Our visit almost ended before it began. We pulled into the once-again empty parking lot in front of the ramshackle compound, and found the front door locked. Heaving a disappointed sigh, we got back into the car...and then a big Ford Diesel Dually lumbered up and parked next to us. That's when we met Charlie Parish, the proprietor of this pickers paradise.
Turned out that Charlie had come by in search of his missing wallet. I asked if the museum was open, and he invited me in for a quick private tour. He showed me the layout of the place and said I was free to poke around while he looked for his wallet. After about twenty minutes he hailed me and said he was off to run some errands, and could we please lock up when we leave?
We had to be moseying along as well, so we walked out with him and we talked for a little while. His museum was (as you can see) a collection of stuff that just caught his eye over the years. He was in to old-school heavy machinery and told me about airlifting a big piece of mining equipment out of a remote valley with a Chinook helicopter. (We had seen pictures of that operation while wandering around, evidence he wasn't telling tales)The "museum" had never really gotten much past concept phase, as Charlie was always off doing something else. What he really needed was a dedicated curator, but it was tough to find a qualified candidate in east Merced. The last guy he tried out turned out to be a "crack head", but Charlie gave him credit for doing some nice mural work.
For an exceedingly brief instant the prospect of "curating" the vast mess appealed to us, but common sense prevailed. We wished Charlie well and hit the road again, headed for Hornitos and beyond.
4 comments:
Amazing. Bizarre, for sure, but amazing, too.
That birthing chair was, I don't know, "chilling?"
How could someone hope to curate that place? Presuming, that is, that "curating" would likely involve a need to somehow organize things pursuant to some system? Right now, the organization seems to be along the lines of "stuff stored inside" and "stuff stored outside."
I quite enjoyed seeing that "one old Nash" parked in the yard.
I am glad you could finally cross this visit off your bucket list, TSG, and thanks much for sharing the sights.
First off--maintaining the 3rd person narrative on that story was damn tough, I finally gave up after going back to edit it about five times.
Second, have you ever seen the show American Pickers? Charlie's place could easily fit in to one of their episodes.
Third, I think my favorite bit of junk in that whole place was the drop tank painted like a killer whale.
Fourth, even though I picked the song specifically for the slideshow, I just now realized how apt the opening lyrics were.
I was not familiar with "American Pickers." I envisioned guys strumming banjos and such, but YouTube straightened me out quickly enough. And, yes, I figure they could film an entire season at Charlie's place. Or perhaps Charlie's place could be a reality show in and of itself?
We just realized that we wanted to say "The Royal We" instead of "3rd Person Narrative". We apologize for his mistake.
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