Blog Archives
Hardware, groceries, and grain – and…
…a sidewalk sofa.
The “cross at your own risk” sign is a little worrisome, don’t you think? What in world is going on at the store that would warrant such a sign?
Maybe in when the place opened (1925, if the other sign is to be believed) the combination of hardware, groceries, and grain was a real novelty, and folks came in from all over the county*, just to look around. The traffic would have overwhelmed the street, and pedestrians would take their lives in their hands to cross over to look at such an innovative mercantile.
Blackwell, Texas
photographed 5.20.2011
*Counties, actually, as it turns out. This tiny town is located in Nolan and Coke counties. That would automatically DOUBLE the numbers of folks who’d want to come check out the store. Theoretically.
Howling
“but the wind yes the wind keeps howling”
-from “Shake” by The Head and the Heart
Out here on the plains, the wind blows nearly every day, and usually from the south or southwest. Anyone who’s been around here long enough could look at this picture and just know that the photo was taken looking to the west. How? Because the tree, the remains of the house, and the other tree all lean to the right, having spent their lives being pushed that way by the every-present southerly wind.
So now you know.
Hockley County, Texas
photographed 10.16.2010
Body shop
Body Shop?
Body Soop?
Body Sloop?
Body Sbop?
Highway 114 and Research Boulevard
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 9.10.13
“It was never as photogenic as it is now.”
“It was never as photogenic as it is now.”
That’s what one of my regular commentors said about one of my blog posts recently. I took to that phrase right away: it seems to sum up a great deal of my work, and my own ideas about what is or isn’t photogenic. There are few things that I like to photograph more than old places like this, once grand, maybe, but now forgotten and giving in to gravity.
I don’t know for sure what this place used to be, but my guess is that it was once a hotel. (If my research department wants to look into this a little bit, I will offer this: it is on the corner of West 13th Street and North Nelson Street.)
Fort Stockton, Texas
photographed 3.19.12
Items of interest
Meanwhile, a few things at this abandoned gas station caught my attention.
* Those squarish shapes inside the scars of circles on the wall.
* The restrooms are off to the left, somewhere.
* God is love, according to the letters stuck on the plate glass window.
* Don’t those drapes seem a little formal for a gas station?
* That plant? There in the window on the left? It’s growing on the inside of the building, clinging to the drape. Sort of makes me worried about what the inside of the place looks like.
Valentine, Texas
photographed 8.16.2013
One Day | One Image 