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    Roadside America Photography

    Sits is right. This is too good to get lost / buried in Mundane.

    Note: when you finally get to the very bottom of the page....it's the first of 17 pages.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/librar...7686396348231/


    #2
    Thanks once again for posting that. Brilliant.

    Although it doesn't do much for your (and others') argument that my idea of North America is completely wrong. That's exactly how I imagine it to be.

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      #3
      Some background on the collection and the photographer

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        #4
        They really are tremendous and I particularly enjoy a bit of shabby Streamline Moderne Deco.

        This one did stand out though.

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          #5
          Still standing

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            #6
            Top of Page 2, third from the top. It's amazing how many of those 'two column' gas stations you still see hanging around if you know what you're looking for. Sometimes they're in small towns, and others (like in Penn) they're out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, or near the top of a big mountain range all by their lonesome.

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              #7
              Telling that that one is on Main Street in Arlington, Kansas (clicking on any shot brings up location and date details)

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                #8
                I am going to lose several days of my life navigating through all those pictures. What a magnificent link. Thanks.

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                  #9
                  The effort people have gone to on some of them is staggering, like hauling a B-17 bomber into your filling station to become the canopy. Bizarre and beautiful.

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                    #10
                    The story behind that

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                      #11
                      If that's the sort of thing you like, google 'Walter Soplata Newbury Ohio'.

                      Throughout the '50s and '60s, Walter used to buy - for cents on the ton - vintage aircraft that were going to be melted down in Cleveland, Ohio. He'd then truck them home to his farm and reassemble them. Long, long after he'd stopped allowing people onto his property, my best mate and I (aged 16) rolled up on Walter and talked our way in. He then spent a couple of hours walking us around the fields and finally just left us alone to climb in and photograph the lot. The F4U Corsairs (two) were worth millions even back then, but he wouldn't part with a thing.

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                        #12
                        Superb - both the Flickr gallery and the story of Walter Soplata. Thanks for sharing, I absolutely love stuff like this.

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                          #13
                          Sorry, I know that this is about Americana, but can I shoe-horn in a couple of local examples.

                          When I was a kid I had vague memories of seeing a pirate ship in the middle of the Surrey countryside. I thought I'd dreamt it but it really existed and was outside a rather trendy restaurant at Burgh Heath. Long gone now though but:





                          Still in the Surrey countryside, down near Gatwick Airport at Charlwood, I was gobsmacked to see a couple of fighter aircraft in a garden during a country stroll with some friends. Sea harriers in fact (the aircraft not the friends):


                          https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.15.../data=!3m1!1e3



                          Last edited by Nocturnal Submission; 09-09-2019, 23:42.

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                            #14
                            Reminds me of that English Electic Lightning that used to be by the A1 and East Coast mainline just south of Newark.

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                              #15
                              And there used to be a Hawker Hunter on a building next to the elevated section of the A40 coming into London.

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                                #16
                                I love the opening link so much. Sadly, we've lost a lot of a great neon signage but every time I find some that survives it makes me happy. There's a lot of it still in the desert - some great stuff in Tucson, a few things in the Palm Springs area, and so on - I think because the weather allows it to survive better.

                                One of my favourite roadside signs (but I can't find it in the Roadside America link) is the relatively famous Roy's, on old Route 66 in the middle of the Mojave Desert. We pass it when we take the non-highway route to Vegas, but almost everybody bypasses it these days and is on the interstate. It has its own entertaining Wiki page.




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                                  #17
                                  When treibeis takes his long awaited North American vacation, he will need to stay there.

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                                    #18
                                    In a similar vein, the WaPo had this photo essay of New York City's Bowery district in the early 1970's. Grimy and fascinating.

                                    https://www.washingtonpost.com/photo...itys-bowery-s/

                                    One storefront in particular caught my eye; Sammy's Bowery Follies of the Gay '90s. Now what could that possibly be? Which led me to this treasure...

                                    https://mashable.com/2016/10/01/sammys-bowery-follies/

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                                      #19
                                      My mom, who was a psychiatric social worker, spent some time working with the denizens of the Bowery in the mid 50s. She thought of Sammy's as a tourist trap, though a number of her clients were regulars.

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                                        #20
                                        I was thinking the same. There's a grotty old bar in NYC right now that plies the same trade with hipsters, isn't there? I can't remember the name of it.

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                                          #21
                                          More than one,.methinks

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                                            #22
                                            Always loved the El Kapp sign in Raton, NM.


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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                              More than one,.methinks
                                              McSorley's is the place I was thinking of.

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                                                #24
                                                Ah, McSorley's has more of a general touristic appeal.

                                                I was wondering if you were thinking of Siberia or Mars Bar.

                                                As I was saying, there are a lot of candidates.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Cal, not a bad likeness at all

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