WEATHERED OLD HOME IN FALL

Yesterday was sunny - - in the sixties as I headed out in my old Toyota Tacoma to experience the rural pleasures of this beautiful fall day. About fifteen minutes from my home I found this lovely weathered home sitting silently on a large piece of farmland. Was it vacant? Or was it occupied? I never found out. 

Above is a wire fence that ran along a long dirt road up to the house. Dried rust colored Queen Anne's Lace traveled along it. A small outbuilding was visible from the dirt road. 

I used Light-room to soften these two photos as I felt it produced my feelings for the day.

COMMUNITY COFFEE-HOUSE

Windows abound in the coffee shop on 2nd street in Corvallis Oregon. The seating areas by the large picture windows are the most desirable in the place. This coffee house began its life in 1972 during the hippie era. Since Corvallis is the home of Oregon State University it quickly became a place where the radicals hung out. At first there was no proper seating for everyone so many times large freshly filled coffee bean sacks became seats. Today the hippie-dom of the Beanery's era is history. Today it is more sedate in its atmosphere with folks of all ages stopping in for their truly superb coffee while taking some time to possibly read, use their computers, or just hang and have some interesting conversations, with friends. 

It was early morning when I caught these two men relaxing and chatting at one of the outside tables. 

The atmosphere is always casual and friendly. 

I became familiar with the Beanery back in the early 90s. Today it still has the same tables, chairs and church pews it had then. The church pew seats seem the most popular for students that want to spread out their work.

A beautiful oak church pew waiting for the crowd to dribble

 in the door.

This man looked very serious while working at his computer.  

 This woman had her mind deep in thought while 

checking out her computer. 

And of course the conversations that are always ongoing throughout the day

Many of the folks that patronize this place know each other. Some have been customers for years. I believe it was the first established coffeehouse in Corvallis? 

For forty-three years this place has been a cornerstone of the coffeehouse world in Corvallis.

NATIVE AMERICAN DAY

Chief Lelooska's Elk Point totem

Not the best photo but the best I could do when I took it on a rainy day a couple years ago. 

Since 1992 there has been a movement to rename and replace the federally sanctioned Columbus Day as Indigenous People's Day. This movement is the result of Columbus's negative legacy. Presently four states do not celebrate Columbus day. Those states are Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and South Dakota -- South Dakota calls the day Native American Day. 

When I recently learned of Indigenous People's Day I thought of Chief Lelooska, the native American carver that carved a large totem around 1959 to 1961 for Elk Point near Twilliger Parkway in Portland, Oregon

The Smithsonian identified the animals represented on the Haida-style totem pole as follows starting at the bottom --  beaver, grizzly bear. raven and topped by four watchmen. (Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museum). I noticed that the Smithsonian did not name several of the totem animals.

Below are a few close-ups of parts of the totem

GRIZZLY

 BEAVER

UNIDENTIFIED

WATCHMEN

(Captured this photo a few weeks after I took the photos above)

The backside of the totem is flat as was the style of indigenous carvers. Unfortunately modern day carvers have found this flat back as a place to leave their name in history! 

What do you think about replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day? Or as Native American Day as South Dakota has done? To find out more about the day click here

HALLOWEEN AND MY FATHER

Left to Right -- my fraternal grandmother, my young father, and my fraternal grandfather

Rosemont Avenue, Berkley, Michigan

Celebrating Halloween when I was young in the forties and fifties was not only celebrated by kids but by my father. The reason being was that he was born on Halloween so our family celebrated the whole month of October with porch pumpkins, cardboard images tacked to our windows of spiders, black witches and cats. Topping it all off was a five foot cardboard skeleton hanging from our front door. We were the most "ready for" Halloween house on our block. 

Today of course houses can be decorated like stage plays with full size plastic devilish figures dancing across yards. 

I took this photo as it closely resembled my memories of Halloween. Not so plastic but imaginative creations.  

 A real spider that I noticed a week ago while checking out an old school. He was travelling across the old porch boards probably choosing a place to hide where he could jump out and scare children on Halloween night. Of course I enlarged him in Lightroom

This house would have made a great haunted house for us kids to scream and run through and maybe a few adults too (like my father).