31.3.11

In Company

One day, while I was trying to track down a crowing rooster in Ras Beirut, I bumbled my way into an amazing car, a rusted out, broken down beauty of a car. Owen, who blogs beautifully from France, might call even call it a dream car, though I'm not sure it qualifies.

On that rooster-chasing day, this enormous blue beater was all alone and it looked quite solitary and very nearly poetic beneath that huge spray of palm fronds. I snapped a quick photo before walking on, only to discover later that a big smear on my lens had obscured the image. I've passed by often since then to give it another try, only to find time and again that the rusted out beauty had been parked in, blocked by other cars. I was waiting for a clear shot, hoping to be lucky enough to find it alone again.

But I haven't.  Instead I've learned that the truth of this car is that the lonely circumstances in which I first saw it were false. The truth is that this car is always in company; good, bad, and otherwise. Here it is quite elegantly book-ended, silver beauties of one kind and another on either side.

7 comments:

  1. Mary Ann, I love it ! That is most certainly a dream car, without a shadow of a doubt... and I love how it is sandwiched there between a Jaguar and a Mercedes. Definitely a blue beater ! I'll bet that poor old car-cass has some stories to tell, if it could only speak to us... a civil war veteran for sure...

    Thanks so much for the nod and for giving me a heads up, I came running right over... a fine dream car is a rare pleasure in life.
    :-)

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  2. I wonder if cars, like people, are known by the company they keep? This one sure looks to be trying to keep up with the Jones's ...

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  3. Car socialism at it's best. The priviledged heping out the less fortunate.

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  4. I admit that the broken down car next to the very fancy, completely roadworthy sedans reminded me of Beirut itself. New and old, luxurious and dilapidated, they're all crammed in here together.

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  5. Wait, you say your were following the voice of a ROOSTER?

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  6. Yes, there's a whole flock of chickens less than 15 meters from this spot. I'll try and get a photo of them when they're out pecking at chickenfeed one morning.

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