Vernacular 1966 VW pickup

From Michael Moore: "VW pickup, Stevenson Street, Mission District in SF…pretty marginal [like huge holes in floor and, well the interior’s less than basic].  But cool."--MSM

1961 Chevrolet Bel Air Flattop, & etc.

Can you spot the '61 Bel Air? It's blue.

From Driving.ca : "Mike Hall has a deal that his real estate ad describes as a lifetime opportunity that is perfect for the vintage auto enthusiast who loves to work and live in a beautiful area. The five acres he has for sale is alongside Highway 1 at Tappen, British Columbia – a one-hour drive west of Kamloops BC and 10 minutes from Salmon Arm on Shuswap Lake...

 "For $1.45 million (Canadian!) the successful buyer gets the property zoned for auto salvage, a renovated house, a 900-square-foot restoration shop, a 1,200-square-foot steel building and enough steel beams and rafters to build 8,000 square feet of covered space.
"Oh, and he’ll throw in more than 340 vintage vehicles. He values the cars and trucks at anywhere from $500 to $35,000 each.
"When pressed, Hall doesn’t know exactly how many cars he has – but more than 340, and very likely considerably more. He admits to buying at least 40 more cars since originally listing the property for $1.19 million a year ago. The cars and trucks he has collected over the past 40 years are lined up across the property like an old drive-in theatre."

Berenice Abbott. Triborough Bridge

Berenice Abbot. Triborough Bridge, 125th St. Approach 1937

International Harvester R-110. Colorado. Early Spring.

It was our Truck of the Year a few years back and you can see why. I'm back for a spell at Colorado College and couldn't resist hunting this one down again.

Below: flying at about 10000 feet from Denver to Colorado Springs. There was snow at Monument Pass and higher elevations.

1968 Buick Electra 225

Still a pile of snow in Maine. Autoliterate caught the big Buick at Motorland in Arundel, Maine, while heading to South Freeport to do a book event. A one-family car, the Electra's now looking for a home. Heckuva summer car.  Tell them Autoliterate sent you. 

1959 Chevrolet El Camino

from Alex Emond, in Banff: "I think the year is 1959. I was amazed to see this ride tucked away in a Banff hotel's underground parking lot. I don't think that it is running all that well but it is in pretty good shape and it's all there and that is most of the battle. That would be, for instance , a hard rear window to find , and this one's perfect. Love it, and I'd love even more if I was driving it on a prairie road with George Jones on the radio. I am heading to Saskatchewan tomorrow for a week, so maybe there are a few trucks poking out of the melting snow banks. Stay tuned . Cheers"-AE

(Have a look at the 1960 El Camino we caught in The Springs a while back-Autoliterate)

1984 Chevrolet Caprice wagon

Eric Blake of the Brooklin Boatyard just added this low-mileage 1984 Chevrolet Caprice wagon to his family fleet. Here is another of Eric's projects: the Germain-Freres-designed sloop Foggy launched at Brooklin Boatyard in 2015.

Berenice Abbot

 Fifth Avenue, Nos. 4,6 and 8.   Berenice Abbot photograph. f1936

1963 Ford Galaxie

Maybe the car for a road trip in North Carolina? Up for auction this week. Details at BAT

American Houses: Cambridge (Mass.) vernacular

Versions of the vernacular Cambridge, mostly unfancy North Cambridge, with a bit of Agassiz district. The wall is part of the O'Neill branch of the Cambridge Public Library, located in the Peabody School in North Cambridge. Tip O'Neill who represented this part of the world in Congress to me stands as a kind of anti-Trump. A man in touch with his roots, possessed of a deep Americanness but grounded in his Irish background and in the ancient  values of the civitas: community, civility, democracy; treating everyone as if they were your neighbor and you were in this together.
The three-decker is about as close to the heart of the New England housing vernacular as it gets.

1966 Ford F100

Thanks to Lee Buck for this. I want one for  Autoliterate World Headquarters at Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square.

1955 Cadillac Series 62 sedan: Rob Hann photograph

Rob Hann photograph. Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

1959 Chevrolet Apache 3200 (for sale)

The flesh-tone paint doesn't do it for me but at least there is one Apache that isn't turquoise. Looks like a total frame-off restoration. Up for auction this afternoon. In Oregon. Details at BAT. 

Broadway, 1954

found it on The Old Motor. Newest car is  '54 Chrysler New Yorker parked on the left.

Plate Shack. Cambridge, Mass.

Plymouth '57 Thrill-Power

 J'adore Québec.

1978 VW Bus, Portlandia

 I'm not sure how well I can intrepret these images. Basha Burwell shot the bus in Portland Oregon. I guess maybe a late-70s VW. And Keen is a Portland based footwear (I guess that means shoe) company. And the bus has pent some time in Mexico. The plates are Mexico City but from the stickers in the back it had also been registered in other Mexican states. The somber light in the photo speaks of a grey & sodden winter out there in that Other Portland.