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Picture A Day - July 9, 2009
Dear Beage President...
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Found totally by chance while driving home from Washington-on-the-Brazos - I spotted a couple of hand-painted signs on the side of the road along FM 1371 in Washington County north of Buckhorn. There were a couple of other signs on display to the immediate left (just as interesting, will be featured at a later date), and the remains of an older, discarded sign in the background. Hey, who sez intelligent political discourse is dead? Picture taken June 2009. The complete text of the sign is included below:
Heaven Community Inc. - 007 Hell Rd. - Gardens of Eaten-Pups
Enter at u own risk! No one will hurt u! We got fools who wood sue us +
try 2 Live the easy life. We got no insurance - + won't be liable 4 u care
lessness I keep out if you expect dis! Our dogs is frenly + wont bite u -
unless u make em! We call em love pups + will sell em 4 100 bucks each
Not all is 4 sell! Our pups is lerned how 2 love by yours truly + my son -
as we is truly loving humans! Yo-Bama is going up 44 dollars a pound
on my sons dopeless tobacco! He wants us to buy from his frens the
ready rolled ones! With 4000 chemicals! I beleeve they will put money
in his Swiss bank account - so bankers dont screw him out his pay for
doing this 4 dem! Dis is my own opinions. This is why he d president! Amen
Dear beage president - what dis $44.00 tax for? On pure dopeless tobacco -
you need to d-cide who u is 4! We though we had hope n u! But now dis
tax on safe dopeless tobacco! U dope! Go-n up 44 dollars a lb. on it
+ it only 11.99 a lb. now! But will b 55.99 on April 1, 2009 - U s hole -
is dis 4 u rich s hole friends? Is dis bail out money? You dun spent
mo dan all other presidents combined! It com-n from d backs of poor
folks + middle class who is poor now! Thanks 2 morons in gov't. U
s holes! Go 2 hell + free us slaves! God help d poor who pay d tax
while rich is exempt! Collect from dem who gave y'all campane funds
+ is screw n America + poor - + keep us slaving 4 d rich - Amen!
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So - I'm open to opinions. Anything worth watching, any shows have any good buzz?
Picture A Day - July 8, 2009
Full Moon over San Antonio
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Just having a little fun to see what is capable with a simple point-and-shoot camera. No fancy manual settings, just point the camera at the sky, zoom in and click! Not perfectly crisp and sharp, because it was taken from the middle of the city (outside my apartment), but still pretty nice. Picture taken June 2009.
Picture A Day - July 7, 2009
Cigar Store Indian at Bandera
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A carved Cigar Store Indian found in front of the the 11th Street Cowboy Bar just off the main drag in Bandera, Texas - a local honky-tonk hangout for rough-and-tumble cowboys and bikers. Known as the self-proclaimed 'Cowboy Capital of the World', Bandera is less than an hour northwest of San Antonio in the middle of the Hill Country, and the county seat of Bandera County, despite a population of less than a thousand. Google Maps Streetview of the Cigar Store Indian in front of the bar Here. Picture taken May 2009.
Picture a Day - July 6, 2009
Calliopsis at Lone Grove
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A field awash in gold, orange and red in the summer Texas heat -- so many flowers that the ground cover is almost a solid carpet of color. The Plains Coreopsis, also know as Calliopsis, in full bloom outside the old one-room schoolhouse (now community center) at Lone Grove, Texas in Llano County as sunset approaches. Yay for wildflowers! Google Maps Streetview of the location (from the opposite direction) Here. Picture taken June 2009.
Picture A Day - July 5, 2009
Easter Island Head at Stonehenge II
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Not quite what you might expect to see on the side of the road while driving down the curvy highway along the Guadalupe River - a giant Easter Island head statue. There's not just one head, but another one in the distance, a few hundred feet from Stonehenge II outside of Hunt, Texas. Al Sheppherd, who built the replica Stonehenge in 1989, added the statues shortly after returning from a trip to the distant island. Google Maps Streetview of the statue Here. Picture taken May 2009.
Picture A Day - July 4, 2009
37-Star Flag
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Flapping proudly atop the flagpole at the center of the parade ground at Fort McKavett in west Texas - Old Glory with 37 stars was flown between 1867 and 1877, which is when Fort McKavett was at its height. It's a fairly massive flag, maybe 30 feet long, and the flagpole is 60 feet tall. A formal military color guard brought down the flag at the end of the day, and it took about a dozen people to properly fold the flag and prevent it from touching the ground. Picture taken March 2009.
Picture A Day - July 3, 2009
Butterfly at Fort Lancaster
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While south and central Texas bake in the summer heat with nary a raindrop in sight, just a couple hundred miles to the west the deserts of Texas have been drenched by a steady stream of monsoon moisture. In the sparsely-populated Trans-Pecos region sits Fort Lancaster, formed in the mid-1800's to protect the San Antonio-El Paso Road. These days it is little more than a collection of stone ruins that are visited by a handful of visitors each week, several miles off Interstate 10 near the Pecos River crossing.
When I visited on June 20th, the area had just been soaked by several inches of rain -- enough that pools of water still remained dangerously on the roadways. The desert had turned all green, with flowers unfurling, birds chirping, crickets clicking, and insects buzzing all over the place. Small armies of butterflies, battered by the rains, came out to feast on the blooming flowers. This little critter was found from the highway rest stop overlooking the Pecos River valley, roughly a mile east of Fort Lancaster. Google Maps Streetview of the location Here.
