This morning I spent some hours at San Gabriel Park in Georgetown, Texas to cover the 10th annual Alzheimer’s Walk for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.   About 450 participants were on hand to show support for a tragic disease.   While all illness is bad, this one steals so much.   Those taking part walked to honor friends or family members who’ve dealt with this emotional pain.   These events raise money, and awareness.  That’s needed.   The first photo is a 10-year-old who’s lost family members to the disease.  The last image, trying to keep a positive focus, gives you Mercy, a 7-year-old miniature horse, one of the greeters at the finish line for finishers.   We need more Mercy.  

If you follow these posts, you’ll remember that cotton-related subjects are still in play.   For area farmers at harvest time, getting the product to the gin is of paramount importance.   For these photos I visited my friends at Waterloo Gin, just a little northeast of our Taylor home.   At this time of the year, cotton harvests are in high gear.   Once harvested, gigantic modules make it from the fields to the gin.   Waterloo Gin co-owners David Woollett and Clement Strmiska expect to be busy well into November.   They keep things running six days a week, usually 12 hours a day.   It was a pleasure on my visit there this year to see Pete still on the job.   His real name is Pedro, but everyone calls him Pete.  Pete’s 87 now.  He’s been working at cotton gins for 65 years.   You’ll find him in a few photos.  The large modules, like the one pictured in the opening photo, weigh from 16,000-20,000 pounds.  The truck is parked on the scale, where the driver goes inside and records the exact weight.  It’s hot and dry in Central Texas, but too much rain plays havoc with cotton harvests.   “We like it dry,” says Woollett.   While we need the rain, our farmers need successful yields.   More power to them all.   And Pete?  You’re amazing. 

Let’s keep things simple tonight, friends.   Cotton, as you might’ve figured out by now, is on my mind quite a lot.   The post begins with a healthy field near Noack, Texas.   Earlier this week a friend mentioned tractors, which led to the second photo, taken at sunset tonight a little  south of Granger.    Remember:  I’m not done with cotton yet.  More later.

While looking for a feature on a cold February night in 1976, I happened on this pair of fencers squaring off on the amphitheater stage at Centenary College in Shreveport.   The theater, built in 1936, has seating for 2,000, but on this night, they had an audience of one, a curious photojournalist.  They were oblivious to my presence and working up a good sweat on this chilly evening.  Centenary College is a small liberal arts college affiliated with the Methodist Church that’s been educating students since 1825.   All these years later, I still like to wander.  The cameras have changed, but seeing has not.

While I find all seasonal crop harvests enriching, cotton is probably at the top of my list.  There are still healthy fields of cotton all around us, but the combines and tractors are out in these Blackland  Prairie fields, stripping as fast as they can before a rain comes along and damages all that hard work.   It’s a dilemma for some of us because we need the precipitation, but these farmers need good yields, too.   Anyway, these  photos were made  last evening as a friend’s field was harvested a little east of Taylor, Texas.    Most of these folks work well into the evening hours.   Thank goodness for modern equipment.   Expect more cotton posts, friends. 

Last week a friend, aware of my interest in preservation, mentioned the grand opening of the Lawhon Springs School and Museum in Lee County, Texas.   Nestled in a tree-shaded field along F.M. 619, just south of the Williamson County line, this one-room schoolhouse began life in 1924, closing in 1949.   For years it sat in that field, slowly succumbing to the land and nature’s elements.  A couple of years ago, a group dedicated to keeping its history alive, asked the owner of the land if they could repurpose it as a museum.    After much hard work, it opened Saturday, with a fresh coat of paint, extensive wood, roof and window work outside.   Inside, the walls were scrubbed and painted, the blackboard restored and the original floor was repaired.   The desks were acquired to add to the ambience, but the teacher’s desk at front is original. Also included are bits of history related to the area.  The last photo in this series isn’t from Lawhon Springs.  That’s my own little school desk, with me now for 61 years.  In 1958, as I prepared to enter first grade at Grim Elementary School in Texarkana, Texas, the school district decided to upgrade classrooms to more modern desks.   The original desks, with the school since its opening in 1913, were being sold for 25 cents each, which happened to be the amount of my weekly allowance.   With quarter in hand, I walked to the school, less than a block away, and purchased my desk.  Lugging it home, my puzzled mama asked “What have you got, Andy?”  But she let me keep the purchase.   All these years later, that desk has lived with us in Texas, Louisiana and Georgia.  It’s now used as a table for my morning coffee while reading.   Grim Elementary, however, is no more, the victim of a road-widening project.   Lawhon Springs School, however, is still with us.   You can visit it every third Saturday between 9a.m.-1p.m.

On this first day of autumn we reached 100 degrees in Central Texas, but let’s represent the day anyway, okay?  These are photos made this evening in East Williamson County, Texas.   The opening photo was actually the final image of the night, but since it’s my favorite, there you are. We’re in the middle of cotton harvest season.  You’ll see a few images related to that, this one included. The others two are along the same county road east of Granger.   The nearly-setting sun helped create some nice shadows, including one of my 13-year-old Honda gracing a barn’s facade.  It’s too dang hot, but I am not leaving Texas.  We’ll cope, but will welcome cooler temperatures, whenever they come.   Watermarks are usually on social media posts, but they’re here tonight, too.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the parade for Bartlett’s Friendship Fest on Saturday in Bartlett, Texas, but arrived as soon as possible.  Bartlett is a Central Texas community of 1600-1700 people residing in both Williamson and Bell Counties, about 50 miles northeast of Austin.   Nevertheless, it was fun to watch a 7-year-old named Emmett try his hand at stacking wooden blocks in a game of Jenga.  Plus watching attendees do a bit of dancing along West Clark Street.  And friends enjoying the music of Nick Starling and the Nomads.  Many of my ventures into this community are at dusk, or well beyond.  It was  cool to see a few scenes not often encountered: vine-covered facades and American flags among them.  If all goes well, I hope to return to Bartlett a few more times.   These towns are filled with ambience.

My first assignment this morning was covering the Sun City Horticulture Club’s Fall plant sale.   Having covered it a number of times, I wasn’t mentally on-board with it, but accepted the assignment, as any work, with the notion that I’d do the best I could.   Then Ernie entered the picture.   At 99, Ernie’s the club’s oldest member, but on this morning, he wasn’t a worker.  He was a shopper, purchasing some nice cabbage plants to add to his garden plot.  In February, he’ll be 100-years-old.   A World War II veteran (Air Force), Ernie perseveres.  Vision and hearing issues are a challenge, but he’s a trooper.   He went about the work of the morning, adding those new cabbage plants to his garden plot, already adorned with many items, including some healthy-looking okra.   Because of his vision and hearing issues, Ernie’s watch is equipped with a speaker that loudly provides him with the time.  He gave up driving 8 years ago, but still navigates Sun City with his electric golf cart.    Ernie made a long day an exceptional one.

Many of the horses photographed in my area are lucky finds, but in Norman’s Crossing, Texas I’ve found some friends.  These friends have a shaded pasture behind the Norman’s Crossing Community Center.  These photos, taken a couple of night ago, aren’t meant to be literal interpretations.   I like how those  tails swish and swirl, keeping  the flies at bay.  They’re captivating to watch.  For my next visit, with their owner’s permission, I’ll bring along some carrots.   The  chickens will fend for themselves.