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: 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: 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: 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: (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: Preacher Phil, as he's known, Is the Slab's snow
bird pastor. SYNC PREACHER PHIL: 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: 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: SYNC INTERVIEWER: SYNC TONI WILLIAMS: SYNC MAN: 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: SYNC WOMAN: SYNC MAN: SYNC INTERVIEWER: SYNC MAN: (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: Adolf sells his fifteen dollar bird houses as a kind
of bug repellent. SYNC ADOLF HAFNER: SYNC TONI WILLIAMS: Slab City is refining Its visitor attractions. SYNC TONI WILLIAMS: SYNC INTERVIEWER: SYNC TONI WILLIAMS: SYNC INTERVIEWER: TONI WILLIAMS: One attraction here does leave you with a deep sense
of 'only in America'. SYNC LEONARD NIGHTS: 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: SYNC LEONARD NIGHTS: 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: SYNC WOMAN: Some visitors are so moved they pick up a brush and
slap on a few litres. SYNC MAN: Now summer's coming, Slab City's evergreens are
digging in as the snowbirds and their RV's head north. SYNC TONI WILLIAMS: 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. |