Category Archives: Black & White

Art, Basketball, Black & White, Christianity, History, Kio, Railroad, Road Trip, Teresa

Monroe and Mahaska County Auxiliary Images Vol. 1

May 11, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

A long, long time ago when I revealed the towns signs of Monroe County I pointed out that the town of Melrose, Iowa had a memorial up in their town park to honor the 1936-37 Melrose Shamrocks boys basketball team. A team that the Des Moines Register honored as the best team in the first 100 years of Iowa boys basketball in 2012.

Kio took great offense to this and sent me the following email:

Some of what Melrose claims about their championship basketball team might be a bit of blarney. I have to stick up for the Boone High Boys State Basketball 1931 State Champions. Although I’m not completely impartial, my Dad was the captain of that team, it had a legitimate star at all positions. Also worth noting, there were no classes or divisions in high school basketball in those days. All the teams in the state were lumped together. So if you won the state championship, you were truly the best team in the state. I always add this footnote when talking on this topic. Although Boone hasn’t won a state basketball tournament championship since 1931, no one would have been prouder to see his team’s record beaten than my Dad.

While Kio is clearly prejudiced, I think it is fair to reveal why the Melrose Shamrocks are considered the best boys basketball team in the first 100 years of Iowa boys basketball.

Here are some facts about them:
+ Melrose was the smallest school to ever win a single-class state basketball title in Iowa. Enrollment was 66. They beat Marshalltown in the championship game. A school with an enrollment of 1,077.
+ Melrose was the first team to go undefeated in state history. Going 33-0. They defeated undefeated Rolfe (29-0) in the semifinal game. They beat them 29-13.
+ Their 35-17 win over Marshalltown was the largest margin of victory in the championship game up until that point.
+ Played their home games in an opera house because they didn’t have a gym. The court measured 30 feet by 40 to 45 feet. Why 40 to 45 feet? One of corners of the playing floor featured a wood stove that heated the building and was blocked off so players didn’t run into it. A standard basketball court is 50 feet by 94 feet.
+ “Many of the players on the Melrose basketball team wanted to fit in with the “big city” crowd of Des Moines. In the fashion of the day, they slicked back their hair with Rose Hair Oil. Rose Hair Oil was inexpensive (“about 15 cents per gallon,” according to Walt O’Connor), so they apparently used lots of it. The oil also had a nice smell to it.

While this was fine before the tournament started, it gave the team trouble in their first game against Geneseo. During the game, the hair oil went from their hair to their hands to the ball. As Walt O’Connor recalled, “We started perspiring and wiping our heads to get the hair out of our eyes, and the first thing you knew, the referee couldn’t hold the ball.” After having trouble handling the ball in the first half, the players washed out their hair at half time. Better ball handling in the second half helped them to win the game, 35 – 34. After almost letting the first game of the tournament slip their grasp, Melrose stopped using the hair oil in the later games.”

Some of this information is taken from the Melrose website article on the team:

1937 Melrose Shamrocks

All of that being said, the Ames High team featuring Harrison Barnes and Doug McDermott would have beaten this team by at least 20 points. They did win 53 games in a row.

Here is the first collection of the auxiliary images from a road trip I took to Monroe and Mahaska County with Teresa.

Georgetown

Albia

There are still two more collections of images to share from this road trip.

Black & White, Formal Portrait, Gretchen, Maven, Sara, Shawn Lockner

The Juncks 2021 – Volume 3

May 8, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Time to share the third collection of images from the Junck Family Photo Shoot back in 2021. Lots of pictures of Gretchen and Maven hamming it up!

Next Sunday’s formal portrait shoot will involve the Howards.

Art, Black & White, Nature, WPC - Reminder

The Best Way to Find Yourself

April 29, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Many of my post titles come from the titles of songs or from quotes. I don’t usually reveal the source of the post title, because I hope that the reader thinks on it for at least half a second.

To share how I get to where I get, so you can get a small inkling on how my mind walks around this planet, I thought I would share how today’s title came about.

The pictures I am sharing today were taken near Lost Lake in Ledges last November. One of them you have seen before because it is the September image of the 2022 Photography 139 Calendar.

