Peter Behrens's Blog, page 431
February 2, 2015
4th Snow Day of the Week in Maine: "Road Hog":
HBB's first appearance on AL.
February 1, 2015
Truck/Penis Relationship
from Greg Philips, owner of a modestly sized F150.
Maine Winter: Light: Portland
Bright day, late January. The sky had that depth of blue that usually signifies a big winter storm is heading our way. And it was. But that afternoon--Friday, January 23rd--was also the first time I could feel the light coming back to Maine. These photographs were made around 4pm, which would have been just about dark, back in early December.
Volvo 122 Union Wharf Portland Maine
BB found the Econoline last fall. We've noted a bunch of 122's in Maine, and in The Netherlands. I was down at Union Wharf last week before the serial snowstorms hit Maine. We're under several feet of snow now. And most of the interesting cars and trucks are tucked away in barns until mid-April. If you're spotting for Autoliterate in more clement parts of the world, these are the weeks when we really need your jpegs and field notes.
January 30, 2015
Dairy Maid. Lisbon Falls, Maine. And where's Downeast?
Ici en Maine when the town's name includes the word "Falls", it always means a mill town, or--more likely these days--an ex-mill town. When the name incorporates the word "port", the town is on the coast, so expect to may more for real estate. In the 19th century, when the lobster fishery wasn't much to speak of, and before the summah people discovered the Maine coast, it was the mill towns by the falls on the rivers (Saco, Mousam, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Penobscot) that prospered. (Or at least the mill owners did). These days it's coastal towns with their shorefront and high real estate valuations that have bigger tax bases and, generally, better schools and services.Of course's there's Bucksport, which is a mill town that happens to be on the coast. Make that an ex-mill town: the Verso paper mill shut down for good last month, after 75 years. The mill's been sold off to some Canadian scrap metal dealers.
That's one big divide in Maine: between the coast and everywhere else. Although the coast of Washington County--downeast--has more in common with upriver Maine than the rest of the coast. Fewer tourists and summer people. There used to be a sardine industry (and sardine-canning industry) on the downeast coast but that's defunct: it's all lobsters now. The Gulf of Maine has become one big lobster farm.
People have different notions as to where 'downeast' begins, and it's probably a moving target. Probably used to be anything east of Bath. These days some people consider anything east of Belfast as downeast but I'd say Downeast starts east of Mount Desert Island.
1929 Ford Model A
From Colin Washburn, in the Sierra foothills:"1929 Ford Model A, driven nearly every day by restorer extraordinaire Bobby Guimarin, of Jamestown, Calif."--CRW
January 29, 2015
Autodesk Gallery, San Francisco & the 1963 Ford Falcon Club Van
from Michael Moore:"You know it's da bomb when the tow truck driver has to take it's picture! ...that one's outside Shawn's studio in Alameda."--MSM
Follow the link for more on Shawn HibmaCronan's van project, Love, Inertia and the Perfect Stance.
