The Pequon

Today, we celebrate FLASHBACK FRIDAY with a 35mm photo taken in 2002!

The Pequon--a white 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis station wagon with fake wood paneling--was my first car. It was named after Captain Ahab's "Pequod" 'cos it handled like a boat, looked like a boat, was roughly boat-sized, and probably floated. Besides which, my parents had always called it "the white whale" or "the Moby Mercury," so continuing the Moby Dick theme seemed appropriate.

(It's also the car I took to my senior prom.)

This was taken for my first photography class, and I think it was my first experience in taking candid photos of people... and trying to mollify them after they heard the shutter go SNAP and gave me dirty looks.

white castle

[1/11/2007]



[4/2/2007]



[2/9/2008]

This is our friendly neighborhood White Castle--yes, just like the movie Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. Some people think of White Castle as a Jersey thing, but it got its start in Wichita, Kansas, and there are restaurants in 11 states (and the rest of the country, except for 10 states, sells White Castle products out of the freezers of various retail stores).

This particular location apparently needed an update. As you can see from the photos, over the course of 6 months or so (I didn't get stopped at that light during the daytime for several months after the renovations were finished), they changed the crenellation pattern, replaced the real tower with a fake one (...I don't understand that), made the whole building smaller (it seems), and completely changed the placement of the windows.

Plus new awnings.

Oh MAN, everyone will be coming in for White Castle Sliders now that the awnings are striped and the tower is only a façade.

sunset 7

I keep looking at my archive, and--aside from the big ugly "THIS PHOTO IS UNAVAILABLE" icons from Zooomr that should be gone by the end of the week--the total lack of color bugs me. So here is some color!

(I'm sorry for so many sky photos, but seriously, almost NOTHING has any color this time of year)

tagalong

Behind Monmouth Mall, near Lord & Taylor.

overhead

This is the glass-and-steel awning of the backdoor entrance to Monmouth Mall's Boscov's. The awning used to belong to Sterns, and before that to A&S.

It was A&S from the 1970's (when Monmouth Mall was first officially built--apparently, the original Bamberger's [Macy's] has been sitting there since 1956) until... I'm going to guess the late '80's, because I vaguely remember the changeover. Sterns, the parent company, moved into Abraham&Straus's old abode until the mid-to-late-'90's, when Sterns went out of business. At that point, Boscov's moved in.

office daydream

Look at that, right outside the window!
Wish I weren't trapped in this cubicle

i'm not talking to you

Ugh. What a crummy day. At least it stopped raining.

(This was taken while waiting at a stop light.)

(So was this, about 10 minutes later.)