Peter Behrens's Blog, page 478

Stephen Shore, Uncommon Places

From Stephen Shore's astounding book of photographs, Uncommon Places. First published by Aperture in the early 1980s, the book was hard to find for a long time but has now been reprinted. A clear-eyed, large-format look at the vernacular American landscape.

Porsches on the PCH

Caught these in Malibu. It's nice to have a bit of automotive eye-candy when you're bogged in morning traffic on the PCH.

1956 Hudson Hornet, Under Wraps

BB caught this Hudson in cold storage at Motorland in Biddeford, Maine. We caught an earlier edition of the car for sale in Colorado Springs last year.

Studebaker Hawk, Motorland

Caught this Hawk for sale at Motorland, in Biddeford Maine, where they have a bunch of cars, with a concentration on Studebaker and Nash. Autoliterate caught a flock of Studebakers in Texas last fall.

The Satanic Mills & Biddeford, Maine

When I was a kid the textile mills were still hard at it in Biddeford, Maine but they've been ex-industrial space for a couple of generations now. The textile industry, always searching out the cheapest labor possible, moved South after the war, largely to North Carolina, but it didn't stay there very long before heading offshore. Now most of the textiles we want are made in China, but wages have been creeping up there, too. Where's next? Africa? Viet Nam?  The Biddeford/Saco mill complex, which sprawls over both sides of the Saco river and on an inland in the river, is impressive, vast, and a little bit intimidating. The first labor force in the New England mills were surplus population off the region's hardscrabble hill farms---often farmers' daughters who came down to do a stint and earn a bit of cash to put aside for their dowry.  As the textile business grew, around the time of the Civil War, the mills began to rely heavily on immigrants. In New England, that meant Irish and, heavily, French Canadians. There was a big exodus from the stultified economy of French-speaking Canada 1880-1950, heading for work in the New England industrial economy. An often-ignored aspect of Canadian history: Canada was/is a nation of emigrants as well as immigrants---and very often the emigrants were French-speakers from the farms of Quebec and New Brunswick, at a time when the industrial economy in Canada was weak and tiny, and the mills in New Engand beckoned with wages and work. Living and working conditions were often pretty grim in towns like Biddeford, Lewiston, Lowell, Waterville. When I was a kid I though the mill was a jail, which is probably how it seemed to some of the people ("hands") who worked there

Joan Baez, Bob Dylan & the Jaguar XKE

From Alex Emond in Banff:
"It is snowing here today so not too much visible green around. I was out with the dogs yesterday and in an alley up off Deer Street was this beautiful E-type Jag, looking very out of place in the snowbank. Early 60's . Somebody put that baby in a garage!"-AE



We caught an XKE on Coast Village Road in Santa Barbara a couple of weeks back. Climate down there is a little more Jag-friendly. Later in the day caught an XK 150, but that was another post. Joan Baez was driving around in an XKE in the mid-Sixties. Wonder if she ever let the Bobster take the wheel.

backyard cabins of Banff

 

Alex Emond reporting from Banff town, in the middle of Banff National Park:
"Sadly , these cabins and old Bob's red and green house will be destroyed sometime this year if the development permit goes ahead . Caribou Properties has plans to erect a large staff housing complex there . I wish I could think of a good new home for either cabin ... even if it was over at the Whyte Museum property where they have a little cluster of early log cabins . Some may not think these cabins are old enough but, hell , they are around 80 years old. They won't get any older without some help . Not sure where Toby will live when he gets back to town."      Alex

1946 Mercury, Spring in Maine

The famous Mercurys are the next generation of lead-sled era cars with the original sleekness applied by Ford Motor Company then developed by a couple of generations of hot rod & custom guys. This 1946 Merc isn't sleek, but it was a welcome sight on a grey day in Maine March with the first drip/splash of mud season out here on the Wolfe's Neck Road. Kind of a warmish day, maybe 41 degrees, and suddenly Maine cars are breaking out of the barns. This one has a pretty close to original body; most of the running gear is from a mid-90s Crown Victoria. The engine was a tight fit, but a fit.




 

1969 El Camino, Ventura

If you google Autoliterate El Camino, you'll see lots of postings over the last couple of years, mostly in California, where sizable herds survive. They do range pretty far though: we found a 1964 El Camino in the Netherlands last year. 1969 is arguably the best vintage, and we caught this clean machine in Ventura on a foggy morning.

1963 Chevrolet C-10, Colorado Springs