bathtub mary: February 2008

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Monday, February 4, 2008

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Martinsburg, NY

How It All Began

Northern New York.
Cow country.
Deer, bear, beaver country.
Gun country.
"Moose and Squirrel" country.
and Bathtub Mary country.

I have been in love with her for years. I have taken a gazzilion photos, always swearing I would write a book.

I decided that before I lose all my pics, and before they all disappear so I can't replace the pics I have lost, I better get them put up somewhere, and here seemed as good a place as any.
There used to be so many more when I was growing up.
Slowly but surely tastes have changed, rust has set in, and Marys have gotten up and walked away.

Can you imagine the effort it took to haul that cast iron bathtub out to the garden? Dig down at least three feet? This is the land of rock. Some places worse than others, but most of the adirondack foothills are full of stones. There is a saying about the crop you can always count on is the rocks.

On the road I grew up visiting, every summer of my life, there used to be at least three or four now I know of one well kept one, one faded and hiding in a shrub, and one bathtub in search of a Mary. I have those photos somewhere, but I have to dig them out of my shoeboxes.