August 15, 2013
Now that the World on Wheels is finished, I’m digging out from under a mountain of CAA membership renewals that have come in lately. That project kept me busy enough yesterday afternoon that I forgot to post anything here.
For today, here’s a view, c. 1907, of Burlington, Vermont — Church Street, looking north from College Street. There are a lot of electrical lines, a bare-bulb street light over the intersection, a streetcar, and several wagons and horse-drawn delivery vehicles.
August 13, 2013
If you’ve by any chance seen one of the previous three issues of the CAA’s (formerly annual, now biennial) World on Wheels journal, you’ll remember that it’s small (6 x 9 inches) and completely black and white.
Well, I’ve just finished this year’s — completely re-envisioned — issue. This issue consists, as usual, of articles taken from the lectures at the most recent CAA / CWF International Carriage Symposium. It’s larger than previous issues (8.5 x 11, 104 pages, perfect-bound) and filled with glorious color images from the symposium lectures. The articles in this issue cover a variety of topics: commercial vehicles, Austrian imperial vehicles, the evolution of European driving horses, an in-depth study of gender notions in the sale and use of carriages, and sumptuous hammercloths and interiors.
As a color teaser, here’s the wrap-around cover (back on the left, front on the right) for this issue …
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August 9, 2013
I’m getting ready to make a few changes around here … but rather than springing them on you with no warning, I wanted to let you know what’s coming.
First, because carriageassociation.wordpress.com is such a long web address, we’ll be changing the blog’s URL to what we hope will be an easier-to-remember address … one that actually matches the name the blog has had for a while now. Soon, you’ll be able to find “The Slower Road” at theslowerroad.com. This should allow people to find the blog online more easily. I do hope this change won’t affect any of our blog subscribers (I’m hoping, in other words, that WordPress will handle the switch for you and you won’t need to re-subscribe … but we’ll see). And all you lovely, loyal, daily blog readers who haven’t subscribed: When I say “go,” please bookmark the blog at its new address.
Second, I’m happy to announce that I’ve started a brand-spanking-new photography business on the side … and I’ll be launching its new website very soon as well. In conjunction with that new website, I’ll be starting my own personal blog. I probably won’t post to that one as often as I do here, but it may have more of the “off-topic” posts I sometimes include here. Which also means that I’m going to try to keep this blog more on-topic. Unless, of course, y’all start clamoring for Univ. of Kentucky basketball news!
As part of these blog changes, I’m going to move my personal Twitter feed (at right) over to the new blog. And I’m going to move the CAA’s “official” Twitter feed (which is also me, but more focused on the CAA, carriages, and driving) to this blog.
And, finally, if you don’t mind, I’m going to stop trying to post something here every. single. day. Instead, I’ll be sticking with every weekday but taking the weekends off, except for those weekends during CAA events, trips, etc. where I’m working.
I’m planning to launch these various new websites and make the various other changes and switcheroos next week. Stay tuned!
August 8, 2013
Sorry about my recent blog-posting silence. I’ve been so engrossed in finishing this year’s issue of the CAA’s World on Wheels journal that I keep forgetting to post anything here!
For today’s foray into the “my, that’s an unusual carriage” file, how about this nineteenth-century charvolant?
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August 5, 2013
The morning after we last checked in with him, Mr. Johnson was on his way again.
“Bovine station I left early on the morning of the 17th, for Terrace. It was a dark, cloudy morning, looking as though it would rain at any moment, and should it rain there was no place for shelter. I said to myself, the next station in eleven miles; I must make it, rain or no rain. At half-past five I moved on, and at half-past six I heard thunder; it was dark, too dark for that time in the morning, so I crowded along as fast as possible; remember, it is all walk. Again I heard thunder and kept talking to my horse, saying, ‘Go on, Fanny.’ I was sure we were going to have something terrible; it was something new to have rain, I had seen nothing like it. To my right I could see a long distance, many miles; so flat was the surface. After having made about five miles, I saw to my right a very dark cloud, a black cloud. Thunder and lightning were more frequent and such streaks of lightning and thunder I never before witnessed. I stopped and made things on my wagon as fast as I could, put on my rubber coat, and went as fast as I could. Every streak of lightning went to the ground, the thunder was terrible. It seemed to me as if it had got out of patience with the lightning and was bound to smash things generally. The rain came but it was of short duration; then followed hail, as large as hen’s eggs and it fell with great force, striking on the head of the horse. I stepped back to the wagon, pulled out a sack and threw it over the horse’s head. Here I stopped for the storm to pass over. The cloud passed on and left behind it hailstones to the depth of four or six inches. This made it fine traveling on alkalic soil. I had about six miles to go, so we went on. It took me three hours to travel that distance, less than two miles to the hour. On my arrival in Terrace, I was informed that it was the severest storm ever known there.”
The Slower Road 