Blog Archives
9 windows
My road trip took me to Hastings, Nebraska, where I got to see my pal Brett Erickson. I’ve known Brett for a few years now, and follow his blog. In all that time, and in all those images, I don’t recall that I’ve ever seen any photos of Hastings.
Maybe he didn’t want me to disclose this information, but I was able to find some old buildings while I was in town. Like this place, with those nine windows that caught my attention.
Oh, and just a word of advice here. If you are in Nebraska and it’s a football weekend and everyone from sales clerks to waiters to just random people on the street want to talk football, just go along with it. It’s a lot easier for everyone involved. Never mind how I figured that out.
Hastings, Nebraska
photographed 8.30.2014
There was some weather, #3
I took a little road trip the other day, and drove for many miles just behind this storm. Eventually I caught it, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked from a distance.
The next day, there was a line of storms on the eastern horizon. They were there all day, and it never seemed like my location changed in relation to them. That made the day seem a lot longer than it actually was.
near Perryton, Texas
photographed 8.28.2014
Stairway to…9th Street
What a graceful stairway! It connects the rarely-used plaza level of the Civic Center with pedestrian-unfriendly 9th Street.
As we say about failed architecture, “I guess it looked good on paper.”
Lubbock Memorial Civic Center
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 8.16.2014
The after-hours club
Usually when I am out shooting, passersby don’t engage me in conversation.
On this particular day, though, an older man driving a pickup pulled over as I was shooting the old drive in from the other day. Our conversation:
Him: Do you remember what used to be here?
Me: No, sir. I’m from out of town, so I don’t know anything about it.
Him: Well, it used to be one of them after hours clubs. You know the kind I mean – the ones that didn’t even open until all of them other ones had closed. There was a lot going on here.
Me: How long ago did it close down?
Him: How long? Oh, it’s been closed forever.
Now, at this point I had seen three of the four sides of the place and was still under the impression that it was a drive in, so I wasn’t too sure he knew what he was talking about. But after he drove off, I looked in a broken window on the side I’d not yet explored…and then I believed him.
He came back around a few minutes later, pulling up close to where I was standing. This time he said, “Are you looking to buy anything?”
I was afraid to delve any further into that. It can’t have been good, right?!
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
Chair
Anyone who’s read this blog for very long knows that I always try to look around behind these old buildings. Sometimes that’s where the good stuff is.
So, this chair. I found it behind that drive in from yesterday. The first thing I noticed was how the woven stripes in the upholstery weathered differently – half of the fabric was in relatively good condition, while the other half was just threads. The second thing I noticed was that hole in the wall to the right of the chair. For some reason, that hole seems…ominous.
Midland, Texas
photographed 8.23.2014
