Salvador Dali Ankle

At first, I thought I'd title this post Accidental Frame so that I could mention the serendipity of the juxtaposition of the pedestrian and the yellow metal framework near the bus door. However, as I looked at the photo in PicMonkey where I uploaded it for resizing, what appeared to be an unnaturally shaped and angled ankle, combined with the wavy curves of the calf, made a different decision for me. I would be remiss to miss out on the chance to compare the waviness I saw--brought about I believed by the perspective of the pedestrian's leg as photographed--with those wavy, melted watches of Salvador Dali.

However, when I clicked on the photo at its largest size, the actual reason became easy to see. A wide streak of sun-glare obliterates the outer half of her foot and washes out the outer half of her blue shoe. So, you can rest easy. This woman's right foot is regular and doing a good job helping her wait patiently for her own bus.

July 4, Waterfront Blues Fest - serendipitous bubbles and shadows

As I watched this young girl blowing bubbles from my shaded bench, I smiled, remembering fun times blowing bubbles with neighborhood girls on sunny summer days back home in Jackson, Mississippi. We were five elementary-school-aged girls whose houses made the corners of a right triangle, mine at the 90-degree corner. Certainly none of us wore lipstick while blowing bubbles, nor did we paint our fingernails periwinkle. She's very pretty, a young girl of the 21st century, complete with a brown scarf decorated with silver charms, tied around her hips. I imagine the vibrant colors decorating her left arm are the product of a lady I noticed sitting at her face-painting station over the four days of the festival. I wonder if the paint itched in the bright sun. Or if she ended up with a design in her tan.

Do you see the two circles to the right, one on her shoulder, one on her forearm? They are bubble shadows. Honest. No where in the other photos that I took of her do those circles appear. And you can see, if you look closely, a bubble there beside her right cheek which has made the shadow on her shoulder. I've looked and looked and cannot locate the other bubble. I wonder if it burst just as I snapped the photo?
 



No bubble shadows in the very next photo. I am thrilled with the serendipitous capture of those two shadows in the first photo in today's post. And I have to ask if anyone thinks that her fingernails are in the French manicure manner, complete with the periwinkle-colored polish? And do you love how her sunglasses are color-coordinated with her T-shirt and the umbrella?

Your perfect commute?

Click here for a trip to City Daily Photo, transporting you around the world every day.



Since I saw this good lookin' vintage pickup truck on my March 9, 2013, after-work commute, I have decided that there is someone out there who gets lucky twice a day, Monday through Friday. What I mean is that if you can't luck out and live on a bus line or a MAX line (and be able to afford the daily cost of a ticket) and therefore have the opportunity to use mass transit for your workday commute, I believe this would be the way to go. Feast your eyes on my serendipitous capture of a 1950s Chevrolet step-side on it's way south on NE 20th Avenue. Did you notice it's vivid blue matches the recycling bin on the sidewalk? That the red letters on its hubcaps that spell out Chevrolet match the red hand in the Don't Walk traffic signal? I don't have to ask if you realize just how happy I was to have my camera around my neck as I walked the block and half from my bus stop to my apartment door.

Please tell me the year of this truck. Thanks!

Framed for Christmas, No. 7

Merry Christmas greetings from December 22, 2007. Here you have Purq (the purple and turquoise papier-mâché cat), Cow-Dog (the brown papier-mâché dog whose creator could never remember if he was making a cow or a dog), and Flat Stanley. Or was he Flat Chris? I cannot remember, and it's too late at night to be looking at my blog from back then to find out for sure.

What it boils down to is that the two lovely papier-mâché critters were created by patients at the Mississippi State Hospital and were sold at a stupendous yearly silent auction known as Serendipity. Rest assured, I hovered until I had the winning bid for these two and lots more art that I hold dear.

