UNITED STATES - SLAB CITY

Apr 2002

DUR 8'32"

TRUCK DRIVING DOWN OPEN ROAD

TONI WILLIAMS SHOWS INTERVIEWER AROUND

CARAVAN PARK AND SURROUNDINGS 

DESERT LANDSCAPE

CAMP FIRE AT SUNSET

DESERT LANDSCAPE, SLAB CITY

CARAVAN INTERIOR

DESERT LANDSCAPE, SLAB CITY

CARAVAN EXTERIOR

TONI WILLIAMS’ GARDEN

SALVATION MOUNTAIN

SLAB CITY SUNSET

The California Desert, south almost to Mexico, Palm Springs is several hours away, LA another world. Take a wrong turn off route 111, head Into the dust and shrubs and you might just find this…hidden In a place meant to be nowhere, never Intended for mention on any map, is a mobile city.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
THIS IS WHAT THEY CALL THE FINGER PLANT, I CALL IT HORNY THORNY. IT’S NOT PARTICULAR ABOUT FINGERS, IT WILL GRAB YOU ANYWHERE.

Toni Williams is a desert vegetation specialist, of sorts. They don't check university degrees here and One Can, as she likes to be called, does sell plants, among other things.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
THIS IS MAIDEN'S DREAMS, SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO CALL IT DONKEY DICK. THIS IS ALOE VERA, THIS IS THE YELLOW ONE AND THIS IS A TOMATO PLANTATION HERE. BELIEVE IT OR NOT I GOT TOMATOS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO EAT ONE? NO? YOU SCARED HUH?

Home for the last nine of her sixty-five years has been a piece of American dirt so unattractive to most, no one charges her or anyone else to live here.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
FROM THE MIDDLE OF THAT ROAD RIGHT THERE TO THAT OLD DEAD TREE, THAT’S ABOUT ALL I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT.

Sixty years ago that half mile was in the middle of a military training ground, apparently legendary tank commander George Patton used the area to prepare his first US armed core for the North Africa invasion during World War Two. In the Sixties the military moved, tearing down its buildings but leaving the concrete slabs, never guessing that they'd make foundations for nomads of another era. The seeds of Slab City.

SYNC MAN:

THE LORD SAID 'LET THERE BE LIGHT'

SYNC MAN:
I THINK ITS MOOSE TURD PIE, BUT ITS GOOD THOUGH!

(SINGING AROUND CAMP FIRE)

A trailer camp of barely one hundred people year round. Slab City grows to five thousand or more In the mild winter months, populated by 'snow birds', retirees who flock from the freezing northern US and Canada in about October…and park here until April's heat drives them north again.

SYNC PREACHER PHIL:
UP NORTH, THERE'S A LITTLE SAYING UP THERE THAT A DUCK IS ONLY ABOUT HALF AN INCH WIDE BETWEEN THE EYES BUT HE'S GOT ENOUGH BRAINS TO GO SOUTH WHEN THE WINTER COMES.

Preacher Phil, as he's known, Is the Slab's snow bird pastor.

SYNC PREACHER PHIL:
IF I DON'T SEE JAMES BETWEEN NOW AND NEXT WINTER, HE'LL DRIVE IN ONE DAY AND I'LL BE HERE SETTING UP. ONE DAY JAMES WILL DRIVE IN, THEN OSCAR WILL DRIVE IN AND THEN PRETTY SOON IT'S LIKE OLD HOME WEEK AGAIN AND WE'RE ALL HERE FOR THE WINTER AGAIN.

SYNCE MAN:

THERE'S A SENSE OF COMMUNITY THAT AMERICA IS SADLY MISSING IN MOST INSTANCES. IT HAPPENS RIGHT NOW AND I THINK MOST PEOPLE WOULD GIVE THEIR OWN TEETH FOR THAT SENSE OF COMMUNITY.

A Winter paradise, but what about those few who stay for summer?

SYNC MAN:
WILD BILL HERE HAS A GREAT STORY ABOUT SURVIVING THE SUMMER. SCORPIONS, BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS AND RATTLERS.

SYNC WILD BILL:

YOU GOTTA GET THEM QUICK BECAUSE THEY MOVE FAST. THAT NIGHT I KILLED FOURTEEN BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS ALL AROUND MY CAMP AND NEVER GOT BIT ONE TIME.

Not only dangerous, Wild Bill, One Can and others concede, in the summer the slab is a furnace, up to fifty three degrees.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
IT'S WONDERFUL HERE IN THE WINTER TIME AND THE SUMMER IS KIND OF, REALLY BAD YOU KNOW.

