We remain in the same area, doing the usual close-ups. Yesterday was Lemonade Day in Lubbock, in which kids are supposed to set up lemonade stands and learn the joys of free enterprise. Sort of a cruel hoax in my opinion. The rich kids get the best stuff in the best neighborhoods and make the most money. And none of them have to deal with city codes, health department thugs, taxing entities, liability insurance, blood-sucking attorneys, or realtors, or neighborhood associations. Lots of luck with your farcical "free enterprise". Most business start-ups are crushed within the first year. At any rate, we drove to the poorest neighborhoods we could find and patronized the lemonade stands there, until we couldn't hold any more lemonade. We found a little Hispanic boy in a wheelchair, and even though he might have borrowed that wheelchair from his grandad, we stopped at his stand. In fact, he had a much older sister out in very brief shorts and cowboy boots and a tight top, helping to flag down traffic and you've got to admire that kind of enterprise, touching all the bases. Yes, we enjoyed his lemonade, and admired his initiative.
Unless you live in the area I photographed, you aren't likely to see it, ever. I suggest that folks in the spanking new additions and new arrivals in town go exploring. Get out of your habitual territory and see something new.
You should especially do this if you live in one of Lubbock's exclusive "enclave" areas, like Village Township or Heritage Village, or whatever-- your community is artificial, contrived, fake. You live in fantasy land. See what the real Lubbock is like. Above, is the hidden playa lake. You have to approach it from the backside to see this part. You can get a glimpse from 50th east of I-27.
Yes, if you want to live out on South University, way out in the boonies, you've got to have a junked out car or two or three on your property.
That would be OK with me, because I like junked out cars, and junkyards in general. I kind of like weeds growing up tall in and around old cars. When I was a kid my dad would take me to a local junkyard. He'd search for parts and I'd explore. It was great! My dream was to live in a junkyard. If I won the lottery I'd probably build a junkyard and try to talk my wife into moving into a nice house in the middle of a vast sea of junk cars. Then she'd kill me.
These pictures are from the vicinity of Avenue D and about 40th Street. This is an interesting part of town, with a hidden playa lake.
Some interesting erosional features, above. Looks a little like parts of Mars. The newer and more prosperous parts of town look like crap, to me. Sterile. Over-crowded. Hostile to life.
I'm starting with photos taken day before yesterday, looking in the direction of a storm that became tornadic and spawned several funnels. It had just passed over Lubbock, heading to the East.
And the photo above shows our little wildflower garden, getting soaked again, by more rain. It was raining, and the sun was shining!
The next photos were taken a long way out on South University, where it seems that every house has at least one junked car on the property... these were taken the weekend before our first of a series of torrential rains.
This car is a fifties Packard, and it needs to be restored!
When we returned to Lubbock from New Braunfels we stopped at the only McDonalds in Lamesa. Right across the street is/was a local monument-- been there for years and years. I finally got a couple of pictures and then shortly afterward learned that the old Cadillac on the roof is gone, purchased at an undisclosed price for restoration. I hope to someday see it in restored form. I'll miss it. I've been driving through Lamesa for many years and have always seen it, up on the roof of that old building with the tall, brick, smokestack. What WAS that building anyway? A power plant? A factory?
Meanwhile, the towns of Tahoka and Seagraves have been hard hit by flooding. Seagraves is a town we have not yet visited. And we'll have to wait for the flood waters to subside before we do go there. Just about the whole town is under water.
