The Typewriter Collector and His Favorite Newspaper

This past weekend was action-packed with a soccer game, two baseball games, an ultimate frisbee game and a photo shoot from a helicopter (we'll come back around to those on future blogs.) One of the highlights of the weekend for me, was attending a banquet Saturday night with my mom. It celebrated the 100th Anniversary of The University Star - the student newspaper for Texas State University. It was like a big family reunion seeing past staffers, who are my extended family of aunts and uncles, siblings and cousins, and now, nieces and nephews. My father, Jeff W. Henderson was the faculty advisor for the newspaper from 1974 to 1999 and had quite a legacy with both SWT (now Texas State) and TIPA (Texas Intercollegiate Press Association.) My sister and I grew up in the student newsroom and on the road with TIPA conferences. We saw, first-hand, the digital evolution of print journalism over the past thirty years. From the late 1970's giant typesetting machines (Big Bertha) that spit out columns of text that then needed to be cut and waxed onto physical layouts, to the late-1980's clunky Radio Shack TSR80's (Trash 80's) that prefaced the highly computerized journalism as we know it today.

From the Collection
My father collected typewriters. Me, my mom, and my sister usually add "bless his heart" after that statement. His formative Journalism years involved manual typewriters. He had a true love for these machines and over the years had collected a nice range of models and styles. Yes, my mother is a very patient woman. Dad's love for such equipment even extended to the TSR80, and later, all models of Macs/Apples. I would argue that the Trash80 and early Macs were alien-looking in contrast to the architecture and elegant keys of say, a 1940'-ish Remington Standard, but I also reserve the right to be nostalgic about them when I'm seventy. Always fascinated with mediums for mass communication, Dad had just signed up with Facebook before his death and I'm pretty certain that he would have been blogging and tweeting by now had he remained with us.

Visual Memories
After Dad's death last June, my mom thought it would be good to find new homes for some of the (many) typewriters, but we, also wanted some mementos of them, too. So my husband, who happens to be a commercial photographer, agreed to do some studio shots of the collection. Not long after Dad's passing we got word that the University was changing the name of the Star staff scholarship to be named in honor of Dad. We decided then to do a collage of some of the typewriter images as an "art print" to help raise additional funds for the scholarship. Two of the prints were in the silent auction at Saturday night's banquet. Several attendees mentioned to me and my mom that they were bummed to have been out bid on the prints, so now we have decided to offer them through my husband's web site (click here) and all proceeds will continue to go toward additionally funding the "Jeff W. Henderson University Star Staff Scholarship."

What's Next?
If you are in the field of journalism, especially those of you who are Jeff W. Henderson's past students and colleagues, I feel certain that Dad is still cheering you on to have fun with it and to fully be a part of what's next for the field.

April 25, 2010: Requisite Blue Bonnet Photo

The camping trip to Colorado Bend State Park was fun. I'll trade one stormy night in a tent for no mosquitoes any day! Sunday morning, I woke up at daybreak, looked out of the tent and saw the campgounds FULL of deer grazing - 40 or more - at least.

Pack It Up
The kids were sad to see the tent come down and all the stuff (strategically) loaded back into the vehicle. We need to do photos of that - next trip.

Mission Wildflowers... and More BBQ
And off we went in search of someplace to get a family photo in the blue bonnets - which are in quiet riot this year due to all the rain.

"Huh? What? You're ready?" I'm two inches taller with humid-camping-hair AND I need more coffee. Mark set's the remote up for the camera and runs over.

"My turn with the remote!" Scowls one child.

"No, it's my turn with the remote!" Whines the other. Kids will argue over menutiae at a moments notice...

Then, we're back on the road heading home to SA with a lunch stop for Bar-B-Que, of course.

Images by Mark Humphries. (click here)

April 24, 2010: Colorado Bend State Park

Dinner and a Show
We met up with seven other San Antonio-area families on Friday at Colorado Bend State Park. The park is sort of between San Saba, Lampassas, Llano and Egypt. The kids played in the river. The grown-ups set-up camp and dinner. After sunset, a herd of kids played flashlight tag - which gets tricky when every other child was systematically "taken out" tripping over tent stakes. The grown-ups chatted, star gazed and noticed clouds creeping into the sky. Thankfully, the rain began right after everyone had retired to their tents for the evening. Torrential down pour, thunder, lightening and gusty winds entertained us for most of the night.

