They come in all shapes and sizes and have been around for decades, and yet, people so often overlook the idea of snapping up a cool keychain for their special vehicle. They’re not all that expensive, can be fun, add a unique flavor to any set of keys, and, over time, become absolute gems, especially if you hang onto them and the car long enough. I have had a number of keychains for decades.
An interesting one is kind of a mess. It has been attached to the keys to my 1965 Ford Mustang since my dad bought the car in 1984. A simple blue tag with a metal ring, it’s long been tempting to switch it out for something more stylish, but there is just something very cool about an old blue chunk of plastic with now indiscernible words that faded out years ago hanging onto two little keys. I once bought a nice, silver 1989 Mustang anniversary keychain, and it stayed in the original box until recently because I was always afraid of it getting scratched up. Now it holds two keys and hangs on the wall in the garage. The blue keychain set is still the go-to.
I bought a Fiat keychain at the Los Angeles Auto Show around 1995, maybe 1996, shortly after acquiring a 1979 Fiat 124 Spider. It still holds the Fiat keys and sometimes brings a comment from someone who sees the set.
Another one is very cool, it’s a Chrysler keychain from the 1950s my grandfather had for one of his numerous Chryslers. Attached to a stunningly well-worn coin, the clasp is long gone, but I look forward to someday picking up a Chrysler for which to pair the chain with.
The Capri keychain often makes people wonder if its from the isle of Capri – much easier to just say “yes” than explain to the unknowing about an obscure car Ford produced in Europe and dragged over here to sell in Mercury showrooms alongside DeTomaso Panteras, and more pedestrian vehicles spruced up by Ghia.
Another obscure one circles back to the Chrysler family, but this time the 1980s and 1990s, the Chrysler TC by Maserati keychain. What a hoot that one is explaining to the unknowing – again, it’s best just to agree with whatever they’ve identified it as, usually something to do with “The Little Mermaid” from Disney, thanks to the triton.
When I got my DeLorean, I already had a keychain waiting for it. Bought from a now defunct DeLorean service center in Orange County, California, it’s a little pewter sculpture of a DeLorean car. Only once did someone ask me if I had an Isuzu Impulse. Sharp eye. For real – both cars were designed by the same guy and both have a similar profile, along with the VW Scirocco.
Indeed, I like keychains, and I encourage people to buy them. They’re not normally that expensive and they can bring a little joy to the person holding them. Case in point, and a little sad – a thousand years ago, I delivered pharmaceutical products to hospitals, retirement homes, and the like. One patient was named Bernie. He was about 95 and had a number of ailments. Why he wasn’t already dead was a huge mystery to the doctors and nurses tending to him. His family sadly visited very rarely. He was largely alone in what so many jokingly refer to as “The Home.” On “The Golden Girls” it would be called Shady Pines, but that’s another story. Bernie was a neat old man. Sharp as a tack and a car guy to the end. Every time I brought his medicine, he’d talk to me a bit about cars and I would see his keys on the little bedside table, two little keys attached to an old keychain, not dissimilar to the Fiat one, but with the Corvette cross flags. He’d hold them, his fingers playing with them while we talked sometimes. Story was, they belonged to his prized 1966 Corvette convertible, a car he bought new and drove on evenings and weekends, never taking it to work because he didn’t want to give people reason to be jealous or think he had scads of money. Working the keys in his hands, he would tell stories of fun times in the car, trips to little towns up the California coast, and on one occasion jump starting a Stutz giving Dean Martin a hard time. True or false, who knows – it was a fun listen and those keys took him to better times. I never did ask what ever became of the Corvette – it wasn’t sitting in the lot of “The Home,” so what good would that story bring? So, give your keys a little love, buy a funky keychain, have some fun.