Because they were taken near LOST lake, the basis of the title is from the following words about being lost:

Sometimes being lost is the best way to find yourself.
-LJ Vanier

Here are some pictures that helped me find myself:

Can anybody figure out what this says?

A quick thought on graffiti. I am a big fan of graffiti. One of the things I like about living in a railroad town (besides it provides jobs to a few of my friends) is because every day when the trains roll through town it is like a mobile museum. Now much of the art isn’t great, but usually I see at least one thing that I enjoy. In fact, when I work at the Ames Computer Mine, I frequently head down 17 and then take Old 30 into Boone, even though it takes longer, just to check out the graffiti on the parked railroad cars that are usually by the Jordan elevator.

With all of that being said, I can’t stand graffiti in nature. The sayings here that are drawn in this with chalk or a media that will quickly fade away. I’m cool with that. But using spray paint. I’m not down. Tag up a railroad car or the side of a building or a bridge. I’m down with that.

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This is your reminder that this week’s THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is #INSTAGOOD:

#INSTAGOOD

#INSTAGOOD! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is a #INSTAGOOD picture? #INSTAGOOD is the second most popular hashtag used on Instagram. As of this morning, it has been used on Instagram 1,531,803,168 times. You might be thinking, “Well, that is an interesting statistic, that doesn’t tell me what it means!”

Don’t worry baby birds, I’m gonna feed you.

The #INSTAGOOD hashtag is used when an Instagram user thinks that the picture is particularly good. Not just your average picture, but a good picture. For our uses, this week’s theme is to send me you best picture you took during this week. From between 12:01 PM today and 10:59 next Monday.

So that brings me to the new rule for this week’s theme:

SEND ME ONE AND ONLY ONE PICTURE!! THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE BEST PICTURE YOU TOOK THIS WEEK! DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT SENDING ME MULTIPLE IMAGES AND TELLING ME TO PICK THE BEST ONE. I WILL NOT DO IT!! I WILL COUNT THAT AS ZERO SUBMISSIONS! I’D HATE TO SEEN ANY STREAKS ENDED CAUSE OF A TECHNICALITY!

This is one of two themes that will have special rules this year. The other one is also coming up pretty soon.

Surprisingly, I’ve already received a couple of submissions. I love the bravado! It isn’t even the weekend yet and people have decided, this is it! This is the best picture I can take this week! I mean it is possible that I have already taken the best picture I will take this week already. But I’m also arrogant enough to think the next click of the shutter will be the best picture. Then the click after that will be even better.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Angie, Becky, Bill, Black & White, Carla, Cathie, Dawn, Elizabeth, Evie, Jesse, Joe Duff, Kim, Kio, Linda, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Sara, Shannon, Still Life, Suzie, Tamara, WPC - Submissions

WPC – WEEK 345 – LETTERS OR NUMBERS

April 25, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

WARNING: READ THE RULES FOR NEXT WEEK’S THEME CARFEULLY. THERE IS ONE CHANGE FOR NEXT WEEK’S THEME!

LETTERS OR NUMBERS has proven to be a fairly popular theme.

As of 12:01 PM on Monday, April 18, this was the current list of ACTIVE streaks:

+ Evie Gorshe – 1 week
+ Sarah Karber – 1 week
+ Kim Barker – 2 weeks
+ Sara Lockner – 2 weeks
+ Becky Parmelee – 2 weeks
+ Joe Duff – 3 weeks
+ Dawn Krause – 3 weeks
+ Linda Bennett – 4 weeks
+ Suzie Brannen – 4 weeks
+ Monica Henning – 4 weeks
+ Logan Kahler – 5 weeks
+ Teresa Kahler – 13 weeks
+ Tamara Peterson – 13 weeks
+ Carla Stensland – 13 weeks
+ Michelle Haupt – 14 weeks
+ Micky Augustin – 15 weeks
+ Andy Sharp – 16 weeks
+ Bill Wentworth – 17 weeks
+ Cathie Raley – 21 weeks
+ Elizabeth Nordeen – 22 weeks
+ Shannon Bardole-Foley – 24 weeks
+ Kio Dettman – 27 weeks

