These images and stories are taken from my photo scrapbook called “And Everyday was Overcast,” which is about my formative years in South Florida.
Throughout 7th grade my buddy Will and I would cut class to ride our bikes out to this bridge that became our hangout spot. We’d sit on the railing, smoke cigarettes, eat Airheads, and make wishes by spitting into the canal. We could do this for hours and always wish for the same thing: to one day get a blow job. We did this for years …
… I didn’t get head until 10th grade but at that moment I knew things were going to change for me.
The gas station by my old house was plastered with pictures of townies and their trophy kills — mainly alligators they’d hunt from the canals that ran alongside our homes.
Throughout 9th grade this girl would drop intricately folded letters inside my locker. All I knew about her was that she lost her virginity to a stalky redhead nicknamed “The Wrangler” and at the time she was dating the only redneck in a predominately black school.
Looking back, her letters were a flattering mindfuck, although I still can’t get rid of the mental image of that scrawny hick’s wispy mustache defiling her.
A redneck and his dog.
God bless the girl who’d use my disposable camera to take photos of girls I liked in the locker room. I almost miss those awkward days of jittering in line at Walgreens photo developing center.
Black Metal Mike making out.
Christmas morning in West Palm Beach Florida and a mediocre ass tattoo of a cartoon baker serving a heart.
My cousin did this when I said I “might” get him the toy he wanted for his birthday.
Robert was the only kid at my interdisciplinary high school who I knew that listened to death metal. Anyone who could recite all the words to Cannibal Corpse’s “The Bleeding” had to be my friend.
During my 14th birthday party I found him on the floor of the garage pulling blood out from his arms with a syringe, then drinking it. I didn’t know him that well, and none of us knew how to react to that or him foaming out the mouth. It wasn’t until the paramedics came that we found out he had tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pills.
Robert lived but later on in life he got serious into the Nazi skinhead scene and last I heard is in prison for manslaughter.
Like most shit-hole towns in America, some of the most fun to be had in my hometown was taking acid and bugging out at the mall.
Riley and Vanessa were best friends. Word around school was that they kept a shoebox of things that were important to their friendship. Inside were their first tampons, the condoms that took their virginity, stacks of photo-booth photos, an old piece of chewing gum they shared for a week, and a tied bundle of one another’s pubes.
I secretly thought the box idea was really cool.
He’d always say, “If you want to hang out in the barber shop, expect a haircut.”
Christina and Lisa were sisters who sold coke, gel tabs, and random pills from their apartment. Their place shared a ventilation system with John Dees tavern that tarnished anything fabric or edible with the scent of BBQ sauce and coagulated pig / cow blood.
After Lisa had a stillborn at a house party, they both disappeared. No one knew where to but we assumed they went to live with their mother in Miami.
Before I knew they left, we went to check on them. The door wasn’t locked and a majority of their stuff was still in the apartment. Inside their bathroom I found an old photo of them in the medicine cabinet and a cow’s head in the bathtub.
A week later John Dee’s Tavern extended their kitchen into what was once their apartment.
-PAUL K
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That was awesome. Best open mic ever.
10.30.09 at 11:15 am
InBred-asS trailer, park-ass WeST PalM Beach.
Perfect Yin to the Yang that is Palm Beach… billionaire inBred pervertville.
Either way, a clear result of blatant, multi-generational incest.
10.30.09 at 11:17 am
Fuckin’ A, Paul K. That was righteous.
10.30.09 at 11:20 am
I thourally enjoyed this
i want more!
10.30.09 at 11:24 am
i love vicariously living other people’s pasts. nice job.
10.30.09 at 11:33 am
growin’ up down here is a thing to be told, great submission, nice barbie doll sister
10.30.09 at 11:33 am
Yep, better than 85% of SBTVC for the past month or so. Get Arv and Aileen and all these other losers out of here.
10.30.09 at 11:44 am
Great piece paul.
10.30.09 at 11:45 am
Show and tell rocks, especially if you’ve got something to tell. Well done.
10.30.09 at 11:45 am
wow best one yet
10.30.09 at 11:57 am
…There’s no way that’s West Palm.
10.30.09 at 12:03 pm
The untold story of the majority of American youth. Everything looks vaguely familiar except the alligator. I could read a thousand pages of this.
10.30.09 at 12:07 pm
right on. keep it coming.
10.30.09 at 12:24 pm
decent stuff. worthy of a pt.2
10.30.09 at 12:33 pm
I want more!
10.30.09 at 1:03 pm
yay paul!
10.30.09 at 1:07 pm
wow. that had to be one of the best trips to the White Trash Museum I’ve ever taken… and I’m from Arkansas.
“If you want to hang out in the Barber Shop, expect a haircut.” = i pissed myself
10.30.09 at 1:13 pm
perfectly edited. left me disturbed and wanting more. A++
10.30.09 at 1:14 pm
Gummo
10.30.09 at 1:19 pm
very well done
10.30.09 at 1:22 pm
blonde magic.
one of the best posts in a long time.
