Blog Archives
Geometrics
In addition to the very nice industrial buildings I found in Caldwell, I saw this fantastic wall, full of rectangles and arches and polygons and angles. And brick and concrete and wood and asphalt and even a tiny bit of paint still clinging to the brick.
Caldwell, Texas
photographed 2.28.2014
What I’d rather see
Caldwell, Texas, is a lovely town, with several blocks of large, nicely kept, older homes. It’s got a nice courthouse. It’s even the Kolache Capital of Texas!
And all that’s nice, it really is. But you know how I am: skip the fancy stuff, and give me some nice, old metal on a few industrial buildings and I am one happy photographer.
Caldwell, Texas
photographed 2.28.2014
Corner Window
Say it’s a sunny, cool spring day, and you don’t have a precise schedule. And say the state highway department is very good about signage, so that narrow roads that lead to tiny and remote country cemeteries are clearly marked. And say that your driver is good with the plan to turn down as many of these narrow roads as you want to take, just so both of you can see what’s there.
That is how I ended up at the Knobbs Springs Cemetery, just a few miles down County Road 305. But the real find down that road was an old wooden church next to the new, brick Knobbs Springs Baptist Church. The narrow white boards could have used a new coat of paint, and the windows might have benefitted from being washed. But, then again, this photo wouldn’t have had nearly the same look, would it?
Knobbs Springs Baptist Church
Knobbs Springs, Texas
photographed 2.28.2014
Facing the tracks
Dime Box, Texas, is not the funniest town name in America. Traditionally, that honor belongs to Intercourse, Pennsylvania. I prefer Scratch Ankle, Alabama, Gnowbone, Indiana, or even Humptulips, Washington. Nevertheless, Dime Box, as a name, caught my ear, so that’s where I headed the next morning out of College Station.
– William Least Heat-Moon, Blue Highways
Even though William Least Heat-Moon’s visit to Dime Box was written a while back (Blue Highways was published in 1982), much of his description of the town sounded as though he’d been there earlier the same day as my visit. For example, he describes this scene as “worn brick buildings facing the Southern Pacific tracks.” Maybe that bright aluminum door has been added since his visit, but my guess is that the rest of the block looks much the same as it did the day he drove over to Dime Box from College Station.
Dime Box, Texas
photographed 2.28.2014
3243
The reasons why:
1. The water damage on the wooden joists
2. The tiny bit of a tree poking up over the roof
3. The rectangles. All those rectangles!
4. The address over the door.
5. The reflections in the window that do not include me.
6. The tenacious weeds growing up in the expansion joints of the concrete.
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
photographed 5.4.2013
One Day | One Image 