Opportunities Cleverly Disguised as Problems

We have all heard life described as a series of ups and downs, mountains and valleys, bowl of cherries or just the pits, and even a big ole roller coaster. This past week has been all of that and more. I suppose it is only normal after a life-threatening crisis that there are ups and downs, given that it is normal in the day-to-day also. Let's just say that the highs and lows have been a bit more intense the past few days, but I hope we have turned a corner.

Dad walked to the barn with me yesterday morning to feed, and then out to the hay barn. Although I have managed to get the hay out and into the trough adequately enough for the past few days, he thought I needed additional pitchfork lessons, so I obliged: "you mean like this? Oh, okay, thanks." Unfortunately, the next lesson was in mucking out the stall. While I understand the concept, and have even done it as a child, it is more difficult as a "seasoned" adult. :)

I had to fill the water trough this morning, which I was in process of doing when he walked out on the deck. I guess he was satisfied, as he just watched. I gave him a verbal hay status and asked if he wanted to walk out and check later or what? He walked to the edge of the deck, looked, and said we would check it later.

Something I have noted over the past week of early rising and beginning and ending my days with farm chores, and a whole lot of other physical labor in between, is that there is a certain pleasure in it that is healing and rewarding, and I have no difficulty going to sleep each night and awakening ready to arise each morning.

The Blessing

I went out at 5:45 to feed this morning, wearing Dad's barn jacket and gloves. It was cold and I did not linger very long. This afternoon after Mom and I got back to the house, I walked the dog, went to the post office, and to the grocery store while Mom napped.

It was the first time I had picked up the mail since I lived here as an adolescent and it is a new post office. Picture me traipsing up and down every row trying to find the box they have had for 50 years; they were numbered in a strange pattern!

Back home, and I went out to feed with the sun shining and a beautiful afternoon. Rio always meets Dad at the gate and gets a handful of feed. Before it goes in his food bin. This morning, he did not come to the gate, but just went straight to his food bin. This afternoon though, he came over to the gate and I gave him his handful and then he sauntered on over to his spot, and Jenny came up braying. I checked the hay just to make sure, but it is good til morning.

I made Italian Wedding soup for supper and now the kitchen is clean, and I am resting in Dad's chair, thanking God for my family and our blessings, and that we are able to take care of each other.

Modern Church Architecture: First Baptist of Olney

Olney's First Baptist church is an example of mid-century modernism.  I have to wonder how many folks in this small north central Texas community were astonished as this building began to take shape. Who loved it, and who hated it?  I guess I won't find out until my retirement gig, when I will travel around to all the local town libraries and search out local documents that might shed light on questions. Facing along Main Street, a couple of blocks from "downtown" is a contrast of angles and curves, concrete and glass, and a dainty little row of lally columns.

The gabled end of the sanctuary is concrete, which gives the appearance of being rougher than it actually is.  The primarily blue-green stained glass has a dark red and orange-yellow pieces near the edge.  The three windows have a cross shape design.  One sees the repeated pattern of threes throughout the building.

The side door features a slightly curved concrete awning, topped by a small projecting stained glass window.

A row of projecting windows lines each side of the sanctuary.

The covered archway along the front has a scalloped style of awning, and the supporting columns are grouped in threes.  The spire that rises has three tiers.

The section behind the archway is most likely a chapel, and the window design is similar to those on the sanctuary, though simpler.  The slightly vaulted roof curve provides an interesting contrast to the alternating curves on the archway.

Mid-Century Modern Storefronts: Perkins-Timberlake

 All the mid-century modernization of store fronts in towns I have been visiting lately made me think about the Perkins-Timberlake store in Olney, Texas, where we shopped throughout my adolescence in Graham.  Perkins-Timberlake had nine stores in Texas (including one in Seymour where I lived as a child) and one in Fredericksburg, Oklahoma.  While I really don't remember the Seymour store clearly, or shopping there (we shopped in Bickley's Department Store and Woods' The Man's Store), I seem to have a dim memory of its location in downtown.

Joe J. Perkins opened his first mercantile in Decatur, Texas in 1897.  He

...soon organized the Perkins-Timberlake system of stores, located in 9 cities (Walter N. Vernon, Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association)

It was actually not "soon" as I think of soon, as it apparently was not until 1914 that the store became Perkins-Timberlake instead of just Perkins.  Frank Timberlake began his apprenticeship as a merchant in the Perkins store in Jacksboro in 1914, although he had married Perkins' sister in 1886.  Timberlake took charge of the stores in Vernon, Texas and Frederick, Oklahoma soon after, and in 1915, managed the stores opened in Electra and Bowie (both in Texas).  In 1916, a large new store was opened in Wichita Falls, Texas, which became the headquarters of the company. (Source: Capt. B. B. Paddock, Ed. (1922). History of Texas: Fort Worth and the Texas Northwest, Volume 3. Lewis Publishing Company: Chicago and New York, p. 351).

 This was the location of the Olney store since my childhood.  It was apparently a newly "modernized" storefront after the tornado of 1951 destroyed the original store.  According to the Daytona Beach Journal, May 19, 1951,

Olney is a typical town in the Wichita Falls wheat country of North Central Texas...The Perkins-Timberlake Dry Goods Store...razed.

