Comments on: Day 7: Castles and Shanties

By: Peter Peteet

Peter Peteet — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:16:12 +0000

Perhaps the “pull”in yer u-turn is something you absorbed from the Southern speech you have become immersed in-down here.There is a move sometimes called the “redneck reversal”,a moonshiner move which involves cutting the wheel hard at speed while pulling up hard on the e-brake.Done properly you find yourself facing the way you came with smoke rising from your locked up rear tires and the volume of the smoke and the sound increase as you let go the e-brake and give it the gas to get headed back the way you came.I don’t recall who spoke the praises of the exhilaration of being shot at and not hit but it applies to this move;it requires a rear wheel drive car,smooth or gravel road and a low center of gravity.Keep pulling and banging out these stories as there is much in this culture and land that could use reversal and though the sounds and smells of it involve fear exhilaration is possible.
I always knew those docks reminded me of something,thanks for pinning them to the high chairs.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:08:15 +0000

like… “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” (Douglas Adams)

By: Tommy

Tommy — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:07:13 +0000

Don’t give in so easily, Dave, regardless of where you think you’re from- we never BANGED u-ey’s until the nineties, MAYBE late eighties. Prior to that, prior to traction control, prior to cell phones, prior to organic breakfast ceral, prior to right turn on red, prior to a non-Carl Yastrzemski Red Sox team gaining popular favor – we always PULLED u-ey’s. It was all we knew. You’re merely showing your age.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:01:08 +0000

I stand corrected. As a Worcester boy, I should have banged when I pulled.

By: Peter Peteet

Peter Peteet — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:22:03 +0000

“Through the rain I looked out at the dilapidated fish camps, old marsh shacks that lined the canal about a mile out from the marina. They stood out here on the front lines and had no illusions that they were castles. In fact permeable might be a good word for them, built as they were on a watery foundation, and looking unabashedly ramshackle, pieces of plywood nailed here, a screen door thrown up here, rickety docks jutting out like the tray on a toddler’s highchair. Humility, it seemed to me, was their strength and I decided then and there that I would find a way to spend the night out in one of them. “Nice image ,and appreciation of place;impermanence accepted gracefully instead of impertinence garishly displayed .

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:20:01 +0000

leroi you better watch out–dave will bang u-ey on yr head!

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:07:51 +0000

I’m reminded of a certain house on Martha’s Vineyard, one we watched year after year getting closer to the edge of the cliffs at Windy Gates, quite a beautiful place, of course. Even our castles are precarious, even the tallest buildings in our cities, even the planet, when you think about it, even our sun… all mortal, all temporary, through differing quantities of time… All shanties, yes, I like that image, shanties built on the edge of forever…

By: LeRoi

LeRoi — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:02:21 +0000

Ur from massachusetts; you BANG a U-ey, you don’t PULL a U-ey. ever.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:54:37 +0000

Rich, colorful, savory story-telling – I feel as if I’m there with you, looking over your shoulder.

By: George de Gramont

George de Gramont — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:49:36 +0000

Always!