[Leica] Panhandle: What was once a home...

[robertbaron1 at gmail.com (Robert D. Baron)]

On 3-27-07 Bill Clough wrote:

> Hi there--
> 
>    Here is the latest Texas Panhandle submission:
>    
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Bill1941/Panhandle/Homestead+Silhouette-1352+Sep+1973.jpg.html
> 
>    Panhandle Index:
>    http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Bill1941/Panhandle/
> 
>    Complete Index:
>    http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Bill1941/
> 
> --Bill

Bill,

I've been looking at these as you post them.  They are excellent shots, 
very evocative of the area.

My last wife went to high school in Beaver, in the Oklahoma panhandle. 
I was out there a fair amount in the late sixties to mid-seventies, both 
for (then) family reasons and also professionally, handling oil & gas 
litigation in the Guymon, Oklahoma, area and also into the Texas 
panhandle - towns like Borger, Follett, Booker and Perryton in Texas 
come to mind (all of these places can be found via Google maps; they all 
still exist).

I was between Leicas at that time (funny how my life until recently 
could divided into periods of 'having' or 'not having' Leicas) so I 
don't have similar photographs to show.  I wish I did, but I can re-live 
places and people through yours.

But complimenting your photography and this old-geezer reminiscing is 
not the main reason I now write.

Last summer (2006) I had several occasions to be in south-central 
Oklahoma handling a truck accident case.  In particular I was along 
Highway 7 between Ratliff City, Velma and Duncan, Oklahoma (you can find 
those places on Google maps as well).  As I drove along the road I saw a 
number of GeeBee-like scenes....hills, cattle, small homes (some 
'trailers') with decorations.  It was beautiful.  The light was great. I 
thought about stopping my car alongside the highway and taking some 
photographs.

And then, realizing I had neither a gun nor a backup, I thought better 
of it.

This is now methamphetamine country, and those folks don't like 
photographers.

Do you suppose the panhandle is like that today?

--Bob Baron / Oklahoma City