Always Interesting Junkyard
Dennis wanted to visit the North Smithfield Auto Recycling, a.k.a. the junkyard, for the first time, and we had a nice day to make the trip yesterday. He picked me up in the morning, and we arrived at the destination around 11:00 AM. After entering the office, we chewed the fat with Roland, the manager of the yard, and then proceeded to introduce Dennis to artistry in rust!
As we walked through the junkyard, the very first thing I noticed was a black baby shoe on the ground with a handful of sand inside. It looked in very good shape, and I remembered an anecdote attributed to Ernest Hemingway.
Someone asked him if he could write a story in very few words, say six. He said, sure, and produced: “Baby shoes for sale, never used.” As you can make up many stories for his six words, I am sure you can think of just as many stories for this one photograph. If you care to share your reading of the story, please write it as a comment. It will be great to see how a photograph may stimulate the mind.
The Memory Lane
Then we wandered towards the “Memory Lane” of the junkyard lined with the older and more memorable cars. The place is getting neater and neater but the interesting weeds, now mostly dried created a sense of natural disorder hiding some cars for nice effects.
Looking at the old cars, I am quite amazed at how well the bodies resisted the effects of nature in the open air, particularly the chrome parts. Many rusty cars showed almost pristine chrome accents, grills, mirrors, etc. I have a special affinity to that Buick with a big chrome grin! Today’s cars don’t have much chrome to speak of, and I don’t think they will endure the effects of time as gracefully as their great grandfathers. On a row behind, a hearse stood with its trunk cracked open as if trying to breathe. The irony did not escape me. It once transported the deceased and came here on the back of another truck, I’m sure!
The Crusher
On the other side, in front of the crushed and piled cars, a purplish-blue car stood seemingly happy to have escaped the jaws of the crusher. In addition to the neatly parked cars, a whole bunch of them were crushed and stacked. I call them Ph.D., piled higher and deeper! The high-speed crusher, named OverBuilt, had some vehicles under its grip and looked quite impressive. A little further down, a pickup truck stood as if hit by a lightning strike with its torn tires still under the wheels, or whatever was left of them.
We stayed a little longer and proceeded back home to enjoy a fish-and-chips lunch at Cozy Grill.
Haluk Atamal
“The day will come when a younger and bigger one will crush the OverBuilt”.
I guess I am overly impressed by nature’s laws..
Beautiful work, Cemal. Thanks!
A. Cemal Ekin
Oh, yes, there is always a “bigger fish” to swallow the large one. If there is no fish, humans will find a way anyway!
Cemal
Binnaz Melin
The black shoe is very touching.
A. Cemal Ekin
Indeed!
Cemal