The little guy wearing the green and black polka dot tie with his dress shirt and slacks came to me from a teacher friend of mine back in Mississippi who had her second grade class--I think it was second grade--mail drawings of themselves to friends/relatives who lived in another place so that they could vicariously experience elsewhere through photos and text that said friends/relatives would create and mail back to the students. One little guy said, "I ain't got nobody to send my Flat Stanley." So, she asked me to help out. Naturally, I jumped at the chance, totally thrilled. Mama and I had lots of fun "taking" him all over Portland and the metropolitan area. Oh, the reindeer antlers are mine. I sewed and/or glued all of those colorful items--including the medallion with my Christmas wish for you on it--to the antlers in order to spiff them up a bit. The night I took this photo, I was bound and determined to get a photo where I looked like Cow-Dog was wearing the antlers. I love it when a plan comes together.

More serendipity. Really. I have a phenomenally lucky gift for serendipitous moments, of which I am not one-bit aware as they occur because I am not looking for them. The fact that eventually I become aware is in itself serendipitous.

Not long after I took loads of photos of Jujuba during Music on Main, my older son Lamont was at my apartment. I took the opportunity to show him the images in iPhoto, the ones I liked best of the band and of this man thoroughly enjoying dancing to the fine and funky beat. Well, imagine my shock when Lamont sort of guffawed and exclaimed, "That's my neighbor!" Shocked, I pointed at the man in the cap and asked, "This man?" Turn out this man whose exuberant fun fascinated me into taking photo after photo, lives in my two sons' neighborhood.

Merriam-Webster online defines serendipity as the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for. And this definition for English-language learners: luck that takes the form of finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for. M-W goes on to include this definition for kids: the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not looked for.

Simply serendipitous, the connection between this van and one of my favorite A. E. Doyle sites/sights in downtown Portland, the Bank of California building! Plus a new friend!

Before our adventure became interrupted, when Lamont, Leland and I were heading in the opposite direction of hundreds of participants in the Hood to Coast Relay and their support vehicles, naturally I had to take photos from the windows of the Volvo station wagon. As I decided which other photos to share with you, I looked closely at this one, to see what it said on the side of the van. Lo and behold! 3 Kings Environmental Inc. and a Washington state telephone number. I couldn't believe my eyes!

Continue reading and looking to find out why. I've copied and pasted my post from March 3, 2010, about the other end of this serendipitous connection.

On the corner of SW 6th and SW Stark, stands another of my favorite downtown Portland buildings. I'm partial to Portland's prolific architect of yesteryear, A. E. Doyle.



Huge windows. Tiny pedestrians, in relation to the huge windows. Notice the public art? It's part of the Transit Mall's collection.




Notice the Benson bubbler, to the right between the public art and the tree?



The Z on the sign on the pole marks the transit stop near that corner.



You'll see this same intricate light fixture on a different Doyle building.

From Wikipedia, but I need to add that the sign on the building is not for The Bidwell & Company. It says Three Kings. I couldn't find anything about Three Kings, Portland, at that address. Anyone know anything?

The Bank of California Building or also The Bidwell & Company Building, is a historic two-story building in downtown Portland, Oregon. Since 1978, it has been on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is currently vacant.

This location was the site of the first Portland Central Library, which moved to its present site in the early 1920s. The Bank of California saw the lot as fit to build a Portland branch and hired local notable architect A.E. Doyle to design it. Doyle's chief designer Charles K. Green had traveled abroad to study Greco-roman architectural forms in the 1910s. The result of his research resulted in three Italianate buildings, of which the Bank of California Building was the first. The others were the Chicago/Italianate Pacific Building and the Public Service Building, an early skyscraper. The exterior lights on the Public Services Building are of the same design of those on the Bank of California Building.

The Bank of California remained at this site for 50 years until moving a couple of blocks west to the Union Bank of California Tower. The building underwent an intensive renovation in 2000.



Here you can see Three Kings on the plaque on the wall, above the ornate entrance doors. I took this photo on August 23, 2012, when a new friend had come home to Portland, to visit his mother and to get a look at this building. You see, his dad once worked inside for a maritime insurance company, Durham and Bates. My new friend had discovered the March 2010 post when he was on the Internet, wondering about what had happened with the building for which he had fond memories of going to with his father, seeing the many models of ships on display; he wondered what had happened to them, too.

