I'm not a big shopper, but I actually do love little stores. The older the better. This great shop in Alpine, Texas specializes in Raspas, a Mexican shaved ice treat. They also have Mexican pottery and imported crafts for sale. And lots of chairs for hanging around while you eat or drink. Favorite Small Stores: The "Little Store" down the street in Grinnell, where we turned in pop bottles to pay for our candy... The Hanneke Market, just a walk away from our home in Glendale, MO. I walked my kids in their wagon and you could still, "charge it". The Milkman's store, down the street from our apt in Italy. The sweet milkman delivered our bottles by bike in the morning and we stopped by for ice cream some afternoons...
0 Comments
My little bro and I were hamming for cameras in both photos. We were coming out of a bowling alley in the top photo and exploring Roman ruins in the bottom. I have way too many stories of laughing through interesting places with my brother. So I'll save those stories and let one of these 2 places inspire my list! Columns I Remember: Somebody.... (not me) climbing up the columns inside our guest room, at Austin's Driskill Hotel. The marble and gold leaf columns in the lobby of Hotel Finlen in Butte, MT... The classic Greek columns surrounding Lincoln Memorial... The line-up of ancient stone columns at Chichen Itza... 20 iron columns, (painted in pastel colors) on a home, owned by my Great-Great Uncle Harry... A marble, pedestal column purchased by great grandparents at 1904 World's Fair...
I've loved towers since I was a kid, absorbed in fairytales. The Desert View Watchtower at The Grand Canyon's south rim puts a real smile on my face. Five years ago, we arrived early, but stayed through sunset. We climbed inside for spectacular views and we sat beside it to watch the sun sink into the canyon. Impressive to know that a woman, Mary Colter was the architect in 1932! Towers I Love: Climbing Giotto's bell tower in Florence... The 3 grand, stone & brick water towers still standing tall in St. Louis... The vintage water tower beside old sugar mill in Sugar Land, TX... Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower... The Eiffel Tower and Pisa's Leaning Tower of course!
Scott was about 3 when he participated in a sack race at a company picnic in Oklahoma. I don't remember the outcome, but I know there were no tears, or injuries. He does seem to have a determined smile, in this photo that I love! Jumping Kids: My kids leaping about in bounce-houses, at kid parties over the years... Myself, jumping back & forth between hotel beds, when I was old enough to know better... At 14, I was on the school trampoline team for 1 week, before realizing I was the only one without experience... In P.E., doing the broad jump, (poorly) every year for the President's Fitness Award... Watching each of my kiddos, with arm-floaties, jump off the board for the first time!
MUST ADD: Scott read and reminded me of 2 good ones. The only time I jumped from a plane and watching my kids jump from a rock ledge into the waters of a Mexican cenote! This merry-go-round, needs some weed trimming and some kids to cheer it up. But it was a fun thing to spot last spring, resting in the grass beside an old schoolhouse in Missouri. As a kid, I adored all the "dangerous equipment" that has since disappeared. (Swings are becoming scarce in schools, now) Some of the crazy stuff I remember playing on, was built at the Miracle Company, just outside of Grinnell, Iowa. Miracle introduced so much of the colorful, fiberglass equipment... whimsical elephant slides and horse swings with pumping bars! Equipment I Loved: Cooper School's, circulating-Maypole-type structure where kids held hoops at the end of each chain... Teeter-totters, even though I was small and often got held up and teased... my friend Debbie's real jungle gym in her yard... Blackburn Park's human "hamster wheel", enclosed in a tiny house... Rocket Slides, made in Grinnell but still found many places... The Miracle Whirl that replaced the wooden merry-go-round, with metal platform and tubing handrails. "Hold the bar and and run, run, run in the grass, until it's time to jump on for the ride!!"
A lot of people are tail-gating today. It's the season. It was fall when this photo was taken in about 1990, but we weren't at a football game. We were enjoying Ted Drew's Frozen Custard, a St. Louis tradition! I love it that we could flip up the hatch of the old wagon and have our custard treat in the back of the car! Cozy Car Memories: Playing Scrabble in the parked car with Heidi, as we waited out a storm on the Natchez Trail... My sister, burrowing back into our jam-packed, '60's Ford wagon and falling asleep. We thought we'd left her at the rest stop... I was tiny when I tried to hide on the floor of the backseat, to go along with Mom & Dad, instead of staying with a babysitter... We backed the same car, (pictured) into the Drive-In, so the kids could watch the movie out the back.
This sweet old gas station doesn't have a happy history, but the image is soothing for some reason. The Magnolia/Mobile Service station was built in the 1920's about the time when Little Rock High School was built across the street. It became a temporary office during the segregation crisis in 1957. Toady it looks peaceful and sweet, like stations I remember still serving our car when I was a kid. I loved hearing the car tires make the "ding" that called the attendant, who said, "Fill 'er up?" I loved watching the windows being washed and the oil being checked. I remember playing "gas station" with my little brother at home! Gas Station Memories: The Sinclair dinosaur statue.... As a kid, pumping my Schwinn bike tires... Episodes of Andy Griffith with gas station scenes... And the modern Pop's Station on Route 66 in Arcadia, OK, with 700 kinds of pop and a 66-foot soda bottle!
I've been channeling my bootie-kicking donkey spirit for months now. I carry my tiny wooden mascot with me to chemo. But I've always loved the sweet and yes, stubborn reputation of my burro friends. Almost exactly a year ago, I got to rub the nose of Brighty in the lodge at Grand Canyon's North Rim. Great stories of this real fellow, who became more famous by the book "Brighty of the Grand Canyon". Donkeys I Love: Pooh's friend, Eeyore of course.... "Donkey", in the movie Shrek... Prunes, the famous burro of Fairplay, CO.... The sweet burro I rode to cross the border to Mexico from Texas' Big Bend Park... Illustrations of The Virgin Mary riding a donkey...
I love how peaceful these Chilean horses look with some sun and breeze adding a little extra energy to the pose. But moments after clicking this photo, the surprise of 2 kayaks on the nearby river, sent them into a full gallop up the side of the mountain with 15 other horses. In a line, they zigzagged up the rugged terrain, with manes flowing and dirt billowing. The zoom lens made me feel close, but without the camera, the image was like a movie scene. It seemed too perfect to be real. Fave Horse Movies: F.F. Coppola's, Black Stallion... 1994 version of Black Beauty... All the Pretty Little Horses... Sea Biscuit from 2003... As a kid my favorites were, National Velvet & Run Wild Run Free.
Last year Jenni and I sported some fine bonnets for our Oklahoma Land Run celebration.... tracking down property that had been in our family, practically since the land run. I love forcing Jenni to dress up in costumes and headgear. She's always willing. Today she is accompanying me to Chemo Round 3 and our heads will be festive! Sister Head Decor From Past: Easter hats and boring church scarves... vintage lady hats when doing an improv for my 50th birthday... knit stocking caps covered in snow, back in Iowa... Heads wrapped in silk scarves for today's chemo... And we could have both been bald together, since Jenni offered to shave her head along with me...XOXO
|
Happy List
|