But you didn’t come here to listen to me talk all tommyrot about participation rates or streaks. You came to see the submissions and what streaks continued and what streaks flamed out:

Teresa Kahler – 14 weeks

Teresa Kahler

Sara Lockner – 3 weeks

Elizabeth Nordeen – 23 weeks

Andy Sharp – 17 weeks

Evie Gorshe – 2 weeks

Micky Augustin – 16 weeks

Joe Duff – 4 weeks

Kio Dettman – 28 weeks

Kio Dettman

Tamara Peterson – 14 weeks

Angie DeWaard – 1 week

Bill Wentworth – 18 weeks

Christopher D. Bennett

Carla Stensland – 14 weeks

Carla Stensland

Michelle Haupt – 15 weeks

Becky Parmelee – 3 weeks

Linda Bennett – 5 weeks

Shannon Bardole-Foley – 25 weeks

Logan Kahler – 6 weeks

Kim Barker – 3 weeks

Dawn Krause – 4 weeks

Dawn Krause

Cathie Raley – 22 weeks

Jesse Howard – 1 week

Suzie Brannen – 5 weeks

Monica Henning – 5 weeks

Monica Henning

31 submissions from 24 participants! That is a great week!

Only 1 “streak” was snapped. Sarah wasn’t able to built on her submission from last week. However, to balance that out, Angie participated for the first time in Year 9. Hopefully this is the sign of big things to come!

Here are the current top streaks:

1. Kio – 28 weeks
2. Shannon – 25 weeks
3. Elizabeth – 23 weeks
4. Cathie – 22 weeks
5. Bill – 18 weeks
6. Andy Sharp – 17 weeks
7. Micky Augustin – 16 weeks
8. Michelle Haupt – 15 weeks
9. Teresa Kahler – 14 weeks
9. Tamara Peterson – 14 weeks
9. Carla Stensland – 14 weeks

But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:

#INSTAGOOD

#INSTAGOOD! What a great theme for Year 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

Don’t worry baby birds, I’m gonna feed you.

So that brings me to the new rule for this week’s theme:

So now that is clear. When considering possible subjects for your best picture this week, meditate on these song lyrics from a song from THE KARATE KID:

Try to be best
‘Cause you’re only a man
And a man’s gotta learn to take it
Try to believe
Though the going gets rough
That you gotta hang tough to make it
History repeats itself
Try and you’ll succeed
Never doubt that you’re the one
And you can have your dreams!
You’re the best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down

I look forwarding to seeing the best you got next Monday!

RULES

The picture has to be taken between 12:01 PM today and 11 AM next Monday. This isn’t a curate your photos project. This is a get your butt off the couch (unless you are taking your picture from the couch) and take pictures challenge.

You can send your images to either bennett@photography139.com OR you may text them to my Pixel 5.

That is all I got, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will all be sharing your idea of #INSTAGOOD in this place that is nothing more than the best I got next Monday.

Art, Black & White, Christianity, Road Trip, Ruins, Vest

Decatur and Wayne County Auxiliary Images Vol. 3

April 20, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Several months back Vest and I cruised around Decatur County and Wayne County harvesting their town signs. This is the final collection of auxiliary images I took on this trip. All of these pictures were taken in Wayne County.

We stopped and ate a Mexican restaurant in Corydon called La Bota. It was very good and I recommend it if you are ever in the area.

Corydon

Promise City

Seymour

Bethlehem

Millerton

The next county I will share auxiliary images from is Linn and also Jones.

Alexis, Anela, Black & White, Formal Portrait, Kupono

The Baughers 2021 – Volume 3

April 17, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Happy Easter! The Easter devotional is the preaching notes from UMC Discipleship. I’m not sure who wrote them:

There are, of course, lots of directions to take when preaching on Easter. No doubt you’ve done quite a few. As discussed in the Planning Notes, this is a day for tradition. It is a day for telling the story as powerfully and dramatically as you can. Whether you choose John’s gospel account with the 100-yard dash between Peter and John or Mary’s tears in the garden or Luke’s account with the women “perplexed” over the loss of a dead body and the two men dressed like Las Vegas performers—either way it is a story worth telling again and again.

