Memorial Day Pickup Truck

Ever since the disappearance of the Cool Old Pickup Truck^® of yore, East Villagers have longed for a replacement.

The wait is finally over!

Introducing: Cool Old Pickup Truck 2.0^®, seen here outside the beloved Casa Adela, on Avenue C — complete with American flag for Memorial Day!

Cool Old Pickup Truck 2.0^®

It looks like there was a bit of a mishap here:

Mishap.

Nothing a little bondo can't fix!

#eastvillage #avenuec #casaadela #coololdpickuptruck2.0

The Return of the Cool Old Pickup Truck

Just recently — oh, say, nine days ago or so — I mentioned the cool old pickup truck.

Well, you know what they say: Speak of the devil and he appears!

I was riding my Citibike across East 9th Street this past Fourth of July, when there it was, parked in front of the beloved Brix NYC:

Cool old pickup truck.

It's been over a year since anyone has seen it — I wonder if the owner goes down to Key West during the Winter?

You can never take just one picture of the cool old pickup truck, so I took a picture of what was in its bed:

A hockey stick.

A hockey stick!

Nice to see you again, cool old pickup truck — don't be such a stranger!

#eastvillage #9thstreet #brixnyc #coololdpickuptruck #pickuptrucks #hockeysticks

Distressed Cool Old Pickup Truck

It's been quite a while since I saw the beloved cool old pickup truck, and where did I find it? On St. Mark's Place, in front of Big Steve's Fun City, cappuccino and tattoo emporium, where it sat almost all Winter! (It's pretty remarkable that the owner was able to get this parking spot again!)

Cool old pickup truck outside Big Steve's Fun City.

It's starting to look the worse for wear, too — it looks like the owner is having a hard time fitting the nozzle into the gas tank:

Fuel stripping the paint.

Just like the buildings and the people, everything corrodes… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #bigstevesfuncity #cool #cars #pickuptrucks #stmarksplace

The Prodigal Cool Old Pickup Truck

The cool old pickup truck has been found, on East 12th Street!

The last time it was seen was March 2, after spending a month unmoved from its parking spot on St. Mark's Place! Speculation ran high after that, that its owner had packed up and moved out of the East Village. But here it is again:

Cool old pickup truck on East 12th Street.

The strange thing is that I found myself on 12th Street quite by accident; I even thought to myself "What am I doing here? There's nothing down here." And then, voila!

As you might expect, it has a couple of stylish, new accoutrements, like this rooster crest hanging from the rearview mirror:

Rooster crest and beads.

Also, the last time it was seen, it was sporting a red seat cover. That's gone now, and contrasting seat belts have been added:

Contrasting seat belts.

East Villagers are delighted at the return of the cool old pickup truck, if in fact it was ever really gone. If slaughtering a fatted calf were legal, it would be done. Instead, I'm just going to have a cheeseburger tomorrow for lunch!

#eastvillage #12thstreet #cool #cars #pickuptrucks

Cool Old Pickup Truck Gone From St. Mark's Place

The cool old pickup truck has been moved!

I was walking down St. Mark's Place yesterday evening after work, and I saw this:

Cool old pickup truck gone from St. Mark's Place.

The cool old pickup truck has been here since at least January 24. That's almost two months in the same spot with no tickets!

I walked over to see if it was on East 9th Street, but it wasn't there either.

Maybe its owner has moved on to greener pastures. I mean, now that the East 9th Street West Virginia building no longer looks like it's from West Virginia, the owner has pulled up his roots and moved on.

Towns that disappeared completely
Pull up the roots, pull up the roots
Miles and miles of endless highway
Pull up the roots, pull up the roots

Stay tuned!

#easgtvillage #9thstreet #cool #cars #pickup #trucks #stmarksplace #westvirginia

Cool Old Pickup Truck Has New Seat Cover

East Villagers will be happy to know that the cool old pickup truck, that hasn't moved from its spot on St. Mark's Place since before the snowpocalypse, has not been abandoned! This past weekend, I saw that it now has a fetching, new seat cover:

Fetching, new seat cover.

It matches the color of the truck! (Pretty closely.)

I've seen a lot of East Villagers having their pictures taken beside this truck. Who wouldn't want their picture beside it? It's a classic!

#eastvillage #cool #cars #pickuptrucks #stmarksplace

Poised to Make History

It occurred to me last night, while I was walking down St. Mark's Place in the cold: I think I know why the cool old pickup truck is still parked here.

Cool old pickup truck still parked on St. Mark's Place.

Recent newspaper articles have told of the upcoming 40th anniversary of the release of the album Physical Graffiti, by a band called Led Zeppelin. The album cover was a photograph of the building beside Big Steve's Fun City. I wrote about it here.

I think the owner of the cool old pickup truck is looking to get his truck into the photos that will be taken in the near future! Maybe he'll even get to meet Jimmy Page!

That's what I would do if I had a cool old pickup truck… in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #cool #pickuptrucks #stmarksplace #ledzeppelin #physicalgraffiti

It Must Be a Record

I know… I can't believe it either: the cool old pickup truck, that's been parked on St. Mark's Place for three weeks now, is still there. This must be some kind of record! Still, I feel like I'm at the point where I might as well be reporting that it's still red!

But… the snow has been cleared away, and it moved!

Cool old pickup truck moved forward.

