J.W. Burleson photo / Boquillas del Carmen, Coah.

PHB

My photo
Brooklin, Maine, United States
We own a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande 15 in Maine and a 1986 Chevrolet Custom Deluxe 10 in West Texas. Also a pair of 1997 Volvo 850 wagons. Average age in the fleet is 28 years--we're recycling. I've published 3 novels: THE LAW OF DREAMS (2006), THE O'BRIENS (2012), and CARRY ME (2016). Also 2 short story collections: NIGHT DRIVING(1987) and TRAVELLING LIGHT (2013). More of my literary life is at www.peterbehrens.org I was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for 2012-13. I'm an adjunct professor at Colorado College and in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. In 2015-16 I was a Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The Autoliterate office is in Car Talk Plaza in Harvard Square, 2 floors above Dewey Cheatem & Howe. SUBSCRIBE TO THE AUTOLITERATE DAILY EMAIL by hitting the button to the right.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Shanklin, Isle of Wight, Coach-and-four

We're pushing the edges of the thematic envelope here...not an old truck in sight. But AL is supposed to be about vehicles, and roads, and we have both here. That's my father, HHB, age 2, clutching his father's (HB) hand. The scene is the village of Shanklin, on the Isle of Wight, England, at 130 pm on Friday 19th July 1912. I believe the coach is taking passengers to Newport where they will catch the steamer across to Southampton on the mainland. I don't know who took the picture, or why. I've always wondered about the guy in the white shoes. And the driver's sunburnt face reminds me of some west-country character out of one of Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.