The Lost World
Sure Gotta Bottle-Up ‘n’ Go
If Dylan Thomas were still with us, he’d be slouched in a bar in the Ironbound penning an ode to the Pabst Blue Ribbon bottle–the big one that f
or 75 years served as the water tower for the bottling factory by the graveyard that runs along the Garden State Parkway in Newark. It came down yesterday.
I knew it was just a matter of time. I’ve been watching the wrecking ball take out swaths of Stockhouse 14, the big blue building under the bottle, for the last six months. I’d meant to take a photograph of the factory with the bottle tower before its demise—no mean feat, given that such a photo could only have been taken from the Parkway in a moving vehicle. Well, it’s too late now.
Indeed. And there goes, perhaps, the state’s most archetypical vista, encompassing, as it did, the Parkway, the graveyard, the factory and warehouse, and the row houses. It gave you more in a glance than you could get of most states from hours of driving the highway. The Sopranos, which has delivered a cinematic love poem to New Jersey for a decade now, used the scene as a backdrop for the bath-robed and deranged Uncle Junior on one of his lost and terrified ambles through Gangland.
The bottle, which cannot be granted landmark status now that it’s been taken down, will end up in one of several contending s
ites in Newark and along the Jersey Shore. It will be just another roadside attraction, whereas it used to dominate the natural landscape. It was Newark’s Mont Sainte Victoire.
Driving to work, I’ve generally made a point of looking up at the bottle every morning. This morning, I was rushing. I sped right past and didn’t notice it. On the other hand, it wasn’t there to notice! I got the news from the New York Times. I imagine I’ll experience a certain vertigo next time I look for it. I’ll just have to keep my eyes on the road.
So fare thee well, old brown jug,
Ye vessel the very shape of my heart.
Vanx
New York Times photos by Dith Pran (yes, that Dith Pran)
June 27, 2006 at 11:33 pm
In Boston it’s probably the Peter Max-like mural painted gas tanks. One of which looks like a giant side view of Lao Tzu.
I’m always sad when historic landmarks come down.