Peter Behrens's Blog, page 477
March 26, 2014
Firehall, Colorado Springs
I think it must have been a firehall. It sits on top of a hill, near the St Francis hospital. In Montreal, the old firehalls were often sited on top of hills. Easier on the horses. There's a iron ladder going up to the roof...
...so I bet this was a lookout post, with a good view all the way across the city to Pike's Peak...
and the Front Range. There is a painted wooden flagpole and today on the radio I heard that it was a "red flag" day, meaning high fire danger, with the dry yellow spring, and strong warm breezes. They probably used to run up a red flag on firehalls like this one. I have a feeling its going to be a long hot summer in the Mountain West, and in Southern California.
1960's California Dragracing
I caught this machine at Santa Barbara. Yes it's street-legal. It's not an original, but a tribute to the era. The motor started as a Chevy 350. And that guy just wouldn't get out of the frame. Speaking of California drag-racing back in the day, have a look at this post, Les Dragsters de Lakewood.
March 25, 2014
Shiloh Chapel, Colorado Springs
Don't know much about the building, just east of downtown Colorado Springs. Era would be 1930s, maybe 1920s. I imagine Los Angeles during that period--when hundreds of thousands of emigrants were arriving from the Middle West and the South--sprouted dozens, maybe hundreds, of little churches like this. I liked those green chairs out back.
1949-52 GMC & Chevrolet trucks, Colorado Springs
On my way to school every morning I pass the orange/green GMC. It's a beauty and we've posted it before. Delighted to see it has a partner with what looks like a new blue paint job.
1965 Volvo P1800
On the apparently endless The O'Briens booktour, I spotted this Volvo P1800 for sale at a small garage near Bridgton, Maine. Doubt if it is still there. And I don't know if it was listed anywhere on the web. It seemed a very clean survivor. There was one patch of rust on a fender
but otherwise everything seemed solid. And amazingly, original. Especially the interior. Dusty, but all there.
The p1800 looks like it has spent a lot of time hiding in a barn and it certainly doesn't seem to have encountered many Maine winters. Asking was $3K. The seller seems to think it a 1969 but I would say 1967; not that I'm an expert on these sweet little Swedish machines, but it has no side marker lights and I think these were mandatory starting 1968. How trainspotterish of me to know that.
Okay I must wedge in another shameless book plug. There are 2 videos of me holding forth on my new novel The O'Briens: one is an interview I did with Jeff Glor of CBS, and another is one of the Writers Talk About Writing series produced by my US publisher, Pantheon Books and available on youtube. I'm having an extremely bad-hair day in the CBS interview.
Ed Burtynsky's WATER
This image from the container port at Rotterdam is from photographer Ed Burtynsky's astonishing new book, Water.
