zlaket’s

stopped by the show in garden grove yesterday, on the way home from work. was better than sitting in friday traffic. haven't been there in many months, so it was nice to see that the street was pretty busy. i don't think there were too many empty spaces available when i left.

sadly, there weren't enough of the cars that i like or that used to show up there. i consoled myself with the few bel airs that were there. this was the first one i came across.

i set up and took a couple of angles of it, before the owner moseyed over. he asked if he could get a copy. told him i'd post it and handed him my card. want a print? go buy one here.

noticed the latin gents had shown up while heading out, but didn't take any pictures of their cars...to many people around them.

i intended to also stop at the show at the buena park elks' club before sunset, but was thwarted by construction lane closures before i could turn around and go a different way, so skipped it and went home.

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my older bro is in town from the east coast, and today's his birthday <happy bday rob!>, and all of us sibs are actually going to be at my parents' all together. that's rare.

too bad my better half can't go...he's sure to miss some of the best stories my brothers tell from their daily life at work. interesting jobs, they come in contact with some unique samples of humankind—and it's not even walmart.

then to see my younger bro mimic people...he transforms into that person, so you can almost see them. it's just priceless. bubbles, the ginormous stripper from west virginia, is a fav. with her country twang demanding "i thank you need to buy me a drank," to the gyrations of gravity on her heavyset frame coming to a stop, he burns the image of her perfectly into your mind, though you've never even seen her.

anyway, got things to do this weekend. looks like i'm hitting up a couple of shows next weekend, so gotta take care of stuff now. and probably do a job for work on top of that. don't think i'll drive all the way down to the office, unless i really need to, though that's fun too...no one there except the cleaning crew, and i always suprise the shit out of one of the women, when she comes around the corner of my cubicle.

in the still of the night

so i made a quick stop at the show over in garden grove for the first time since last year, probably. a lot of people had split off and started other shows because of some dispute with the organizer and the shops over at this show.

considering it was a holiday weekend and i had arrived later than usual, there were a fair number of cars compared to the last few times i can remember being there. no where near what it was when i had started going to this show. and quite a bit dark, without a lot of street light, depending on what part of the street i was at.

i intended to only be there a short time, so did a quick walk thru before bothering to pull my camera out. i was stopped on the way back by a couple of people whom i've met before, who said they'd seen me go by; sorry if i didn't see you on the way in—i was seeing without seeing—looking at the cars, lighting and locations, not the people. i didn't really mean to be rude, just trying to maximize my time and figure if there was anything i wanted to shoot. but i did see you on the way back up the street, so sorry about that first trip.

i only shot a couple of cars. this one and a mercury monterey. and people were walking up to the monterey while i was shooting, and stood there arguing over what year it was and talking car geek talk. they finally went around to the back of the car, but made me wonder if they were obtuse or purposely standing there.

anyway, this one might be with the latin gents, who had their cars parked nearby. many with hoods up, so, so sorry, no shots of them tonight. no one seemed to be really looking at this one, so i took this shot. thinking the other side would have been more interesting with the nearby shop's neon signs, but that side of the car was pretty dark, so this is the one.

hoping to hit three shows tomorrow, but my shoulder is hurting, so i don't know if i will be able to lift my bag. we'll see.

one little indian boy

here's another beauty from washington state. where do they keep these remarkable cars?

this one was at an intersection, usually had a few people around it, but i managed to wait them out, and quickly got this shot before the next bunch got in the way.

this town has a nice, clean, little main street area, similar to most main streets anywhere. i think if i didn't mention where i was, it could almost be anywhere. 

tails, you win!

usually, i hate when cars park nose in, but particularly with these i give an exception — exceptions for exceptional cars. i just love the back end of some of these cadillacs. all pointy angles. did this guy add the funky tail lights from a ’59? i'm not finding another ’61 like this online.

this was from original mike's on sunday. apparently the couple that run the show had a medical emergency, so there was no raffle/prizes. and being still so cold after the rain the day before, a lot of cars didn't stick around long. gotta dangle that carrot of a prize to keep them there.

was told that there are 360° of television screens inside, so you can watch everything from the bar or whatever. well, i don't drink, and i've usually eaten before this show, so i'll take your word for it.

pop

i think this belongs to the latin gents car club. if i look through my collection, i think they mostly have chevys. always very cherry.

i've seen this one several times. love the hood ornament.

