J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Saturday, December 31, 2016

1974 Volkswagen. Marfa, Texas

Painted by Hector Sanchez, who also did our 1985 Chevrolet C10





Friday, December 30, 2016

Livingston's Hardware. Marfa, Texas.

1985 Chevrolet C10

1974 Buick LeSabre. LIC, NYC, NY

Purple Land Yacht spotted by Stephen Hendrickson in Long Island City, NY.
Seize the day, shoot the car, send Autoliterate the jpegs.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

1968 Ford F250 Camper Special


 Marfa, Texas. Christmas Eve. Blue sky & 70F degrees.


Big Bad Dodge (or is that Ram?) and Texas Chevy

A couple of trucks, off our usual beat.

This from Alex Emond: "Here's a pick me up that made me laugh, or maybe grimace. Probably some young gun who spends half his income on gas and the other half on beer. There's one in every town ... this one was in Val Marie (Saskatchewan).  Cheers. "--AE
And this one--"kind of a sweet/ugly custom" spotted in Austin, Texas by Erik Baier.

Monday, December 26, 2016

1941 Oldsmobile in Maine. And Marion Post Wolcott in Florida

Saw the car in Searsport, Maine. Looked pretty solid and original. From the '81 NH plates it hasn't been on the road for a while.
 
January 1941. Sarasota, Florida. "Guests of trailer park enjoying the sun and sea breeze at the beach." Nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. (I think that must be a 1940 Olds.) At the end of this post, see Marion Wolcott's iconic photo of perhaps the most not-fun beach picnic ever.





Marion Post Wolcott, Winter Visitors Picnicking on Running Board of Car on Beach, Sarasota

Friday, December 23, 2016

Econoline Pickup Alpine, Texas

 Wind blowing from the south out here in far-West Texas. Got a ride over to Alpine to pick up the C10--tuning in AL's favorite NPR station-- and saw this unit at the compound. Same era as the Chevy ramp van AL posted a while back



Thursday, December 22, 2016

1970 Renault 10


 These very very, very popular in Montreal. Maybe the rear engine made for decent winter traction. But a certain genre of Montrealais just needed to drive something French. A social and political statement as much as anything, which I never entirely understood, since France was always even more nasty, patronizing and coloniale in its attitudes to Québec than, say, England was. This car was for sale last June at Motorland in Arundel, Maine.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Monday, December 19, 2016

Organic Power Wagon

  
My favorite truck in Cambridge. Dodge Power Wagon 150. 1972?




Sunday, December 18, 2016

Triboro Bridge traffic

Stephen Hendrickson is a bold man, or an accomplished NYC driver, or both, to grab photographs in such gnarly traffic on the Triboro. But I speak as a Mainer, always awed by the hectic intricacies of NYC in motion. Though traffic there does seem less vituperative than Boston's. 
If you want to read about the Triboro, and you should, because therein lies a tale, the place to start-- and end--is Robert Caro's The Power Broker, his epic biography of Robert Moses, who built the Triboro along with much of the infrastructure of mid century New York, city and state, and simultaneously dealt the region a sequence of grievous blows from which it is still struggling to recover.
I suggest the first car is a late-40's Buick. The other car looks 1940-46, but what genre I couldn't say. Is there hope for these babes or, after surviving so long, are they headed for the crusher? But crushers usually get stacked in a load, not rolled aboard and strapped down so neatly, right? These are trailer queens.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

1966 Chrysler Town & Country Wagon



It's up on Craigslist in the Bay Area.

1950 Chevrolet Panel Truck. Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

from Stephen Hendrickson: "Greenpoint Brooklyn, my professional home lo these past eight years, never fails to surprise! This rainy morning's find...  I'll let you figure out the vintage, I have no idea. 40's-50's though I guess.  I love the multicolored body parts, and the rain."
Another Greenpoint sighting from S.H.up here