Yes, Smokey Does Exist

As a kid I remember seeing public service announcements on television featuring Smokey the Bear, whose signature line was “only you can prevent forest fires.”

As a young adult with a CB radio, Smokey became known in my mind as a slang term for a police officer, usually a state trooper, who was on the watch for speeding on interstate highways.

The name derived from the fact that troopers usually wore ranger hats similar to the one that Smokey wore.

Last year while visiting a museum in a national park outside Sedona, Arizona, I got to meet Smokey.

Well, actually it was a statute of him that didn’t talk. I wasn’t aware that Smokey was still in use by the park service, but at least here he was.

Protecting Your Right To Sell in a National Park

I’ve never seen a sign such this one, which is posted in a parking lot for a trailhead/observation point in a national park near Sedona, Arizona.

The First Amendment protects a number of things, but I didn’t know it also shielded from government interference the selling of wares.

No one was doing that on the day I was here, but I think I might know a portion of the backstory as to how this sign got posted.

On occasion in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park I’ve seen a religious group set up a table with materials on it.

I’ve never checked it out and in my experience those who sit behind it do not go out of their way to approach park visitors.

Perhaps that same group is behind the posting of this sign.

Another Double Rainbow

Mary Ann and I were talking by phone around 7 p.m. when she said she saw a rainbow. It had not been much of a storm, a little thunder and lighting, but not a whole lot of rain. Then she said the rainbow was getting brighter. We were about done talking and she had to get back to work. But first there was the matter of recording yet another rainbow over Cleveland. The view is looking southeastward.

Pounding Out Another Story

Ernie Pyle is a name that was familiar to those who lived during World War II.

The Indiana-born journalist was, arguably, the best known war correspondent of his day, earning the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his accounts of the life of ordinary soldiers.

Writing for the Scripps-Howard chain of newspapers, Pyle was killed on April 18, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa.

For many years the building housing the School of Journalism at Indiana University was named after Pyle.

There was a bust of him inside the building and, if my memory serves me correctly, a photograph or painting of him elsewhere.

Some incorrectly thought the School of Journalism itself was named after Pyle, but that was not the case.

Not long ago the School of Journalism was merged with a couple of other programs to create a new Media School, which was moved to Franklin Hall.

As part of that move, a statue of Pyle pounding out a story on his portable typewriter in the war zone was commissioned and placed near the entrance to Franklin Hall.

The statue brings to life a glimpse of a time that virtually all college students today only know from history books.

Storm Light

Photographs featuring storm light can be planned, but often they occur by happenstance. You’re in the middle of a storm, but it passes through and the sun comes out behind it. Such was the case when Mary Ann Whitley was taking a break at work following a storm and captured this image of the gold budding trees against the back of the storm.

Up Early to Catch the Sunrise

I made it a point during a stay last October at a bed and breakfast outside of Tucson, Arizona, to get up early to catch the sun rising over the Santa Catalina Mountains.

The view wasn’t as colorful or spectacular as the sunset I had photographed from the same location the night before.

But it was a nice view nonetheless. It was quite cool in the desert. It might be in the 90s during the daytime, but the air cools rapidly after sunset.

There was a small wisp of clouds over the mountains that caught the early  morning light. The air was still aside from a few birds chirping away.

It was one of those moments I won’t soon, if ever, forget.

Please Keep Me, Too!

We’ve been going through boxes in the attic and getting rid of stuff that we’ve had for years but no longer need. Truth be told maybe we didn’t need it years ago, but some things tend to get saved because the time isn’t right to part with it.

A couple days ago another couple of boxes made their way down from the attic to my office. Next to them was an empty box that Mary Ann marked “Put stuff to keep in this box.”

It was late afternoon and neither of knew where Suki was. We were talking about something in my office when Mary Ann was surprised to see Suki sacked out in the empty “put stuff to keep” box.

Has a cat ever seen an empty box it didn’t want to get into?

Suki doesn’t often come into my office. But somehow she found the “put stuff to keep box” and made herself at home.

Mary Ann started laughing and went to get her smart phone. The image was too much to resist.

I’m sure it was pure coincidence that Suki got into this box. After all, cats can’t read, right?

He Hardly Moved All Day

During a visit to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum last October I was hoping to make photographs of an ocelot moving around in his grotto.

But the temperature that day was in the 90s and the ocelot didn’t feel like doing anything but sleeping. I can’t say I blame him.

I returned to the wildcat exhibit three times throughout the day and ocelot had barely moved. This was the best I was image I was able to make.

The lesson I took away from this is that I need to visit the museum on a cooler day.

Hey Indy!

Many people hardly look out the window when they fly, but I make it a point to request a window seat and watch the landscape below as we cruise along.

I want to know where I am an I enjoy seeing places where I once lived and/or know.

I was en route from Cleveland to Phoenix aboard a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 when the captain said we were over Muncie, Indiana.

At the time, there was a cloud cover so I couldn’t see anything.  But I kept looking and soon the clouds parted and I was able to pick out Indianapolis, a city where I lived in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

That is the White River meandering just west of downtown.

New York at Night

I made my first and only visit to the observatory of the World Trade Center in early November 1981. I was visiting a friend who lived in the Big Apple although we had met back in Springfield, Illinois, when we both worked for the state.

We visited the WTC twice on the same day. The first visit occurred during daylight hours. I might have said something about what a nice view it would be at night.

Whatever the case, we returned that evening and I made this image. I don’t remember having a tripod. Perhaps we went back to Mark’s apartment to get one. I can’t imagine that I was traveling with a tripod.

This image was made on slide film and over the years it has badly faded. I scanned it anyway and through some Photoshop work was able to regain some of the image.

It would not only be the last time I visited the WTC it would also be the last time that I saw Mark. In fact, I can’t remember his last name or how to get in contact with him. Our last visit, though, was a memorable one.