The Pink Elephant

Bakersfield is a funny place. A city born from a low marshy spot in the valley, drained and converted into farmland and then transformed a second time with the onslaught of the oil rush. The hot and dusty summers and the hard-working folks who battled the constant rush of black gold seeping from the ground produced some of the country's most intriguing legends. The very mechanical nature of the oil business, the need to harness the raw machinery it takes to pull it out of the ground, a little patch called Famoso, and the nearby Air Force base in Mojave cultivated an automotive culture like no other. Strange and wonderful machinery rose up from the dust of the valley floor and the fever to go faster engulfed the entire Central Valley region.

Maybe it was this very fever that created the folklore surrounding Pink Elephants. One has to look twice when a pink elephant is afoot, and try to keep their wits about them. One has to ask: Did what I just see happen, really happen? Do they really exist? Have YOU ever seen a Pink Elephant?

Read the rest of this article in ISSUE 6: ROB'S SNOT ROCKET