That's how we met, through our mutual appreciation for its outstanding design. He knew that 3 Kings was an environmental company, something I didn't know. I found out from a very helpful someone at Durham and Bates that many of the ship models now are on display at their current location, not too many blocks from this building. One more lo and behold. Their new location is another A. E. Doyle building! More about that and the ship models in a post, soon, I promise.

Serendipity, of the cosmic sort

A few minutes ago I'm looking on my iMac at Tiny House Blog - Living Simply in Small Spaces. I decide to like it on Facebook. Then I see my ID photo from Facebook appear on the top left as part of ten thumbnails of others who have liked the Tiny House Blog on Facebook. I scan the names, and my mind is blown.

In what I consider to be nothing short cosmic, I read the name beneath the photo at the opposite end of that row--Lannette. You see, my first name is Olga and my middle name is Lynette. Out of 35,664 people who like Tiny House Blog, to have both of my given names on the ends of the top row of thumbnails hollers serendipity of the cosmic sort!

Finally, my Wifi is back in business--been off since Tuesday after work. And I've uploaded all of my recent photos to Flickr. Back to blogging!

More serendipity on my way to the PDX Bridge Festival's Block Party for the Steel Bridge's 100th birthday! I'm walking more blocks than I figured I'd be walking, due to some strange directions from TriMet's Trip Planner.

So, you can imagine the utter joy I felt when this yellow VW pulled to the curb as I crossed at an intersection and the driver got out. "Lynette!" she said, "What are you doing over here? Going on a neighborhood walk all by yourself?" Grinning the whole time. "Susan?" I replied. "I can't believe you're here, we're here at the same time! What are you doing here?"

Turns out Susan was somewhat lost looking for an event she planned to attend. We'd met each other at the Architectural Heritage Center's lectures and walking tours. When she learned that I was out and about, headed for the bridge birthday party, she just laughed and offered me a ride the rest of the way. Wonderful! Blissful! Serendipity! I put the address in my Google Maps' app on my iPhone, and in mere moments, Susan delivered me to the party's location.

Before I climbed out, I asked if I could take her photo for the blog. She agreed, so I snapped it and the rest of these as she pulled away, waving and smiling! Hooray for Susan!

Serendipitous find from Saturday, The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium

On my way the the PDX Bridge Festival Block Party, a celebration of the 100th birthday of the Steel Bridge, I walked up to this sight at 2234 NW Thurman Street. I admit I jaywalked, after looking both ways, so that I could get this photo and the next two.

I wouldn't have been here if my trip planning through TriMet's Web site had turned out differently. The second of three buses left early. I saw the 15 leaving as I got off the 20 to supposedly wait for it. It left maybe five minutes before it was even supposed to be there. I knew that the next 15 takes a somewhat different route but, when I got on and asked, the driver told me he'd get me as close as he could. So, when I got off, I put the destination address into my Google Maps on the iPhone and started walking. It was hot enough that doofus me, wearing a black Los Lonely Boys t-shirt soon felt a drop of sweat sliding down my back from bra to pants' waistband.
 

Found on the Web site, peculiarium dot com: Famed and yet unknown Portland adventurer Conrad Talmadge Elwood had a dream, but forgot it when he woke up. Still he spent a life time traveling the globe in search of the inexplicable and the freaky. Established in 1967, The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium is a one-of-a-kind store and snack bar devoted to Elwood’s blurry vision. Under strict instructions, Filmmaker Mike Wellins, Lisa Freeman and Eric Bute have built the Peculiarium to house previously unknown elements of the darker side of Pacific Northwest history. Visitors can discover interactive displays for all six senses, including retro candies, toys, novelties, gags, books, original artwork, tricks one-of-a-kind oddities, ephemera and more. All while having a light snack, complete with edible insects and the likes. In Conrad Elwood’s words, the Peculiarium is a store dedicated to learning and terror.



