Junkyard Memories

Some of my favorite childhood memories evolve around junkyards. As a self-proclaimed car nut I always had a love affair with old cars and the junkyards offered me plenty of opportunity to snoop and see any and every type of vehicle ever made. Not only did I visit them frequently after I got my first drivers license but I remember my dad and brothers going to the sites regularly for taillights, trim pieces or just to snoop around. They were always looking for the parts but I was totally absorbed in the emotion of the moment. I remember peering in to a car with a hole in the windshield and ask myself, I wonder if anyone died in this car. Or I would let my mind fantasize about who owned it, how many owners did it experience in its lifetime or what was done in and with this car. Morbid.maybe. Weird .probably. But it was a lot of fun for boy and the curiosity has stayed with me all of these years. My gosh, I was just in a junkyard last week and with the amazing technology of the day I was able to take digital pictures of the classics that I can now review regularly. That may be all I have soon since so many of the yards are being developed into subdivisions and the beloved classics are being crushed to be sold for scrap metal. How sad! One of my favorite memories occurred about 1968 when my dad, my brother and me visited Mudducks Auto Salvage on the east side of St. Louis in search of that hidden treasure. If you know anything about junkyards of that day, most were inhabited by a huge German Shepard that was hopefully attached to the end of a chain. This particular Saturday my dad had taken the opportunity to climb into the front seat of some Pontiac looking for radio knobs or whatever and my brother who was about a car away happened upon an old chain that was laying on the ground near one of the cars. (I laugh everytime I mention chain) He thought to himself that this would be a great opportunity to have a little fun with the ol man. He picked up the chain and gave it a good rattle against the car and growled like a dog. In shock now, my dad did an about face and you never saw a man scramble so fast down the path until he realized it was just a hoax. We had hell to pay that day but what a laugh it was.

 

I'm with you on that. I love junkyards too. I've noticed lately that a lot are just disappearing. I do a lot of travelling here in western Canada, and I've driven by some that I thought I'd stop at when I had more time. The next time I went by, everthing was gone. I'm not seeing old cars sitting in yards or lanes anymore. They are really drying up. I saved one car out of Pick a Part a couple of months ago, but I don't have the time to do anything with it either. In the meantime, it's sitting in storage.
Anyway, I'm taking photos as I can. I also like to take photos of abandoned buildings as well. I guess I'm trying to preserve something of character before everything looks like small strip malls and Big Box stores.

John C

 

I'm still amazed that you can get away with those old scrap yards in N-America.

In the Netherlands a scrap yard needs to have an oil proof floor, the cars have all their fluids removed when they come in, glass will be removed and recycled, same for all the foam and plastic and there are bar codes on every car to make sure there are no unlisted cars (black money) on the scrap yard.

 

Junkyards

One by one they are slowly disappearing !
We have an old one about a 1/2 mile up the road and it will be gone in a year or so. Seems the property is worth more as a sub-division than a junk yard - not to mention all the environmental aspects that go with it.
This past summer we visited an old, large 80 acre yard near Picton, Ontario that closed up last Fall - I posted reams of photos in the Junkyard Jewels section, so the history is recorded digitally.
It's a shame, but that's the way it's going. :TU:

 

Have you ever been by the one in Elfros, SK? I've been by it a couple times lately, but just didn't have the time to stop in. I was told a few years ago that he may have a few Buicks sitting there. It's a small place, maybe 100-150 cars.

 

Back in the early to mid 80's, my local yard used to have a special - $20 for all you could carry out in one trip.

My brother and I would each pay our $20 and carry out a big load together!! :TU:

Wouldn't mind seeing that one again!! :Brow:

 

A few of us do the boneyard thing here in the Minnesota area. The yards are definately going away-get your furure spare parts while you can, because tomorrow may be too late!