Perhaps, however, this year you’d like to try something different—not to neglect the story, but instead to consider what the story did to those who first heard it. What if we were to consider the impact of the story on those who were witnesses and lived their lives bearing witness to that story? What if we were to turn to the Acts of the Apostles and reflect on how to be a witness to Easter, not just on this one glorious day, but every day? Sometimes you tell the story best when you see what the story did to those who heard it—like Peter. Acts 10:34-43 is the Easter story borne witness through the life of one who heard what happened that day when God raised him. “We are witnesses to all that he did…” Acts 10:39

My daughter Maddie was for a time involved in competitive ballroom dancing. So we ordered her a dress online through my account since I was paying for it. And for years after that I would still get emails and posts and ads running on Google and Facebook, assuming that I wanted to buy more dance dresses. You know how we used to worry about the government keeping eyes on us and knowing more about us than they should? Well, George Orwell, it isn’t the government; it’s the Internet. Google and Amazon and Facebook remember what I bought a lot longer than I do. And they want to sell me more.

Dance dresses, for example. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t look good in the kind of dresses they’re trying to sell me. Not as good as Maddie anyway. A little too slinky and smooth and feathery and slit open and flowing for my use. Preachers should stick to the little black number that we sometimes wear. Right? Mind you, I’d love to dance like that. Some Sunday mornings seem to call for it. Light and airy, the good news is about lifting us, like we could float, walking on sunshine. Easter is a dancing day, don’t you think? On the other hand, some days are dark and heavy, weighed down by sinfulness, brokenness, a dirge, a lament longing for a Savior who could come and set us free. Or confident, a waltz or rumba reminding us that we are loved and capable of loving. Or a square dance that’s all about changing partners and including all, from one to the other and back again, enriched by the whole community as we dance together. Yeah, that’s what we need in worship, a little more dancing.

If any of the disciples had two left feet, it was Peter—always tripping over his own shortsightedness, stumbling around in his misguided certainties, leading with his sense of self-preservation instead of following the lead of the one he called Christ in a flash of grace that surprised even Jesus (“flesh and blood didn’t reveal this to you”; i.e., there’s no way you figured this out on your own, Peter!) No, Peter wasn’t Lord of the Dance; he was a back row chorus line member at best. Yet, here he is, leading, headlining, finding the spotlight and trying to follow the lead of the Spirit, who still has new steps for him to learn.

Peter was preaching. Actually, he was giving his testimony, giving a witness to what he knew was true and how it had changed him. It was his own story that he was turning into a sermon that day. Back up in chapter ten of Acts and you’ll see the story that he was telling. The vision on the rooftop that seemed to be about the dietary laws, but actually was about who was worthy of the gospel. Peter was a good Jew. He knew who he could hang around with and who he had to avoid. (We’ll come back to this later in the series—stay tuned!) Sure, Jesus kind of messed with his head for a while there. He was still processing all of that. But he knew where the lines were. He could follow the steps in this dance he knew from his childhood. But now his foxtrot thinking didn’t fit the salsa music he was hearing.

“I truly understand,” Peter preached, in what turned out to be a bit of an overstatement, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality!” What was wrong with that? Well, the “I truly understand” bit. He didn’t. Not yet. In the moment, yeah sure, he was swaying to the beat. But later, he’d want to sit this one out; and Paul would beckon, and they would have a dance off, to re-teach him what he truly understood for a moment. That’s later. Let’s give him his due now. He’s got it down. That flow from the Spirit that takes him farther than he thought he could go.

He says that he was commissioned to preach to the people. He was commissioned by the life and death and Resurrection of his Lord, the living Christ, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth. Oh, yes, he knows the name now. He was reclaimed from his doubt and fear. He was gathered up from his denial and disappointment. He was called to preach to the people. What he still had to learn was who the people were.

See, he thought it was his people—the people like him, the people who looked like he did and spoke like he did and danced like he did. But Jesus opened his eyes to the people—all the people, the wonderful panoply of people, the glorious, created collection of people and traditions and languages and dances that there would be no way he could master without throwing out a hip! But he could watch and then learn and laugh and clap his hands as he welcomed them into the family.

Christ is risen!

