Cars (neat and otherwise)

Photographer: Martin Sernstinger, developed (at Michigan News) June 8, 1955. Explored! #56 on Flickr [July 6, 2007.] Thanks! My father--Roger Dinda--is on the left in this photo. The guy in the middle is Fred Stone, and I'm not sure who the other is; since Dad & Stoney were off-duty firemen, I presume the other guy was as well [Sam Garrison, it turns out; see my brother's Flickr comment ]. Dad was a firefighter when I was young, and considered himself still a firefighter until he died. On his off-days, he held other jobs. The fallback job--this one--was called "driving hacks." Or just "hacking." The photo was taken on Michigan Avenue (still called Main Street in 1955, methinks) in Kalamazoo, in front of the cab stand beside Michigan News Agency. The official-looking building across the road is the Kalamazoo County Building, which still looks about the same; on the other hand, Michigan Avenue's been a One Way road for most of my life. Michigan News still stocks comic books, which was the attraction when I was a kid. Good place to buy maps, too. Since the picture dates from 1955, it's over fifty years old. Mom had us digging through boxes of old photos shortly before she died. This one was the best of a stash of Sernstinger pix which had mostly obvious firefighting connections. Dad was a little chubby, I see.... New scan uploaded 12/30/05.

When it rains, I generally find birds hiding under my truck. This little guy was peeking out the wheel well one day in June. Camera: Nikon N90s

Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs--perhaps the finest of American automobiles--were built in the factory behind this showroom until the marques collectively failed around the start of World War II. The factory's now a very fine museum. This photo, of a pair of Cord automobiles, was taken early in 1999 with my Nikon N90s. I'm afraid that the ACD Museum's website, though pretty, is a bit of a disappointment. Despite that, I heartily recommend the museum; it's a fascinating place with truly delightful automobiles. It's in Auburn, Indiana; just follow the signs from I-69. Graphic Converter was used to improve this photograph.

A new Ford Mustang convertible waits for a train to arrive at CN's Billwood Highway railroad crossing a short distance from where I work. I was returning to work after a lunchtime errand and couldn't resist shooting his pony from my pony. Cute car. The crossing's a short distance from work; I can see this rail line (though not the crossing) from my desk. Interstate 69 crosses both Billwood and the railroad at this point; thus the structure framing the top of the picture.

Port Huron, Michigan

Alvin Holmes and my brother Richard at the sag wagon for a Kalamazoo Bicycle Club event in the late 1970s. The car looks like Sandy Kimbrough's. The things I can't remember about this photograph are pretty annoying: I don't know where it was taken, what event we were hosting, what the date was, or who took the picture. Age and distance seem to have done my memory in.... Camera and photographer unknown.

Downtown Mulliken on a summer day in 1997. My notes for this photo believe it was taken Saturday evening during the town's annual block party, called Homecoming, though things really don't look busy enough to support that notion. Regardless, this is a fair image of Main Street for most of the last decade. A few notes follow, in case someone is trying to sort these things out. All the buildings on the left (north) side of Main Street back up to the CSX (originally Pere Marquette Railroad) main line across southern Michigan. On the left: * You can't see Mulliken/Merrified Hardware (now CCD Engineering) or the old barber shop, which are to my immediate left. * The small brick building's the post office. * The white building's the new library. * The next building's Creative Taxidermy. * The large brick building is the clubhouse for Brothers of the Ring. o The old Village Hall, which is tucked in beside BOTR, is difficult to see. o The house beyond that is completely hidden in this view. * The next brick structure is the end of the town's recycling center--before my time this seems to have been a lumber yard. * Not there yet in '97, but the new Village Hall is between the recycling center and the elevator. * The (then) still intact and functioning Mulliken Elevator dominates the view at the far end of Main. As I've noted in the past, this set of structures is now being dismantled. On the right: * The yard in the foreground is part of a rental property. * The two storefronts beyond the yard housed a beauty parlor and a veterinarian's office at the time. Both businesses are now gone, though the building is still occupied. * The next two storefronts, and the courtyard between them, house Farmer's Steakhouse (and the Sain antique business). * Beyond Farmer's is the (new) fire station/township hall, but it's not visible from here. * The white frame building is the Masonic Temple. * Beyond that is Mulliken's downtown park.... Camera: Chinon Genesis III

Probably Dedham, Iowa, 1930s. From my mother's collection; she grew up in Carroll. Information about the bus would be welcome--leave a comment if you know anything. Thanks. Photographer and camera unknown. Scan updated--but still not good--12/20/05.

Mulliken's Brothers of the Ring M.C. is hosting a car/bike show called "Hot Rods & Harleys" today. Found this pretty bike parked on Main Street, amongst dozens of other cycles.

Downtown Charlotte, Michigan. Can anyone tell me about the car?

Wasting away in Mulliken....

That's what the sign says.... Just outside Twin Lakes State Park, Keewenau Peninsula, upper Michigan. I posted another photo of this bus several months ago.

Little Venice, Michigan; on M-50 not far from Mulliken and Sunfield. (If those are your local "big towns," you're in a really small place; neither has more than 800 inhabitants.) The Siesta had some pretensions to being a resort when I first found the place, though there's really nothing close-by to call a tourist attraction. Now a rural apartment complex.

In its prime, Little Venice wasn't much--a motel, a general store, a handful of houses, and a great view of Michigan prairie. Not a canal in sight, though. Venice is now well past its prime. Not a proper ghost town, but a place which hints of failed ambitions.

Yeah, I'm a reformed railfan. Sometimes it shows.... Same train as yesterday's photograph , again by Clara's restaurant in downtown Lansing. Interesting power consist, if you care about those things. Canadian Pacific 9006 is an SD40F--which means it had a wide cab, a wide body, and a "Draper taper" behind that wide cab so the crew could see back. These were built by GMD and designed for the CN, as I recall; CP bought a few. Not exactly a failed experiment, I gather, but neither railroad bought a lot of 'em. The "Red Barn" moniker, as you can see, is descriptive; the look's pretty distinctive. That bell over the windshield is a nice touch. Seeing a lot of unusual locomotives this year. That generally means that traffic levels are high, so they're digging out the mothball fleet---but I'm no longer following railroad news very closely, so that's speculation. Last time I saw so many unusual locos was the early nineties, when these guys were part of the "new" fleet and were thought of as huge. Now they're (relatively) small, and uneconomical. Rather odd thing: If you Google for CPR 9006, you discover that CP's first diesel locomotive was a converted railcar , also numbered 9006. Not this loco.

Upbound from the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, August, 1990. That's my Nova in the foreground.

Like the previous photo, but different. There's a focus problem with this photograph--the Chinon apparently thought I was photographing the fence--but I like the picture anyway. This version shows freighter John B. Aird's cabin in better detail. You've perhaps noticed by now that I like to get these details in my ship photographs. My car, again. It was a good car; easily my favorite before I bought the Mustang.

One of those pictures.... My vehicles, the rose of sharon, our past-their-prime daylilies, and the unfinished house across Brittney Lane. Oh, yes; there's that iris peeking around the corner, too. I really don't know whether I like this pic; there are interesting elements, but it's such a sloppy critter.