Heavy Metal: Car Show of a Bygone Era of Wondrous Design

When the Beatles sang "Baby wont you drive my car"  they were not talking about automobiles, but our fascination with these machines still amazes the heck out of me.  Recently, the weather was perfect and ripe for an outdoor event. Tarpon is the home of  several antique automobile dealerships.  It was no surprise that The Tarpon Springs Antique Car show returned to town.  Crowds of people milled around our main street "Tarpon Avenue" to reminisce about their favorite car, listen to classic rock and have a good time.  There were hundreds of cars ranging from early Model T to fancy rare Limousines.  I photographed but a handful.  Take a look for yourself and see if you find a favorite.

For working people there were all manner of pickups

Even a few classic hot rods managed to get into the act.  Of course the owners of all these cars seem to be people who owned them since they were made or had managed to spend a small fortune to re-acquire them and relive an old memory or two.

This marvelous old GMC truck with wood decking I am sure is not used to haul anything other than a packet of memories.

For me, there was never a car more beautiful than this one.  Every detail of this car seemed conceived to seduce you to purchase it.  Any guesses?

Minor details such as the ribbed metal framing the headlights and in air intake on the hood above were part of the elegance and design of these cars where there was attention to every detail in a quest to design  cars and possibly a world that was unique.  Give up?

When this 1966 Thunderbird  was manufactured we were interested in modern and streamline design that was accented with an élan and a flare long since departed from our modern efficient computer managed vehicles.  The fins had gone but the metal remained.  Gasoline was 24.9 cents per gallon.  My first car was a 1964 metallic aqua colored Chevrolet Impala that my father bought me in 1970 for $300.00.  You can't buy tires for that money much less any car these days.

Any teenager in those days would have wanted a Mustang or better yet a convertible Thunderbird!  Here is one that awakened many memories long ago forgotten.

  

There were a multitude of styles showing the long distinguished history of these machines that have allowed us to travel, discover and experience the world in comfort.  I only know a few cars by memory as since my youth I have owned quite an assortment of foreign cars.  My second car was an 1970 MG Midget that was a love.  I followed it with a sensible Fiat 131 sedan, then I had an Oldsmobile Regency 98 for a business car.  I added a second car during richer times and had a 124 Fiat Spider: Quite a honey!  There was a Honda when times got tough and another Oldsmobile 88 wagon with an opera seat for who knows what family?  When that failed I went ultra modern and got a Prius which I have had for eight years.  Recently, the Toyota dealer wanted me to trade in my Prius.  He said they needed used Priuses or is it Prii?  He also informed me that he had recently had a customer checking out a new Prius.  His old one had 250,000 miles.  Upon hearing that news I informed him that I was hopeful that mine would also last that long and said goodby.  It is nice not to have a car payment!

1926 Willys-Knight 70

This 1958 Plymouth Fury Commando was a knockout at the show.  I have never seen such a wonderful effort to restore a car and be so true to its styling.

Beautiful 1933 De Soto

My friend Vori was in town from Philadelphia for the show an explained to me that the two projectiles on the bumper of this 1955 Cadillac Coupe de Ville (above) were called Dagmars after an early 1950's TV personality from a show called Broadway Open House.  Her extensive cleavage and  and low cut-gowns and conical shaped bras managed to get her indirectly into the daily parlance for automobile styling.

1950 Buick 8

1965 Mustang

1929 Essex

Here is a little more interesting  1933 Dodge Brothers Ram Sedan 

Even formula car people were represented.  The St Pete Grand Prix was run last week.

So when I said heavy metal it refers to a world gone by.  These car were built like tanks to offer protection to its passengers.  Nowadays car are designed with technology and electronic sensors to react in a moment of need.  An inflatable air bag and a good seat belt will protect you from bouncing into all the metal or not that is in your car.  Regardless, it was strange being surrounded by all the nostalgia by way of cars and music.  I like the past but try to live in the present as much as I can.  I came across this straggler, who like me also made its way from New Jersey to Tarpon Springs.  With loving care it will live in the memory of many for many years to come.  Happy Gardening!

Happy Valentine February!

My brugmansia came from pots in New Jersey finally has adapted to the nematode soils and is thriving with 10" fragrant trumpets that bathe the garden in a jasmine scent at night.

I can typically chew gum and blog, but in reality that has not been the case for a while.  I have been deeply involved in a search process for a minister for the Unitarian Universalist Church here in Tarpon Springs.  I may be using it as an excuse but it has allowed me sometime to think about a lot of things.  If truth be told I don't chew gum either, as I come from a school of thought that says always try to look your best and chewing on a piece of gum for hours on end is not my idea of looking good - unless you are a cow chewing its cud.  

