Strangeness in the night (page 2) - CycleBlaze

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Strangeness in the night (page 2)

jerry witherspoonTo Leo Woodland

Your question brings to mind several memorable  places but I don’t know if one could characterize them “odd”.   Running the category of camping spots sort of progresses down in order of  my shrinking and limited grey matter though and I shall attempt to color one that comes to mind first.  It involves Harpo and I when we were on an odyssey in western Oklahoma.  Eventually the journal with pix will be migrated from the other site, and could make my description moot.

We had ridden all day on the barren plains, fighting wind and ennui,  and as dusk surrounded us were desperately looking for a camp site.  Throwing up a tent on the plains wasn’t too palatable to either of us as we kept reeling off the miles, discarding candidates as we passed.  Finally, faintly discernible was what appeared to be a schoolhouse n the far horizon.  Thinking we could get wind shelter on the downwind yard, we approached with hope.  Viola!  Harpo found the door open and so we went inside.  

This schoolhouse was dern spooky.  Students desks, tables and even the blackboard were left just as if school would be taught there in the morning.  A math problem was working on the blackboard.  Everything was in perfect order; except that almost an inch of dust lay on everything .   Tired as we were, we retrieved our food and sleeping kits, hastily cleared the dust away and fixed supper.  Oh, and a toddy.  After recovering some strength, we did some discovery.  Electric lines were connected to the building but there was no power.  Rooting thru what we assumed was a teachers desk, we found some student grades and an old utility bill (help me here Harpo) that if memory serves, was dated in the 40s.   Clearly this school was built to serve a community, one that no longer exists.  But we found no traces of one, at least nothing within an easy wagon ride.  It was if the western plains was just scrubbed  of civilization.  It was evident that the building had survived its share of dust bowl storms.

I guess in my retelling this campsite tale wasn’t odd, but it did bring to mind my own experiences, going to college in west Texas the early 50s.   The national grasslands Act hadn’t fully recaptured the upper layers of the prairies and dust storms were still a regular visitor.  I remember driving from Abilene to Lubbock one Fall day with one of my instructors.   Visibility was limited to seeing and following the taillights of the car ahead; the entire several hundred mile drive!  Eventually those storms became less frequent as well as less dusty, but they still happen every now and then.

spoon

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3 years ago
jerry witherspoonTo Leo Woodland

Your question brings to mind several memorable  places but I don’t know if one could characterize them “odd”.   Running the category of camping spots sort of progresses down in order of  my shrinking and limited grey matter though and I shall attempt to color one that comes to mind first.  It involves Harpo and I when we were on an odyssey in western Oklahoma.  Eventually the journal with pix will be migrated from the other site, and could make my description moot.

We had ridden all day on the barren plains, fighting wind and ennui,  and as dusk surrounded us were desperately looking for a camp site.  Throwing up a tent on the plains wasn’t too palatable to either of us as we kept reeling off the miles, discarding candidates as we passed.  Finally, faintly discernible was what appeared to be a schoolhouse n the far horizon.  Thinking we could get wind shelter on the downwind yard, we approached with hope.  Viola!  Harpo found the door open and so we went inside.  

This schoolhouse was dern spooky.  Students desks, tables and even the blackboard were left just as if school would be taught there in the morning.  A math problem was working on the blackboard.  Everything was in perfect order; except that almost an inch of dust lay on everything .   Tired as we were, we retrieved our food and sleeping kits, hastily cleared the dust away and fixed supper.  Oh, and a toddy.  After recovering some strength, we did some discovery.  Electric lines were connected to the building but there was no power.  Rooting thru what we assumed was a teachers desk, we found some student grades and an old utility bill (help me here Harpo) that if memory serves, was dated in the 40s.   Clearly this school was built to serve a community, one that no longer exists.  But we found no traces of one, at least nothing within an easy wagon ride.  It was if the western plains was just scrubbed  of civilization.  It was evident that the building had survived its share of dust bowl storms.

I guess in my retelling this campsite tale wasn’t odd, but it did bring to mind my own experiences, going to college in west Texas the early 50s.   The national grasslands Act hadn’t fully recaptured the upper layers of the prairies and dust storms were still a regular visitor.  I remember driving from Abilene to Lubbock one Fall day with one of my instructors.   Visibility was limited to seeing and following the taillights of the car ahead; the entire several hundred mile drive!  Eventually those storms became less frequent as well as less dusty, but they still happen every now and then.

spoon

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3 years ago
Emmet FarrellTo Graham Smith

Graham,

This reminds me of another joke, where a light aircraft crashed into a church graveyard, killing all on board. The local news reported a death toll in the hundreds, with numbers expected to increase as search and rescue continued their work!

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3 years ago