September 14

This little place in Slaton probably has nearly anything you are looking for - the plate-glass windows advertise Kitchen, Specialty, Remodeling, Gifts, Bath, Flooring. They also seemed well stocked with cobwebs and dust.

And while I was in the area, I photographed the two-story brick building next door. Just as I was walking back to my car, a man in a pickup truck (that was pulling a long trailer) pulled over and asked me what I was doing. "I am just an itinerate photographer," I said. "And I noticed that this building is the same age as my dad, and the light was good, and the sky was blue, so I stopped to take some pictures." He said, "Oh. I thought mebbe you was from the feds."

Then he drove off, and in a very short time, he'd turned around and headed back toward where he'd come from. I had the distinct impression that someone phoned him to report me. And my suspicious activities.

Slaton, Texas

August 19

The back of a building on Texas Avenue in Slaton.

Slaton, Texas

June 6

I took a field trip today, to a place called Janes Gravel (No apostrophe is correct. I checked.) It's just past Slaton, at the rim of the canyon, and sort of shocking to see - especially the signs that say "mining zone"! This place is a maze of piles of variously-sized gravel, boulders, sand, etc.

It's where the big trucks come in to get rock for highway projects, or where weekend-project-doers come for a trailer load of cheap gravel. And the guy loading the gravel was amazing - he got the whole load right into the trailer.

Slaton, Texas