Tuesday, Oct. 19

Up at 6:30, but skipped my exercises in order to get ready to go to the capital city for a dental appointment this afternoon.



We left home a little after 8 a.m., and arrived a couple of hours later. It was overcast as we traveled out of town, and we fervently hoped for rain to break the month-long drought. An hour down the road, it began raining, and continued to do so for the next hour.



It slacked off to a drizzle by the time we arrived at a large discount store in the city, where I bought a dozen packages of scrapbook page protectors at $1.50 a 20-protector package. These protectors are getting harder to come by, so I wanted a generous supply.

After that, we went to the wholesale club store to pick up various food items, including fresh fruits and vegetables.


From there, we went downtown to the institute of state history and cultural studies, which is a part of the library system. This building, the library itself, and another building that houses discarded books, videos, music, and audio books, among other things, on sale at drastically reduced prices, are all located on the same block, with a common parking lot in the center.



We were interested in seeing an exhibit of "three for a dime" photos, generated by a couple from a community about 45 minutes from us. The couple devised a photo trailer in the 1930s to house the lens for taking pictures, which were developed and printed on the spot. The photos were like those taken in the photo booths of the era. They sold the small prints three for a dime, or an extra dime for a hand tinted photo. The couple traveled around our state taking thousands of photos of ordinary folks, against simple backgrounds, many of which are currently on display at the gallery.



An interesting story is told of a time when the couple set up in a town, displaying a bulletin board of discarded photos to show customers what they could expect for their money. A young man came in and asked for one of the display photos, telling the couple that it was an image of himself and a girl that was not his wife. He feared his wife would see it. Of course, the couple gave him all the copies of the photo.



The couple who took the photo-trailer around the state did it on weekends only, since they were farmers who couldn't break away from their chores during the week. They pulled the trailer with an unreliable car, over rough roads. There was no air conditioning in the summer, and no heat in the winter...and, of course, no bathroom facilities at any time. It amazes me that folks had the fortitude to do such a thing.



It's even more amazing that the couple had no clue about cameras before the wife saw a photo booth in a big city and noted the manufacturer information, wrote a letter to the manufacturer, and then bought a camera lens and developing and printing supplies. Her husband built the trailer and the camera to house the lens himself.

Mother commented that she has photo booth images of our family, and she promised to dig them out for me to see. Fascinating stuff.

The studies institute also houses 100 unique translucent acrylic photo panels suspended on railings both indoors and outdoors. The photo panels depict towns of bygone eras, historic buildings, lakes and streams, significant events, like presidential visits, among other things. The panels are on display everywhere in the building.

Following our tour, we went to the library building that houses discarded books, etc., where we had lunch in the facility's "Bookends Cafe." We chose Greek quiche, which is made with chicken, tomatoes, black olives, and feta cheese, among other ingredients. The quiches came with side salads, and each salad came with a different dressing...mine was vinaigrette, Mother's was ranch, and Hubbie's was honey-mustard.

Before I sat down to lunch, I browsed the audio books and found one on tape by author Janet Evanovich that I thought we'd like to read on our next trip. We listened to an audiobook on CDs by this author on our trip today and thoroughly enjoyed it. The problem we have these days, though, is that our truck has only a tape player, and our van has only a CD player, so I have to look for audio books in both formats.

Later, we traveled across town to the dentist's office. I was in dentist's chair for about 30 minutes, while the hygienist cleaned my teeth, and then the dentist examined them. Following the exam, I sat up and watched him proceed down the hall. He looked very thin, so I asked the hygienist if he'd lost weight. I was told he had...about 60 pounds two years ago, on a hospital-sponsored weight-loss program. In the two years I've been visiting this dentist, today is the first time I noticed the weight loss. I guess that's because his hands in my mouth were the only things I've seen of him before today.

We were on the road back home before 3 p.m. It had stopped raining by this time, and the trip was uneventful. When we reached our town, we stopped by a fast food place to get cups of chili for supper, because I didn't have the foresight to plan a meal for tonight. I should have made a pot of soup yesterday.

Mother went home after supper, and, after reading the evening newspaper, Hubbie and I did the usual...watched TV, including the elimination round of "Dancing with the Stars."

It was a good day, except that when we got back to town, we found that it had rained most everywhere in the state but here. We continue in our drought.