My big sister, Lucy, in 1949 at Biloxi lighthouse

The Mississippi Gulf Coast figures prominently in my family’s history since my father’s relatives are in southern Mississippi and Alabama. Also, as a poor Methodist preacher’s family in Illinois, about the only vacation we could afford when I was a kid was to head south in our old Buick, camp out with relatives, and then spend a week at the campgrounds the Methodist church maintained on the coast.

The original Biloxi seawall, now hidden beneath sand

In those days, there was no beach in Biloxi. There was simply an enormous seawall consisting of steps that one could walk down to be closer to the water to fish. Which step one chose depended on the tides. As a child of 4 and 5 I remember that close, black water as frightening, but my father managed to coax me down the steps by showing me how to use crab-nets baited with bacon. Here is a post card from that era showing the wall; the bit of sand you see in that card was the Gulf floor and was seldom visible.

Huge manmade beach covering the original seawall

These days, that magnificent seawall is covered by countless tons of white sand as seen above. I suppose I prefer the beach, but it seems a shame that that seawall is history. The sand was pumped onto the seawall in 1951 (see MS History for background on this and other Mississippi public works).

Famous Biloxi lighthouse

An indelible memory of that childhood time is the famous Biloxi lighthouse. Here are several good links on it. I’ll let you read about it for yourself.

• Biloxi Lighthouse
• Web Lighthouses
• Through the years
• Drawing
• early photo
• good vintage MS vintage postcards
• Lighthouses of the United States: Mississippi

The OTHER Biloxi lighthouse

West of the historical lighthouse, on a small promontory jutting out from the shore, there is another lighthouse, pictured above. I can find no mention of it anywhere! It appears to be a functional lighthouse, but it’s not listed among the three lighthouses in Mississippi. If anyone knows something about this one, I would enjoy learning about it.

Shrimp boat (singular!) heads out for the day

In those days, shrimping was huge on the Gulf Coast. It still exists, but not like it used to exist. It was already in serious decline because of all the cheap shrimp shipped in from Asian shrimp farms, then the catastrophic BP oil spill damned near dealt it a death blow. I hope it recovers.

A considerable distance out from Biloxi are a series of barrier islands (see Barrier Islands of Mississippi). One of our family treats in those days was to take a commercial boat out to Ship Island–one of those islands. Halfway out, the boat would stop and haul up nets of live oysters. (Vegans hold your ears!) The shells were cracked open for us and we downed them while they were, literally, still quivering.

Piers that once reached far out into the Gulf remain demolished

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has a long history of recovering from assaults from nature. It’s always bounced back, although sometimes it takes longer than others. The trauma of Hurricane Katrina is still evident. These pictures were taken just this past year. Notice the devastation that still exists both on the coast and inland.

Scarred landscape of Biloxi remains–buildings once stood where those blank squares are

But they’re slowly rebuilding.

One rebuilt pier

Part of the economic engine for that rebuilding is casino money; they were rebuilt first, of course. I don’t know what I think about the casinos. The Biloxi of my youth was poor, poor, poor, poor, poor–a sleepy little town on the water. Now there are jobs. And, people should be allowed to gamble if they wish. I don’t believe in legislating “morality,” ever! But, I, myself, don’t enjoy the casinos in Biloxi. (Vegas is another matter! That can be fun…if one doesn’t gamble.) The Biloxi casinos are full of people my age (old) obsessively frittering away their social security checks. Few are smiling. Mainly, I see grim futility. Here are a couple of links that speak to the issue of casinos on the Gulf Coast: here and here).

One of many casinos

Whether you’re into the casinos or just a new place to visit that’s a (long) day’s drive, Biloxi is only 9 hours away from Tampa. That’s really not that far. The casinos make for cheaper rooms, so that’s good. I highly recommend the trip and the experience.

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Bornean orangutan (male) “Rango” Age 36. The only great ape from Asia, orangutans are among the most endangered animals on earth.

What a privilege: a private tour by the person I’m convinced is the world’s best docent of the zoo rated #1 in the United States by Parent’s Magazine. That zoo and that docent (Jane Rubin) are right here in Tampa Bay, at the Lowry Park Zoo (www.lowryparkzoo.com), 1101 W. Sligh Ave., Tampa, FL 33604, 813-935-8552.

As was mentioned in The Jackson, Mississippi, Zoo, where my cousin, Donna, is the veterinary technician, zoos have come a long, long, long way from the dismal, depressing dungeons of my youth.