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Time on the Formal Portrait Sunday to once again to share some pictures from the Baugher Family Photo Shoot:

I have one more collection of pictures from this photo shoot to share. Next Sunday’s formal portraits will be another collection of pictures from Jayton’s senior pictures.

Baseball/Softball, Becca, Bethany, Black & White, Cousin Amy, Derrick, Evie, Formal Portrait, James, Jill, Nate, Photoshop, Sara, Shawn Lockner

Memory Lane Denouement

April 16, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is a monumental day. It is the last of our Saturday walks down memory lane. With this last collection of images, I was able to fix all the blogs that had missing pictures due to my constant changing of image gallery hosts. The last entry to be fixed was in August of 2011. Unfortunately many entries weren’t able to be fixed completely because I have lost images over the decade and half this website has been in existence. Most of those were pictures that were “archives” images that were scans of old pictures from the film days. The other major missing hole will be pictures from the first two years of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE, originally known as THE RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT. It is sad that this collection will never be “complete” again, but we are never actually fully complete, are we? However, when it comes to the RANDOM WEEKLY PHOTO EXPERIMENT, there is probably less than 50 images missing. So that isn’t terrible. After all, it isn’t like anybody goes back and looks at my journal entries from 11 years ago.

Here is the last collection of images:

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Minnesota

RWPE Y2 #24 – PEOPLE

RWPE Y2 #25 – SOOTHING

RWPE Y2 #26 – LIGHT PLACEMENT

RWPE Y2 #27 – BLACK & WHITE

RWPE Y2 #28 – GAMES

RWPE Y2 #29 – FRAMING

RWPE Y2 #30 – NIGHT

RWPE Y2 #32 – NOISE

There is no walk down memory lane next Saturday. I’m not sure what next Saturday will even hold. I might start taking Saturdays off. I might start moving the formal portraits to Saturdays and start taking Sundays off. Or I might just start working on the backlog. It is a mystery that only time will solve.

Art, Bill, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Christianity, Jesse, Road Trip, Still Life, Tenderloining

Tenderloin Appreciation Society – Harlan Field Work

April 15, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Today is Good Friday. I thought I would share an image I took on a recent road trip that represents Good Friday before getting to a Good Friday devotional.

This devotional I took from the UMC website and was written by Rev. Dr. Hannah Ka:

Scripture: Mark 15:33-41

From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”

After hearing him, some standing there said, “Look! He’s calling Elijah!” Someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on a pole. He offered it to Jesus to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down.” But Jesus let out a loud cry and died.

The curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who stood facing Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “This man was certainly God’s Son.”

Some women were watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James (the younger one) and Joseph, and Salome. When Jesus was in Galilee, these women had followed and supported him, along with many other women who had come to Jerusalem with him.

Devotion

A dimmed light in theater cues the ending of a scene. The darkness signals the curtain to close. A part of the story has ended. If the protagonist is dead at this end, then we know it is a tragedy. Jesus’ death is a disappointment for those who hoped that he would rise as a new political leader to overthrow the oppressive colonial power of Rome and rebuild the nation that would protect them. For those who executed his death sentence, it is a clear victory against a rebel. This seemingly failed attempt closes the curtain on the story, at least for many human eyes.

From the wider viewpoint of faith, however, it is not. It signals something totally otherwise. At the moment of Jesus’ loud cry and his last breath, there the curtain in the temple is torn in two. This is the curtain that the God-fearing and Law-abiding Jewish people had put up to keep some out. It is torn “from top to bottom” (v. 38) because God breaks the division between the holy and the ordinary and erases the line between what is acceptable and unacceptable.

The death of Jesus is an opening. God opens the closed curtains that we so often put up and walks into our lives. God is not only within our reach, but also reaches out to all humanity with the redeeming grace of the cross. God treasures our ordinary life as a part of eternity. God turns the ends of human tragedy into new beginnings because God’s redemptive story always eradicates any human-made divisive binaries we put up on earth. God follows neither the Roman Empire nor the Jewish Law. God builds a new kin-dom on earth according to God’s all-embracing love. God is… and God does.

For reflection

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” by Lao Tzu.

Prayer

O God, help us feel your presence in our daily lives, in our pain and our despair. Open our eyes to see your new beginnings in our endings. Guide us to live as a part of your redemptive story. Amen.

