Here are some additional illustrations …. [NB used as feature images]
I have just finished which I am inserting into an anthology of all past trips, dating back to 1981 (the first odyssey in New Baleau). I am so relieved to finally gather up all these stray manuscripts and compile them into one complete volume (in chronological order). With single-sided sheets, the number of pages has reached 142. Maybe it‘s time to seek out a publisher…and maybe it is time to consider a word processor (with a built-in printer). The erasing and white-outs are really getting to be taxing.
I would like to express my gratitude to two dear old friends, Elizabeth Sasser and Suzie Humphries-Mayo, for encouraging me to compliment my writings with drawings. Suzie even sent me a beautiful booklet titled “Regards to the Bunch”, a collection of illustrated letters by Charles M. Russell – quite an inspiration, to say the least.
The writing and sketching has been a perfect release of creative energy during droughts of design work. In this regard, back in November of 1998, I submitted a design proposal to 18 different builders in the North Dallas Forty for a “prairie-style concept, that is, an indigenous Southwestern profile (complete with floor plans). This rebellious act was motivated by the ominous proliferation of what I have lexiconed as “Euro-trash Megahouses.” So far, I have received one encouraging response. Well, it is better to try, and fail, than to fail to try.
I would like to tell you about one beautiful day I had several weeks ago. I had to go downtown to take care of a mundane business matter. To make the best of an otherwise dreadful chore (transferring an auto title), I opted to take the DART train, accompanied by my trusty velocipede. It was the only way to go. After taking care of business, I biked over to the George Allen Courthouse to visit a JoAnn Morgan who, from a previous telephone conversation, had told me she had all my Courthouse Calendar prints framed and hanging on her office wall. I was overwhelmed at the sight of my work being so appreciably displayed. She had chosen a very tasteful wood frame for each one. It must have cost her a bomb. We had a most delightful visit. She was an aficionado of courthouse delineations…a real joy to talk to.
I spent the next two hours pedaling around downtown Dallas, with a devil-may-care attitude, jousting with traffic (it was slow and sparse anyway), and maneuvering with the flow of traffic lights as if I owned the whole Downtown Forty. My stops included Union Station (a veritable morgue), the Adolphus Hotel, and Neiman Marcus (both doing very well), and the venerable Mercantile Bank Building (closed for the season). Conversations with a porter at the Adolphus and a saleslady inNeiman’s enlightened me as to the metamorphosis occurring downtown, that is, the conversion of retail buildings to condos.It was one splendid day, biking around and seeing how much things had changed, for better or for worse.
I hope you enjoy the enclosed illustrations. They are my gift to you. Ya‘ll take care now, ya‘ hear.
Where to place: in magazine rack next to water closet.
When to read: whenever you feel the movement.
Aids to reading: a standard ruler or any straight edge (for first 11 pages only), and maybe a lexicon.
Reasons to read: I’ll leave that up to you.
Estimated Time to read: 6 months
Comments: Please excuse typo inconsistencies (light, dark, blurs, erasures, white-outs, corrections, etc.).
Excuses: typed with 1946 portable ROYAL and 1965
electric hand-me-down-from-Mom SMITH CORONA.
Conclusion: My intransigent attitude towards approaching the 21st Century kicking and screaming without computer aids seems a bit anachronistic now.
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