Blog Archives
Window Saints
A small icon, painted in the traditional Russian style and purchased in a desert town in Texas, was the reason I found myself in the ghost town of Shafter, Texas, on a Saturday morning.
I’m not usually a purchaser of religious-themed art, but that little painting called to me. I circled it three or four or five times before I gave in and bought it. The man at the store told me it was painted by Brother Paschal, a monk who lives as a hermit in Shafter. “There’s only about nine people in Shafter,” he said, “so if you go down there, it ought to be easy to find him.”
Shafter, Texas
photographed 11.4.2017
Full Moon/Food Truck
Another food truck, taken later on the same night as this photo. It’d been almost a year and half since my last visit to Alpine, and while I was gone, the food-truck phenomena showed up.
Alpine, Texas
photographed 11.3.2017
How to Boost Your Happiness
The ticket booth at Alpine’s movie theater has a lot going on. My very favorite thing is that Consumer Reports book on boosting health and happiness, and my second favorite thing is everything else.
Alpine, Texas
photographed 11.3.2017
Food Truck, after hours
You know how I like to peek inside empty buildings? Same with after-hours food trucks, as I have recently discovered.
This is the Cow Dog truck, which parks beside Plaine Coffee, right there on the main drag in Alpine.
Alpine, Texas
photographed 11.3.2017
A lot to offer
There are some records that this little town was settled as early as 1793, although Wikipedia hedges a bit: The community known as Chataignier had a beginning, but its age will never be determined. The age of a community is a nebulous thing, depending on whether one uses as point of inception the date of the arrival of the first settler, the establishment of the post office, the coming of the railroad, or any other such memorable happening. Resources for determining the historical origin of a community such as Chataignier are limited. For such information, one must rely on a few recorded instances coupled with the reliable knowledge of the elder members of the community.
(That is actually the most amusing town history I have ever read. Thanks, anonymous Wikipedia person!)
And none of that really even matters. What I wanted to say about this is that there is a strong likelihood this store carries whatever it is you are looking for.
Chataingier, Louisiana
photographed 10.22.2017
