Car Names
"Equinox!" asked my friend in Africa, "does this car only run twice
a year?" If fuel prices keep rising some S.U.V.s might be reduced to
that. His question made me wonder about the other names I glimpse trailing behind our cars.
Imprezza, Sentra, Jetta and Tribeca - interesting handles, but what do they mean? Even those names that do have substance, sometimes have nothing to do with cars: Sonata, Legacy, Cobolt or Fusion.
I'd like to eavesdrop at the boardrooms where the manufacturers
decide on these monikers. Perhaps I'd understand why the designation fits the car. This week I came upon the meaning in the name of a car from my youth: the Ford Fairlane.
I noticed my first Fairlane in 1968. It was a coupe with a long, flat & sloping rear window and a rear blindspot in which you could hide an 18 wheeler. This year the Ford Fairlane returned as a concept car. Don't think "retro." The name is the only thing that's the same. This bulky vehicle even has a refrigerator built into the rear door.
Fairlane: the name that has been associated with Ford for longer
than the history of the company. It goes back further than the time that the Ford family has been in America.
Come away with me across the sea to the harbor town of Cork in Ireland.
Let's roll back the dates on your calendar to the 19th century. An artificial famine caused by greed in London was funneling desperate families off their land and onto America-bound ships.
John & Tomisina heeded the invitation of relatives who were
pioneering farms in Michigan. Abandoning a tiny farm cottage they walked, with their seven children, 30 miles to Cork. Wolftone Street climbs up from the docks into the hills. Tomisina's parents lived there.
Sixteen immigrants crowded the tiny dwelling on their last night in Ireland. The Smiths would never see their daughter again. She took ill at sea and passed away. Heartbroken, John joined his brothers on the farm at Dearborn, MI.
John's son, William didn't initially take to farming. He became a
railroad worker, but came back home to marry Mary, a farmer's adopted daughter. In 1863 their first child, Henry Ford, was born. He didn't like farming either! Instead he produced a "quadricycle" 33 years later in a tiny workshop behind his home on 58 Bagley Avenue.
Ford, any-color-as-long-as-its-black, automobiles rolled from
Henry's assembly line. Money came his way. In 1912 Henry took a
pilgrimage to his roots in Cork. It included a visit to Wolftone Street.
Back then it was known by its previous name: Fair Lane.
From that small home he purchased a hearthstone. He had it mounted in the wall of his new mansion on the banks of the Rouge River. Henry called the residence "Fairlane." He established a housing estate for his factory workforce. He called it Fairlane. OK Henry, we get it! The name was very close to your heart.
Ford Company understood that too. 8 years after Henry's death they produced the first Ford Fairlane.
Names of faraway places still touch our lives. If anyone doubts
that early Americans were Bible readers they have only to ask to origins of the name of some of our 1st towns. Bible names have meaning.
The House of Bread we call Bethlehem. Society or Friendship came down to us as Hebron. Set apart became Nazareth. Philadelphia comes from Love of a Brother.
There are two Bible names you seldom see Ichabod "Where has the
Glory gone?" and Eben-ezer "The Stone of Help"
They relate to very different times in the history of Israel. Eben-ezer is from the early days when the founders of the nation recognized how much God had helped them. They raised a monument of gratitude. Ichabod however comes from a golden temple that had become hollow with "lip service" to God. It was in the declining years.
How is your relationship with your Creator: daily heart-felt praise for His goodness or the occasional thanksgiving when you suppose it's His due?
a year?" If fuel prices keep rising some S.U.V.s might be reduced to
that. His question made me wonder about the other names I glimpse trailing behind our cars.
Imprezza, Sentra, Jetta and Tribeca - interesting handles, but what do they mean? Even those names that do have substance, sometimes have nothing to do with cars: Sonata, Legacy, Cobolt or Fusion.
I'd like to eavesdrop at the boardrooms where the manufacturers
decide on these monikers. Perhaps I'd understand why the designation fits the car. This week I came upon the meaning in the name of a car from my youth: the Ford Fairlane.
I noticed my first Fairlane in 1968. It was a coupe with a long, flat & sloping rear window and a rear blindspot in which you could hide an 18 wheeler. This year the Ford Fairlane returned as a concept car. Don't think "retro." The name is the only thing that's the same. This bulky vehicle even has a refrigerator built into the rear door.
Fairlane: the name that has been associated with Ford for longer
than the history of the company. It goes back further than the time that the Ford family has been in America.
Come away with me across the sea to the harbor town of Cork in Ireland.
Let's roll back the dates on your calendar to the 19th century. An artificial famine caused by greed in London was funneling desperate families off their land and onto America-bound ships.
John & Tomisina heeded the invitation of relatives who were
pioneering farms in Michigan. Abandoning a tiny farm cottage they walked, with their seven children, 30 miles to Cork. Wolftone Street climbs up from the docks into the hills. Tomisina's parents lived there.
Sixteen immigrants crowded the tiny dwelling on their last night in Ireland. The Smiths would never see their daughter again. She took ill at sea and passed away. Heartbroken, John joined his brothers on the farm at Dearborn, MI.
John's son, William didn't initially take to farming. He became a
railroad worker, but came back home to marry Mary, a farmer's adopted daughter. In 1863 their first child, Henry Ford, was born. He didn't like farming either! Instead he produced a "quadricycle" 33 years later in a tiny workshop behind his home on 58 Bagley Avenue.
Ford, any-color-as-long-as-its-black, automobiles rolled from
Henry's assembly line. Money came his way. In 1912 Henry took a
pilgrimage to his roots in Cork. It included a visit to Wolftone Street.
Back then it was known by its previous name: Fair Lane.
From that small home he purchased a hearthstone. He had it mounted in the wall of his new mansion on the banks of the Rouge River. Henry called the residence "Fairlane." He established a housing estate for his factory workforce. He called it Fairlane. OK Henry, we get it! The name was very close to your heart.
Ford Company understood that too. 8 years after Henry's death they produced the first Ford Fairlane.
Names of faraway places still touch our lives. If anyone doubts
that early Americans were Bible readers they have only to ask to origins of the name of some of our 1st towns. Bible names have meaning.
The House of Bread we call Bethlehem. Society or Friendship came down to us as Hebron. Set apart became Nazareth. Philadelphia comes from Love of a Brother.
There are two Bible names you seldom see Ichabod "Where has the
Glory gone?" and Eben-ezer "The Stone of Help"
They relate to very different times in the history of Israel. Eben-ezer is from the early days when the founders of the nation recognized how much God had helped them. They raised a monument of gratitude. Ichabod however comes from a golden temple that had become hollow with "lip service" to God. It was in the declining years.
How is your relationship with your Creator: daily heart-felt praise for His goodness or the occasional thanksgiving when you suppose it's His due?
posted by Rose at 9:01 PM
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