au revoir 2011

As we look forward to 2012, we bid farewell to 2011. A backwards glimpse reveals completion of the 2011 daily photo blog post (watch for the 2012 version) with new images supplemented with favorites from the archives and nostalgic shots from the family album. A highlight of 2011 was the opportunity to travel to France with the U.S. Benchrest World Team. 2011 also marked retirement after 21+ years of municipal government service. 2012 will bring 366 days of photo ops and new adventures. Thank you to those who have encouraged and inspired me this year.

government budget cuts

While driving by the post office today, I saw this old arcade game on the sidewalk. It was still there after lunch. Inquiring minds want to know. . . .

DECEMBER 29, 2011

some days are like that

From the archives:
Hippopotamus Pen
Homasassa Wildlife Park
Homasassa, Florida
9.29.2008

DECEMBER 28, 2011

wishful thinking

From the archives:
defunct gas station
MLK and Parkway
Lubbock, Texas
6.4.206

winterscape

From the archives:
Snow at the Buddy Holly Recreation Area
Canyon Lake No. 1
Lubbock, Texas
12.24.2011

hat cemetery

From the archives:

The upper areas of Solano's Western Wear in Raton, New Mexico holds hundreds of old hats -- many were trade-ins for new Stetsons and others were donated in memory of the cowboys who wore them. This image was accepted for the High and Dry Exhibit XI and will hang at the International Cultural Center, 702 Indiana, until January 9.

Solano's Western Wear
Raton, New Mexico
5.29.2010

chrismon

Chrismon Tree
St. John's Methodist Church
12.19.2008

let it snow

Texas Tech Christmas Tree
Broadway
Lubbock, Texas

clara

Do you know what all the hubbub is about?
No, and who are all these people?
Did they make you tear paper off some box?
Yes, but they wouldn't let me eat it.
They said 28 years ago they propped our daddies here and took their picture.
And it was on this same ugly sofa.
What are second cousins any way?

William and Hannah
Christmas at Pop's

buddy holly christmas

Raising Cane's Chicken
907 University
Lubbock, Texas

pentax k-1000

From the family album:
My first SLR camera, the Pentax K-1000
Jacksonville, Alabama
Christmas 1982

christmas elms

From the archives:

Can lights and elm trees create a surreal yuletide scene at Santa Land in Mackenzie Park.
12.15.2010

harley claus

Today, for five dollars, you could have had your picture made with Harley Claus on the hog.

Wild West Harley Davidson
5702 58th Street
Lubbock, Texas

hanging our stockings

In a house without a fireplace, it's difficult to find a place to hang your Christmas stockings. Suzy and I ended up hanging them on the knobs of the Firestone Air Chief radio and phonograph (this was the entertainment center before television). It probably came from the Firestone Home and Auto Supply Store in Lubbock. According to www.airchiefradios.com,

our console radio was probably a pre-war model. An ad for a similar model touts six tubes, 10-inch speaker and matching walnut cabinet. Wonder what happened to all those colorful children's records we listened to?

From the family album:

Christmas 1952

New Deal, Texas

christmas greetings from 401

The Cattle Shipping Complex at the Ranching Heritage Center features Number 401, a steam locomotive originally given to in 1983. Texas Tech University in the 1960s and moved to the NRC from its space near the Coliseum. When former vice president of the Fort Worth and Denver railroad line and Texas Tech Regent Wright Armstrong made an effort to acquire a locomotive for the University, he learned the engines had been sold for scrap in 1955. With none available in Texas, the Burlington Railroad Lines brought Number 4994 out of storage. It was restored and its markings changed to represent the locomotive as one used in West Texas—the Fort Worth and Denver 401, which was built in 1915. The Cattle Shipping Complex, including the Ropes Depot, shipping pens from the King Ranch and Number 401 with its cattle cars and caboose helps tell the story of the railroad’s influence on the cattle industry in Texas.

Ranching Heritage Center
3121 4th Street
Lubbock, Texas

deck the pawn shop with boughs of holly
fa la la la

The sign painter is decorating Swat's Pawn Shop at 2301 19th for the Christmas season. Need gift ideas, a piece of jewelry or a loan? See Scott at Swat's!

the stockings were hung with care

Second-story apartment on Avenue F off Broadway --alleyview
Lubbock, Texas

tree lot

A vanishing Christmas tradition is going to the tree lot and picking out a real tree. This lot on the Sam's parking lot is one of the very few in Lubbock. These trees for West Texas homes were grown in Colorado and shipped in refrigerated trucks. When I lived in Alabama, we'd climb the hill behind the house (the Talladega National Forest was my backyard) and cut down our own tree. Today most people just get the box out of the attic.

christmas 1950

From the family album:
Christmas at Mom and Papaw's. This was my last Christmas as an only child and only grandchild on both sides. Who knew that the toys would become antiques? Of course I'm fairly vintage myself!

