stopping for soft ice cream which my mum specially liked, or in December, going later at night to see the Christmas lights.

The real reason we had a newer car was for my dad’s sales calls though and, up until I was in high school, he used the car to advertise the family business. I don’t ever remember thinking twice about this, he’d always done it, as far as I knew. He was always a forward thinker about advertising. When I was young, I remember being allowed to stay up to see our ad on late night TV – I think he bought George W. Rogers Ltd. ads for TV before our family even had a television.

Jenny had a frame on her bustle which held different placards depending on the time of year and current events. Recently while hunting through a box of my mum’s papers again (please, don’t ask), I found a photograph gem from 1957 which I hope my baby brother will love!

If you’d like to see more than Jenny’s back, here is a link to my brother’s photograph of her, taken at 100,000 miles in front of the big neon Bow Mac sign. Jenny, from 1952, is older than the sign which was apparently erected in 1958. Alas, that heritage sign should be retired to the museum, instead of covered up, as it is today, but Jenny herself, our grand old lady, is still able to get out and about when she pleases.

Click on 'Fun Stuff', then on the photo of Dave's 1952 Canadian Pontiac, BC Hazmat Management Ltd.: http://www.bchazmat.com/'52_Canadian_Pontiac.htm