Monthly Archives: August 2013
Just to be clear
Can you imagine the owner of this place getting SO TIRED of inquiries about its availability on the market, that he/she finally just painted the message on the door?
No. Neither can I.
Marfa, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
Here’s another option
Never let it be said that we here at One Day | One Image don’t offer our readers several options when it comes to interesting travel trailers. This one, only 92 miles away from this little gem, is larger. But that native landscaping across the front might slightly impede access to the doors. And while I suppose that one might consider that a security feature, it still appears unnecessarily formidable for residents.
To find this one, go to Marathon (pronounced, for some reason MARE-a-thun instead of like the race), and turn north at the cafe that’s just west of the Gage Motel. Go to all the way to the end of that street (three blocks), then go left all the way to the end of that street (six more blocks), then go right. This will be on your left. Look for the water tower, and you can’t miss it.
Marathon, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
PS – If you get to town early enough, go ahead at have breakfast at the cafe. Sit outside. And chat up the waitress. She’s got a lot to say. (They are Italians, but are leaving today. He’s from Italy – been out here for better than twenty years. The dog’s name is Sparky. The flies are pretty bad this year. It’s been hot, but starting to cool down. Those people got here yesterday. You smell fruity.)
Behind the HiWay
There are several renovated trailers at El Cosmico, in Marfa, but they may not have the charm of this one that I saw in back of the HiWay Cafe, just down the road in Valentine. Also, this one has those concrete blocks hold it up, so you know it’s stable. No neighbors to bother you – everything around is abandoned and falling down. And the tree right there provides some shade, although to be honest, this IS the desert, and the shade’s probably never as much as you’d hope. It’s also just a stone’s throw (literally, and I can’t throw very far) from the railroad.
You don’t have to take my word for it; it’s right there on the main highway (or: only highway), between 3rd and 5th Streets*.
Valentine, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
*By the way, and because I know you want to know, the highest street number in town is 8.
Even chairs like to get some sun
These chairs seem to have crept away from the shadow in order to enjoy a bit of hot summer sun. I like how the one on the left seems to lean away from the other one, as though to distance itself for some reason.
And I also like how the satellite dish peeks over the fence, keeping its eye on the chairs. Or on the photographer.
This is for my blogging pal over at Syncopated Eyeball, who is also very fond of chairs.
Marfa, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
To be sold eventually to strangers, 2
My dad was a civil engineer. He started his career in San Angelo, Texas, working for the highway department. He says he thought he’d spend his career there, until his boss told him it was “too bad” that his degree was from the “wrong” school. It seems that back the the big guys at the highway department went to Texas A&M and he’d gotten his degree from Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University).
He stuck around long enough, though, to meet my mom in Sonora, Texas. According to an entry in their wedding album, he proposed to her in the car, while they were parked along the Ozona Highway. Sounds about right, I guess, for an engineer to take his beloved out to look at a road before he popped the question.
He left the highway department, and went to work for Phillis Petroleum, in Borger, Texas, and then moved to Lubbock in 1956 and went to work at Parkhill, Smith, and Cooper, where he worked until he retired. He did well there, working on a variety of big projects across the country. His particular area of expertise was water- and sewage-treatment facilities. I can remember on many (most, actually) family vacations we’d stop along the way to look at sewage plants. Nothing says “vacation” like the smell of effluent, that’s for sure!
After he retired from working, he mostly retired from wearing neckties. He’d wear one if he had to, but would complain about it. But he kept some, neatly hanging on their rack, just inside the left-hand side of the closet.
We are cleaning out the house now, and I guess someone will be happy to take over the neckties.
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 8.13.2013
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