“Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?”
~ Jack Kerouac
~ 1922 ~ 1969
As if dropped into the spring landscape from a German Christmas putz, I captured this slice of Americana ~ with the American flag billowing in the breeze ~ on a late April afternoon along the Saucon Rail Trail in the Saucon Valley, Hellertown, Pennsylvania.
“The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sun-burned hands I used to hold
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall …
~ “Autumn Leaves”
~written 1945, released 1946
~Popular song & jazz standard composed by Joseph Kosma with original lyrics by Jacques Prevert in French, & later by Johnny Mercer in English. An instrumental version by pianist Roger Williams was a number one best seller in the U.S. Billboard charts of 1955. It was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1955 and many other artists throughout the years, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra & Tom Jones.
I captured this candid shot of a man walking alone along the Saucon Rail Trail, Hellertown, Pennsylvania as sunset loomed on a beautiful mid-November afternoon.
Though autumn is the season of colorful fall foliage, I thought presenting the image in infrared was in tune with the melancholy mood of that beautiful song, “Autumn Leaves.”
