Fall Store

Fall Store

8.5" x 11"

pencil sketch

Edie inspired this sketch as we discussed old buildings on Main Street in Calvert. She remembered a store that had sugar cane displayed and I remember others that also had sugar cane, pumpkins, and all kinds of fall fare on display. We had talked about the building on the corner by the red light, next door to Brannon's Shoe Shop. The photo that I took recently and had on my blog is fascinating, to me, because of the reflections, the architectural features, and the way that you can see other buildings through the plate glass windows.

I think it would make a nice little art gallery, tea room, etc.

Since today is Edie's birthday, I thought I would post this little unfinished sketch.

Happy Birthday, Edie!

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Tomorrow is the big election day here. Some of us may have an anxiety attack or high blood pressure problems before this is all over! It has been a most unusual time. But, through history, I guess that each election has had its own problems and characteristics. So we shall see how it goes down in history. (No telling how it will be written about. But we will know what it was really like as we are witnesses to history. You might even want to write down your own views and observations for the future. When someone tries to rewrite events, you will have the truth as you know it.) We probably could have done that with past elections and events. Personally, I never thought of that. I left it to newspapers and magazines. But just think of all that has occured in the past 50 - 70 years. All that we could have recorded.

If you are involved, go to GretaWire on Foxnews.com and read and post on her blog.

Also, you might express your opinion on Red Head Ranting at http://redheadranting.blogspot.com/ . She has a poll where you can vote on your choice for president, or you can tell if you aren't voting, etc.

Laura Ingraham also has an interesting blog/newsletter that she sends out. (I practically feel like I know her, since Virginia Vaughan told me that she did a portrait of Laura's dog! Virginia does fantastic pictures of animals. I envy that. My animals all look like cartoons!)

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I didn't intend to get political on my blog. But, with others expressing their opinions, I just had to put in my two cents worth. If you agree with me, great! If you don't, I'm sorry and wish that we did agree. But, we can still be friends.

While I watch tv, sometimes, I do cartoons, especially about events in the news. I haven't done it in a while, though. I did cartoons from the time I was little. In fact, I taught myself to draw by going to the funny papers if I wanted to know how to draw something like a hand or a foot, eye, or nose from the side. I went through a period when I could only draw one leg on my people. I liked to make little stories with my pictures, so I had all these drawings of people with only one leg. I had "The Pirate and the Beautiful Lady", a compostion book filled with one legged characters!

We didn't have art in school. As a result, no matter what I do, that cartoon style comes out when I'm left to my own devices.

At one time, I did a cartoon strip for the "Calvert Tribune" which centered on life in Calvert around my grandfather's dry goods store. I learned a lot from doing that cartoon strip. It was actually hard work, considering that there were no computers to do the lettering, etc. It took me many hours to do each one.

Because of my newspaper experiences, I was given the job of teaching journalism, doing yearbook and the newspaper at school, and turning in articles about the school to the local newspaper. Along with this, we participated in the "Houston Chronicle" Editorial Cartoon contest. (Actually, we usually learned about it too late, but did the project anyway. We researched editorial cartoons, learned to use the materials and practiced techniques, the old way, with india ink and pen!) Later, we learned to add some lettering with the computer.

Ideas still come to me for editorial cartoons as I observe things. I did a few during this campaign and I am going to share some with you.

You may not agree! But, you have to understand that, one purpose of the Editorial Cartoon is to get a reaction from people-good or bad! Make people think and have some reaction. Sometimes, the cartoonist does not agree with what he is depicting, but he just wants to get that reaction or stir things up. Sometimes it works too well! Sometimes the artist does share what he feels. I think that, these days, sometimes, the artist is trying to draw something that he can sell and thinking more along the lines of psychology. Of course, there are some limitations to our freedom of speech today because of threats and political correctness, which is sad to see.

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If you haven't voted, go out and vote tomorrow! (Legally, of course!)

