I’ve been driving past the Governor Motor Company for decades and always assumed it was just another used car lot. After meeting the owner and getting a look around, I’d call it an art gallery/cultural artifact museum.
More photos here and I’m hoping to persuade the owner, Ricky Mendez, to sit/walk for an interview.
My search for a wheel rim for my pickup truck led me to All Type Auto Parts in nearby Holts Summit. I didn’t find the rim but I found a wonderful collection of junk. You can see more in this 3 minute video.
That’s Larry on the phone. He said he reorganized the back wall recently to put the gas caps together. I don’t pretend to know what art is… but I know what I like.
In the photo above there’s a rock at the bottom/middle of the image that looks like the top has been sliced off. One of the guys told me he found the bottom part one day while walking around. Later in the day — in a different part of the salvage yard — he found the top. He’s still amazed. As am I.
I was intrigued by the collection of car radios and sound components. The guys conceded this was dead tech but had no explanation for why they were saving these.
If I snuck into the office some night and moved some things around on the wall… I have no doubt Larry and the guys would spot it immediately the next morning.
Last night we ended up on the couch
trying to remember
all of the friends who had died so far,
and this morning I wrote them down
in alphabetical order
on the flip side of a shopping list
you had left on the kitchen table.
So many of them had been swept away
as if by a hand from the sky,
it was good to recall them,
I was thinking
under the cold lights of a supermarket
as I guided a cart with a wobbly wheel
up and down the long strident aisles.
I was on the lookout for blueberries,
English muffins, linguini, heavy cream,
light bulbs, apples, Canadian bacon,
and whatever else was on the list,
which I managed to keep grocery side up,
until I had passed through the electric doors,
where I stopped to realize,
as I turned the list over,
that I had forgotten Terry O’Shea
as well as the bananas and the bread.
It was pouring by then,
spilling, as they say in Ireland,
people splashing across the lot to their cars.
And that is when I set out,
walking slowly and precisely,
a soaking-wet man
bearing bags of groceries,
walking as if in a procession honoring the dead.
I felt I owed this to Terry,
who was such a strong painter,
for almost forgetting him
and to all the others who had formed
a circle around him on the screen in my head.
I was walking more slowly now
in the presence of the compassion
the dead were extending to a comrade,
plus I was in no hurry to return
to the kitchen, where I would have to tell you
all about Terry and the bananas and the bread.
You can hear the poet read his poem here.
Another great photo/find from Matthew Hampshire.
Like the planets, this moves very slowly — even in strong wind — and is most hypnotic.
I’m a fan of Matthew Hampshire’s photography but also wanted to see how the Flickr embed code is working these days.
Spotted this monster in the supermarket parking lot.