Picture A Day - July 2, 2009
Benton City Normal Institute
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At one time, Benton City was predicted to be the next big city in south Texas, but like many potential metropolises, its future was cut short when it was bypassed by the railroad. The community, located in north Atascosa County just south of San Antonio, quickly faded away, now all that is left is the remains of the school (above) and the cemetery. The Benton City Normal Institute was founded in 1876, the bottom half of the building was the community masonic lodge, the upper floor was the school. In 1919, the school was abandoned, and the stone ruins rest just off FM 3175 near the Atascosa River, Google Maps Streetview Here.
Picture A Day - July 1, 2009
Abandoned School at Sandy
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The one-room schoolhouse at Sandy, Texas: Population One. Just a tiny community in the middle of the Hill Country north of Johnson City, the school has been abandoned for decades. There are awards on the wall inside dating back to the late Thirties, as well as scattered debris (including a stand-up piano and old Sears Roebuck desks). Google Maps Streetview of the same photo Here.
Picture A Day June 30, 2009
Annie Git Yer Gun! Taking a Break at Fort McKavett
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Taking a break in the shade of the barracks at Fort McKavett Heritage Days -- a couple hundred historical reenactors running around in the west Texas Sun -- Army infantrymen, Buffalo soldiers, cavalry, frontier families, even the short-lived Camel Corps. Picture taken March 2009.
Picture A Day - June 29, 2009
Downtown Hext, Texas
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At the main crossroads of the west Texas town of Hext, Texas, halfway between Menard and Mason. Not much remains except for a handful of residences, a still-active general store, post office, a poured concrete abandoned one-room schoolhouse, and various abandoned businesses and buildings. The building on the right is the nearly-fallen-over O'Neill's Store. The closest I can get to the same shot on Google Maps Streetview Here. Picture taken March 2009.
Picture A Day - June 28, 2009
Fischer's Store, Texas
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Situated in the gentle rolling hills west of Wimberley, Gruene and New Braunfels, Fischer was settled as a small farming community in the 1870's. Fischer's Store became the centerpoint of the community, also serving at one time as the post office, the bank, and saloon. Nowadays, it is still remains in the Fischer name and is a general gift shop for wayward tourists. Google Maps Streetview Here. Picture taken April 2009.
Furthermore -- does anyone really *care* about where the were when Mike Jackson died? Seriously? As far as I'm concerned, he's just some old washed-up pop singer trying to make a comeback. Twenty years ago he was A Big Deal, a major singer and pop idol -- but that was a couple decades ago. These days he's better known for his pedophilia, his financial troubles, his extreme weirdness, a sad shadow of his former self.
So, that gets me thinking, what *would* be some major news events worthy of asking, "Where were you when...?" For my father's generation, it was "Where were you when JFK was shot?" or "Where were you when we landed on the moon?". But I wasn't even born. For my generation, the biggie event was:
1. Where were you when the space shuttle exploded?
For the current generation, it's more like:
2. Where were you when the Twin Towers in NY fell?
Okay, so what are some other events worthy of note -- how about:
3. Where were you when Reagan was shot?
4. Where were you when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait?
5. Where were you when the OJ car chase was going on?
6. Where were you when the earthquake/tsunami struck Sumatra/Thailand/etc?
7. Where were you when the World Series Earthquake occurred?
8. Where were you when the Branch Davidian compound burned?
9. Where were you when the Berlin Wall fell?
10. Where were you when the LA riots started?
Anyway, that's ten news events off the top of my head, and I could answer each and every one of those questions. On the celebrity side of news, some suggest "Where were you when Princess Diana died?", and I can't answer that, because I didn't/don't care.
So, can you answer some/many/all of the "Where were you when..." questions above? Any/some of the silly/irrelevant to you?
And, of course, what other "Where were you when..." questions would YOU ask? (After all, I threw together this list on the fly, I'm sure I missed some major news events).
Picture A Day - June 27, 2009
Rusted Gas Pump at Red Rock
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A complement to yesterday's Picture A Day, when I displayed two old-time gas pumps in front of the derelict service station at Red Rock, Texas -- here's a closer look at one of those pumps! Rusted through and through, looking up at a Good Gulf pump from back when gallon of leaded petrol or ethyl only cost a handful of nickels. Picture taken April 2009.
http://picturesforsadchildren.com/b
As for me, I'm just glad there is one less pedophile in the world. Good riddance.
Picture A Day - June 26, 2009
Fill 'Er Up at Red Rock
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Like many Texas towns, the tiny community of Red Rock in Bastrop County was built on cotton and oil. Just a small stop on the railroad line, Red Rock never totalled more than a few hundred residents - now it is just a handful of buildings off the Old San Antonio Road. The old general store serves as the gathering point for the community, and immediately next door is the remains of the town's service station, with a couple of original decades-old pumps out front. Picture taken April 2009.
Picture A Day - June 25, 2009
Church for the Birds
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Even birds have religion! A small birdhouse on the hill overlooking the St. Joseph's Honey Creek Catholic Church, about fifteen miles due north of where I live. Picture taken April 2009.
Picture a Day - June 24, 2009
Red and Blue Wildflowers
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The colors of spring, firewheels framed by bluebonnets near the Honey Creek Church in Bulverde, Texas. Due to the extreme drought on the region, the wildflower season for 2009 was pretty sparse in the immediate San Antonio region - just some spots of color here and there. Picture taken April 2009.
Picture A Day - June 23, 2009
Rusted at Specht's Store
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Yesterday I featured the front of Specht's Store - but like many other similar "quaint", out-of-the-way music venues (like Nelson City, or Luckenbach, or Albert, for example), the yard is filled with all sorts of old-time Texana objects and junk. Here's a few old, rusted bits from the past at Specht's Store - no idea what they were used for, though. Picture taken April 2009.