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The Squeaky Wheel

8.5" x 11"

ink

On her blog, Red Head Ranting, she mentions that she has never been called for a poll, and no one she knows has been called, either. I haven't either and no one I know has been called. It's sort of like the ratings for tv shows. No one has ever asked me and I don't have one of those little boxes from Nielson. I guess we should be grateful that we are not bothered, but I feel like a lot of us are being overlooked. I don't think that polls are reliable.

Mechanicsville, Tennessee

(picture courtesy of the author)

Mechanicsville by Melanie Garrett Nistad

Cannon County, Tennessee

This is the cover of a book that I had mentioned in a previous post. If you enjoy reading about life in the United States, families, small towns, history, or whatever interests you might have, you will enjoy this book.

I've never been to that area, but I could relate to the stories. We had some of the same things in my home area of Texas, when I was growing up.

The book includes articles about places like the Short Mountain Methodist Church, the Switchboard House (we had one of those at home, but we called it the telephone office) various stores, events, and families. There are lots of pictures and even maps to tell the history of the area.

"Miss Mary's Column", from the local newspaper there, sprinkled through the book, helped to tell the story. Miss Mary Reams wrote of her hometown for the local newspaper, recording much about life and people of that area.

I found one of her clippings, which is also in the book, among things that had belonged to my grandmother. That gave me a lot of information to start out with in searching for family history. I only knew that my grandmother's last name was Arnett, and she had told me that her father was "a hillbilly doctor in Tennessee". And that's all I knew-until I found that clipping of "Miss Mary's Column" a few years ago. The column described him, told where he lived, gave his children, told how he came to the area, etc. It gave almost everything, except his name, when he died and where he is buried!

Through the internet, I got some genealogical information, and Melanie, the author of the book, contacted me with pictures of Dr. Arnett's home (which her family owns), a deed that gave the disposition of his property and named his children, and information on his church membership-Short Mountain Methodist Church. In her book, the news column is dated in 1950, something that I had not known, or the name of the newspaper. She has been a big help to me in finding out more about my family.

We still haven't found his death and burial information. Wouldn't you know that, the year that the deed was made with his property information on it, 1913, is the year that Tennessee didn't keep death records! Possibly, his tombstone is missing, as it hasn't been found, either.

Of course, the book was extra special to me as it contains information and pictures of my families, the Arnetts and the Meltons. There is a picture of the house and part of Dr. Arnett's family on the cover. The house turned out to be a log cabin beneath board additions. There are lots of pictures of it and the restoration work, in the book.

Many other families are included besides those who are related to me.

If you would like a copy of this book, send me an e-mail and I will forward it to the author.

She advised me that the book is about sold out, but she can order more. You can pre-order for a waiting list , if you would like a copy. So, let me know if you want one. Just click on the Contact link in my sidebar .

The book, in the first printing, was $25 plus shipping.

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Primary elections are over in Texas. News cameras and anchors packed up and left for the next big event. Candidates have gone their way and are making news in other places.

In our house, we decided that we must have cancelled each other out! We all voted for different people. My daughter and grandson went back at night for the "Texas Two Step", the Democratic caucus. I didn't hear of anything in the evening for the Republicans. While the news is reporting long lines and big turnouts, my daughter said there were only 20-25 people who showed up where she was. She and her side were outnumbered. Looks like Obama won here, with all the college kids, but not by much, while Hillary won the state. McCain also won here, but Huckabee was close. There were a good many votes for people who are no longer running, which probably didn't help those who were still in the race.

I hated to see Huckabee's speech last night, where he pulled out of the race for president. I didn't support him, but, like most of the candidates, each one did have some good things to offer. And the rest of the primaries on the Republican side, are going to be less exciting, without the competition. We sat up late to watch the returns on tv. It was fascinating as it was so close. It was even tied, exactly, in one county.

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Congratulations to Calvert native, Mary Helen Bonilla Berlanga, now of Corpus Christi, who won her race for the State Board of Education.

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Take a look at Virginia Vaughan's blog. There is a link to her in my sidebar. She has some of the layout for her book, "Last Year On The Farm", on her blog today.

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Please sign my Guest Book at the bottom of the page, if you haven't already done so. Thanks for reading and sharing! Please let me know if you see something of interest.