 

All that aside, this time away from blogging has allowed the garden to fill in just a tad. Gardens in Florida have a tendency to grow and grow and grow.  Mine is not an exception.  Even though the winter season here limits growth by lack of rain it is still a wonderful time to garden.  There are surprises along the way (aren't there always?) with a sudden drop in temperature that reminds you as nice as it is here were are not 100% tropical.  Last night for the first time this winter we reached 38 degrees which meant it was time to bring out the sheets and cover the really tender plants.  The Brazilian Cloak I feared could wither.  This morning after confirming  my Tropica I rediscovered it can withstand temperatures of as low as 20 degrees.  A bit of a shock as it were as it is native to Venezuela where I doubt temperatures ever get that cold.  As is I did more damage to it by somewhat crushing the red plumes with the sheet than the cold would have done.  Oh well, another lesson.

Brazilian Cloak

Brazilian Cloak Plumes

The gardens you can see are filling in nicely.  In this Garden Room  the lawn has returned and Limo runs circles around the edge of some central plantings into another garden room that is still being transformed.  I have introduced, thanks to some neighbors six clumps of a wonderful clumping bamboo that will tower 25 feet over the garden and provide total privacy from the street.  I suspect I may at some point regret planting so many clumps but it may be also provide the impetus for some industry that I could take up at a future point such as constructing bamboo scaffolding for  Tarpon Springs.

You can see a wheel barrow with the remains of the 4 trucks of mulch:  a small pile I am saving to spread around problem spots

The terrace plantings provide a staging area for plants that I find a rock bottom prices from nurseries and rehabilitate before putting in the destined location.  I just picked up two huge terrestrial (Bletilla) orchid plants of considerable size for $5.00 each at Lowes. They were a little past their forced blooming  and people who have no patience will pay $30.00 a piece for the luxury.  A month or two in the ground will have them twice the size and with hundreds of blooms each.

The backyard I have turned into more of a semi arid garden.  Contrasting a variety of aloes, agaves, and succulents that can live in total absence of water with lemons, tangerines, pineapples, mangos, loquats, avocados and calamondin oranges.  I irrigate the fruit and everything has about a foot of mulch helping to develop some soil quality.  The mango tree, due a lack of winter is covered in flowers.  It could prove to be quite a bumper crop of mangos this year.  I am anticipating going to our farmer's market and see what I can get for what will be thousands of 18 ounce organic fruits.

The papaya planted that I put in the ground at 6 inches last fall is now about 10 feet in the air with quite a bounty of fresh fruit for breakfast.  

Every now and then you find someone cooling off in the shade of its leaves.

The Elephant ear has grown so large that it flowered.  

The flower is rather exotic to say the least.  It is about 2 feet in length

On a trip some  a trip somewhere I found this bronze colored Clerododendrum with a maroon backing.  It is called Shooting star Clerodendrum or Clerodendrum quadriloculare as its stems are somewhat square rather than cylindrical.  As I said, I found it in an abandoned parking lot where it seemed rather adapted to surviving without any special attention.  It had grown into quite a jungle and there below were some small 6 inch pups that were trying to establish themselves amongst the parent plants.  Well, I supposed I helped the plant by thinning out a couple and put them in my own garden where they are thriving.  I intend to build a screen of them and place bright colored Crotons in front which will stand out in a dramatic contrast to this bronze/maroon wall of vegetation.  The Shooting star is not fragrant and may reproduce too fast for most gardens.  We shall see what it does.

Another Great plant is this Dombeya that is blooming for the first time. It is barely 12 inches tall.  This plant may one day become the great blooming flower of the garden as it grows to 15 feet and gets covered with these clusters of pinkish blossoms that hand like bells.  All you see is pink until after it has bloomed and the green heart shaped leaves take over after the flowers fade.  Garden gluttony and another deal at Lowe's allowed me to get two of these to create another screen of flowers.  

Finally, a trip to St. Petersburg on UU search matters allowed me to discover this second magnificent specimen of a Red Kapok tree  (I know two others, one more majestic and a smaller one in Tarpon).  Its voluptuous scarlet velvet flowers suffocate the tree with blossoms calling attention to its bounty and its beauty - a perfect match for Valentine's Day would you not agree?  Few can walk by and not close in on its spectacle.  As everyone walks around with camera phones these days they serve a function to capture and share its exotic beauty.  Happy Gardening and Happy Valentine February!