I could get complicated tonight, posting color and black and white versions of scenes taken Monday evening, but let’s just do this one, also taken last evening along Justin Lane, on the western perimeter of my little town, Taylor, Texas.   In an ideal world, power lines wouldn’t be in this image, but hopefully the other stuff going on makes up for things, at least a little. 

One of the fun activities for Georgetown’s annual Festival of the Arts was held Saturday evening at San Gabriel Park.  The festival’s focus is classical music, but each year, they offer up this free event in the park.  Folks bring their lawn chairs and blankets and listen to a bit of music.  Some wheel in on their tandem bikes.  This year, attendees listened to some bagpipes played by the Georgetown Fire Department’s Pipes & Drums, plus some delicate music performed by member of the Georgetown High School String Quartet.   One of the rules I’ve had, which I continue to break, are images of people staring into the camera.  Sometimes, however, it just works.  One young lady, 11-months-old, sort of makes the case for looking into the camera.  The night concluded with fireworks.  While I don’t care for fireworks, many people do.

The other night, when my destination was a church I like to document was the plan, this family of Blackland Prairie farmers got my attention.  They include  two brothers and a son, going about  harvesting their wheat crop.   Naturally, the plan changed for a while.  The family, from Thrall, Texas, has about 2700 acres planted right now, most of it corn.  But we plant many crops in our rich black soil in Central Texas. 

These sunflowers growing wild along Bill Pickett Trail in Taylor are not what I shot tonight, but they’re what’s being posted.    Bill Pickett, for those unversed, was an African-American (and Taylor native)  who brought the rodeo sport of bulldogging to the world.   A statue of Mr. Pickett is being dedicated this week in Taylor.   I am proud we named a road after him.

This week, I spent time at three good places to cool off in Georgetown as summer bears down on us.  Two are Parks Department city pools, the third a series of cool (really) splash pads at San Jose Park.   The first four  photos, beginning with a dad and his daughter,  were taken at the the splash pad, followed by three  shots from the splash pool at the Georgetown Recreation Center, a very kid-friendly place.  The rest of the photos are from the city’s venerable Williams Drive pool, which has been around a long time.  It’s still popular today.  Just ask the grandma and grandson in the final image.   These photos were taken for my friends at the Williamson County Sun.

On Sunday evening I posted some storm photos from Milam County, Texas.  My goal had been to find an old structure photographed by Frank Armstrong, one of my  early-1970s professors at UT-Austin in 2004.   Sadly, the building fell victim to a fire in 2008.   Since I’d made the hour-long drive, I made a few images of what I saw, presented in both color and black and white.   My preference on all is b/w, but each to his/her own.  The first couple,  from Burlington, Texas,  shows what remains of their fire department, an International Harvester with grass growing around its base.   The second photos are of a Burlington resident cycling back home with his very nice dog.  He was the one who gave me the news of the 2008 fire.   Note that I normally don’t cotton to seeing folks on bikes without helmets, but folks, this town is tiny, a few hundred folks at most.   I’m pretty sure they fared well.  Burlington is about eleven miles north of Cameron, the county seat.   The last photos, as the storms began to brew, are from Ben Arnold,  7 miles north of Cameron.  These days, the most active spot in Ben Arnold is a bar.  This, however, is not the bar.  The latest census pegs this dot on the map at around 148 residents.  The community began in 1890, as a stop on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway.  The town was named for 3-year-old Bennie Arnold, the daughter of B.I. Arnold.   Bennie was the mascot for the first train to pull into the station.   I may be wrong, but I think Ben Arnold will remain a sleepy Texas town.  It bears repeating:  b/w is my preference. 

Until I was looking for the name of someone I photographed a few years back on Memorial Day, I didn’t realize this was the first Sun City Memorial Day  to be held outdoors since 2014.   Rain threatened in the intervening years, taking activities indoors.  After recent storms in the area, this morning was quite humid, but thankfully it was outdoors once again, at Veterans Memorial Plaza.   There was quite a turnout despite the humidity.  One couple I admired, you see them holding hands, are both veterans.  He’s 97, a World War II Navy veteran.  His bride, 92, was a WAVE during that same war.  They’ve been married for 70 years.    As if you need a reminder, Memorial Day is meant to be a solemn occasion, honoring those who’ve died in service to the country.   Unfortunately, speakers at these events are often elected office holders who feel the need to make this a partisan occasion.   That’s regrettable.  I’m thinking now about Howard Elder, a high school classmate and fellow marching band member.  For reasons unknown, Howard dropped out of school and joined the Army.  He didn’t come home from Vietnam.  He was a good guy.   This is not about politics, friends.  If you choose to make it so, you’re missing the point of the day.

This afternoon I drove about an hour east of my Taylor home, to Milam County, Texas.  I was looking for an old structure one of my college professors photographed in Burlington, a few miles north of Cameron.  I found Burlington, but also found out the building succumbed to a fire in 2008.   On the way back home, however, I found a storm.   These are a few images from tonight’s trek.  

This week I attended two graduation ceremonies in Georgetown.  The first, on Wednesday night, was for Richarte High School, the school district’s alternative high school for students who might need a little extra care along the way.   The first photos are from there, including the class valedictorian, waiting backstage for things to start.   The other two fit well into Richarte’s theme of helping.   The 2-year-old being held by his aunt, with his father at his side, is the son of one of the graduates, followed by a post-ceremony photo with baby, mom and dad.    The rest of the photos were at East View High School’s Friday commencement, held at the HEB Center at Cedar Park.   Past high school graduations have been held outdoors at the district’s beautiful stadium, but late-spring heat, and last year’s stormy weather on the big night caused the district to look for a safe place.   I still like the stadium though.  And it’s in Georgetown, not Cedar Park.  The onstage activity was rather mundane.  After the ceremony, several students mentioned they’d been instructed to keep it low-key.  That, of course, makes for tepid images.  One family in the audience made a good image though.  Thankfully, at the very end,  a young lady jumped up, raised her arms high and celebrated.   After getting her name for the paper, I thanked her for her enthusiasm.   Another I like:  grandfather waiting with red roses for his granddaughter, who worked the phone trying to find some of her  fellow graduates.  

When I think of schools, it’s hard to not remember Grim Elementary School, in Texarkana, Texas, where I spent my first years of formal education, beginning in 1958.   That divine old building came along in 1913.   Before my first dip into world of learning, Grim modernized, putting its original desks up for sale for the grand some of a quarter … 25 cents.  That happened to be my 6-year-old’s weekly allowance.  Since Grim was less than a block from home, I bought a desk.   It has a place in my home office in 2017.   This is a roundabout way of letting you know how I spent my Thursday in Georgetown, Texas … documenting the final hours of Annie Purl Elementary School.  They’re opening a new Annie Purl in the fall, but Thursday was  a time to remember the old school, built in 1953.   This original version has been, for a couple years, just for pre-k through second grade.   I arrived on campus about 30 minutes before the doors opened, at 7:20.  Except for a two-hour period, where I did my daily walk, I stayed well beyond closing time.  The first image and the last one are the same, but I do like black and white.  It’s the first photo I took Thursday.    The school’s demolition will begin in the next few days.  Those murals you see here?  They’re going by the wayside.  I find that sad.   And can’t help but think about Grim Elementary, taken away for a road-widening project.   Progress … I guess.