On Friday and Saturday, my husband and I drove to Ipswich, MA, in his 1972 Volvo 1800ES, to attend a Volvo Meet.
The last time we attended a similar car show was in October 2007 where I took a lot of pictures of the beautiful colors of the cars.
Besides the Volvos, I was interested in going up to Ipswich because I grew up there, and haven't spent much time there at all since 1974, when I graduated from high school.
The last house I lived in in Ipswich was a 13 room victorian house, that is now a B & B called The Ipswich Inn. I wrote to the owners ahead of time to ask if I could visit, and on Saturday morning, I was given a nice tour of the house. My family moved out of the house around 1980+/-, and I think there have been two or three owners since then.
I always fantasized about how I'd redo the house if I had the opportunity, and I enjoyed seeing the changes that have been made to it. The only two spaces that are unchanged structurally since I lived there are the front stairs and my old bedroom which is now called the "Twin Bed Room." (In high school, I painted the room white and lime green. I promise you it's not lime green any more!) A few people asked me if it felt weird to go back to the house but it didn't. Mainly because it was so changed. It was actually fun because I got to think back about what the house once looked like and compare it to now.
The building right next to the Volvo meet has a wonderful mural, painted by Alan Pearsall. He gave a nice talk about the mural, and the history of Ipswich, some of which I knew, and some I didn't. The most interesting part of his talk was about the Native Americans who lived in Ipswich, and coincidentally for me, their relationship with the Native Americans who lived in Natick, MA, where I now live. Very very interesting. I love that, as an adult, I live in a town with so much rich history, and that I grew up in one that also had a rich history.
I've always wanted a book about Ipswich History, so I got a copy of his book "American Town: The History of Ipswich, Massachusetts," which documents both the mural and the town's history.
One of the "cars" at the Meet was a Volvo XC90 made completely out of Legos, except for the tires. Here are some detail shots. I love the pixalization and grids. (I wonder if I could recreate a version of the photo above using a combination of a monoprint of a construction fence, and some hand painting? Hmmm.)
Except for getting a bad sunburn on both shoulders (I should have done a better of protecting my skin but I blew it big time), it was a fun time.