Once again, you are invited to join me at “my” church. The Boone First United Methodist Church for Good Friday. At noon you can start visiting the church to tour The Stations of the Cross. The video starts every hour on the hour from noon until 7 PM. You might recognize the voice of the narrator of Station 7. At 7 PM there will be a worship service. If you want to stay home and tour the videos they will be online to watch as well. I believe on the Boone First United Methodist Church Facebook page.

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A few Saturday’s ago Jesse and I road tripped to Harlan, Iowa to meet Bill at Victoria Station to do a little tenderloining. Victoria Station is the reigning Best Tenderloin in Iowa, so we had to get there and give it a go. The Pork Producers do a fair job of crowning the champion, but they do frequently anoint subpar tenderloins as the champ. So I kept my expectations in check. Especially, cause this is definitely not a standard tenderloin. It is served on Texas Toast and rather than being served with mustard and ketchup, it is eaten with a garlic aioli.

Here are some cruddy cell phone pictures from the experience:

I’ll just cut to the chase. This is one of the best tenderloins I’ve ever had. The Pork Producers actually got it right! I wasn’t sure about the Texas Toast, but it works! Certainly better than some place that try brioche or ciabatta buns, which don’t work that well. The meat tastes great and the garlic aioli complements it perfectly.

I believe it belongs in the Tenderloin Pantheon.

THE GOOD

+ Toasted “bun”.
+ Great thickness.
+ Nailed the meat to bun ratio.
+ White onions.
+ Garlic aioli, delicious!
+ Flavorful breading.
+ Served Pepsi products.
+ The appetizers were phenomenal. In particular, the fried pickle thing.
+ Former depot setting is really cool.
+ Great service.

THE BAD

+ Served default with lettuce and tomato, but I’m just beginning to accept this.
+ Cool setting, but not very big dining area. If you going during peak hours, I’d recommend a reservation. We were there at 2 PM on a Saturday, so there was plenty of space, but we still had a reservation.

THE UGLY

+ No doors on the bathroom stalls in the Men’s room. The door does lock however. There are doors on the Women’s restroom stalls though. We confirmed this with our awesome waitress.

Victoria Station is also a finalist for the Best Burger in Iowa, so a return trip there might be in my future!

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This is your reminder that this week’s theme for THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is ORANGE:

ORANGE

ORANGE! What a great theme for Week 9 of THE WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE!

But what is an ORANGE image? An ORANGE image is simply and image where the subject of the image OR a major compositional element of the image is the color ORANGE.

I’ve already received a submission from Minnesota from a person that hasn’t submitted for quite some time. I’m pretty excited about this potential development! Also, I received a submission from somebody that drove all the way to California for the sole purpose of taking a picture for their submission! I love the commitment!

While considering possible subjects for your ORANGE submission, consider the following quote:

Whoever said ORANGE was the new pink was seriously disturbed.
-Elle Woods

Happy photo harvesting!

Art, Black & White, History, Olympic Sports, Politics, Road Trip, Ruins, Vest

Decatur and Wayne County Auxiliary Images Vol. 2

April 13, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

Several months back I cruised around Decatur County and Wayne County with Vest harvesting their town signs. This is the second collection of auxiliary images I took on this trip.

There are a couple of images I want to single out. These pictures of murals I took in Allerton, Iowa:

While I was doing a little research on the Coca-Cola mural trying to discover who the Iowa Letterheads are, I discovered a very interesting group. These murals were painted in 1993 by a group call The Walldogs. The Walldogs is a group of mural painters that once a year go to a town and paint a bunch of murals there. Allerton, Iowa was the first town they ever did this at. According to their website, (thewalldogs.com) they are going to be in Paducah, Kentucky this year. Which is really close to where Ernie lives. They are also going to return to Allerton, Iowa in 2023. If this schedule holds, I will definitely look into checking this out.

This is the type of thing I wish our Art Council in Boone would have looked into, before they got broken up when one member assaulted another member.

