Winter Storms Bring Winter Memories.....

The recent storms in the mid western and eastern USA and Canada conjure up a ton of winter memories as a kid. It was pretty cool(no pun intended) to see winter scenes in 1950's car brochures and on billboards, since Fort William and Port Arthur was covered in that white stuff for at least six months of the year. The ads would show that these cars were also very hardy in the winter months as well as in summer.

Here is a bright red 1956 Buick hardtop and a metallic green 1954 Chrysler cruising along one of our slippery highways possibly in Northwestern Ontario. The first picture also shows some ice sailing and a few skiers. What incredible art work for their day. Also remember how tough it was to keep those white sidewalls clean in the winter.

Here's a 1936 Canadian Prestone ad from Liberty magazine. The art work is always great in these old ads.
Pyroil was a super additive for your oil. I would imagine it was similar to STP. It would decrease the friction from the metal to metal cold winter starts. Pyroil still makes many engine and fuel additives to this day.

Willard still makes batteries to this day as well. I always enjoy the wonderful art work that was on billboards back in the '40's and '50's. This is a US Mobilgas winter urban ad that would have appeared in Life or Post magazine.

Another automobile ad from the 1940's is Pyro anti-freeze. Pyro is another company that survived the test of time to continue to produce many automotive additives to this day including rust inhibitor and brake fluids.
The Firestone studded tires in this ad looked like they could plough through anything. It took from this ad to the present day to perfect studded tires for the street. After a few accidents from studs coming out of the tires and injuring people, they were outlawed for the street for many years, but I believe you can buy studded tires again. Check out the cool old Skidoo in the same ad as well.

Here is a beautiful piece of architectural work. Many service stations were designed to look like homes or mansions to appear friendly and inviting to the customer. Today's gas only and/or convenience store(definitely without service) are boring edifices in our modern day compared to then. The last winter billboard style art piece is of a beautiful 1960 Wide-track Pontiac at a ski resort...what beautiful lines.
Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them!