Ever feel like you're stuck in a rut, or getting nowhere in life? Spinning your wheels, if you've even got wheels.
These cars are fixtures on the main street of the village where I live. Their owner has a newer model that he still drives. I guess his old cars just have too many fond memories to let them go. Maybe his wife collects salt shakers or china poodles and this is his own sort of collection. As the man in question is the proprietor of Snider's Garage, he has the place to proudly display them. Main Street is his own version of the curio cabinet or kitchen shelf.
They also make excellent planters.
For some reason, there are a lot of these cars still on the road in the village. Maybe Mr. Snider had an Oldsmobile dealership at one time. There's one older fellow that I see every evening parked in the empty lot in front of the hardware store, sitting in his Olds with his window rolled down, wearing his baseball cap, watching the comings and goings on Main Street and waiting for friends and acquaintances to drive up and have a chat with him. Kind of like drive-through visits, I guess. Maybe his house is such a mess he doesn't want anyone to come over.
Or maybe he's embarrassed by how much his wife's salt & pepper shakers collection has gotten out of hand.
It's a big mystery to me. But I can certainly relate to the feeling of getting nowhere in a hurry, stuck inside an Oldsmobile with the Memphis blues again.
There's a place like that on the West Coast, except the cars are old Morris Minors and Vauxhalls! Weeds grow anywhere eh! (Just had 3 aftershocks within 20 mins of each other, felt big cos they were centred within 5kms of the city...me, nervous?)
ReplyDeleteYour town sounds way more interesting than mine. But the salt cellars must be very distracting.
ReplyDeleteSaj,
ReplyDeleteI think I'd find a boneyard of old Morrises crazy-making because I'd want to save them all. Vauxhalls aren't bad either. My high school bgf had one that we named Harris Tweed.
Still trembling?! I think I'd find that crazy-making as well. A good stiff drink to steady one's nerves, or to mask the wooziness, sounds in order.
Mme.DeFarge,
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to be insulting, but you must live in a very dull town, indeed, if mine sounds more interesting, salt shakers notwithstanding. In point of fact, our village has one enormous domed affair that houses all the salt necessary to put on the icy roads throughout the winter. The pepper equivalent is the sand that's also used. Perhaps this is what inspires the mania in local housewives to collect and display china or (god forbid) plastic condiment dispensers. Maybe you could start a Salt & Pepper Shakers Club in your own town to liven things up a little.
I miss food with a good portion of salt & pepper. And cars, well, there are about 3mio over here, way too many for me. Yours do look nice though.
ReplyDeletePlease have a good Sunday.
Robert,
ReplyDeleteNo salt & pepper on your food? Too many other exotic spices clamouring for your attention instead? I've never thought of Greek food as lacking in tastiness. Or maybe you have a restricted diet due to health concerns?
As for cars, I'm not a car fan. I hate driving. These ones are no longer polluting the atmosphere with their gas fumes, at least. But I wonder what they might be leaking into the soil. To say nothing of the eye pollution they cause for those who must gaze upon them on daily walks down the village street. I'm just trying to find beauty where it's not obvious. Glad you can appreciate it.
So that's where the old Morris Minors wound up. Your Dad got one years ago when they first appeared in Vancouver. We piled you into the back seat with all your colouring books and headed off for
ReplyDeleteCalifornia. At all the stops along the way, the
Yankee garage guys would jokingly ask whether it was a toy car. It was a sweet little automobile.
Shirl,
ReplyDeleteI remember the Morris. It was my favourite car ever! I could lay right stretched out across the back seat under a blanket and nod off when we were out driving at night. It had leather seats and was brown. One winter it snowed and the Morris couldn't make it up a hill and it seemed an incredibly disastrous and frightening sort of situation to be in. I think Dad just eventually took an alternate route which seemed a brilliant and unexpected solution to me. Good times! I also recall hiding my newly acquired American toys (Etch-a-Sketch!) under the car blanket when we went through customs on our way home from California, worried that they'd be confiscated. Now where would I ever have gotten that idea do you think?
I think I live at the epicenter of car culture, old, new, restored; and it seems their carcasses all end here. I wouldn't be the least surprised if your old Morris were out there in the desert somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe "planter" shots are so awesome!
Stickup Artist,
ReplyDeleteFancy meeting you here! I guess the smell of the gasoline made you curious. Used to be that most yards in this village had at least one old rusty car carcass growing weeds (not to say "weed") out front. There was a movement by the village council to clean things up and tow the wrecks away for free. Some people still can't part with them, though. One man's eyesore, another one's yard art I guess. I didn't realize that California was where old cars went to die.
Surprise !!! It's me... you know, the wandering blogger, lost on the back roads of America, just stopped in to marvel at your carcasses of car-planters... can't wait to show you some of the pix from these past few days. Yesterday was old, dead car heaven... a VW graveyard in a forest, even a Grateful Dead VW bus in there, plus other old cars galore at various places, and me just clicking away... no salt & pepper shakers though... but plenty of rednecks. Hope all is swell and well in the far north !
ReplyDeletePS WV is "gideveth", as in, the good lord gideveth, and the lord tadeketh away...
Owen,
ReplyDeleteWell, the good lord certainly gideveth tonight in the form of a surprise drop-in by my MIA blog brother! Halleleujah and pass the salt, if you aren't a sore sight for eyes! How're we gonna keep you down on the blog after you've fleed Paree?
:=D
WV: ountal
And I bet them cars ountal you done seen on yer Big Adventure!