Here Comes the Sun
Saturday, we woke up to sunshine and a not too wet tent - amazing considering the weather the night before. Mark made us some excellent breakfast tacos (and coffee!) Most of the families then headed over to hike the Gorhman Falls Trail. I have lived here all but six months of my life and had no idea that Texas has water falls like this!

After lunch, most of the families hiked over to the swimming holes on the Spicewood Springs Trail. Hot feet, cold water - happy campers!

At twilight, the group had a big pot luck supper followed by music by a few guitar and ukulele players in our midst. It was a very clear night, so Mark removed the rain fly from the tent. Our kids fell asleep under the stars.

Colorado Bend State Park is a Gem. 
You can camp, hike, bike, float the river, swim, fly fish and more. It has primitive campgrounds, so be prepared for the composting "outhouses." Not my favorite, but survivable for a couple of days. Honestly, there are SO many great state parks in Texas to pick from - go check out www.tpwd.state.tx.us. If you have a moment, let me know your fav's and why you like them.

Happy Camping! ...and we'll keep you posted.

All images on this blog are copyright of Mark Humphries Photography. (click here)

April 23, 2010: In Search of Some Good BBQ

GOING:
Most San Antonio school children had last Friday off for Fiesta's "Battle of Flowers" Parade. We had already paticipated in our share of the ten-day back-to-back Fiesta events and parties, so we packed up the car and headed out of town.

By 1:30-ish we'd found our way to Blanco, Texas and stopped at Riley's Rocking R BBQ and Steakhouse (www.rileysbarbq.com)- just off the main square. The ribs ranked a sauce smile and the homemade Banana Pudding was wicked good.

COMING BACK:
On the way back home (Sunday), we stopped at Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano, Texas (www.coopersbbq.com). I think we were a little too tired from hiking, camping and adventures in Blue Bonnet fields to lug the camera in to the restaurant, which was too bad because the food was just right. You gotta love a place with an outside sign with "Line Forms Here" way before you ever get to the pits to select your meats. Wish there was a way to photograph smell. Smelled VERY good there.

All images on this blog are copyright of Mark Humphries Photography. (click here)

Earth Day is April 22, 2010

This inaugural HOME BRANCH blog is in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.
(go check out: www.earthday.org)

In the Garden: The last of the winter crop (with the exception of two rows of onions) was pulled out of the ground in March. Winter lettuce, turnips, radish, carrots, broccoli and cabbage.

One of our three outside compost bins was emptied and sifted, and that material, plus some organic nitrogen (21-0-0) was then spread throughout the garden area and tilled into the soil. (Mark did a soil test and it was determined the garden was lacking in nitrogen - see info on soil testing below.) Rows are formed with the hoe. Note: My husband, Mark gets the credit for doing most of the work - with help here and there from the rest of the family.

Compost bins are refilled with the Spring-shed Live Oak leaves, grass clippings, kitchen waste (fruit, veggie, egg shells, coffee grounds) and more coffee grounds from our local Starbucks - the best thing EVER for speeding up the decay of very hearty oak leaves. Nature does it's thing and viola, about two to three months later we'll have more garden and flower bed ready compost.

Side Note on Soil Testing: If you have never done soil testing, it is NOT hard to do. For more info go check out: http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/ and then you can visit with your local county extension agent if you have any question or want suggested next steps for soil amendments when you get your results back. The folks at Shades of Green (www.shadesofgreensa.com) are also super helpful, as are the folks at Fannick's Nursery (www.fanicknursery.com).

We have transplanted a few sunflower seedlings my daughter and I grew from seeds we had saved from some seven-footers we had last fall. The dried flower heads and seeds made for some cool studio shots.

As of right now, we have rows of hope and potential going in - tomato, squash, okra, strawberries, cucumber, eggplant, and a blackberry bush. More seeds will be added as Spring progresses with warmer temperatures. For now we water, weed and wait. Rinse and repeat.

Happy Earth Day! ...and we'll keep you posted.

All images on this blog are copyright of Mark Humphries Photography.
www.markhumphriesphoto.com