Another "back roads trip" sketch on the Thumbnails page.  Good practice and a good idea to have the paper and pencil ready. If you missed the 1st one, now you can see 'em both. 

Mid May Stairway

   This was done 18 months or more ago, but sat in the truck long enough that it got rained on before being finished. So I whacked off the bottom where it had been the most wet, and finished it up during the winter. This was not only mid May, and a stairway in the middle of the house, but the house also is in the middle of town. I sat in the parking lot to do the sketch that is on the north of Central Junior High. Remember, the former Memorial High School...

I was going to post it before, but could not get the photography decent. Still not too good. 
    Hey, I am sticking some new ones on the Thumbnails page too. 

Gnaw Bone worn

        We had few minutes running down the Interstate south out of Indianapolis. We took the State Hwy west looking for Brown County State Park. We had been there years before with my aunt and uncle. This time on the way we passed these two structures sitting side by side. Returning back the same way some minutes later we stopped for a quick sketch. This drawing is one of the results of that side trip. These places look like they may be from completely different time periods.

        The town near there was Gnaw Bone, IN. One of the strangest names we ran into on our two week trip. Maybe the guy who built the cabin could remember why they came up with this name...maybe the dog that did the gnawing was laying on the porch of this place at the time. I would guess the road was not paved at the time. Probably not even graveled. The bone has long been gone, but the worn buildings are still standing.    

Two the Mills

This is from the back roads of Alabama, from last week. We turned around and went back to this junction where Stephanie had seen a small sign saying “SACO”. We had no idea what that meant until we saw across the road in the trees the Saco Volunteer Fire Department. One ol' fellow (my age?) stopped in his pickup as I was sketching this place, and said this was the corn storage at one time for the grist mill across to the east. Now it is just a hiding place for a load of trees headed to a mill... He also said the corner at one time was home to 13 businesses – such a statement is proof I would think that he had been around for some time. One was the grist mill, one was a cotton gin, one still is apparently the Sorrel Lumber and Pulpwood Company. The only evidence we saw of life besides this informant, was the new brick building across the large lot with a couple pick ups parked beside it in the shade. Well, I guess there was one other fellow there. As I was standing in the middle of the lot sketching, I began to hear some music from under this structure, but could not see anything under there in the darkness. Pretty soon an ol' pick up pulls out from there and around to where I was standing. This ol' boy wanted to know if I would be around long enough for him to see what my drawing looked like when it was done. When he found out I would be just a few minutes, he said, “well I have to be getting home now.” and off he drove.

When I had a couple sketches done, I hopped back in the car with Stephanie, and off we drove to Troy.  

        Who can tell me when the moniker "thumbnail" began to be used? Long before the advent of the computer; but when and why?
        Well, anyway there is another "thumb" on the thumbnails page- that explains where some of the stuff in our yard came from...