hubcap farm

My mother and I were driving along Rte. 33 the other day–rather, she was driving and I was fiddling with my camera, as I often do.

“You going to take pictures?” she asked.
“Yeeeeahhhhhhh,” I said. “I mean, I’m… well… most of them won’t be much good, I know, from a moving car and all, but I’ve been trying to get a shot of the Hubcap Farm for several months [see below], so I’m gonna try for that.”
“The Hubcap Farm? Where’s that?” she asked.
“Ummm… somewhere between Neptune and Freehold. Thereabouts,” I replied.
“You want me to pull over so you can take pictures?”
“Nooooo, no no no, that’s okay. Part of the challenge is trying to catch it as we whiz by,” I said.

A little later, after I’d blathered about some of my innumerable bad photography habits for a while, I suddenly said, “Ooh! I think this is the Hubcap Farm coming up!”
“Where?” cried my mom, clearly interested in seeing the Hubcap Farm for herself.
“Right up here, right before the steamroller and after the golf course!”
“Right here?”
“Yeah, right here!”

So she pulled over for me.

“Moooommmmmmmm!” I squealed. “People LIVE here! You can’t just STOP here if you’re not going to buy hubcaps!”
“Why not?” she asked.
…I didn’t have a good response for that, so I awkwardly stepped out of the car, hastily took a few shots, and encouraged my mom to DRIVE! like a bank robber in a getaway car.

(…Thaaaaaaat’s my mom for ya.)

Interesting fact: Bruce Springsteen (who grew up in this area)’s song “The Angel” mentions “hubcap heaven,” which was apparently the previous name of this business.

Here are some of my previous attempts at capturing the Hubcap Farm. Hover your cursor over any image for information on the shot (date, shutter, aperture, ISO), and click any image to see it larger.

(For further information, check out comment #2 below!)