woody

[Ray Ott]

As  car-crazy northern California high school kids we called them "woodies"
throughout the fifities.  By the mid to late late fifties, none were actually
being made any more out of wood, and as used cars they had sunk to the "low
point" of the price curve between new and classic/antique (especially the
Fords, always most numerous of the type) making them affordable for kids who
needed a vehicle capable of carrying surf boards--and which was cool-looking.

Adults, of course, continued to call them "station wagons".

Ray Ott