Pickup Lines 2

With all due respect to Forrest Gump, a box of chocolates just can't compare to a pickup truck for that "you never know what you're gonna get" quality.

This one was parked in Wallington, a few blocks from a very good Polish restaurant, Krakus. (Have the pickle soup. Seriously.)

Pickup trucks, like a lot of interesting things, are all the same and all different. I've never owned or driven a pickup truck, though I've had rides in a few. Being interested in vehicles of all kinds, I recognize different brands and models, but I'm not into towing capacities or engine displacements or stuff like that.

What I like is the combination of a vehicle's idiosyncrasies and the idiosyncrasies of the environment it's in. This picture has those qualities, which I like in stories as well as in photographs--a reality that I, anyway, could not have anticipated or imagined. A funky Ford pickup with a hitched-up hitch and, behind it, a Mercedes SUV, which is a luxury car built on a truck platform.

The second picture is of a tavern, possibly also a private club, that was next door to the driveway where the pickup truck photo was taken. The signs and decals tell you a lot about the passions and concerns of the people. I like the respect for what in the Sixties my generation called "law and order," which was a term you either loved or hated back then.

There's also something a little bristly about all these signs. They are warnings, in a way. And I have to wonder, if respect for neighbors is a given in your neighborhood, and if clean and quiet can be taken for granted, do you have to put a sign on your door (with its paint peeling) requesting those things?

Actually, it isn't a request, if you think about the wording. It's a command, a demand, an order.

Tags: Krakus | Wallington | Krakus Restaurant

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