After I took the close-up above, something just inside the door caught my eye. "What the heck is that?" I wondered. I walked in, seeing no humans at first, just this gigantic hairy-fur-covered form. Then, I noticed a young woman at the register and asked, "What's this?" Her answer, "Sasquatch." Duh, Lynette. She proceeded to answer my question about its height, "Ten feet tall. It's a model based on the biggest one ever sighted." OK, I thought, thanking her for the info and promising to return someday when I wasn't about to be late for a party.

Vintage vehicle at Voodoo Doughnut & some colorful serendipity, downtown Portland

Today on the 12 bus, on the way to Killer Burger from downtown, I noticed a crowd outside the original location of Voodoo Doughnut. The reason that I got the chance to notice the crowd and the gorgeous vintage vehicle parked at the sidewalk was that the Burnside Bridge was near the end of a bridge lift, stopping traffic in both directions.

Actually, the crowd is a double line which snakes from out of sight on the right to just left of the original Voodoo sign on the brick wall at which point it snakes back towards the corner and the red-framed door. After I saw the crowd, I saw the wine-colored vintage vehicle. The way the sun hit the back chrome bumper and the back window made me stand up and walk to the front of the bus so that I could take this photo through the windshield, looking at an angle towards SW 3rd from the intersection where the bus waited for traffic to clear once the bridge lift completely ended.

Once I had downloaded the photo, I quickly noticed the girl in the pink sundress, playing the guitar on the sidewalk directly beneath the Voodoo Doughnut sign. Ah, serendipity--all of that wine and pink color right there, together.



One more photo, taken straight on through the bus windshield. Wish I could've taken one a little bit before this one because the bridge lift would've shown up much better.

As it is, if you look there at the top edge of those two box trucks, you should notice a line continuing from beneath the traffic signal on the left all the way across to the right where it runs out of sight in the leaves. That line is the edge of the western section of the Burnside Bridge which is on its way down so that it will once again meet the edge of the eastern section of the bridge and form a complete, solid surface for the bridge. I know bridge lifts interrupt traffic and therefore people's lives and work, but I continue to be fascinated by them and how these gigantic structures operate.

Info from the Voodoo Doughnut Web site, about this location:
1. Voodoo Doughnut 22 SW 3rd Avenue Portland Oregon, U.S.A.
phone 503.241.4704
OPEN 24 hours 7days a week, Cash only, ATMs available
Voodoo Doughnut is located just south of the Burnside bridge on SW 3rd Ave. On the corner at SW 3rd Ave. and SW Ankeny

Neons are in! Street level matching colors, No. 8

Here's the map again. Today's photo, taken on May 19, 2012, shows SW 10th which is the same street that the bright yellow Portland Streetcar rode on in the post from Monday, 05/28/2012. The vehicles are heading northbound on the one-way street.
 

I realize that I really don't need to point out the three, count 'em, three people wearing the matching neon chartreuse green! They're as obvious as the noses on our faces! Abundant serendipity at play here.

Now for the street level matching colors, also abundant. The girl walking away has on shoes which are two shades of gray, as well as a gray skirt, all of which match the pavement, parts of the sidewalk, that pole in the light gray base on the right, plus the wall and overhang on that building down the street. Part of her shoulder bag is a muted chartreuse, the section beneath the flap, the outline of the flower on the flap, and the shoulder strap itself.

The girl walking towards me has on a black coat, black pants and carries a black bag, all of which match the line of poles either beside her or marching out of sight beyond her. Also, check out that man walking towards me, wearing sunglasses. He's got on a black jacket and black pants!

And the girl sitting on the light gray base of the gray pole had getter hope that when she gets up from there that her white pants are not light gray! In the meantime, her pants match the extremely clean-looking white T-shirt on the man walking towards me as well as the random white-painted traffic stripes.

To tell you the truth, this photo provided the inspiration for this series. So, you can blame it on these three strangers!

Neons are in! Street level matching colors, No. 5

Talk about serendipity! Look at this guy's helmet juxtaposed with the back of that stop sign on the corner of SE Stark and SE 6th Avenue! How cool that I snapped when I did and the camera got that split second in time! Wow! I'm excited about this photo.

