Black Friday Lady

Okay, there’s also a man on board this pitch-black Ford, wearing what looks to be a black suit and an equally dark bowler hat. But it was just too good not to use for a Friday Lady feature. The lady’s outfit is also suitably colour coded, with hat and fur coat dark as a crow in a coal mine. Where are they going on that sunny autumn day? To the church we reckon because Black Friday wasn’t invented until many decades later.

Black Friday is considered to be the start of the Christmas shopping season and there is a bit of automotive history to it. According to our friends at Wikipedia, "the earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday originated in Philadelphia, dating back to 1961, where it was used by police to describe the heavy traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving".

But then we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Wiki has it wrong. After all, there is quite a lot of twaddle out there. And we’re not saying a word about Henry Ford’s comment on the choice of paint colours he offered at the time this photo must have been taken...

Words by Jeroen Booij. Picture from the archive.

Published:

Friday November 26th, 2021

Nick Simpson

27 November 2021, 11:33

The car is absolutely brand-new; the springs have not ‘settled’, there’s no registration plate, there’s shiny new paint and no dirt under the mudguards and even the tyre tread area is almost clean. The photograph was taken on a nice piece of clean roadway with a light contrast. My guess is that this may have been a local Ford dealer’s staged publicity photograph for his local newspaper advertisement using perhaps a serious prominent local couple to add some gravitas?

Joop Terpstra

27 November 2021, 09:53

Michael, recources worldwide are going to a end so using secondhand material is the way to go forwards. I am just saying what everybody can see with his own eyes. Look to the state this globe is in now, wake up! That's all I wanted to say, nothing else!

Joop Terpstra

26 November 2021, 19:12

A happy day for people with a addiction for buying stuff that they really don't need. Let's recycle please. That's the reason why we drive these fantastic old cars right? All that cheap stuff what they collect today will end up in the garbage in a couple of months! Think before you buy please!

Michael Schlenger

27 November 2021, 01:39

How exactly do you know that people are buying things they don't need? Did you make a poll or a throrough analysis of what people are buying? And why would you be the right person to judge whether they've bought things they don't need? I'm an avid collector of vintage stuff (including prewar cars, motorcycles and bicycles) myself and am living in a historic house that is called a museum by some people. But of course, I also buy lots of new stuff that I don't "need" (but like) - for example records in order to listen to music that I love, tools that facilitate specific garden works, modern gadgets that enable me to work from remote places when I'm on vacation, stylish clothes that I wear only on special occasions, mechanic watches which I choose depending on the situation etc. etc. In doing so, I'm doing no harm to anybody, I'm not molesting anyone, I'm just leading my life in a decent way, and this may imply wanting to benefit from a special offer when it is available, why shouldn't I do so? Who are you to lecture your fellow citizens?

Larry Lewis

26 November 2021, 05:07

"Black Friday" is a recent term in the United States meaning that the day after American Thanksgiving is when retail stores of all kinds are finally operating in the "black" in other words, finally making money. The term has only been popular in the last 15 years or so. It's now in use here in Canada even though our Thanksgiving is in October. Anyway, it's the official start of the Christmas shopping season even though my local drugstore was selling Christmas stuff in August.

Black Friday Lady

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