SYNC INTERVIEWER:
BUT YOU LIVE HERE IN THE SUMMER ANYWAY.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
YES I DO, I GET NAKED, PUT MY FEET IN A BUCKET, PUT THE TOWEL ON MY HEAD AND THINK WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING HERE ANOTHER SUMMER BUT I'M HERE.

SYNC MAN:
THIS IS THE SOUTH WIND STORM, IT’S A THIRTY FOUR FOOTER.

But most Slabbers fit a broader American trend, geriatric gypsies. Retiring sooner, living longer, able to afford homes with a steering wheel and headlights. An estimated one million Americans are spending their senior years on the road.

SYNC MAN:
WE CAN COME AND GO AS WE PLEASE BUT WE LIKE IT HERE, EVERY YEAR.

SYNC WOMAN:
WELL YEAH, YOU GOTTA KEEP COMING BACK, SEE WHERE YOUR FRIENDS WENT.

SYNC MAN:
YEAH, WE'LL PROBABLY DO THIS UNTIL AT LEAST I'M GONE.

SYNC INTERVIEWER:
YOU MIGHT TURN YOUR TOES UP IN SLAB CITY?

SYNC MAN:
OH YEAH, THERE'S NO DOUBT IN MY MIND. I WOULD BE CREMATED AND WHEN THE WIND CAME UP I'D BE ALL OVER THE SLABS.

(GUITAR PLAYS)

There's no tap water, no phones, no electricity. So, like others, Adolf Hafner powers his sander and satellite TV with solar panels.

SYNC ADOLF HAFNER:
RUNNING THE GENERATOR USED A LOT OF GASOLINE, I GOTTA PAY THE GAS. WITH THE SUN I DON'T HAVE TO PAY NOTHING, IT'S FREE!

Adolf sells his fifteen dollar bird houses as a kind of bug repellent.

SYNC ADOLF HAFNER:
IF YOU HAVE A BIRD HOUSE, TWO OF THEM, AROUND THE HOUSE AND THE SWALLOWS MOVE IN, YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE MOSQITOES. THEY EAT ALL THE MOSQITOES AROUND THE HOUSE, FLYING ALL AROUND.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
THIS IS, I'M WORKING ON THIS, I CALL THIS THE BACK FORTY. THE GLASS GARDEN!

Slab City is refining Its visitor attractions.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
AND THIS IS THE GLASS GARDEN, I'M STILL WORKING ON IT.

SYNC INTERVIEWER:
AND WHAT'S THE CONCEPT HERE?

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
THE CONCEPT IS JUST OLD JUNK AND GARBAGE, THINGS THAT NOBODY WANTS AND MADE A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF SHIT OUT OF IT.

SYNC INTERVIEWER:
TURNED IT INTO ART.

TONI WILLIAMS:
YES.

One attraction here does leave you with a deep sense of 'only in America'.

SYNC LEONARD NIGHTS:
I BUILT SALVATION MOUNTAIN BECAUSEE I WANTED EVERYBODY TO KNOW THAT GOD ALMIGHTY LOVES THEM.

Leonard Nights and his religious experience drove him to the desert in the mid-eighties, since then he's slapped about fifty thousand litres of paint on a clay ridgeline overlooking the slabs. Salvation Mountain.

SYNC INTERVIEWER:
WHERE DO YOU GET ALL OF YOUR PAINT LEONARD?

SYNC LEONARD NIGHTS:
I GET MY PAINT FROM PEOPLE WHO LOOK AT THE MOUNTAIN AND LIKE IT AND THEY'LL SAY "WHEN I COME BACK I'M GONNA GIVE YOU A LOT OF PAINT, LEONARD". I'LL BE HONEST, EVERYTHING REALLY GOOD IS HAPPENING ON THIS MOUNTAIN, GOD ALMIGHTY DID IT.

The mountain has already been Slab City's salvation. Municipal officials wanting to clean up the city and charge squatter fees found it's against the law to have a religious shrine in a US park, and no one’s game to bulldoze God's corner of the Slabs.

SYNC LEONARD NIGHTS:
I WANT THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO PROTECT IT!

SYNC WOMAN:
IT SHOULD DEFINITELY BE A NATIONAL MONUMENT I BELIEVE.

Some visitors are so moved they pick up a brush and slap on a few litres.

SYNC MAN:
LEONARD'S JUST CREATED SOMETHING COMPLETELY THRILLING HERE, YOU KNOW.

Now summer's coming, Slab City's evergreens are digging in as the snowbirds and their RV's head north.

SYNC TONI WILLIAMS:
THERE'S A LOT OF NICE ONES AND A BUNCH OF BUTTHOLES BUT YOU KNOW, YOU KINDA GO THROUGH AND CULL THEM.

No one doubts it but few can explain why, when the season turns again the Slabbers will be back to this, the unlikeliest of places to retire.