In geographically random order, here are a few more of the folks I’ve met along the way….
When Anthony was a kid, his uncle woke him up every morning by playing a stack of Delta Blues albums. Every morning, the blues.
He hated it.
But somewhere along the line, the music entered his soul and became a part of him. The last 7 years, he’s worked here at the Delta Blues museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. His favorite musician? Now, that’s a tough one. But when pressed, he picks Muddy Waters, who grew up on a plantation just outside of town.
There’s an old telegram on the wall of the museum, wishing Muddy Waters a happy birthday. “Without you, we wouldn’t be who we are today,” it says. And it’s signed Mick, Keith, Bill and Charlie. (i.e., for the younger set, the Rolling Stones.)
I told Anthony that my parents woke us many a Saturday morning with Johnny Cash.
He shuddered a bit and replied: “No disrespect, ma’am, but I’m so sorry.”
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On this site, in 1897, nothing happened.
When I read this sign on the Holiday Motel Lodge in Lander, Wyoming, I knew it was my kind of place. I’d been camping for quite a while and was ready for electric lights and a hot shower.
Betty Barb
Comfortable, inexpensive, and a little quirky, the motel draws an eclectic clientele. Like me, I guess – and the four 70-something gentlemen who were traveling to see the Four Corners in four separate vintage cars.
I planned to ask for a group shot of the men and their cars – the ’55 Chevy being the only one I recognized. But they were up and gone very early. And I wasn’t.
“The world comes to my door,” Barb said. She and her husband have run the motel for 15 years, taking over from his parents, who had it for 18.
Betty is on the cleaning crew. She lives out of town, on seven acres down a dirt road. She tried to retire at 70, but it just didn’t take. Maybe next year.
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When I passed the rough-hewn structure deep in the Arkansas Ozarks, John was sitting in his porch rocking chair and adjusting his well-worn hat. I had no choice, really. I had to stop.
John and Annalie own a craft shop, chocked full of items they make themselves. Stunning hand-made quilts. Dozens of woven baskets. Intricately carved walking sticks.
For 34 years, John has been carefully picking which white oaks to harvest, shaving the thin strips and weaving intricate baskets. He wove a few around my fingers to show me how it’s done. Then he got out an old bucket, turned it over, and showed me how he weaves the base of a basket around it.
I was a goner. I paid $30 for two of his baskets. And $230 for cedar chest that I knew would cost hundreds more just about anywhere else. It would have fit in the Toyota if I didn’t have so much (necessary) stuff packed in there. Finally, I decided to have them ship it.
Annalie added up the numbers up with a stub of a pencil on her much-used notebook. She kept shaking her head slightly. In pity, I think, for one so daft.
‘You think I’m crazy to spend $60 to ship this, don’t you?” I finally asked her.
“Yes, I do,” she replied without hesitation.
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I’d spent nearly an hour photographing a couple dozen donkeys in a field near Yates Center, Kansas, when they all started to bray at once. It was one of those rare times when one can legitimately use the word cacophony.
I had been so engrossed in my new four-legged friends that I hadn’t noticed the pickup truck when it pulled up beside me. It was feeding time, and Jack Turner and his son, Lane, had arrived with a load of hay.
Retired first from the military and then from years of coaching and teaching high school, Jack now raises, shows and sells miniature donkeys. He was, of course, a wealth of information on the topic.
Did you know, for example, that:
- Donkeys, jackasses, asses & burros are all the same animal?
- That donkeys range in size from miniatures (up to 36” at the withers) to mammoths (56” and over?)
- (Or, for that matter, that the withers indicate the high part of the back, between the shoulders?)
- That males are called Jacks and females Jennets (though many people call them Jennys?)
- That people all over the country raise donkeys as a hobby or business?
- A mule is the product of a male donkey and a female horse?
I didn’t.
Jack offered to show me some baby miniature donkeys, and I followed the truck back to Jack’s house to do so. Soon they asked if I wanted to see the most beautiful mule in the country. Who could pass that up? So the trek continued to Lane’s place.
Halle Berry is a site to behold, from her regale bearing to her pure-white eyelashes. When I asked why he named her Halle Berry, Lane was quick with his answer: “Because her father is black and her mother is white, and she is beautiful.”
I did not find this odd. After all, I’ve had a dairy cow named after me. They said it was because of the big brown eyes, but I’ve never been completely convinced of that….
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