tulip magnolia

 

It may be snowy and 18 degrees in Lubbock, but here in New Orleans the tulip magnolias and azaleas are blooming. Of course, I probably won't make it home tomorrow because of flight cancellations.

 

New Orleans, Louisiana

the carwash

 

This carwash is cool at night but the best thing about it is that it is located across the street from Politz's Seafood Restaurant.

 

535 Saint Mary Street

Thibodaux, Louisiana

 



red goose

 

As a child did you wear Red Goose shoes?  I think I had Buster Browns.  I remember going to the shoe store and sticking my feet in the machine that showed whether the shoes fit via Xrays or something.  The Red Goose Shoe Company  began selling shoes to in 1869. The company's name was originally Gieseke-D'Oench-Hayes, after its founders, but when the company became advertising conscious in the early 1900s, they changed the name. Gieseke is German slang for "goose" so the goose image came naturally. The red color came later when, during the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, some stock boys painted the goose on the cartons red.    Red Goose Shoes in Thibodaux opened in 1900 in a building was built in 1896.  Red Goose Shoes closed down in 1976 and the Red Goose Saloon opened in 1979 but stayed with the Red Goose name.  The Red Goose Shoes sign out front still glows.

 

Red Goose Saloon

205 Phillips Street

Thibodaux, Louisiana

aptly named

 

It's not the alley that is named but rather its storefront, the former Turquoise Alley Furniture and Antique Shoppe.  How nice that the alley was "decorated" since it  has not building on the opposite side and is visible from the street Downtown Historic District of Plainview.  Quite a change from the seedy scenes usually found in alleys.

 

Turquoise Alley

505 Broadway

Plainview, Texas

2.1.2015

505

Fluvanna garage

 

If you are driving along FM 612 in Fluvanna and experience car trouble, don't bother with the Fluvanna Garage for assistance -- just call AAA and they should be there in 3 or 4 hours. Established by real estate promoters banking on the railroad, Fluvanna  boomed. By 1911 it had two real estate offices, a thirty-room hotel, a lumberyard, a cotton gin, and other businesses with its greatest population of 500 in 1915.  Then the railroad closed it station, major highways bypassed the community and today even the post office is shut down.  And the name Fluvanna? Named by the surveyor after his home county in Virginia (Fluvanna County, Virginia - population 25,691.  The area was once part of the original Virginia Colony and named Fluvanna which means "Anne's River" in honor of Queen Anne of England). 

 

Fluvanna, Texas

Scurry County

Farm Roads 612, 1267, and 2350,

2.20.2015






our hero

 

Amidst the uniform lines of upright headstones, this large red rock stands out.  It marks the final resting place of Willis Waymon Green, a WWII veteran.  The federal government furnishes, at no cost, markers for deceased veterans at any cemetery.  Wonder why Willis has a rock?  Admittedly it befits the landscape of this plot of land off the Llano Estacado.  He was a decorated serviceman, serving in the European Campaign and Africa and earning 5 Bronze Stars, the Oak Leaf Cluster and a Purple Heart -- according to this epitaph.  Rest in peace - this Bud's for you.

 

Fluvanna Cemetery

Fluvanna, Texas

Junction of Farm Roads 612, 1267, and 2350

2.20.2015



boots and hats totem pole

 

I've seen lots of different tributes at gravesites but this was a first.  The only marker is the metal one from the funeral home with name and dates.  I am assuming that "Jo" was female because the boots seem to be of the feminine persuasion.  Someone has been adding to the tributes since the burial in 2001.  I wonder about Jo.  Was she a rancher, a cowgirl or are the tributes indicative of those left behind?  What did she do in her 78 years of life?  Boots and cowboy hats are iconic symbols of the western way of life. Jo appears to be the only Honeycutt in the Grassland Cemetery. One goes TO Grassland, not necessary through the town.  It is located at FM 212 and 1313 in Lynn County.  The community was founded in 1888 and population reached 200 in 1940.  At one time there was a school, three churches, a post office and café plus two gins and ag businesses.  The students were bussed to Tahoka and the decline began. Today there appear to be about a dozen occupied residences, one working gin, one ag business and the Church of the Nazarene (founded 1920 but in "new" building). No closed school or abandoned churches and a few dilapidated buildings.   (By the way, there is no grass in the Grassland Cemetery.)  

