Walter
Lee Phillips: My Dad, as he looked in 1969. I depict him as a
friendly man with a big broad smile, wearing an old fashioned Fedora style
hat. That was the way he presented himself in public. He had a sad life, in many ways, but I
never heard him complain about any of it. Born in 1896, he lived
through two world wars and several smaller wars. He survived the
Great Depression. He worked hard all of his life, for low pay. He was not a whiner or complainer. He
always talked about
the good times and simply ignored the bad ones. There was a deeper
and more
serious side to my father that I never really got to know. I don't
think anyone did. |
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Good
friends. |
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Granny
Mac: Granny Mac was the grandmother of two kids I ran around
with as a small boy. She lived at their house. I went there almost
day. Granny would sit on the porch by the front door to their house
in her old home made rocking chair. If we got close enough to her,
she raised her cane up and swatted us with it. She had a good swing
for an old woman. We learned to stay out of her range and we ran as
fast as we could if we had to go through that door. Granny was about
the age I am now. She was crippled with arthritis and could
barely walk. We knew we would get in big trouble if we disrespected
her in any way so we took it all in stride. It was like a game
for her. She usually did not hit us with the cane but she went
through all of the motions and it had our attention. |
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Taking
Granddad for a walk. |
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I
believe we are going too far with this "sensitivity business". It is
turning into a form of censorship. I do not see that as a good thing
- EVER. I think it is getting out of control. I believe in
free expression - ALWAYS. |
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Mr.
Taggart's Snow Cone Stand. From my boyhood, a long, long time ago.
It was a favorite hangout for us kids during the summer months. We all
loved that little Snow Cone Stand. Every April, Mr. Taggart would work
on it. He would clean it up and do any repairs that were needed. He
also painted it a bright color. Every year it was a different color.
We would help him do all the work. We were very proud of it. We all
thought of it as OUR SNOW CONE STAND. We kids ran
around bare footed all summer. Once we got the bottoms of our feet
toughened up, we could walk on the scalding hot pavement with little
discomfort. We had to keep moving and could not stand in one spot
for long. We only wore shoes in the summer when we went to Church. |
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Is
this the next step? If we don't pay attention to our National
Security, Homeland Security, domestic Law Enforcement and
Immigration Laws we could very well wake up to find to find
ourselves in this situation. UNDER THE CONTROL OF FOREIGN INVADERS
WHO HATE US. |
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After the Civil War ended, white southerners still talked down to
the Negroes when they had a chance. Here, a white southerner
questions a black sharecropper's wife. |
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The
lame horse. A
blacksmith checks over the leg of a badly limping horse, as the boy
who rides the horse watches nervously. |
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Reading
by the light from a coal oil lamp, circa 1890. What progress we have
made in a little over 100 years! |
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A
railroad train conductor checks his watch. Keeping things on
schedule was very important - especially for the railroads. |
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COUNTRY
LIVING |
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Old
friends reunited. I envision a cancer patient who has been away in
hospital for some time. He gets to go home and is reunited
with his horse. |
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Bigfoot
says hi! Our hunter is more concerned about admiring his new shotgun
than he is with paying attention to his surroundings. He has no idea
that he is being stalked by an amiable looking Bigfoot Monster. |
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CAUGHT
BY SURPRISE. The man sights the buck about the same time
the buck sees him. |
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MAMA
COOKING BREAKFAST. Being country folks, breakfast was
the most important meal of the day. I witnessed this sight
almost every morning. |
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OFF
TO PAINT THE BARN. Pail of paint and brush in hand and
trusty dog at his side, a boy sets out to go to work. |
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THE
TWISTER. This is not an uncommon sight on the prairie. |
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BISCUITS
AND GRAVY COMING UP I
grew up in poor circumstances. Most of the people I knew subsisted
on a simple diet. Biscuits and gravy and beans and cornbread were at
the top of the list. |
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Sea
Captain: MAYBE WORKING FOR THE CHIEF ISN'T SO BAD, AFTER
ALL. This was done just for fun. |
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Boy
on horseback. Boys will be boys. |
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This
depicts a hobo making soup over an open fire back in the days of the
Great Depression. It could very well be a homeless person today. The
soup was made from whatever thay had and everyone made a
contribution, if they had anything to contribute. |
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Despite
the hard times, the men in the hobo jungles banded together to help
each other every way they could. In general, they were a jovial and happy
go lucky bunch
and always had something to laugh about. |
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A
frontiersman out hunting |
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A
white planter bids on a black slave on the block at a
slave auction. |
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It
could happen. The mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion boils up
from behind a nearby mountain range. The highway sign reads LOS
ANGELES 48 MI. The lady clasps a toddler in her arms and she has a
dazed look on her face. You can form your own conclusions. |
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Too
much information. |
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The
face
of despair and hope. Dedicated to the people from the Great Depression
period and their descendants. Many of them were poor people who had nothing. My father and mother were among
them. They worked hard for a roof over their heads, basic groceries
and the bare essentials. They got a little cash occasionally but it
was not regular wages. Dad ran the hands on a cattle ranch and Mom did the cooking
for all of them. They worked for their keep. They considered themselves to be very lucky. They
had a job, they had shelter, they had food. Many of their friends
were not as fortunate and they helped them when they could. So it
was - all across America. The people made do with very little and
they survived it. Despite the hard times, they knew things would get
better and they never gave up hope. There are not many of them left but most of us have
heard stories about it. |
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