Peter Behrens's Blog, page 183

Industrial objets/toys for Christmas

Saw these trucks at Motorland in Arundel, Maine a while back. They mostly seem to have price tags so I guess the are for sale. I like that Ford COE dump truck. Also the red truck, eighth down, which looks like a Chevy COE as a Saskatchewan grainer. What is it that's so appealing? Just the lay of light on these simple forms through the rainy window? The Arts & Crafts movement of the late-19th c. could not have predicted that, a century later,  industrial products would speak to us with such hammered simplicity. 








 

Christmas Card from Banff

Snow in Banff this Christmas. I was filling out my son's application for his first Canadian passport when Alex Emond happened to send his photo of cow elk, hanging out on the edge of Banff town. Another Banff post here.

Snowin' on Raton

 

I'm thinking of winter songs. Also missing West Texas, where we usually are this time of year. I think my favorite Winter Song is Townes' Snowin' on Raton. First time over Raton was in a snowstorm, driving Banff, Alberta to West Texas with Toby Clark in the above unit, towing all those canoes, heading for the Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande. First time in my life I ever left winter.I cross Raton whenever I can; something good always happens.                                                                               This was April snow up on Raton, a couple years back...

...and there are always few feral trucks roaming around Raton, N.M. 

Checker Marathon, Hot.

 He drives a 1967 Checker Marathon. Women want him. Men want to be him.

Cambridge Triple-Deckers

Huron Street, Cambridge MA.
"Triple deckers sprang up in New England’s booming mill towns and industrial citiesbetween 1870 and 1910. Ambitious immigrants loved them because they offered a path to home ownership. A family could live in one apartment and collect rents from two.
"But to housing reformers, the triple decker was a fire trap and a nasty place to live. Much better, thought the reformer, were small single-family homes in the suburbs and subsidized public housing in the cities...." Three- deckers, textile mills and French Canada are a big part of the story of vernacular architecture in 19th and 20th c. New England, from Winooksi Vermont to Biddeford ME to Pawtucket RI. Here's a piece on French Canadian 8-year-old workers striking at a Maine mill. More at New England Historical Society. And here are links to other Autoliterate posts on Triple Deckahs and New England vernacular architecture:

https://autoliterate.blogspot.com/2016/03/american-houses-three-deckahs-agassiz.html

https://autoliterate.blogspot.com/2020/07/textile-town-part-2.html

https://autoliterate.blogspot.com/2015/01/little-canada-lewiston-maine.html

https://autoliterate.blogspot.com/search?q=Brunswick

https://autoliterate.blogspot.com/2015/02/looking-up-bath-maine.html

Three- deckers, textile mills and French Canada are a big part of the story of vernacular architecture in 19th and 20th c. New England, from Winooksi Vermont to Biddeford ME to Pawtucket RI. Here's a piece on French Canadian 8-year-old workers striking at a Maine mill: 

Shoebox Ford Wagons, Holy Cruise Wharf

 

Didn't know there were ao many still alive. This is California, Lee Saloutos says Santa Cruz wharf.

Shoebox Ford Wagons

 

Didn't know there were ao many still alive. This is California, don't know where.

The Mack Truck

From Jonathan Welsh: When I was a kid I thought Macks were the only trucks worthy of conversation. I hadn't learned about Kenworths and Peterbilts yet. I spotted this restored classic in Sussex, New Jersey. To me, this is how a semi is supposed to look, including the no-frills interior. Easy for me to say, as I don't have to drive it for a living.                                                                                                                         AL: we've posted a serious Mack from the late Sixties You'll see a bunch more if try our search widget.

Part Fortress

Okay, AL's not a large fan of bulky, leather-clad, screen-laden slugmobiles. What caught our eye was an ad on a currency-converter website that proudly proclaimed the Lexus LX as "Part Fortress", which is more or less accurate, and says a good deal about the State of the Union these days. The fortunate cruise--warily-- in mobile fortresses, while most folk spin their wheels in the mud of this trumped economy. Oh, and the currency converter? Canadian dollar was at .79 US on Friday12/18.20 morning. 

1953 Chevrolet Bel Air

 

Michael Moore spotted the car on I-80 between Sacramento and Auburn. We posted a '54 Bel Air in Colorado Springs a while back. Try Bel Air in our search widget: you'll see a bunch more, of various eras.