Today’s zoo keepers are animal activists and preservationists whose purpose extends way beyond just keeping animals in captivity for the entertainment of human animals.

For instance, take a look at the Commitment to Conservation page of the Lowry Park Zoo’s website. This is where the zoo’s efforts to continually look “for ways to enhance the animals’ lives through behavioral enrichment, operant conditioning and exhibit improvements” are discussed. Also described are their significant contributions to animal conservation.

On that page are links to four important subpages:

• Conservation In The Zoo
• Conservation Regionally
• Conservation Around The World
• Conservation Recycling Program

On the first of those pages, Conservation in the Zoo, we learn of the zoo’s three goals of education, conservation and research. Their mission is to “Connect People with the Living Earth.”

They are a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) which conserves wildlife through education, research, captive breeding for reintroduction, and fund-raising to support field conservation.

There are 40 animals at the Lowry Park Zoo that are part of the AZA Species Survival Plan® (SSP) program–they are listed on the Lowry Park Zoo’s Conservation In The Zoo page.

There’s so much to recommend this Tampa attraction. Anyone coming to a convention in Tampa should take an afternoon or morning and go. Any parent or grandparent living in the area should buy passes and spend time with their children and grandchildren there. I saw many photographers there and I learned that often they buy year passes and spend many hours there photographing the animals. For the kids, there’s a few rides, of course, but the main attraction are the animals.

All the pictures in this post were taken at the Lowry Park Zoo and Jane helped me identify the animals after I’d edited the pictures so I’d be sure to get everything properly labeled. (Any errors are mine!)

“Rango,” pictured at the beginning of the post is perhaps my favorite animal there; I relate to his sense of style. I learned from Jane that every year at holiday time, the volunteers bring the animals presents which the animals love to open. I’ll have to think of a suitable gift for Rango.

Support wildlife preservation and have a good time doing it: go to the Lowry Park Zoo.

Bornean orangutan (female) “Josie” age 25 & daughter, “Hadiah” age 5	Chimpanzee (female) “Rukiyah”
Colobus monkey – Angola	Siamang : female “Haddie” & male “Cyrus” & baby “Malu.”

Ringtailed lemur – Madagascar	Golden lion tamarin (Brazil)
Bolivian grey titi monkeys female “Leap” & male “Cleve”	Yellow-footed rock wallaby
emu	petting zoo goat
African penguin feeding session	Waterbuck (safari ride)

meerkat sentinel

Grevy’s zebra & white rhino	African elephant & Hartman mountain zebra
Reticulated giraffe male “Billy Bob” & Rothschild’s giraffe male “Randle”	Shoebill stork male “Mr. Zero”
Cheetah brothers “Chaka” & “Gaheeji”	Pygmy hippo Mother “ZzaZza” & daughter “Anakiya”
Maribou stork – sunning	Okapi female “Betty.” Okapis live only in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and are so elusive that they only became known to the European world in 1901. It is the giraffes’ only relative.
Saddlebilled stork	Shoebill stork female “Binti” Hatched at Lowry Park Zoo 12/26/09. Binti is the ONLY shoebill hatched and reared by parents (without incubation or feeding intervention) anywhere in captivity in any accredited zoo.

Male giraffes (safari ride) “TangaTanga,” “Timmy” & “Benwa”

Work o’ the Weavers at St. Pete Palladium Side Door

 
A few nights ago, a friend called and said, “We’re going to the [Work o' the] Weaver’s concert Thursday night at the Palladium. I know you like that kind of music. Do you want to come, too.” I said yes immediately.

Although I’m not quite old enough to remember The Weavers themselves (that’s more my sister’s generation who lived through all that in California, San Francisco, North Beach, the hungry i, etc.), but I am old enough to remember all the groups the Weaver’s spawned (The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and others of the American Folk Music Revival).

And…I am old enough to remember seeing Joseph McCarthy on someone’s television (we didn’t have one then). I mention that because the Weavers and other folk singers of that time, as well the classical composer and American legend, Aaron Copland, were all hauled before McCarthy’s committee and interrogated. And, yes, they were definitely left-leaning sympathizers and supporters of Henry Wallace for president.

