Sunday 6 May 2007

A horse box, a Jaguar and a buttercup meadow - # 99

I have in mind those "nostalgia images" that show an old split-windscreen-1940s-style
Dodge pick-up, rusty but serviceable, beside a decaying barn out in the flatlands of Kansas. Why do those 1940s American pick-ups say so much to our imaginations? (Or is it just my imagination? I don't think so.)


So, I'm asking: What does a 1970 Jaguar standing in tatty elegance beside a private horse trailer in a yard with a cute little buttercup meadow behind do to the American imagination?

I suspect it says that we all harbour dreams about an idealised Past that probably never existed. But whatever you think, you cannot deny that the styling of the Jaguar has a timeless elegance.

10 comments:

  1. Nearly at the 100 mark! Keep going.

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  2. Oh, the Jaguars (or is it now Ford?)!! Could never afford it and now I decided to have no car at all.

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  3. Your narrative is interesting and reminded me of strange sights that I have seen in this world. I think two things stand out in my mind the most and I will only use enough space to tell one.

    In 1952 I was a teenager and hitch hiked from Ohio to Tucson, Arizona. When I got there I slept on a bench in the library lawn. In the morning I went to the employment agency down the street and got a job. The job was being a cowboy in the White Mountains of Arizona on land leased from the Apache Indian tribe.

    When I was living there, that summer, I sometimes went for a ride with my friend in a jeep. We were driving in the reservation one day and saw a lot of tipis or tent-like conical structures made to look exactly like the originals used on the Plains. The Apache's used a low hut and not tipis.

    Anyway, seeing the tipis was odd enough but among the many lodge poles sticking out through the smoke flap was television antennas we called the Lazy X type -- made like an X on its side.

    Parked beside the tipis were large expensive automobiles. Cadillacs, Lincolns, Chryslers, and Jaguars, BMWs. Very expensive transportation among Native American tipis.

    That kind of contrast was amazing to me.

    I am anxious for you to see the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak that came to Brookville, Ohio yesterday. It is the first one I have seen since we moved here 44 years ago.

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  4. What does a 1940s pick-up say to your imagination? I'm honestly curious to know. Also, did you answer my question as to what you saw on your tour through CH? I'm wondering how many of the spots I've been to.

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  5. something we know/not know let us keep dreaming in the future i think.
    :))
    and congrates for your coming 100th post, hehe...well, 99 is also very wondeful number, as i think.

    nice day.

    jing
    shanghai daily photo

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  6. Is the Jag for sale, as I'm looking for a classic car to restore?

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  7. Thanks for dropping by!

    I love the Classic Jags... one day I hope to own one - the E Type Jaguar V12.

    It's interesting what you wrote about idealised pasts that probably never existed - perhaps nostalgia, is a seductive liar?

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  8. Just seen it! Beautiful photo. I got a lift in an e-type in the year .....? from London to the south of France. Very uncomfortable cos I was in that tiny seat in the back.

    Great car, it was, as is the one in your photo.

    Where's the horse?

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  9. yes, that is a gorgeous car!

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  10. C'est drôle, Chuckeroon, les blogs se répondent.
    J'ai mis un message sur un blog que je fais avec un ami bloggueur

    Un bon plan

    Tu peux t'apercevoir que l'on n'est pas unique, que nous pouvons avoir les même idées, les même rencontres, quelque l'on soit, britannique ou français, homme ou femme, jeune ou vieux

    (Dans cet endroit, mon mari et moi avons passé une excellente nuit)

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