After that Wednesday lunch with the librarian, the curator and the painter we continued being
entertaining into the night, feeding friends just back from Amsterdam and, soon after and after
a mostly giorno normale, my friend Greg [the aforementioned painter]
was kind enough to run me back from Alex’s after dropping the ’45 [not shown] to have the
carb cleaned only to find out on Friday that said carburetor was actually totally toasted…along
with the alternator and battery. Uh-oh; yet another serious blow to the Publishing Empire.
Nonetheless Sunday we returned to the green outskirts of Fairfield for more acupuncture, then
back for lunch in the garden followed by Benicia’s annual Car Show, the town overflowing
and the event well-stocked.
There was even a [very] high dollar electric ’50 Chev from Mare Island* as well as,
from Martinez, The Creature and
a whole lot else – low, slow, fast, bright ‘n’ shiny,
colorful crowds, colorful cars;
a crowded colorful day.
Somehow there’s always a ’39 – ’40 Ford fastback in the mix to remind me of the guys down Verdugo spraying theirs black primer when I was 13 and also somewhere a late thirties Chevy
to remind me of my first, though mine was a ’38 and this be a ’40. In deference to the dudes
down Verdugo mine was of course black primer; this one was a true black beauty.
By then on crippled feet I was up the street
past Benicia’s latest addition to the thriving Kultural Scene, now open for binins and though I doubt the artists who are “in” would be familiar with Terry Allen’s earlier take on NY to CA
I’m sure Benicia’s doggies will greatly appreciate those golden water bowls.
Eart’ Day, 2023…into the light after, ironically, a celebration of ICEs.
*For the state of the art accommodating such wealth and taste one could also fruitfully look south to the folks at Icon for more imaginative builds. Either way a whole lot of money, honey…
Thanks for sharing the colorful day! Would love to have been there. And our Miller San Diego lowrider branch would certainly have been in their element.
I downloaded the Icon brochure…what a great business idea. Concours 2050?
The Miller San Diego lowrider branch??? More, with pictures, please!
oh michael –
I love this post and am remembering the window AC in my 47 plymouth. (sadly lost custody of that one)
in the old days we’d go the car meet/flea market at the rose bowl and look for an illusive radiator cap or the like…
sending love to you both –
see you this summer.
I’m still desperately seeking an original tailgate for a ’45 Chevy pickup…but, yes, see you in the Huerfano! Looks like, despite the last couple of days of snow, it will be damn dry however…
This made an almost lost memory vivid again: when the new models were about to be unveiled all the huge plate glass windows of all the car dealers in Twin Falls were covered with brown craft paper and they all “unveiled” on the same day, and everybody came to town. Now I know when to plan that visit to my sister in San Francisco. Yet sometimes an old cliche is accurate: “you can’t go home again!”
Which brings to mind the recently departed Bruce McCall’s ruminations on all that! RIP Bruce…
Michael! I love all these photos. I have been saying to myself for a while “why can’t they just retrofit my favorite 1994 station wagon with an electric engine?” And now I know some people are doing it…
$200K is not exactly budget-friendly, but I love that some people must be spending that kind of money on these.
Illumination, as always. 💚
They’re definitely out there…doing Jaguars [XKEs and otherwise], old Mini Coopers and even Volvo wagons. Why not? It’s only money…above my paygrade but fun to watch!
Lots of nice cars and lots of nice photos. But, how can a carburetor be toasted?
Actually I did blow one up on my ’67 Chev once, I think maybe the timing belt went out as I was running on LPG over the Dumbarton Bridge. Melted it right down…in this case, though, it was just leaking and /or stuck from 12 years of intermittent use…irreparably so.