In 1979 General Motors introduced a radical concept across multiple brands intended to compete with the small imports: an American built, front wheel drive platform for the mainstream, mass-produced market. That attempt to right the ship of American auto manufacturing would almost sink it.
The appeal of one strange object, which achieved dizzying popularity in my lifetime, and today lives on mostly for nostalgia, is not so difficult to explain. All you need to do is turn one on and wait.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.