If April 16, 1972, was a day on which Panda-Monium broke out in the U.S. because of the appearance of giant pandas, April 17 was a day of pandemonium for another kind of beast—the Ford Mustang.
The 1964 ½ Ford Mustang could be purchased for the first time on April 17, 1964. Car fans awaited the day with great anticipation. Simultaneous ads ran on April 16 on the three major television networks, and the car was officially introduced at the New York World’s Fair. Although we think of it as being named after a wild horse, the name actually comes from the World War II “Mustang” fighter plane.
The Ford Mustang was the “working man’s Thunderbird,” a sports car that could seat four and cost a modest $2300. It could be plain and minimally powered, using parts re-tooled from the economy Ford Falcon, or it could be souped up in style and power. A buying frenzy broke out on April 17—22,000 Mustangs were bought on that one day. More than 400,000 were bought in the first year, and more than 9 million have been bought since then.
A friend during my freshman year at the University of Illinois in 1966 brought his Mustang down to school one weekend (freshmen couldn’t have cars on campus in those days). He let me drive the cherry red convertible around campus. Heads turned as I cruised up and down Green Street, and for the one and only time I felt like the BMOC.
And that’s the way Americans have always felt about their cars. When I speak around the country about the BP oil spill, I tell audiences that the cause of the spill wasn’t the greed or disregard of the oil companies. No, it is American addiction to oil. We love our cars and, so, we have organized our society around driving the wonderful, beautiful things. Around the neighborhood, around town, around the country. From gas station to gas station.
Read MoreApril is Keep America Beautiful Month
Back in 1971, The Keep America Beautiful organization teamed up with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to create Keep American Beautiful Day. It was expanded in 1982 to a week, and then to the entire month of April in 1984. As spring takes hold of the weather and the landscape awaken with the greening of trees and grasses, the blooming of wildflowers and the melodies of nesting songbirds, we, too, ought to take special notice of our beautiful environment—and do something to, as they say, keep it beautiful.
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