Thursday night’s concert by the contemporary tribute group, Work o’ the Weavers (see workotheweavers.com), was one of the most enjoyable musical evenings I’ve had in a long time. If you ever get a chance to hear the group, go. Their appeal is not limited to folks my age; I saw a number of teens and young adults there who were bobbing and swaying and singing “Good Night Irene” along with us of the blue-rinse set.

My guess is the only demographic group not represented–or if they were there, they kept on the down low–were Tea Party members, because the tradition of the Weavers, which the Work o’ the Weavers is all about, is definitely tied to the Progressive movement during the Great Depression and World War II. So many of the songs that were sung then, and last night, are unfortunately still appropriate now during the Great Recession, especially the pro-labor and pro-peace songs.

The concert was in two parts. In the first part, every song was woven into a detailed narrative of the history of the (original) Weavers. It really was a complete history of the group, the music, its composers and lyricists, and the times. It was not just a series of songs by the Weavers. It was educational in a very real sense.

The second part of the concert followed the dictum of Pete Seeger, who is close to the members of the group and endorses it, to not just look backward, but to sing also what the Weavers would sing now if they still existed today. What a wonderful idea. Three songs from that second half were my personal favorites for the night: Red Goes the Vine/In Dead Earnest, We’re Still Here, and My Peace. They’re all on a CD called We’re Still Here. That’s a link to the MP3 “album” which just costs a hair over 1/2 what the actual CD sold at the concert cost. I recommend it, highly.

The Work o’ the Weavers website has plenty of information and videos. Here’s one, Work o’ the Weavers – Distilled, that gives you a good feel for the group.

The lyrics of the aforementioned song, “My Peace,” was written by Woodie Guthrie just after he was hospitalized with Huntington’s Disease and set to music by his son, Arlo Guthrie. Here it is being sung by the Guthrie Family – My Peace:

If you’d like to see some video of the original Weavers, here’s The Weavers – Around The World:

Here’s a Youtube presentation of them singing the first song the Weavers ever recorded, The banks of Marble – The Weavers (that’s Pete Seeger singing solo on first verse):

The words of that song are so appropriate today, maybe more than ever before. Here’s a more recent recording just by Pete Seeger and with a more meaningful video — Banks of Marble:

And…thrown in for good measure and having almost nothing to do with The Weavers or Pete Seeger or The Work o’ the Weavers other than it’s authentic, old-timey American folk music is this video I stumbled upon while looking up the other videos — the Best Bluegrass Clog Dancing Video Ever Made. Unfortunately, that has to be watched on Youtube, itself and can’t be embedded. So, please click on the link. That’s old style clogging. I promise you will not be able to hold your body still. I just LOVE that music!!!!!
 
 
If you make a purchase through any of the Amazon links in this article, I make a few cents but your cost is not increased in any way.

Last night was almost the full moon (tonight is the actual full moon). The temperature was somewhere in the low seventies, I think–long sleeve weather, but not jacket weather…the kind of weather that makes folks want to move to Florida.

A friend and I walked down to the Gulfport, Florida, Art Walk which is held on the first Friday and third Saturday of every month (see gulfportflorida.us/gulfport-art-walk). It was suppertime, so we stopped at almost the first place we saw: Yummy’s Chicago style food (2914 Beach Blvd, Gulfport, FL 33707; 727-321-9869; Google place page). We’d never eaten there before. You can bet we’ll be back. It’s just the place for a light supper.

There’s a few tables inside, but there’s also outdoor seating, which for me is a big plus, especially since we were fortunate enough to sit at the table nearest the wonderful firepit pictured at the top of this post.

My friend wanted some wine. Yummy’s doesn’t serve wine, but, for that, they directed me to a little place in the same courtyard, Java Nirvana Cafe (2908 Beach Boulevard South, Gulfport, FL 33707-5548;
727-323-5904; Google place page).

I’ve had early morning coffee with another friend at the Java Nirvana Cafe–a great place to go to sit outside over a steaming mug and wake up. The horse sculpture which is pictured in the photo at the bottom of this post is just outside the Java Nirvana Cafe.

But, last night, I simply got my friend’s wine, and carried it back over to our outside table beside the firepit at Yummy’s where we ordered and ate our food: a kraut dog for my friend, a meatball sandwich for me–true Chicago style grub, and very good.

This courtyard also hosts live musicians who were setting up on the small stage just as we were leaving.

If you get a chance and you feel like eating outside at retired-teacher prices (that mean inexpensive!) on one of our balmy evenings, checkout this courtyard at the corner of Beach Blvd & 29th Ave. S. in Gulfport. Any evening will do, but it’s fun to do it during an Art Walk evening.

