Years ago, before the computer entered my life, I wrote letters to my children on Sunday evenings. It was my way of staying connected to them and letting them know where I went during the week, who I saw, and what I did.
Here on Illinois Avenue, during my ongoing clearing-out process, I discovered some of those letters that my youngest son, Duyn saved from his college days at Western University located in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Reading those folded pages brought back many memories of those days tucked into the back corners of my mind.
I had forgotten sitting in my booth on Main Street waiting for the Strassenfest Show to begin and meeting two guys who were passing through town hauling their exhibition snake trailer. They talked Strassenfest officials into giving them a booth space. When they opened up the trailer’s side panel, I came face to face behind a glass wall, with the only giant python I ever hope to meet.
One Sunday morning at an art show in Taylorsville. I followed Charlie Beeler across a very uneven dirt field. Charlie was the manager of The Executive Inn across from the Louisville Fairgrounds and was in charge of the show. Charlie felt I needed a much better view of the Lake over the hill because I was a landscape painter. Who was I to tell Charlie that I was exhausted from setting up my booth and would rather sit in the shade and listen to the birds sing? In the end, I was thankful for Charlie taking me in tow for the spectacular presentation. Charlie would later sit in one of my painting classes and learn to paint his own lake.