10.30.09 at 1:40 pm
…wait, i’m reading the comments on what fuckin’ site? holy shit paul, did you personally give F.J.’s to everyone who wrote a comment or what?!? i’ve never read such positive reviews of ANYTHING on this “hilariously scathing” site…berrick deckles loves talented blonde dudes sure, but jesus…seriously, shit’s awesome, i’d definitely be into reading more of these. (especially if you have anymore pics of the girls who liked you posing in the locker room! i pity my dick after seeing that one). which reminds me, DID PAUL K BEAST HER or LAST NIGHT??? i simply must know…fuck yeah Paul, SAT forever, SORRY WE PARTY! toight.
10.30.09 at 1:52 pm
that was great
love the intense sweaty acid kids
10.30.09 at 1:53 pm
Larry Clark much? This is good stuff, but the photos and the cryptic little descriptions make me feel like I’m reading Tulsa or Teenage Lust for the tenth time.
10.30.09 at 1:58 pm
Teenage Psychos. Don’t tell Mum and Dad.
10.30.09 at 2:09 pm
I love this kid. I’ve been following this for awhile and am really happy that someone put this out there to a bigger audience. Great job PK!
10.30.09 at 2:17 pm
Fuck White Justin and Paul K.
10.30.09 at 2:26 pm
Not bad at all…Lets all send in our photo-pasts!
Who wants to see rainy trips to south Wales!?
Blood on concrete?
Scallies beating the shit out of metal heads?
Punks Hanging out in the underground market in Manchester?
Me!
10.30.09 at 2:27 pm
Ra-Hadd “During my 14th birthday party I found him on the floor of the garage pulling blood out from his arms with a syringe, then drinking it.”
10.30.09 at 2:38 pm
http://toxicshock.tumblr.com/post/165929849
10.30.09 at 3:10 pm
that was fucking awesome, more please!
10.30.09 at 5:03 pm
Perfect americana
10.30.09 at 5:03 pm
you’re such a (talented) babe! <3
10.30.09 at 5:55 pm
i love stuff like this. excellent job.
10.30.09 at 6:28 pm
The most beautiful woman I ever met was dirt-poor from WPB.
10.30.09 at 6:46 pm
Did you google a bunch of images and make a cool story?
10.30.09 at 6:47 pm
wow! this was really great!! it loosely reminds me of a larry clark movie or a dennis cooper book, except that the intrigue of it allows room for the mind to wander and briefly play out these scenarios in one’s head and reminisce about similar situations from youth. beautiful pictures, transgressive words, very enjoyable……..A+++++
10.30.09 at 7:17 pm
this is a really cool way to tell a story. i always knew there’s a reason i hang onto old photos of old lives. keep going….
10.30.09 at 11:59 pm
Underage U S A
10.31.09 at 3:52 am
more please? awesome!
10.31.09 at 7:24 am
VICE used to have shit like this. This is good shit.
10.31.09 at 10:06 am
The message is clear: Every arty misfit in every backwater town throughout the USA should move to Bushwick and get mugged.
10.31.09 at 11:14 am
Y Arv, your writing seems good, but it just isnt working, the spedometer is moving but were going the same speed.
Thats what you write ……lame!
I dont meen to to be meen……………..what i meen is..
Work on your sklills, or dont maybe its cuz u proofread too much before sumbiting it
remeber when gavin would say these stupid theories, like why gtirls like pink and boys like blue………….like so sure of himself and shit………
and at the time you start questioning why u like this dude?!?!
Thats what I misss!
10.31.09 at 12:23 pm
yep…this kicked some serious ass.
10.31.09 at 1:11 pm
thank you very much, I am now able to face the day
11.01.09 at 4:25 pm
So this is Paul K.
11.02.09 at 12:22 am
Ahh, memories.
11.02.09 at 10:45 pm
PART 2 PLEASE!!
01.24.10 at 7:58 pm
[...] that post from photographer Paul K a few months ago titled “Every Day Was Overcast” about the creepshow who was growing up in the swamps and strip malls of South Florida? Well, him [...]
01.28.10 at 9:17 am
Thank you for that.
01.28.10 at 10:05 am
“After Lisa had a stillborn at a house party”
…WHAT
07.09.10 at 1:24 pm
[...] rest of the series can be seen at StreetBonersandTvCarnage More of Paul K’s work can be seen at PaulkMedia.com Currently studying BA (Hons) [...]
02.26.11 at 4:32 am
[...] Street Carnage: “Everyday was Overcast” * Street Carnage: “Community Service: AIDS, Gloryholes and Brothels in South [...]
08.22.11 at 1:25 am
[...] some of the pictures in ‘Overcast’ that I have seen elsewhere (tv carnage), You have led a pretty wild lifestyle….Are there any moments that you didn’t [...]
09.20.11 at 6:52 am