The Leroy Selmon Crosstown Expressway (map) is a toll road that stretches from Gandy Blvd., on the lower peninsula of Tampa, just north of MacDill Air Force Base, across the top of Hillsborough Bay, on to Brandon, a bedroom community to the southeast of Tampa.

The purpose of the Crosstown Expressway, which was ridiculed when it was first built as going “from nowhere to nowhere,” is to get you from point A to point B as quickly as possible. It’s also a thing of beauty, I think, with its long swooping concrete curves that always make me think of those old, old, old Flash Gordon movies from the 30s, with Planet Mongo and Ming the Merciless.

But, even better are the beauties that the Crosstown gives you the opportunity to see from its elevated position, especially along the top of Hillsborough Bay.

From the Crosstown you can see The Big Boats in drydock. It’s amazing. I wish the designers of the Crosstown had realized the beauty they were spanning and had built in some Scenic Pulloffs from which people could pause to appreciate what they’re zipping across.

I’m really not sure which of the following shipyards I’m looking at or are pictured in this post–International Ship Repair & Marine Services, Inc. (Google place page), Tampa Ship, LLC (Google place page), or Gulf Marine Repair Corporation (Google place page)–but it doesn’t much matter; the visuals are magnificent.

There’s something about seeing such huge machines cradled within the embrace of even larger machines that’s awe inspiring in a way that’s not unlike being in a massive cathedral. One is dwarfed by something bigger than oneself.

A little farther downtown, not quite visible from the Crosstown, is the Tampa Port Authority. That website has a great aerial photo in its header. I recommend going there just for that, but there’s plenty of other goodies there, too.

A port I remember well from my childhood which is still an important shipbuilding port is Pascagoula, Mississippi (also see Port of Pascagoula). I’ve never been quite sure what there is I like so much about Pascagoula. Part of it’s simply the sound of the word and how it feels in my mouth when I say it. The other part, maybe, is its history of legendary UFO sightings (see MUFON). It could be the many quiet marinas with the gentle sounds they make. Probably, it’s also the memories of fishing there with my father.

I know the Pascagoula shipyards are still quite active and build military ships, but I don’t know–and couldn’t quite suss out from online material–if the Tampa shipyards still is a boat building center. At one time is was, but I seem to remember that that function diminished with time, leaving only the cruise ships and boat repair businesses.

Regardless, the views from the Crosstown are magnificent. I highly recommend that ride from “nowhere to nowhere.”

A friend tipped me off that she had won an honorable mention at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts Member’s Show. I was very pleased for her and wanted to see her picture. Plus, I was very curious about this museum. I’d not heard of it at all.

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts is at 200 N. Tampa Street, Suite 130, Tampa, Florida 33602; 813-221-2222. That’s near the corner of Jackson Street and Ashley Drive, right downtown. This particular exhibit closes on September 4th. That’s only 10 more days. I hope you go. It’s worth every bit of the effort.

You won’t be disappointed. All of the pictures have something to offer but there are some very stunning photos, absolutely stunning photos. Of course, the official winners, listed below, are extremely good. The judges must have spent many an anguished hour trying to decide the winners because so many photos were deserving. Here’s the official list from the museum’s website:

Best of Show
Rory Brennan, Cancer Ward, Paraguay
Members’ Choice
Chris Hoyer, Sweet Dreams, London
Documentary
Roy Rodriguez, The Conversation
Travel
Kirk Ke Wang, Passage of Time
Portraiture
Jim Reiman, Jason
Nature/Landscape
Robin Dana, Water Lilies
Details
Melissa Harris, Pinned Glass
Creative Mediums/Processes
David Audet, Fan, Fur: La France
Honorable Mentions
Judith Hall, Travel, Under the Bean
Michael Schuhmann, Portraiture, Captain Love
Andrew Malbin, Nature, Scar the Whale and His Family
Katherine Stetson, Details, In Memory of My Mother
Jennifer Mace, Creative Mediums, Vine

But, I have my own “winners,” too! Who wouldn’t. There are always going to be photos that speak in a special way to each viewer. I think, in my case, my “winners” were photos that demonstrate techniques I wish I could execute.