Here are the rest of the pictures from Volume 2 of this road trip:

Leon

Davis City

Lineville

Clio

Allerton

Corydon

A little bit of history on George Saling from the Prairie Tails Museum:

George Saling Brings Home the Gold!!!
In August 1932 headlines in newspapers around the country repeated this message as George Saling, Corydon won both a gold and bronze medal as part of the United State Olympic Team.

George Saling a senior at the University of Iowa was considered among the hurdling greats of the world in 1932. He set records in many meets that year, including Drake Relays with a record setting time in the high hurdles of 14:4 seconds. In the National Collegiate championships he set a new record at 14:1, this was also a world record.

In the first heat of the Olympic hurdles Saling came in second to Don Finlay of Great Britain. He opened up in the second heat and broke an Olympic record at 14:4.

In the final heat an Olympic championship at stake, the competitors took off at the shot in a life and death race. And Saling won, this time in 14:6 in the 110 meter high hurdles winning the gold medal. In fact the USA team took home both gold and silver.

Saling wrote this of his experience: “Down on the track, six forms are crouching – by trials the six greatest hurdlers in the world. The gun barks and the forms shoot forward. They take the first barrier almost in unison. Then one runner draws into the lead. Closely pressed by the pack, he is still leading at the seventh hurdle. “At the eighth barrier a runner emerges from the pack. He overtakes the leader, and then sweeps on by and to the tape – a victor by four feet. That runner was myself, and I say without shame that this is the ONE race of the Olympics that shall remain longest in my memory.”

George Saling was born in 1909 in Memphis, MO. The family moved to Corydon when he was three months old, where he graduated from high school in 1927. George’s first love was basketball and he was captain of the Corydon team in 1926-27.

He went out for track, partly because that was what most of the other fellow did in the spring. In meets he usually filled in wherever he was needed most, running anything from the 100 to the 440, besides hurdles.

In the fall of 1927 he began classes at the University of Iowa and turned his ambitions toward basketball. But in an interview given just two weeks before his untimely death in 1933, George said, “Just as I was swinging off the court after practice one night, and still possessing a little of that youthful exuberance, I raced over a couple of hurdles that were standing nearby, as George Bresnahan, U of I track coach happened to be passing.”

Coach Bresnahan spotted Saling’s natural gift for the hurdles and immediately began an intense campaign to recruit George away from basketball and on to the track team. Saling credited his coach for much of his success. His training methods included a lot of body building – lifting weights, working on bars, and sprinting. One unusual exercise that proved to be very helpful was walking on his hands, which developed arms, back, and chest, and gave him a finer sense of balance – a necessity for hurdlers.

Corydon and the track world were stunned by the untimely death of George Saling on April 14, 1933 as a result of a car accident near St Louis. He was just 23 years old. The funeral service at the Methodist Church in Corydon was one of the largest ever held in Corydon.

George Saling’s memory was honored by his hometown high school in 1938 when its newly lighted athletic field was dedicated as “Saling Field”. In 1983, during Corydon’s Old Settlers Celebration, Saling was honored in a special ceremony and a bronze plaque honoring his Olympic Gold Medal was mounted on the east side of the bandstand on the Wayne County courthouse grounds. In 1989, the University of Iowa established an Athletic Hall of Fame: George Saling was one of the athletes and coaches named.

There is still one more collection of pictures from this road trip left to share.

Animals, Black & White, Camping, Commercial, Cousin Amy, Flowers, Formal Portrait, Funk, Jesse, Macro, Night, Photoshop, Road Trip, Sara, Still Life, Willy

2011-06-13, 2011-06-14, and 2011-06-17

April 9, 2022 Christopher D. Bennett

The grand majority of the pictures in the folders 2011-06-13, 2011-06-14, and 2011-06-17 are from a trip to Kalona to eat an authentic Amish meal with Funk, Sara, and Cousin Amy. This was before Funk became a total badass and started spending her free time climbing mountains in Peru. There are also a couple pictures here from a camping trip to Ledges and a pictures I took and poorly photoshopped for the United Way of Story County.

I miss Kalona. I will need to go there at some point this year, and not just for THE TOWN SIGN PROJECT.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

RWPE Y2 #23 – DEPTH OF FIELD

GUYS’ NIGHT

LIVE UNITED

KALONA ROAD TRIP

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a trip to a baseball game.