One day, these wrecks stood proud and shiny in a dealership's lot, each someone's desire and coin. Today, they amuse and invite reflection. As Shelley wrote in 1818:
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
Click the image for some fooling around. Cape Lookout, 25 November 2014.
"Today, old cars lie half buried, their rusted hulks creating a kind of abstract metal sculpture rising up from the sand. As late as the 1960s, people commonly bought a car for $50 or $100, usually with bald, tubed tires, and they took the cars over by ferry, let the air out of the tires until the walls sagged, and drove on the beach. If the car died, the owner would leave it, figuring he had gotten his money's worth. The Park Service estimated in the mid-1970s that some 2,500 junk vehicles were on the beach." ———An Outer Banks Reader, David Stick, Editor (1998).