It was a one-day three-hour drive south from Concord, New York, outside Buffalo, and since it was going to be a long day on the road, hitting two different Concord, we left early Sunday morning. I had written to various town officials in both towns and had no reply. There were no major landmarks or any stores in either of my destinations; I figured this was going to be one of those well-two-more-Concords-off-the-list kind of trip. However, there was a church in Concord township in Erie County, PA, so that was my first stop. It ended up being a pretty interesting visit. You can read about it here.
We headed south toward Pittsburg, to Butler County. There was a church in this Concord also, but by the time I arrived everyone had cleared out probably to watch a Steeler's preseason game.
The image that did grab me was the number of Confederate flags and the "Thin Black Line" flags that had appeared in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.. Butler County is 95% white and 57% registered Republicans.
We poked around town, but everything was closed. There were two roads out of town. I travelled down one, looked at Liz, then turned around and headed down the second - just for the heck of it. Finally, we saw our first sign of life.
Frank looked warily at me as I slowly approached. I took a few snaps with my camera just to capture an image or two in case this guy was as hostile as he looked, but once I gave him my hellos and my well-rehearsed introduction, Frank agreed to have his portrait taken. Frank flipped his "Junkyard Dogs" tee-shirt over his holstered pistol and posed proudly in front of his company sign. "What the best part about living in your Concord?" "It's peaceful and quiet and the people are friendly and nobody bothers you and it's peaceful..." If you're in the junk car business, it's probably important that "nobody bothers you." Frank takes in cars and either fixes them for sale or junks them for scrap.
Frank had been busy since the worst of Covid was over - "I'm two weeks behind, that's why I'm working on Sunday."
Wanna see my car?
Frank's son introduced himself. "Hi I'm Matt, and this here is Junior Matt." Matt races on dirt ovals: Figure 8 races, 100 lap races and, of course, demolition derbies. "I can get her up to 60 on the straightaways, but I'm new to this, so I'm still learning how to navigate in the wild." It's a family business. Matt is the driver, Frank's the mechanic, and aunts and uncles sponsor the car.
"Wanna see the good car? "Frank opened up a trailer. It had evidently been in storage for a while. "The battery's dead" yelled Matt. "Well, put her in neutral, and I'll pull her down." The good one looked pretty much first one, except it had glass. Windscreens and windows are removed from demolition derby cars. Head-on collusions and collisions to the driver's side door are forbidden. Who knew that demolition derbies are relatively safe?
"Wanna see the third car?"
Sure, why not!
"That's the one we saved for demolition derbies."
The goals of each Concord trip, is to meet interesting people and hear their stories. This stop in Concord, Butler County, PA was perfect.