Cars are so important in our lives, and not just for getting around. Relationships begin and end in them; life is conceived and cut tragically short in them; your success is shinily announced and shabbily betrayed by them. For this reason, the soulless, shadeless acres of Pick Your Part Auto Recyclers offer up a thousand skeletonized stories. There is odd memorabilia in side pockets and glove boxes, strips of 35mm negatives sun-bubbled like bacon, cards written but never sent, a matinee ticket for G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. There are even apparently collectible African postage stamps, still in their protective wrappings. And then there's money — coins crusted into cup holders, forgotten in footwells and wincingly hard to reach beneath bloating seats. Our record haul is $1.76, mostly in petrified pennies, which is nearly enough to cover Pick Your Part's $2 admission. 11201 Pendleton St., Sun Valley; (800) 962-2277, pickyourpart.com.

—Paul Rogers

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