Just Moseying Along

Is it just me or does this turtle's shell look like it's upside down?

Post Office Murals - 1 (Giddings, Texas)

If the photo in this post looks familiar, it should.  I’ve posted it before.  But I’ve decided to undertake a new Texas history project within this blog (in addition to my courthouse project), and that is a visit to some of the great Post Office murals in this big state.  The murals, examples of New Deal art, were commissioned by the Section of Painting and Sculpture of the U.S. Treasury Department between 1934 and 1943.  During the Great Depression the Public Works of Art Project was developed to bring artist workers back into the job market and assure the American public that better times were on the way.  Nearly $145 million was appropriated for the construction of new buildings, including courthouses, schools, libraries, and post offices, and the Section of Painting and Sculpture focused its goal on reaching as many American citizens as possible.  Since the local post office seemed to be the most frequented government building by the public, the Section commissioned 700 murals to be put on national display.  The Post Office Murals have come to be known as the People's Art.  I discovered a wonderful book called The Texas Post Office Murals by Philip Parisi which contains photos of all the Texas murals, even original photos of a few which have become lost or were destroyed.  The book is full of history about each one.  

Texas was granted 69 murals, 61 of which still exist, although a small number of those are not available for public viewing.  I encountered three of these murals during a trip I took a year ago into Central Texas, but even more exciting I now know that there are seven right here in East Texas within a short 100 miles of where I live, so my goal is to bring the People’s Art of Texas to the people who follow this blog.  Someday perhaps I’ll get the opportunity to travel to more distant parts of the state to see the others.  I’m still lacking 35 courthouse photos of Victorian era courthouses so hopefully having two goals will make all those miles easier to accomplish.

All 50 states and Puerto Rico have Post Office Murals.  You can find a list of your state’s murals by visiting this link.

Cowboys Receiving the Mail

by Otis Dozier - 1939

Giddings, Texas

When commissioned for the Giddings mural, Dozier started with some preliminary sketches featuring Pony Express riders and cowboys receiving mail.  But when he visited Giddings, he found that cowboys in that area were few and far between.  The postmaster informed him that the town instead had one of the largest poultry processing plants in that area, so Dozier began work on some sketches featuring the poultry industry.  Upon being submitted to the Section of Painting and Sculpture, Dozier was informed that the section found the poultry business a bit unsavory and its goal was to supply the public with works of beauty.  He was encouraged to pursue his ideas of cowboys receiving the mail, which he personally felt to be a charming subject which emphasized the mail’s importance in people’s lives.

 

In this mural we see cowboys gathered around a rural mailbox as one of them opens a newly arrived package containing a pair of red cowboy boots, a second cowboy reading a letter he has received (perhaps from a sweetheart?), while the third cowboy sits astride his horse with disappointment on his face, having not received any mail.  The mural includes some mountains in the background, although the landscape around Giddings is completely flat.  Despite this error and the lack of cowboys in Giddings, the community liked the mural and the postmaster has been quoted as saying it was “a first-class job.”

(Historical information for this post has been taken directly from The Texas Post Office Murals by Philip Parisi.)

47/100 Dogs - Flash - Basset Hound

Flash is the CEO of a rural plant nursery near where I live.  And no, he does not have a hangover.

Cruising Croc

Cruising through the murky, swampy waters of the crocodile pond at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, Texas.

Young Buck

Another white-tailed deer wandered into our back pasture yesterday.  I could immediately tell that it was smaller than the one I showed you a photo of a few days ago so I assumed it was a young adolescent.  I grabbed the camera and very gently turned the knob at the back door.  Even the sound from a quarter turn put this one on notice.  I literally spent four minutes opening the door a fraction of an inch at a time but just far enough that I could hold it open with my knee and stick the camera out only enough so he didn't bolt and run.  He was a bit further down in the meadow than my last subject so the clarity of the photo is not as good.  But imagine my surprise upon cropping it down to find that this was a young buck sporting velvet.  I do hope he returns when he has a full rack.  We see lots of does but seldom a buck.  I hope he makes it through his first deer season.

Flamingo

Ellen Trout Zoo

Lufkin, Texas

Afternoon Snack

This sweet little doe found some tender green morsels about 20 feet from our back fence one recent afternoon.  She looks like she's snagged a few barbed wire fences in her life, but at least she's dodged the bullets.  I hope her luck continues to hold.

Indian Blanket

Another bountiful Texas wildflower

Photographed at Lake Naconiche State Park

aka Firewheel and Gaillardia

Spiderwort

What Is This Plant?