Oh, before I get totally distracted by my excitement, look off in the distance, south down SE 6th. See those parked vehicles, many of which are red? They match the man's backpack. There's a north-facing red stop sign, too.

OK. I found something else that matches--there's a teensy bit of bright green there at the corner to the right of the bicycle's front wheel. When I clicked on the original size for an up close look, I saw that it appears to be what's left of a bottle brush, crushed and torn up by traffic, no doubt. And it's the same color as his jacket! Whoopee!

I took this photo on November 9, 2011, on my walk to work.

Neons are in! Street level matching colors--well, not on the street this time, but who cares! No. 4

Turns out that waiting for a bus gives me some of my best chances to get interesting photos. Like this one which I took at the corner of West Burnside and SW 2nd Avenue. Well, I was standing at SW 2nd, he was coming south from NW 2nd.

I took this photo on March 24, before the leaves came out, so there is no green matching item off the bicycle, but the green part of the frame matches the green back wheel. Can you find the other bit of matching green? It's the bicycle seat, peeking out. And the pink part of the frame matches the pink front wheel. Then there's the perfection of the handlebar grips! He knows he's a cool dude on one cool bicycle.

At the north end of Tom McCall Waterfront Park

These three caught my attention because they appeared to be taking a break, enjoying the sunshine. Piled around the base of the lamp post, note the backpack, purse, and a jacket which appears to be draped over another backpack. I wonder how far they'd walked when they decided to stop for a while.

Seems to me that the woman is about to walk off to find something to photograph--I see what might be a camera strap in front of her, and she's holding her hands in such a way as to make me think she's got a camera.

The people you can see in the distance along the gray railing are on the lower level of the Steel Bridge, on the section set aside for pedestrians and bicyclists. Railroad tracks fill the center of the lower level, and there's another pedestrian/bicyclists path on the north side of the bridge. To tell you the truth, folks on skates and/or skateboards more than likely cross the Willamette River on this part of the Steel Bridge, too. You can easily see the brown waters of the river--we'd had plenty of rain lately. That's why the sunshine provided such an allure to those with the wherewithal to get out and about.

I found it interesting that the only one sitting is the youngest, perhaps because he's still agile and able to easily get up from sitting on what is essentially a curb.

The fullness of the blossoms on this tree makes for a lovely sight, don't you think?

Come back tomorrow for a bit of serendipity--something unique about the gray-haired man! Taking a close look at his right ear provides a hint, a preview, a clue.

666 pounds of doughnuts and Voodoo Doughnuts' boxes used to be in here!

On August 18, 2011, I stood on the sidewalk with Milton and Kay, totally surprised to see through the plate glass window of a building a couple of blocks from my building the giant pink box which had held a a world-record heavy helping of Voodoo Doughnuts earlier that month. I leaned toward the window and said, "I cannot believe this! Look at this, y'all!" Needless to say, they stopped to look with me and I explained what I had heard on the news about the attempt by Voodoo Doughnuts to break the record for the largest box of doughnuts in the world. And here we stood, looking at it 10 days later! How cool is this serendipity? Way cool.

Here's a write-up I found at Bites on Today: "World's largest box of doughnuts weighs in at 666 pounds" By Keith Wagstaff 

How much does the world’s largest box of doughnuts weigh? About 666 pounds -- a sign that eating 3,880 doughnuts might put your arteries through hell. 

The giant pink box of doughnuts -- a stunt from Voodoo Doughnut's owners Kenneth "Cat Daddy" Pogson and Tres Shannon -- was unveiled on Portland, Ore.'s Hawthorne Bridge during an event called Brunch on the Bridge. 

To help Voodoo achieve its goal of making it into the Guinness Book of World Records, Portland’s mayor Sam Adams, a notary and a scale master were on hand to verify that Pogson and Shannon had indeed constructed the world’s largest box of doughnuts. 

“I think we must have set another record when we handed out 666 pounds of doughnuts in just 45 minutes,” said Shannon. “It was a good way to give back to the city of Portland, which has been pretty good to us over the years.” 

