Peter Behrens's Blog, page 504
October 27, 2013
1941 Plymouth & The Ford 352 Special
I caught these cars on a bright October Sunday, outside a little old garage that looked like a one-man speed shop in Strong City, Kansas.
October 26, 2013
Downtown Hutchinson, Kansas
The writer Josh Barkan suggested I go have look at Hutchinson, Kansas. So on a bright October afternoon, I did. Interesting town. I suspect there was a huge boom there when the price of wheat was high, from the 1900s to 1929. Hutchinson was a railroad town when that meant something, and probably a regional banking center. Wheat farmers need banks. Looks like during the last eighty years the town's ambitions have sort of collapsed; everything seems a little damaged, shrunken. Still, those proud high buildings: startling for a town its size. Downtown has somewhat revived, recently--there are bookstores, and antique shops, but it's just hanging on. The neighborhood streets and alleys which I'll cover in another post, reminded me of the mise en scene in Arthur Penn's 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde: overgrown back alleys and weathered frame houses could have been a Depression-era town anywhere on the southern prairie or plains, Missouri to Texas.
1969 Chevrolet wagon
Never sell a good car. I owned this 1969 Chevrolet Brookwood wagon for 15 years. Bought it in 1987 for $750 in Santa Barbara from a lady going into a nursing home. Sold it in 2002 because I was living in Maine and for some stupid reason I didn't think I had time to drive it across the country. Sold it for $1500, and I've since seen it on eBay for $5k. Today in Hutchinson, Kansas, I found another wagon at last, and bought it for $20.
October 25, 2013
October 24, 2013
Volvo 122S
Saw it in Freeport, Maine a couple weeks back. I'm in Wichita right now, teaching & writing at Wichita State U. There is a lot of old metal rumbling around out here, on the high dry plains but I've been holed up in my office all week. I hope to get out this weekend and take a good look around. The last Volvos of this era I looked at were in The Netherlands, last year.
October 23, 2013
Maine 1946 Jeeps
These were both for sale last week in Arundel, Maine. Arundel Place Garage. Talk to Larry
the Japanese retro-car: Nissan Pao
from Alex Emond in Banff"Banff has a fair number of right-hand drive , Japanese SUV's but I haven't seen anything this old before. Must be some sort of " collectable " status that allowed it , firstly , to survive this long in the first place , secondly , to find its way to Banff . It is quite a cool little " frugal " ride. You also see teeny tiny trucks here, imported from Japan."--AE
ed. note: The Pao was actually a retro design produced by Nissan for about six months in 1989. I wonder how this one found its way to the Canadian Rockies. One sees a lot of imported right-hand drive Japanese 4wd vans in Western Canada...check that link above.
