A re-edit and reworking of vehicle images from this blog, photos captured a decade ago, are presented here – line, shape, and size draw my attention, as does consideration of vehicle ride, feel, weight and driveability. Nostalgia may describe my desire to see and photograph these vehicles. However, these vehicles are from former eras. My interest is also in the post-war world of mom and dad, uncles and aunts, grandparents, and the time preceding me – their time engages my imagination.

The trucks were part of an army of vehicles that played a role in constructing the Mackenzie highway that serves northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. They had been part of the vehicle collection of the Mackenzie Highway Truck Museum at Sangudo, Alberta. The museum vehicles have since been auctioned off long after the photographs were taken, and the museum structure itself has been dismantled and taken away. I am reminded here that my educator-grandfather worked different administrative roles in the highway’s construction during his summer teaching breaks. The early fifties Pontiac (a Chieftain or Pathfinder) continues to sit along the Mackenzie highway on its west side at Grimm’s Service Station in Manning, Alberta.  My Pontiac interest derives from a two-door 1969 Pontiac Parisienne that transported our family through eleven years, the vehicle my parents taught me to drive in. A ‘car-guy’ interest also draws me to find aesthetic commonality or influence between the older and newer Pontiacs.

This text revision occurred on Friday, 18 August 2023. Wildfires in the Northwest Territories threaten communities and have burned through some communities. Yesterday, the city of Yellowknife was added to the list of communities being evacuated, and it is possible that wildfires could reach the city this weekend. The Mackenzie highway, referred to above, is the exodus route for NWT residents relocating to Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Edmonton and Calgary evacuation centers. These residents of the NWT are travelling through High Level today, gassing up, finding food and carrying on. It is indeed a hard thing they do: leave all that home is behind, take those things most precious with you, and not know what’s next.  You are in our thoughts today.  We wish you well.

Listening to – Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars‘ and ‘Berlin,’ Kathleen Edwards’ ‘Take It With You When You Go,’ and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Ghosts.’

Quote to Inspire – “Photography has no rules; it is not a sport. It is the result which counts, no matter how it is achieved (Bill Brandt).”