96 Profile of a Place: “Curiosity Killed the Cadillacs”
96 Profile of a Place: “Curiosity Killed the Cadillacs”
Theresa Richey
ENG 1013.50
Dr. Jackie Hoermann-Elliott
March 6, 2022
Cover Letter
I had the hardest time coming up with a place at first, and I was thinking about doing Montgomery Plaza but struggling to find information on this place. Then I remembered seeing old photos of my family’s visit to the Cadillac Ranch, and I thought this place was perfect. I put some ideas on a few different sticky notes and finally settled on writing about the bizarreness of the Ranch. Creating an initial discussion post and a rough draft really helped me decide on the uniqueness of the Ranch. I tried to do multiple run-throughs to change sentence structure or the flow of the sentences and even rearranged the order of my paragraphs to try to keep relevant information close together. I also had to ask my parents to find photos from our trip and send them to me so I could use them in the paper.
First, I came up with a few basic ideas on sticky notes: the history, who built it, where is the Ranch, and other similar topics. Then, I turned those notes into the outline, then into the rough draft. I expanded on my ideas and tried to add words and details that show the mystery and bizarre nature of the Cadillac Ranch. I also used Google Street View a lot to help add specific details about things I couldn’t remember from when I had last been there. The parking on the side of the highway and the graffitied dumpsters were all visible to me from Google Street View.
I tried to create a balance between the genre conventions of sensory details and historical information to inform the reader as well as try to bring them to the Cadillac Ranch. I tried to write about how the Ranch’s natural curiosity draws people in. The saying “Curiosity killed the cat” was constantly playing through my head as I was writing. People are drawn to unusual things, and I tried to play off that idea. Most people only know the first part of that saying, but I really like the second half, which is “satisfaction brought it back.” I used that to prove why strange places are so enticing.
At first, I thought I was just going to be writing about history, but I found it was important to incorporate more details; it felt like telling a story rather than giving a history report. I also have never needed to incorporate an interview into a paper before. Trying to figure out what questions to ask and how to approach it was entirely new to me, but I came up with some helpful questions that were specific to my paper. Also, writing a paper that is not confined to the five-paragraph essay structure helped me explore more topics and provided a nice change of pace as opposed to the expectation to fit everything into a certain number of paragraphs.
Curiosity Killed the Cadillacs
In 1974, ten cars costing a combined total of $464,770 were planted in a field only for the amusement of a millionaire. These ten Cadillacs make up what is called the Cadillac Ranch. These vario