If you go to the museum, and I hope you do, compare your own list with mine. I’m curious if you agree. Here, in addition to the official winners, and in alphabetical order, are my own favorites:

Color
Ashes to Ashes, Steven Gregory
Broken Door, Randy Van Duinen
From the Well (of Life), Ugo, Mazzarolo
Going Green, Michelle Wilson
Halloween Pennant, Don Moyer
Look Beyond, Amy Rigsby
Lotus Zen, Catherine Hammer
Sweet Dreams, Chris Hoyer
Times Square, Allan Alexander
Town Center Winter, Lynn Wiezycki
Trees in the Fog, Ernest Gudath

Black & White (or mostly Black & White)
Door to Salvation, Jose Suro
Electric Rhythm, Amy Bird
Elephants March, Bob Demchuk
Lobsterman’s Credo, Terry Hayden
Survival, Marshall Seider
The Beginning, Stephanie Parke
Untitled, Peter Lapin
Wondrous View, Heather Papolos
Ybor City Trolley, Robert Boice

(Note: I can’t always read my own handwriting. If you notice a misspelling of someone’s name, please let me know so I can correct it.)

If that seems like a long list of personal winners, let me assure you: the exhibit is LARGE! I had no idea there was so much photographic talent locally. I’m very impressed and eager to learn anything I can from this community in order to become a better photographer myself. (I’ve joined as a Senior; I recommend you donate or join is you can. See Membership Drive.) It would be very gratifying to have the skill of any of the members in the exhibit.

I wish the little cards identifying the titles and artists, and prices when for sale, also listed more technical information. I would have loved to have known the different kinds of printing processes, the different kinds of cameras used, whether digital or film, the type of paper, etc. One photo had that kind of information, but none of the others did. I would like to have known that. Such information would help us fledgling photographers.

Please go to this exhibit and please support this museum. You won’t regret doing so.

Hilton’s first “song”–age 3

For young (and old) composers, there are no books that really help you understand the process of composing music. I mean that word, “no,” quite literally. There’s not a single book that I know of that really deals with the process.

The books that purport to be about composition are really about music theory, which is the study of the nuts and bolts description of different composers’ music. They are to music composition as a grammar book would be to creative writing. It’s stuff you need to know but it’s definitely stuff to put out of your mind when you’re composing.

Instead of books about composing–since there are none–I’ve found much inspiration and guidance in books about creative writing. There, too, of course, there are books which are more about form than the process, but it seems that some creative writing author/teachers understand well the notion of process.

This post doesn’t really concern the lack of books about the process of composing and it definitely does not concern creative writing. (My only talent, if any, for putting words in a row is simple expository writing such as this blog.) It’s about my hobby: photography.

In middle school, I was in the photography club. I loved all the smells and the darkroom ambiance and the magic of watching a picture come into being in the developing solution (this was way back in Brownie camera days). But, one thing and another and I didn’t keep up with it. Instead I devoted more and more time to music. All my life, I didn’t really have a hobby. Music eclipsed everything.

That was a good thing because it enabled me to have a career in music, something many people would love to have. But now, retired from being a college prof, I’ve had the time to indulge myself in photography, to rediscover the joy of having a hobby! Thankfully, digital photography makes practicing the act a lot less expensive than film days.

(FINALLY…here’s the point of the whole post!) So it was that recently, I asked some friends who are experts in the commercial and academic aspects of Art (note the upper case “A”) for advise about a specific aspect of pictures I’ve taken, what would probably correspond to “voice” in literature or “style” in composition. Well, the answers I got back weren’t answers to my question (except for one gallery owner, whose comments I do appreciate), but were rather dedicated to how bad my photography was. Sort of along the lines of “who do you think you are?”

Well, I pretty much put the camera away for quite a while. Couldn’t even work up the spit to post anything here.

I’m a silent processor; I don’t easily share what’s going through my head with others. But, I finally worked up the courage to discuss what I was experiencing with a good friend and working artist (not an academician) who designs theater and opera sets. I told him what I’d asked the experts and what their answers were. He said, “Hilton, you should have known better!” I don’t know why I hadn’t asked him for an opinion about my photography, but I hadn’t. I guess because he’s not an “authority”–he’s “just” a working artist.

He was absolutely right. I should have known better. Probably the two most lethal fields when it comes to anything creative are the commercial and the academic fields. (And I say that, as a life-long college professor.) “Experts” have probably stifled more creativity than they have ever fostered.