The sweet crate, a giant version of the doughnut shop’s regular pink box, contained 380 smaller boxes filled with glazed doughnuts, all arranged nicely into a pyramid. The pair piled on an assortment of their signature treats, from apple fritters to their Fruit Loop-crusted Loop doughnut, until they reached the magic number to break the current recordholder's total of 297 pounds. But why aim for 666 pounds? 

“The current record is a little less than 333 pounds, so we just decided to double it to 666 pounds, which kind of goes along with our voodoo theme,” said Shannon. “It’s the mark of the ‘yeast’.” 

Voodoo is waiting for official certification from Guinness World Records. After the tally, more than 1,400 people in attendance got to share the doughnuts.

And here's a link to an article at KATU TV Channel 2 about Brunch on the Bridge and the Voodoo Doughnuts participation in the event. If you look here, you can see the inside of the box with the pyramid of doughnuts and lots and lots of regular-sized pink Voodoo Doughnuts boxes!

P. S. I've figured out how to get blank lines where I want them! Now, if I can just get this to work as my post. You see, I work on my post, editing and getting it exactly like I want it, in my practice blog. Then I copy and paste it onto my blog. Here goes! Copy. Paste. I'm crossing my fingers! Well, I'm getting one line in one place and two lines in other places, but this is a great development, a stunning start towards figuring this out! Hooray! Thanks, Karen, for those words you put into a comment on April 4--they're the reason I'm on the way to figuring out what to do! Thanks!

My March Madness continued with the arrival of the first two pep bands of the day, plus a split second of serendipity, caught by the Nikon D50!

Not long after I sat down in my splendidly located seat at the Rose Garden Arena to await the first of four Second Round NCAA March Madness basketball games, the Davidson Pep Band began to play from the their seats at the opposite end of the court. Curious to see what sort of photo I could get at that distance, I took one. Imagine my surprise when I looked at it after I had downloaded it to iPhoto and saw that basketball, frozen as if it were indeed a hat being worn by the woman standing in the aisle. Makes her look 10 feet tall! I love, absolutely love, this sort of serendipity!


To the right of the home team's bench, the Louisville Pep Band filed in and made their way into the section set aside for them. Soon they set up to play. I suppose those young women in the black with the red metallic pompoms are cheerleaders--I can't remember for sure.

How's this to ponder upon? During the first half of the game, the Louisville Pep Band played Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline." Sounded pretty good to me, though I never, ever would have thought of that song as a pep song for a basketball game. Yet, I guess others have, because in the second half of the game, the Davidson Pep Band played it, too. Then, during the first half of the next game, between the New Mexico Lobos and the Long Beach State 49ers, the Long Beach State band played "Sweet Caroline" in the first half. I couldn't believe it!

And there was more to come. In the second session while the Indiana Hoosiers played the New Mexico State Aggies, the Indiana Pep Band played "Sweet Caroline" in the second half of that game.

Finally, on Saturday during the Third Round games, the Indiana Pep Band played it during the second half of their game with the Virginia Commonwealth Rams, and Louisville also played it in the second half of their game against New Mexico.

Makes me wonder if any of the Carolina teams' pep bands play "Sweet Caroline"?

I love pep bands!

The story of two photos, pure amazement and serendipity for me!

Monday night, December 26, the Trail Blazers played Philadelphia in our season opener. Fans and those whose employment depend upon the games taking place, as well as the players and coaches, feel pretty good about basketball being back in Portland.

Lots of Trail Blazer fans count #12, LaMarcus Aldridge, as their favorite player.

One of the photos in this short, short story is this one that I took from clean across the entire arena of LaMarcus Aldridge as he scored. Totally excited to get it!

When I decided to post the photo, I searched on Google for trail blazers philadelphia december 26, 2011. And I come across photos from the game taken by the Oregonian, Portland's daily newspaper. Lo and behold, the very first photo I saw is of the same instant of action, taken by the photographer (Bruce Ely) sitting on the floor at the baseline--you can barely see him on the right edge of my photo because I cropped close to LaMarcus and the basket. (More about that at the bottom of the post.)

If you click on the link, you'll see the second photo in this short, short story. And be amazed.