Grassland Cemetery
Grassland, Texas
2.20.2015



asleep in jesus

Today's cemetery tour included Grassland, Fluvanna and Dermott -- surely you've heard of those places.  Dermott, on US 84 in Scurry County, was a railroad town.  Pete McDermott donated the land for the town and established a store.  A post office was granted in 1902 (which existed until 1990 and is now a weathered pile of lumber - don't you wish you would have stopped on all those trips to Dallas to take a photograph!). Dermott was originally called "Dark" (hmm, about the same time not many miles west was a town called "Light")

 

The land for the Bookout Cemetery and School was donated by Mary Ellen Boase Scrivner, member of a founding family.  There is no mention of where the name "Bookout" originated -- and there's not a single Bookout buried there.  As you travel the dirt road, be on the watch out for the cemetery trees so you'll know where to turn.  There are contemporary graves as well as historic.  The Prather family plot is the only one with the cast iron fence typical of the time.  Rankin's stone is adorned with oak leaves, which symbolize long life--which is ironic since he died June 13, 1920 -- a week before his 30th birthday.

Bookout Cemetery (aka Dermott Cemetery)
Dermott, Texas
US Highway 84



chromatics

 

Chromatics, or color science, includes the perception of color by the human eye and brain.  My brain knew that this corrugated tin building was drab gray but during the dusk of a bright, clear day it appears blue.  Supposedly clean air scatters more blue light than red wavelengths. The bullet holes just punctuate the picture!

 

Plainview, Texas

2.1.2015

 



straight lines

(but not necessarily perpendicular)

 

Our flat South Plains landscape is linear and often angular.  Sometimes because of wind and erosion those signs are not necessarily perpendicular to the horizon.  This photo also brings to mind that childhood riddle:

                  Railroad crossing; watch out for the cars.  Can you spell that without any "r"?

Surely you know the answer.

 

Hale County, Texas

2.15.2015

horses of hale county

 

The horses who live in this pen share their barn with a stately steed.  It's great to see art on the outbuildings and as soon as I become acquainted with the new owners of this place, you'll see more.

 

South of Hale Center

Hale County, Texas

2.15.2015

pop and his work hat

 

These past spring-like days have had my father working in the fields in his baby John Deere tractor.  He's wearing his "work hat" not to be confused with the regular hat or Sunday hat -- all Stetsons.  Pop started farming about 70 years ago after leaving the Marine Corps in World War II. 

 

 

The Fortenberry Farm

Hale County, Texas

2.15.2015



McCormick No. 181

 

The acreage behind the barn at the farm is the old equipment graveyard.  The McCormick Harvester-Thresher No. 181 was manufactured in 1960 and according to the International Harvester press release: "Combine size really took off with introduction of the giant N0. 181. In its day it was unequaled in capacity.  The 80hp 181 was designed to stand up to the rigors of bigger yields, expanding acreage and larger expectations. The 181 had tremendous internal capacity with a 46 inch separator that could handle a standard of 4 rows and 16 grain platforms."  However that modern machine is outmoded with today's machines.  Who knew that there were on-line bidding wars for No. 181 sales literature?  Wonder what someone who give for the original, used, rusted model No. 181?  We'd probably deliver!

 

The Fortenberry Farm

Hale County, Texas

 



Happy Valentine's Day

heart to heart

 

Hearts in honor of the holiday.  Although these may be lonely hearts -- stuck out on the unused barn.  However, this retro mid-century aluminum screen door is back in vogue.  The actual  purpose of the decorative grill was to keep the kids from busting out the screen -- although this model had glass.  The grill could feature your initial, but I like these hearts for Valentines.

 

New Deal, Texas

beep beep

While the roadrunner it the state bird of New Mexico, we have our share in Texas.  This roadrunner must be the official greeter at the Visitors Center at Caprock Canyons. The roadrunner, also known as a chaparral bird, is a fast-running ground cuckoo,has been clocked up to 200 mph.  He always outruns Wile E. Coyote!

Caprock Canyons State Park
Briscoe County, Texas
2.8.2015

number 143

 

The Official Bison Herd of Texas freely roams the 12,000 acres in Caprock Canyon State. Rancher Charles Goodnight and his wife Mary realized that the buffalo would soon face extinction.  The Goodnights rescues two buffalo calves in 1878.  Mary even bottle-fed the babies.  The orphans thrived on three gallons of mild a day and the herd eventually grew to several hundred.  In 1997 the remaining herd was given to the State of Texas and rounded up from the JA Ranch.  Today one can visit the descendants of those bison who once roamed the Texas Plains.

