Ramblings on Spring Break 2007 Trip with Son Wes

Wes on drums at STAX on Beale Street, Memphis, TN on St. Patty's Day 2007

You have to look really close behind the guitarists in front - he really is there!

Can we say this was his "professional" debut?

A view of Crater of Diamonds State Park

Not much found in the way of diamonds - about 1 per day total for everyone visiting. The odds are not too good for you if you are one of 600 or so people digging and sifting dirt and there is only 1 diamond to be found the whole day. We left there and went quartz mining. Much more productive.

Wes with a large quartz crystal from Coleman's Quartz Mine north of Hot Springs, AR. We returned home with a couple of hundred pounds of crystals and clusters. May go again in 2008.
http://www.colemanquartz.com/

Wes taking a break on the beach at 2500 feet above sea level in OK. OK, the beach is several hundred million years old and used to be on the bottom of what was the Gulf of Mexico. The pattern you see is wave ripples on the sand bar.

Hopewell, Texas Cemetery on FM 21 at Hopewell

Hopewell was a thriving communmity at one time and as you can see from the next picture, had a school. There was also a grocery store and church when I was living with my Aunt and Uncle. I remember going to the old school to listen to my cousin Hose play the fiddle in a country western group. Lots of the Kyser family is buried in the Hopewell Cemetery and my grandfather and grandmother Loveless are both buried there.

Would say that Hopewell School was the victim of school consolidation based on the sign. It closed the year I began school in the first grade. No, they did not have kindergarten back then. We had outdoor play and bicycle riding lessons before we started school. In school, we also had something known as recess in the morning, after lunch, and in the afternoon. Don't remember too many ADD/ADHD kids and there darn sure were not any plethora of drugs to cure the active boys and girls. We just played until we got tired and then rested and played some more or did chores when we got home.

Ah, for the good old days before drugs for everything!