Something you won't know, because even though I took the picture, I didn't post it, is that the mound of snow that was piled up behind the truck is now gone:

Mound of snow behind truck, Feb. 7.

Mound of snow gone, Feb. 14.

And, as I mentioned, it's been moved — only back and forth, but that's something!

Tire tracks in the snow, indicating movement.

I really thought alternate-side parking regulations would have back in effect by now, and this truck would have moved, but it's not the only vehicle that hasn't moved, as we'll soon see!

#eastvillage #cool #cars #pickup #trucks #stmarksplace #snow

Cool Old Pickup Truck Set to Move

It looks like we're not going to get any significant accumulation of snow today or tonight, so tomorrow the owner of the cool old pickup truck is going to have to move it to a Monday/Thursday spot. It's my guess he'll move it back over to East 9th Street at that time.

Cool old pickup truck on February 7.

As with anything that stays for too long in one place, this pickup started to accumulate trash:

Inverted mint julep glass?

It looks like a mint julep glass, but who drinks those in the Winter?!

Well, it's been fun keeping track of the cool old pickup truck over on St. Mark's Place, but all good things must come to an end… even in the East Village Today!

#eastvillage #cool #cars #pickup #trucks #stmarksplace

Cool Old Pickup Truck Ready to Sprout Roots?

Sources tell me that alternate-side parking has been cancelled in the east Village for Tuesday, February 3. Right away, East Villagers are wondering: when will the cool, old pickup truck move back to East 9th Street?

As you know, it is currently parked on St. Mark's Place, outside Fun City:

Parked on St. Mark's Place.

If you take a look at that parking sign, you'll see that there's no parking there from 9:00–10:30am on Tuesdays and Fridays:

A Tuesday spot.

That means it would have to be moved by 9:00am tomorrow, under normal circumstances — with alternate-side parking cancelled, it won't have to move now until Friday!

I hope it doesn't sprout roots!

#eastvillage #9thstreet #stmarksplace #pickuptruck #cool #cars #alternatesideparking

Cool Old Pickup Truck Covered in Snow

Everybody's favorite cool, old, pickup truck was covered in snow during the recent blizzard that wasn't, as you can see from this picture:

Cool old pickup truck covered in snow.

You might notice that not only is it covered in snow, but it's not parked on East 9th Street, where it usually is. The owner must not have been able to move it on time last week, and had to park over here, after driving around for who knows how long?!

I took a picture of it this past Saturday also, in the same place:

Cool old pickup truck covered in "wintry mix".

With alternate-side parking rules suspended, I guess this truck will be here until next Tuesday, when it will have to move again, and probably wind up back on East 9th Street, where it belongs!

#eastvillage #blizzard #cool #cars #pickup #trucks #stmarksplace

A Couple of Follow-Ups

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll be familiar with ongoing coverage of events like the Number 2 on the sidewalk outside the very groovy Earth School, or the Cool Old Pickup Truck.

Rather than update these two stories separately, I decided to update them together!

NUMBER 2 ON THE SIDEWALK

I told a commenter that I would investigate the area around the very groovy Earth School to see if there was also a Number 1 painted on the sidewalk somewhere. There isn't. What there is, however, is a Number 2 painted on the side of the school building:

Number 2… Number 2…

Whoa!

COOL OLD PICKUP TRUCK

I don't know if this qualifies as an update, but today, when I walked across East 9th Street, I saw this:

Orange cone in bed of truck.

The cool old pickup truck has an orange cone in the back! What next?!

You never know what to expect… in the East Village!

#eastvillage #6thstreet #cool #cars earthschool #pickup #trucks

Cool Old Pickup Truck Renovations

I was walking across East 9th Street the other day, when I noticed a remarkable change to the cool old pickup truck that resides there:

Spare tire mounted in bed.

The spare tire is now mounted in the bed of the truck!

Here's a close-up:

Close-up of spare tire.

Back in November, the spare tire was in the cab:

Spare tire in cab.

I told an East Village Today commenter that I would post pictures of the front and back of the cool, old 9th Street pickup truck when I could get decent shots. I had a couple of pictures, but they weren't straight-on enough, so I didn't post them. This is one of them:

Back view of cool, old pickup truck.

You'll notice that the lettering is red. In the new pictures, it's white:

Lettering is now white.

You can see it's smudged too, as if someone rubbed their hand on it. You can also see a handprint on the side of the bed. Here is a close-up:

Close-up of handprint.

Since I posted the back view, I might as well post the front view also:

Front view of cool, old pickup truck.

It's not the straight-on shot I wanted, but it's hard to get those with other cars parking in front and in back of this truck.

Renovations to the West Virginia building and pickup truck, all at the same time — things are looking up… in the East-9th-Street-West-Virginia East Village!

#eastvillage #9thstreet #westvirginia #renovations #cool #cars #pickuptruck

Cool Old Pickup Truck

There's a cool old pickup truck I see every now and again in the East Village, and it looks like this:

Cool old pickup truck.

It's red, it's got big whitewall tires, it's a Ford…

Today I saw it while walking across East 9th Street. The last time I saw it was last Sunday, also on East 9 Street:

Alternate side of the street.

I wonder if the owner takes vegetables to the market in this truck, or hauls hay to the cattle during Winter?

I suspect the owner of this truck lives in the building with the rickey old gate, which I'm going to write about again tonight!

Maybe this is where the name "Village" comes from?!

#eastvillage #9thstreet #pickuptruck #ford