Folk Art on Wheels — One-Shot Story

Anyone fond of later-20th- and early-21st-century automobiles will enjoy Jim Grey’s “Old Cars Parked” columns and his posts on the “Curbside Classic” site. In them he shoots and shares wheeled finds near his home and on trips.

I — not as automotively well-versed as Jim — read every description. And in fact, I’m so un-knowledgeable about cars, that the ones I photograph are usually interesting junkers… like the battered, rusty, “customized” Volvo above.

A Heat-Stroked Vision

Kate and I were near the end of a tour of Block Island, Rhode Island. It’s a truly charming slice of New England, but with this summer’s extreme climate change upon them, the island’s restaurants, stores and grand hotels could have used more air conditioning. With a heat/humidity index just above 100 degrees F, the air felt and “breathed” like hot bathwater. And nearly heat-stroked, I found a shady spot on the Old Harbor and visited a tall glass of tap water instead of more stifling stores. (Kate shopped on, though, but not for much longer.)

Then this piece of rolling folk art pulled up to the curb right in front of me. Its owner climbed out, reached in through a side window to move her dog to the back seat, told it to “behave,” dashed into the ice-cream shop across the road, and quickly returned with a tall cone of cool scoops.

Someone — probably she — had covered the Volvo’s bubbling rust with simulated hood and side-panel flames, rosy-toned roof panels, and mountainous door murals that reminded me of the quirky old “Twin Peaks” TV series. (Those cold snow-capped peaks actually helped me feel better.)

And then she climbed back in, gave her dog a pat, and rumbled off into the small island’s 9.7 square miles of land (40% of it protected nature reserves), more than 7 miles of roads, and 17 miles of pristine beaches.

Local Personas

Two of Block Island’s more well-known residents (past and present) are the mid-century-modern furniture designer Jens Risom, who died in 2016 at age 100, and the charmingly odd American actor Christopher Walken. I would have loved to write a One-Shot story about his (to say the least) rather private home. But my photo would have shown only a tiny wedge of roof tiles peeking out from above towering dense shrubs.

Our tour-bus driver once did meet Walken in an island pub, and says he was a charming conversationalist. I don’t doubt it for a moment.

–Dave Powell is a Westford, Mass., writer and avid amateur photographer.

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