 

Caprock Canyon State Park

Briscoe County, Texas

2.8.2015


the hotel 



In my opinion, the hotel is the most interesting building in Quitaque.  My online surfing turned up the same sentence on about 7 websites:  " In 1907 the Twilla Hotel, a local landmark, opened."  Nothing about when it closed or if Earl Twilla were the builder -- nothing!  The two-story building appears to have had 24 rooms, with a central bath on each hall (if you interpret the windows).  If you peek through the broken window to what may have been the reception room, you'll see the mailboxes and desk.

The Old Hotel
Quitaque, Texas
2.8.2015

where the buffalo roam

 

It is well worth a Sunday afternoon drive to visit Caprock Canyons State Park, especially on a sping-like day in February.  Caprock Canyon is home to the State of Texas Official Bison Herd.

 

Caprock Canyons State Park

Quitaque, Texas

2.8.2015



ghost sign in a ghost "populated place"

 



Crume Gin is identified as a "populated place" in Floyd County but that may be misleading.  Crume Gin is about a mile north of Providence at the junction of Farm Roads 2301 and 788 but there's not much population in Providence either since the school closed decades ago and consolidated with Floydada.  The Crume Gin metroplex also had a café and grocery-- probably closed in the 1980s, although the faded gingham curtains still hang.  The only patrons of the business I saw were birds (and probably other unseen critters!).  If you need a snack on your journey, your best bet is to stop at an Allsups in Petersbrug or Lockney or Plainview.

Crume Gin
Floyd County, Texas

the light on the cross

 

On the corner is 8th and Beech is yet another abandoned church building.  The congregation of The Pentecostal Church moved south a few blocks to newer digs.  Peeling paint, faded letters, boarded windows-- wonder if the spirit moved too?

 

The former Pentecostal Church

8th and Beech

Plainview, Texas

2.1.2015

size 99 athletic shoe

 

The West Plaza of the Student Union Building was busy today as students were enjoying the spring-like weather.  You could win a t-shirt by shooting hoops at the inflatable shoe, visit with Raider Red, eat brisket at Smokin' Joe's stand, sign up for service clubs and enjoy jelly beans handed out by the Young Conservatives of Texas at Tech in honor of Ronald Reagan's 104th birthday!

 

West Plaza, Student Union Building

Texas Tech University

Lubbock, Texas

closed on sunday

 

Evidently the cat didn't realize the business was closed on Sunday, but still decided a bit of sunshine on the window ledge was in order.

 

The Wagon Yard

400 Ash

Plainview, Texas

the goal

 

I wonder if Mario were a basketball fan?

 

Gordo's Laundry

1201 N. Columbia

Plainview, Texas

2.1.2015



the day the music died

 

There were crowds of people today playing tribute to Buddy Holly on the 56th anniversary of the fatal plane crash.  The trolley leaving the Buddy Holly Center was packed with people wanting to see the significant Buddy Holly sites in Lubbock. The sculpture created by the late Steve Teeters replicates the glasses worn by Buddy that fateful day.  Those glasses, now on display in the museum, sat in a manila envelop in the sheriff's office in Mason City, Iowa for 21 years.  When discovered, they were returned to Maria Elena who placed them in Buddy's hometown for the fans to view.

 

Buddy Holly Center

Lubbock, Texas

the blue door

 

In 2012 the Harvest Queen Mill was dethroned -- another Plainview business bites the dust.  Agribusiness conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland cut 1,000 jobs, including the 30 or so employees in Plainview, due to declining corn and soybean prices.The Plainview Harvest Queen Mill and Elevator was built in 1926 to mill wheat. The facility was converted in the 1970s to produce industrial starch from grain sorghum. ADM, an international corporation out of UK, acquired the facility in 1985.  A fixture on the Plainview skyline, this portion of the mill is about six stories with the blue door on the 3rd level.

 

Harvest Queen Mill and Elevator

1208 N. Columbia

Plainview, Texas

2.1.2015

photo courtesy of  Plainview Herald



bottoms up

 

Somehow, it is not surprising that this dual purpose bar didn't make it.  Rockers and knights? Heavy metal and lute music in the same establishment?  Beer or mead?  The storefront is for rent, if you are interested in a business opportunity-- one half is empty with Pepto-Bismol pink walls and the other side is your basic castle motif.  By the way, Wayland Baptist College is just a few blocks away.

 

2408 West 5th Street

Plainview, Texas