In need of help with Memories...

 Thinking…

A client that I work with, tells me that he really likes these older painted image…( 2013) his company is a publishing firm that has a stock of my images that they use for all kinds of things. I usually give them old stuff and 2nd tier image.

These are done on pieces of metal that I sourced for the school, when I was working there. I was hoping to find something for the kids to do. Flat sheets of sharp rusty metal was not approved for 13/14 years olds…understandable…but I got some nice images. I have to photograph them to use, I can’t scan them, so they are not perfectly in focus. I moved on to the next thing…but suddenly there is interest in them.

I had been driving around for months with 2 long pieces of rusty metal from that time that I needed to have cut. I plan on using them as little canvases and will be able to scan…Last week, I finally pulled over on the side of the road where I had been eyeing what I assumed was a metal working place. I have seen a few of these places…I had to pick one that would accept me…a foreigner, out of nowhere. Let me describe the place….very close to road, built on an incline, a series of metal huts with scrap metal hanging about…dirty, disorganized. The garage like door is always open, when they are open and a red glow comes from it.

I was successful in my endeavor. For sure I was over charged…Here, they are going to find a way to gouge anyway they can and I am not one to argue or negotiate. 30 euro….the man was like a deer in the headlights the whole time I was there. He is a man of the people and I love people like that….real people.

It got me to thinking…When I was a kid, we used to drive down a road that featured some kind of metal works. I remember it so well. It was a big place, set back off the road, like a big warehouse. You could see the shadows of men working and the red fire glow. One day my Father took me to see it…I don’t think he knew anyone there but he just walked in with a little girl in tow chatting the workers up. My eyes must have been as big as sunflowers as I took everything in…metal being poured, beams, cranes, silhouettes of working men with hard hats on…I have the impression it was dark outside which made the whole thing more dramatic….

This is why I love this type of experience to this day.

I need help from Frankie…if you are driving towards Troy, from Latham, you have to go down a big hill…through East Greenbush ( Is there a regular Greenbush?) Do you go down the road (Johnson) past Kim Bonneaus house, past the old old farm house on the left, take a right past Carl Nazarian's house? Then downhill ( Is there a big cemetery there on the hill side…The hill overlooks the Mohawk River and you can see all the other side of the river…a big urban sprawl…low, not built up on multiple floors at that time. 

Coming down from EGBush, the road takes a big turn to the right and the big metal works is right there on the right, back off the street….am I correct. Near there there were red trees, not so high, domesticated trees maybe in a parking lots, but all the same height…kind of like crab apple trees...

Also, down further ( 4-5 miles) driving parallel to the river... is The Purple Pub ( on the right…) great pizza.... train tracks, overpasses, , a place where my parents bought some kind of used appliance ( appalling!) everything outside …going to Montgomery and Wards on the right…6 stories or so ( did we get out school uniforms there?) and the RCA white doggie on the top of the RCA building, with a gramophone…( on the left) .That road being very wide and busy…junky , urban and comes up to Menands.

Where have I gone wrong? I need answers!

It’s interesting how something can spark a memory so easily…something AI will never be able to do.