During my childhood and adolescence, another building was to the left of the building in the photograph--the significance of that item, in a bit.  The red metal slipcover was (in the best of my memory) a silver color, and I am not sure when it was added.  The red color interferes with my memory of the store, and while I do recall a sign across the front of the building, I don't remember if it was on this slipcover, or on the brick itself, and I can't find any supporting data one way or the other.

 Terrazzo flooring began to be used in the first part of the 20th century (Carol J. Dyson, Mid-Twentieth Century Storefront Components Guide, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency).  A modern version of the earlier practice of spelling out the organization's name in mosaic tile, the terrazzo floor could do fancy script not possible with tiles.

 As a child, I was fascinated with the script spelling out the name, and was particularly enamored of the mirrored column in the center of the entrance.  Notice how the green diamonds in the terrazzo draw you toward the doors.  Dyson indicated that the angled entrance and other details (such as the diamonds) were all intended to sweep the customer into the store.  A door in each of the showrooms enabled the employees to enter the windows to change displays.

 Dyson also explained

...with tempered glass doors...as the doors became minimal, handles and hardware became more important and were usually sleekly designed.

These door pulls appeared to be made of glass also (both by feel and visual inspection), although I recall their being clear, rather than the yellowed color.  I am not certain if that is a memory trick, or if perhaps they were made of some type of resin which yellowed with age.  I do remember that the door handles fascinated me as a child as well.

 In the photo above, you can see what was not visible to me as a child.  Because another building abutted this one, I was unaware of the details of the building itself.  I speculate that after the 1951 tornado, the decision was to modernize in rebuilding, and the metal or aluminum slipcover added.  There was most likely a sign and my guess is that it was aluminum letters.

And just think, as I was in that store the summer of 1968, using part of my first paycheck from my summer job to buy a yellow knit Polo-style dress and some brown and tan chunky heel spectator pumps for college in the fall, I had no idea of any of these things that are so fascinating to me now.

Lake Village, Arkansas: Post Office and New Deal Art

"Lake Country Wildlife" by Avery Johnson, 1941. Image used with permission of United States Postal Service

 New Jersey artist Avery Johnson was asked to paint the mural for the Lake Village post office.  Johnson accepted, but his winning entry in the 48-states competition delayed the Lake Village mural.  It was completed and installed in 1941, after the post office was constructed in 1939 (Smith & Christ, n.d.)  The scene depicts wildlife on the shores of Lake Chicot, the largest natural oxbow lake in the United States (Silva, 2011).  Johnson was said to have been interested in the abundant deer population of the area, and thus, deer figured prominently in the work (Smith & Christ).  They described the artistic  requirements of the program:

Contemporary Realism--American scene painting--was the only truly acceptable style.

The subject matter requirements included:

• realistically interpret local history 

• post office scenes past and present

• vignettes of daily life 

• Regionalism that ...celebrated American scenes that had universal appeal, such as local agriculture, industry, and family

Johnson received six commissions for murals during the program, but Arkansas was the only one in the south (Smith & Christ).  Relief work for artists during the New Deal period was housed in several programs and federal offices, and was relocated in 1939 (through its conclusion in 1942) with a reorganization moving the Public Buildings branch and the Section into the new Federal Works Agency.  The 48-states competition to award one mural to each of the states was announced in 1939 to promote the program.  

The Lake Village post office is in the Colonial Revival style, popular during the New Deal era.  This design, or similar versions, is seen in the Mississippi post offices in Leland, Houston, Amory, and Pontotoc.

Silva, R. (2011) Walks through history: Lake Village CHD.
Smith, S. T., & Christ, M. K. (n.d.) Arkansas Post Offices and the Treasury Department's Section Art Program, 1938-1942. Arkansas Historic Preservation Program: Little Rock.

New Old Bank of Leland

 The Neoclassical Bank of Leland was constructed in 1926, during a time of significant growth in the community.  Leland was

...conceived and laid out as a railroad town with commercial buildings facing tracks. (Joan Embree, 2004, in the nomination form for the Leland Historic District, National Register of Historic Places)

Additional commercial blocks were added as the town continued to grow.  The Bank of Leland was organized in 1899, and a new building constructed in 1909--across the street from the location of the new bank, which currently serves as the Leland City Hall.

Of the earlier bank building, Embree said:

An even more ornate Early 20th Century commercial building that has survived remarkably intact to the present is the 1907 Bank of Leland.  This combination bank (downstairs) and cotton office (upstairs) has the most ornate detailing surviving among buildings of its era in Leland.  A combination of Neo-Gothic (arches), Neo-Colonial (classical detailing), and Richardsonian Romanesque (faux-stone quoins, facings), the building retains its decorative hex-tile entry floor.

The 1926 building was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 2001.

 The entry surround "...has classical cartouche above a molded hood with denticulated cornice" (Embree).

 The bays are divided by pilasters with Ionic capitals...fenestration is anodized aluminum and glass. (Embree)

Ice Storm

 We really do not like this tree.  It blocks the corner of the drive, and in spring, blooms with an awful sickeningly sweet smell that attracts hundreds of bees.  We say every year we will cut it down.  Now would be a good time--while I can get to the branches!

Update at 5:30 p.m. When I got home, branches were lying all over the front yard where the limbs had broken and fallen to the ground.  Now, why can't that happen with THIS tree?