The opera house, the farmer, the desk and its contents

Back in October I took a two day photography trip up into northern Missouri.  Northern Boone, Macon, Randolph, Chariton, and Livingston counties were all on my agenda.  I took a chance on a tiny town called Triplett and drove the deserted streets looking for something to photograph.  I was astounded when I found a large, uniquely-shaped brick structure in fairly good condition, situated on what might have been Main Street.  I stopped to photograph the exterior when a combine and pickup truck slowly entered the building through a garage door on the side.  I spoke to the drivers of both and found out that they were a father and son who owned the building and who used it to store their farm equipment.  They told me that it was formerly an opera house, but could not recall the original name.  We went inside and I was able to take a few interior photos while the father told me what he knew about the history of the building and its contents.  Among the contents was a high legged desk. We opened the drawer of the desk and pulled out several documents and various items of ephemera.  One such item was this Christmas greeting card, dated 1923.  I carefully photographed the card while the farmer held it, using the light from the garage opening to illuminate it.  In this post I am only including the photograph of the handheld card, because it seems to be the most singular image of the five or six that I made while I was there.  In the next blog post I am going to post several of the photos together, in editorial fashion, in order to tell the entire story of the discovery.

Sunny, downtown Macon

A heavily repainted wall on a sunny December afternoon in Macon, Missouri.

Lost bird

I came across this lost cemetery decoration on the edge of a cemetery in northern Linn county, Missouri.  I was looking for a rural church that used to stand next to the cemetery, but the church was gone and only a belfry and some tombstones remained.

The axe in the barn

An axe stored in a barrel in a corner of a barn has developed a thick and palpable patina of age and rust. 

Clarksburg, MO

There used to be much more to Clarksburg.  I came here several times in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  At least two buildings from this block of stores are gone.  The portion of the building on the far right used to be a general merchandise store that a great grandfather of mine either owned or worked in...back in the early 1900s.  After Clarksburg his family moved on to Sedalia, Missouri.

Yoga under the Oak

This is a photo I took of an impromptu yoga session underneath the grand oak tree at McBaine during the 2018 True/False Boone Dawdle.  It might be one of my favorites from this year's ride...a moment of stillness and poise during an event of chaotic, colorful kineticism.

Going Up in Dubuque

Taken during our trip to Dubuque, back in July.  We enjoyed a ride on one of Dubuque's obligatory tourist stops, the Fenelon Place Elevator.  While the view from the top took in a sweeping expanse of central Dubuque and the Mississippi River, the view from the bottom, out the dusty, hand-painted sign window, tells a much more interesting story.