yolk's on you

finally got back over to the show at garden grove's main street the other day. since a lot of the summer shows have now ended, this one was overflowing with goodness. shame to see many cars having to leave, being that the main strip and small side lot were full, and no more were able to get in. used to be a much larger show, but some of the guys were doing bad things in the college lots they used to overflow into, so they had to shut those down, and visitors can't even park there, at least they're not supposed to.

the owner of this ford (that's him in the dark blue shirt) told me several months earlier that he'd traded his old car for this one. i think he got the better deal, don't you? i hadn't taken a shot of it until this night because he's always got the damn hood up, and i've mentioned before that i generally don't bother with them. he enquired whether i'd taken any, and when i told him why i hadn't he immediately got out of the chair and closed it up. so i happily got to work.

at one point he must have thought i was done, but no, i was down low on the ground where he couldn't see me. i thanked him when i was done, and he promptly opened it again. do they get judged on the engines too? or do guys just get really excited about headers, car innards and stuff? 

it's in spectacular shape, by the way, and polished up like a new penny.

shout out to redd (blue shirt, next to the car), who owns this plymouth. maybe someday you'll actually buy a print. lol. maybe you just haven't seen a shot of it you like. i have a few more...maybe i'll post another sometime. maybe i just like hassling you.

to the mattresses

here i sit, all downhearted...ah, ah, don't finish that thought. well, third day of rain in a row. everyone is so skittish when there are clouds in the sky; a whisper by someone that looks like rain can clear out a decent car show. i waited all summer for the awesome clouds out there now, but the cars mostly don't come out, even when its clear for the evening.

after work in orange county, the sun had actually come out, and the clouds were all billowy and towering into the sky. so i headed for the show at spires, off the 605. not far into los angeles county, it started to drizzle, maybe even just sprinkle. shit. bailed off the freeway and headed home.

sitting at my computer, looking out the window toward the hills, there is just a big gray smear of cloud cover. not raining at all, sunset trying real hard to make a decent show through the gaps. walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner, then back here at my puter, tweaking my pictures. trying different things, deciding which car to post.

look what they done to my boy...i'm watching the godfather movies again for the zillionth time, on my phone at lunch. lots of nice cars in the film, if you ever noticed.

i can imagine this one in the parking lot at connie's wedding, or maybe one of the cars following the don home from the emergency room, but without all the extra do-dads on it.

mean green machine

this 51 chevy was in the side lot at the garden grove main street show. it seemed more crowded than it had been recently, and there was an inordinate number of spectators in chairs around the judges' table.

turned out that it was elvis day, and they were waiting for an impersonator to come out and put on a show. great for me, fewer people milling around the cars. if you look closely, there is an elvis on the balcony, not sure if it's the guy having a peek, or just a dummy — is there a difference?

my friend with the cane, at the ruby's show later that evening, said it's always elvis day in garden grove. viva garden grove.

double-double

i had a good time at this show in garden grove. was stopped several times by people asking about photography and talking about the cars. i am getting a little better at chatting, though i am always going to be better at listening, and some of the stories they tell really are interesting. at least i was at this show early enough, that i wasn't watching the light change too much while i listened.

check it out. love the back fins and lights on these older cadillacs. and i saw two of these on the same day, in different cities. weather was perfect for hitting the car shows on this evening...had really cooled off by and there was a cool breeze.

this one was up at the end of the street, not next to any other cars, so i had free reign to take shots from all sides. i couldn't figure out who the owner was; there was an old guy with a polishing cloth, but there was also a younger woman with a kid nearby. i finally decided by listening to their discussion that this was her inheritance, but gramps still got to play with it. they were trying to tell the kid about taking care of it and it would be his some day. at least that's what i overheard while minding my own business. some of the things i hear...sometimes i just pick up and move to another car.

after this show, i headed up to the ruby's show in whittier. i cut up the surface streets through garden grove, caught the freeway, exited and cut through santa fe springs, where i spotted the second one of these 59 caddies at a random gas station. and later found it at the ruby's, in what's become the cadillac aisle, in the back corner.

gimme the bird

so another random post...this was really a beauty. sitting on the end of the street at the garden grove main street show a while back. they must like to park it here; if you search for 1955 imperial on google, this same car in this same location pops up first in the images. not taken on the same day, but interesting, since its on some german website. tourists? pure coinkydink? whatever.

i do remember seeing the owner of the '47 desoto leaning against a wall nearby talking to somebody, yet don't remember seeing the desoto that day...wonder if this one is his too? maybe just a coinkydink? lol.

anyway, i've been busy. summer is almost over and i'm trying to catch pieces of it before its too late, so excuse the few days between posts; i'm not always in the same place as my computer.