Back in January 2010 Lyle did a post (check it out
here) with many pictures of places Dad had lived or houses he had built, and he mentioned my having a watercolor of the old one-room Bloomington schoolhouse where Dad got his formal education. Well, I finally cleaned out my garage and found it!
I painted this, I believe, my junior year in high school - so that would make it 1963. I was sitting on the southeast corner looking toward Utah hill. There was a partially standing barbed wire fence that was obviously old, and dried cow patties scattered amongst the grass, dust and rubble, so someone had grazed cattle there. The adobe walls were still standing and most of the roof and rafters were still there. I remember feeling so special being there with the rest of my watercolor class, because this wonderful old building had personal historic meaning to me.
This watercolor stayed in a dust covered box with many other of my attempts at art (see
here) for many years. I gave it to Dad one year for Father's Day, or his birthday - don't remember which. He did seem pleased and proud. Much later still, I remember it thumb tacked to an old bookcase in the upstairs of the Littlefield house. After Norene moved into the Littlefield house, she had the painting matted & framed and gave it to me one year for Christmas! Inspecting the painting beneath it's glass you can even see some fly specks on it. (double click on the painting, scroll to the top and you can see the thumb tack hole and fly specks in the sky) It is now in my bedroom waiting for me to find a place to hang it.
And that's the rest of the story!