It was one of those slam on the brakes, U-turn moments as my peripheral vision caught a blur of brilliant red amongst the lush green, almost tropical foliage we enjoy here in East Texas as I zipped down a country road on my way to somewhere (going grocery shopping, visiting a declining aunt in a nearby nursing home, or any number of errands I find that take up my time these days).  I had to travel about half a mile before I found a suitable place to turn around on this narrow, two-lane, winding and hilly thoroughfare to return to investigate this anomaly.  Behind a gate on totally unimproved, unmarked property which didn't even have a road to enter it, sat this clump of fire.  Luckily I had a pair of boots in the back or else I would have been reluctant to brave the knee-high grass, which surely had slithery creatures crawling through it, and the fallen, rotting tree trunk which was attempting to block my getting closer to that locked gate.

It seems vaguely familiar, like that word on the tip of your tongue that you can'r form on your lips until five minutes after the person you were explaining something to left the scene.  This leafless beauty reminds me of something I might see at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, but a search of red-blooming desert plants yielded no clues and I'm still at a loss.  Anyone with any ideas out there on what it is?  It looks like nothing I've ever seen growing in this area, nor does the place where it grows appear to have ever had a house on it, so even after I discover what it is, I will still be wondering how it got here!

Thanks for your help.

Historic Bank Buildings in McKinney, Texas

McKinney, Texas, has two historic bank buildings still standing on the courthouse square downtown.  This one is on the east side of the square.  McKinney has repurposed its old downtown into an area of eclectic shops and boutiques.

This detail near the top of the building includes inlaid stone carving and an eagle emblem.

Detail of the architecture above the door.

On the south side of the courthouse square sits this beauty with its stately columns. Notice the red brick streets which still serve the needs of the traveling public.

Detail of the eagle emblem on the top of the building.  This indicates the bank was founded in 1869.  That doesn't mean the building is that old.  I would estimate this structure was built in the early part of the 1900s, perhaps in the 1920s before the Great Depression struck when banks were very rich.

Lake Naconiche

Lake Naconiche was opened to the public in the summer of 2012 after a mere 50 years of planning and development.  It is quickly becoming a very popular bass fishing lake in Texas.

Dandelions

The dandelions this year have outdone themselves in numbers.  From a distance they look like pretty puffy flowers.

Along the Roadside

Once upon a time there was probably a house sitting here where the barbed wire fence now encloses a piece of land.  Crimson clover grows randomly but tall bearded irises do not, especially colored one.  The plant with the large leaves in the right foreground appears to be a castor bean.

I'm in Love with this Bird

Ellen Trout Zoo

Lufkin, Texas

I don't know what he is but I think this is one bad-ass dude bird!  And furthermore, this was one of those lucky shots that the wires of his cage didn't show up in the photo.  I never know how to do that, but sometimes it just happens!

Thank you for your service, Chester Nez

Photo Credits:  Associated Press, Arizona Republic

Chester Nez passed away yesterday.  He was 93 years old and lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  And you say why was he so special?  Because Chester Nez was the last surviving member of the original Navajo Code Talkers, the brave young men from Arizona and New Mexico who devised an unbreakable code to defeat the Axis powers during World War II.

Chester grew up in the village of Chi Chil Tah in New Mexico, but due to cutbacks in sheep grazing forced upon the Navajo by the U.S. government, Chester was sent to a boarding school in Tuba City, Arizona.  There he learned English and in 1942 the United States Marine came looking for Navajo boys to recruit them for an unusual assignment.  Most of these young men had never been outside the Navajo Reservation.

A short article about Chester and the Code Talkers can be found at this link from the Arizona Republic if you're interested. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/2014/06/04/arizona-navajo-code-talker-dies-nez/9965201/

The following photos, which appeared in my blog(s) in January 2010 were taken at the Code Talkers memorial on the grounds of the Arizona state capitol.

It is believed that between 375 and 420 Navajos served as Code Talkers during World War II.

The code devised by these young men is the only unbroken code in modern military history.

Little is known about the individual Code Talkers as they were not publicity-seekers and simply returned home from the war and blended into their culture and society.

Stone Faces (Hopkins County Courthouse - No. 16)

The last post on this blog of several days past was of the Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the Hopkins County Courthouse in Sulphur Springs, Texas.  One of the reasons for my revisiting Sulphur Springs was because when I first went there in May of 2012 the courthouse grounds were fenced off because of the construction of the memorial and also to make a few repairs to the building.  While I was preparing the post of May 6, 2012, and reviewing the research I had done on this grand structure I discovered I had totally forgotten to look for the faces that were carved on the courthouse.  I found them on this trip but it was no easy feat.  They are very difficult to see and I had no idea what they really looked like or if I had even captured them clearly until I was able to view the photos on my computer.  I think now is a perfect time to share these faces carved in sandstone with you.

Some surmise that artisan stone carvers who were employed in the original construction were simply given a bit of free rein to express their art.  Don't you find the eyes just a bit spooky?

I have no idea how many of these faces exist.  Perhaps these are the only ones. They are the only two I was able to spot.

If you have any interest in seeing the previous posts of the Hopkins County Courthouse, you will find them here and here.  Of the 39 historic courthouses I've visited in Texas it is, by far, my favorite.