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Posts tagged “photos”

A Story and a View

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on August 15, 2012

A Story Image 1

Texas Hill Country Vista

First, a few things I love: a great view; revisiting someplace and finding that I still love it or, better yet, finding something new to love about it; and a good story. I also have a great fondness for dessert, but that’s another list. 

   
We’ve driven right by this spot at least twice before on the way to Alamo Springs Cafe (for their a-mazing burgers), but we never stopped to check out the view. It was worth stopping for. As we stood and admired, the kid asked about the structure over to the left. I told him it was probably a fire lookout tower and that it reminded me of a story. 

   
Sometime in 1936 a girl took a walk in the woods of western Louisiana with a girl friend. They came upon a fire lookout tower and climbed up to check out the view. In addition to a view, they found a sleeping man. He was the CCC volunteer assigned to man the tower and was happily sleeping off the previous evening’s fun. The man awoke to a girl with big grey eyes and a dark ponytail peering at him. She was a shy 17 year old in a blue pinafore. He had a rakish grin, was 26 and, worst of all, was “Louisiana French”. 

   
Of course he immediately began pursuing her. For two years he courted her with compliments and gifts and promises. The thing that eventually won her over was when he paid to have her mother’s remaining teeth removed, and then covered the cost of her dentures. He proposed, she accepted and in 1938 they were married. And then in 1939 they had a baby girl, my mom.

   
So, I explained to the kid, a fire tower like that one was responsible for my standing there, admiring that view.

Weekend Away, San Antonio

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on July 18, 2012

Old Fashioned Room Key

Old Fashioned Room Key

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Good News, Bad News

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on June 19, 2012

There are a few things that (almost) never fail to perk us up. Like seeing a reference to yourself, however obliquely, in print. I remember picking up a book by A. S. Byatt to give it the sentence test* and finding my birthday on the page. Naturally, I bought the book (as it was obviously a sign). I enjoyed it and read several more by Byatt.

 

This week I picked up another book and saw my birthday listed. I did not buy it.

 

 

Perhaps my cynicism held me back?

 

Another potential source of delight is the receipt of a handmade gift from a child. Two year old Addison made this for me:

 

 

Her mother insists that it was meant to say “Love you, Addison”. She also said it was a drawing of me. Not in crosshairs.

 

So I’m feeling sufficiently perked up now thankyouverymuch. The universe can stop trying so hard and make me a cocktail instead. Really. It’s better that we just sit and drink and discuss this no more.

 


* Sentence test: picking up a book, turning to a random page and reading one sentence to see if you like it enough to read more.

 

Photos by Sandra Peterson Ramirez

 

Texas Sky

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on June 8, 2012

 

These photos really need a sound track. As I’m creating this post, I have this running in the background so I have an accompaniment of bird and bugs and perhaps frogs chirping away. There’s also the hint of a breeze rustling the trees and high grass. For me, that is the sound of Texas. Not the traffic and the constant construction of the city, but the almost quiet of nature. The only thing that trumps it is rain on metal, whether it’s a tin roof or a window unit air conditioner. And of course after the rain all the singing and chirping and buzzing returns.

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Wisdom

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on June 4, 2012

Words of wisdom from Lilli, aged four: “I like my mommy because she holds my hair back when I throw up.” Yes, my dear, the best people do that for you.

Photo by Sandra Peterson Ramirez

But I have premises to keep

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on April 24, 2012

 

Straight rye whiskey, 100 proof

you need a better friend?

Yes. Myself.

The lights

the lights

the lonely lovely fucking lights

and the bridge on a rainy Tuesday night

Blue/green double-stars the line

that is the drive and on the dark alive

gleaming river

Xmas trees of tugs scream and struggle

 

Midnite

 

~from Brooklyn Narcissus by Paul Blackburn

Photo by Sandra Peterson Ramirez

If you go down in the woods today…

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on April 5, 2012

 

 

“If you go down in the woods today

you’d better not go alone

It’s lovely down in the woods today

but safer to stay at home

For every bear that ever there was

will gather there for certain

Because today’s the day

the Teddy Bears have their picnic.”

 

~excerpted The Teddy Bears’ Picnic, Jimmy Kennedy

 

 

Photos by Sandra Peterson Ramirez

When Even the Mud Chuckles

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on March 22, 2012

 
For Sartori
 
In the spring of joy,
when even the mud chuckles,
my soul runs rabid,
snaps at its own bleeding heels,
and barks: “What is happiness?”
 
~Philip Appleman
 
 
Photo by Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Emerging Stories from an Urban Woodland

Sandra Peterson Ramirez

Posted on October 7, 2011

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13 Ways: Illustrated Stories

13 Ways: Illustrated Stories

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The Infinite Loop

The Infinite Loop

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Stranger Places: A Pie Town Novel

Stranger Places: A Pie Town Novel

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