To tell you the truth, I did the search hoping to find the photo and a word or two about who had passed the ball to LaMarcus and if this was one of those lob passes like I'm pretty sure I remember it was. Anyway, the caption beneath Ely's photo was no help, but I was very excited to see the action from his perspective, let me tell you! Please click on the link above or here to see Ely's photo. I would have tried to copy and paste it onto the blog, but I didn't feel that would be the right thing to do. One of these days maybe I'll contact him for permission, if this happens again!


Here I've I cropped the photo differently so you could see Bruce Ely. Look at that other camera and lens standing in front of him!

Ah, serendipity, as it pertains to the Ratty Caddy and the man with the cat

Y'all who often read my blog realize how enamored I am with serendipity. Look and read for examples of why I so enjoy it.


First, here you see two license plates, side-by-side underneath where the Ratty Caddy's hood would be, if it had a hood. Can you believe that the Mississippi plate (the state of my birth) is right beside the Oregon plate (the state I now call home)? Serendipity!

Now for the second dose of serendipity. Several times since I moved to Northeast Portland in late January I've had the best luck after work, sighting a delightfully different car just after I got off the bus to walk on home. Not one time, however, was I able to get out my D50 or click on my iPhone to get a photo. Saturday that all turned around as I walked along the second east/west street filled with representatives of the Multnomah Hot Rod Council at Cars in the Park, in downtown Portland's South Park Blocks. My breath stopped for a second, a grin spread across my face, I walked away from one beautiful 1946 Ford Coupe, and headed straight for that delightfully different car I had seen heading east on NE Sandy Boulevard! I talked to the owner, the man on the right in the photo below, explaining how excited I was to see the car, how I'd hadn't yet been able to get a photo of it. He grinned and replied, "Take all the photos you want!" So I did. It's a 1964 Cadillac Custom Roadster, and he assured me that he has not lengthened it.


Rear end.


Front end.


Rear end and the passenger side of the car. The suicide door is partly open.


Close-up of the driver's side tail light. Notice the reflection of the manhole cover in the chrome. Cool.


The rumble seat.


Close-up of the passenger in the rumble seat.


One of the many humorous signs on the Ratty Caddy.


The back window.


The driver's side of the car, Notice the skirt. Notice the manhole reflected in the chrome around the brake light. Notice the curb feeler. Notice the white walls. Notice the pipes.


Notice the smile on this lady's face. Most folks looking at the Ratty Caddy smiled in much the same way. One old woman who walked by said, "That's too ugly to have on the road." And one old man said, "It's a waste of sheet metal." Thank goodness we live in the USA where we are free to voice our opinions. From Wikipedia: "In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, such as on libel, slander, obscenity, incitement to commit a crime, etc. Restrictions on the freedom to speak is sometimes called censorship." While the owner wasn't standing there at the same time as those two old folks, he and I talked about how much he enjoys every single reaction to the Ratty Caddy and censors no one.


Inside the car. Notice the skull on the shifter--there's a button on the back of the skull which you push to start the car. I'm all for the black and orange all over the place, inside and outside.


Close-up of the skull.


This man closely eyes the front end.


Perhaps he's checking out the car's name, ground into this strip of metal. Notice the sign "Don't worry. I welded it." And the proliferation of pointed protuberances on the grill.


The windshield and part of the engine.


Close-up of the headlights on the driver's side, part of the grill with its pointed protuberances, and half the horns.


The last serendipity. When I walked back a second time to check out the Ratty Caddy again, I couldn't believe my eyes as I looked up and saw this man with the cat on his shoulder walking on the sidewalk.

Click here to see the same man with surely a friend, and their two cats. I don’t know if today’s cat is one of these cats, though. My photo’s not at a good angle to be able to tell. Everyone but the cat and the man on the phone checked out the car.


Finally, the cat looks my way!


Last of all, the owner agreed to take my photo as I sat in the driver's seat. I didn't take off my backpack, so I'm even weirder shaped than usual. Oh, well, at least I fit into the car.


I wouldn't have fit if the seat backs weren't on quite a slant.