bentley and santa paws

It was an experience taking Bentley to Hodges Community Center to have his picture made with Santa Paws. He was outnumbered and outsized by all breeds of dogs - most them in holiday attire.

weihnachten engel

This Christmas angel has been part of my decorations since 1977. That year I spent the holidays in Munich, Germany - complete with real candles on fresh trees, roast duck, midnight mass and seventeen inches of snow. This cardboard angel came wrapped a fried apple pie from McDonalds!

santa is a red raider

Cactus Alley
Lubbock, Texas

greetings from the griswolds

My neighborhood
Lubbock, Texas

christmas lights

Kingsgate South
82nd and Quaker
Lubbock, Texas

santa's snow village

Santa Land
Mackenzie Park
Lubbock, Texas

christmas wonderland

Vintage Township
114th Street
Lubbock, Texas

holiday tradition

From the archives:
Texas Tech Carol of Lights
12.25.2008

santa who?

From the family album:
A visit to Santa isn't always a pleasant experience. Billy and Jean took Sandy to Los Angeles when they went to visit the Pearces. Evidently sitting on Santa's lap was less fun then visiting Knott's Berry Farm.

Sandy, Wilma and Danny
Los Angeles 1950

my first christmas

From the family album:
My first Christmas
December 22- age 4 weeks
Probably at E.W. and Burma Smith's house
2001 26th Street
Lubbock, Texas
(note Pop's hat on the sofa)

construction

The new dormitory at Texas Tech has gone up surprisingly fast. Yesterday this facade was just metal studs; today it is almost covered. The south facade already has brick. I don't think this building will be as sturdy as Drane Hall. Built under the Public Works Administration Act to open fall 1941, Drane was first known as "Girls Dormitory #2." Yours truly resided on the third floor of Drane.

chrysanthemums

The mums in my front yard have endured heat, drought, wind and blowing sand but I doubt that the blooms will survive the predicted 20 degrees, winds, freezing rain and chance of snow.

longjohns

You might get out your winter underwear - a change in the weather is predicted.

From the archives:
Ranching Heritage Center
Lubbock, Texas
09.28.2011

after the harvest

From the archives:

El Rancho de las Golondrinas
Santa Fe, New Mexico

10.29.2010

brown saturday after black friday

We left New Braunfels this morning in a driving rain storm. The last 100 miles to Lubbock was blowing sand -- visibility about one telephone pole.

US 87
Dawson County, Texas

guadalupe river

Gruene, Texas

happy turkey day

From the archives:
V8 Ranch
Lubbock County, Texas
11.08.2011

oatmeal, texas

Oatmeal, on Road 243 out of Burnet, is one of the oldest settlements in the county -- current population 20 -- but this morning it was only the bird and me. I don't think the residents of the Oatmeal Cemetery count for population. But the numbers increase Labor Day Weekend for the Oatmeal Festival, which started in the 1970s as a spoof on chili cook offs.

the dam lighthouse

Buchanan Lake, Texas

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

rest in peace

Tow Cemetery,
Tow, Texas

rural skyscraper

Sunday afternoon

Hart, Texas

classical revival in lubbock

Today I met up with 15 or so photographers from Lubbock at the court house gazebo to participate in the Worldwide BetterPhoto Meetup Day. Shooters from around the world gather ed in their hometowns to take pictures.

www.meetup.com/BetterPhoto

1931 Federal Building
800 Broadway
Lubbock, Texas

moe, curly and larry

I spent a delightful afternoon photographing on a friend's ranch in the Yellowhouse Canyon. However, I found the audience a little disconcerting.

Yellowhouse Canyon
Lubbock County, Texas

alley allusions

I hate to admit my "out of touchness" but I had to google to learn about this graffiti in the Depot Alley. For the rest of you uninformed, the "Summer of George" is a Seinfeld episode about spending time leisurely after losing a job. The other quote is Billy Pilgrim's epitaph from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five. If you already knew this, don't rub it in. If you don't know Seinfeld and Vonnegut, you're worse off than I am!

Depot Alley
1700 Block between Texas and Buddy Holly Avenues
Lubbock, Texas

still life

My friend Margaret took me out for dinner to begin the birthday festivities.

La Diosa Cellars
901 17th Street
Lubbock, Texas

retail tableau

Bike Shop
66th and Slide
Lubbock, Texas

boucherie et bottes

From the archives:
In 1871, this shop on the cobble-stoned street of Metz, France was a butcher shop. Today it sells western wear. Still in the cattle business -- of sorts!

Metz, France
08.25.2011

wide open

From the archives:
Brooks' Barn in Lubbock County
11.07.11

(Since my friend MGH is off writing the great American novel, I thought I'd take up the slack by posting a sky/structure photo.)

welcome

Ginger's Sunlit Bench
Artist Studio Tour

semper fi

Veterans Days 2011
In honor of my father
World War II
U. S. Marine Corps
3rd Division, VRM 252
Navigator in Curtiss Commando C-46
Pacific Theater

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

fallen leaf
(unidentified genus and species)