Sad Vans!
Going to the wrecking yard on a grim, rainy day somehow makes all the junked custom vans seem even more depressing than usual. How much work went into that mural?
The oil floats on the dirty rainwater, as the vans await certain death.
That Mexican restaurant in Redwood City that had a jaunty VW bus as a delivery vehicle? Not so jaunty now.
This Dodge Tradesman lived through the heyday of the custom van, then endured decades of scorn before becoming ironically hip. None of that history matters now; within a month it will be in a smelter in Guangzhou. At least someone grabbed the diamond-shaped bubble windows.
Does anyone remember the Chevy Caravan?
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
I spent my lunch hour today tearing the front sway bar off a Dodge pickup (among other parts) at the local Pick N' Pull. "bottom rung dung cleaner" is a noble profession, after all. I've got multiple college diplomas and I'm still a regular at the Pick-a-Part.
I really enjoyed this post for the feeling you imbibed (wrong word , I'm sleepy yet) with both pictures in the rain and the writing . And , the responses are terrific too . I'm a Junkyard Junkie and always have been since Childhood , my most fun job ever , was running a VW shop / junkyard / sales lot in the salad days of VW's , in a College town no less . -Nate