Not all comments have to be Snark-O-Matic masterpieces. Sometimes, especially around the holidays, with 2,700 calories' worth of full-power eggnog down our gullets, we like to read personal car stories from the Jalops around us. This is one of those times.
Commenting on today's Why PRNDL? story, B-Sel relates an anecdote about his own vintage automatic, which happens to be from one of our favorites of the Johnson-administration era. It's the 1965 Ford Galaxie. Apparently, its shift selector had two drives, one with a green dot. That green dot would have been lost to history, but thanks to B-Sel, we've now filed it away into our cranial valise of automotive minutea, which we'll dip into the next time we're drinking with our transmission-nerd friends and the subject of mid-60s automatics comes up. Don't laugh; that's a pretty likely scenario. Happy holidays everyone!
I have a '65 Galaxie with the Cruise-O-Matic that has two "drives" on it. White Dot was what Ford probably meant for you to use most of the time and it is just 2nd and 3rd. Green Dot is drive proper but in that mode the shifter is kind of in your lap. I think the idea was that White Dot saved gas or maybe it's "Cruising" drive and Green Dot is "Racing Drive". I think it actully burns more gas in White Dot since it has to work so much harder to get it's fat ass up to speed. Even in White Dot, if you hit it hard enough it will go down to 1st.
Damn, I gotta get that car running again; it's fun as hell to lurk around the neighborhood in that barge. Fun fact: the Galaxie 500 LTD has standard seating for 8 to 18 depending on waistlines and friendliness, and you can fit a full 88 Key keboard, in it's case, sideways in the trunk with enough clearance for a 30 rack as well. The more you know.