So, I’ve been repairing my enthusiasm for taking pictures and posting them on this blog by composing. I know how composing works. I know that each time you write a piece you have to remember how to compose all over again. Each piece is as hard to write as the first one you ever finished. And, finishing a piece is just the beginning…you have to plunge back in and take it all apart and make it all over again at least once, maybe more than once…it’s as if you don’t know what the first note should have been until you have written the last one.

I’ve also been reading creative writing books again to help in rekindling my creative muse, professionally as a composer and, as an amateur, as a photographer.

One excellent book on creative writing is the old The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It is 100% process oriented. The author’s advise applies equally to writing, composing, photographing, cooking, embroidering, dancing, singing, and weaving or whatever else is someone’s personal medium of expression.

Right now, I’m reading an even more helpful book, one that is helping me in my composition and photography, immensely. It’s Writing Alone and with Others by Pat Schneider. Here’s a couple sample quotes from it. I think you can see how relevant they are.

“Some critics claim that all truly great works of literature are already recognized. What a cynical and small-minded view of the human spirit! In other times and other cultures, art was made for the family: quilts, hand-carved pieces, lullabies, ballads. The audience of that art was intimate…Writing is making art, and the test of its value cannot be given into the hands of either the commercial world or the academy.”

“[quoting Dorothea Brande] ‘It is well to understand as early as possible in one’s writing life that there is just one contribution which every one of us can make: we can give into the common pool of experience some comprehension of the world as it looks to each of us…If you can tell a story as it can appear only to you of all the people on earth, you will inevitably have a piece of work which is original.’”

“[quoting William Stafford] He said the writer’s job is to abandon his or her work, to allow others to make judgment of its worth, and to go on the the next poem, the next story.”

“If you are to write, you must move out of ‘rented rooms’ in your mind, rooms that you have allowed to belong to someone else.”

“It is more important to ask: Have I gone all the way? Have I told all of the truth that my inner eye sees?”

“…fear had frozen her into a habitual rejection of her own work.”

I should have known better. As a composer, most publishers and almost all my academic colleagues hated my music. But, oddly, the musicians who performed it liked it. Even more important, the people who heard it liked it. Perhaps, most important, I liked it and I definitely enjoyed writing it. So, I should have known better than to worry about what the experts say about anything.

One should just do one’s thing, do it the best one can, keep trying to get better, keep doing it and doing it every day, and trust one’s own judgment more than the judgment of others. And–enjoy the doing of it.

Rod & Reel Pier
Anna Maria Island, Florida

That’s from Inkwatu: fishing piers. There’s a couple other pier related posts on here, too: Dubai Long Pier and St. Petersburg Pier. There are so many piers here in Tampa Bay that deserved to be photographed. This one is one of my favorites (as is the Dubai Long Pier).

On a recent trip to Fort Worth, Texas, a friend, born and raised in Texas, took me to the old Fort Worth Stockyards. If you’re ever in Fort Worth, a free (except for parking) bit of entertainment that’s very enjoyable, especially for kids or easily amused old folks, is a trip to the stockyards.

The big event–I think it only happens twice a day–is the “cattle drive.” (I didn’t know they could drive; did you?) Actually, it’s more like a “cattle mosey,” since they just amble along the street, the whips in the hands of the cowboys and cowgirls only for decoration. Such gentle, beautiful creatures.

Cattle Drive

 

Museum

There is also a free museum. It’s chock full of stuff from the era that made Fort Worth the legend it is. The museum is in a still functioning office building of the era.

 
 
 
 
 

I grew up with these

However, some of the items in the museum I remember from my own childhood home. I must be even older than I thought!

 
 
 

Around the restored old-town

Many of the buildings in old town around the stockyards have been restored and are now filled with shops and restaurants. I particularly enjoyed this one shop that specialized in hats, boots, spurs, and other articles of cowboy/cowgirl attire. Even the hotel was decorated with period furniture.

 
 
 

The rodeo arena is also here at the stockyards. I’ve only been to a couple rodeos in my life, but I’ve always enjoyed them. If I ever get a chance to return to Fort Worth, I hope to take in another one. I truly do enjoy the American West culture, history, and mystique.

That’s not all there is to Texas, of course! All the people I met on this trip were active professionals, highly cultured, and politically progressive. That should be no surprise since the music scene in Texas is among the finest in the country. Just the number and quality of pipe organs (why I was there) exceeds the number and quality of pipe organs in all of the Southeast US. Texas is a remarkable place that I hope to revisit.