Dad's Lamp

[Don Ellis]

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/dadlamp.jpg

[G2Jim]

Nice one! I like the variations of brown. Very unique lamp.

[marie]

just beautiful detail and 'lighting'

marie

[Leighow]

So Don.

You ought to have told us whether this was your Dad's, Your's, or your wife's Dad's.

Anyway .. this is precision photograhy. I assume no crop. And you have nailed the vertical and the horizontal, and the lighting seems perfect.

What's the story. This does not look like it was from the Ozarks.

[Don Ellis]

Thanks, Jim and Marie... and now to Howie's questions. :)

It's my Dad's lamp, imported into the Ozarks from Chicago when he and his wife retired there three years ago -- although he's still working as a consultant at 82, so I'm not sure about the retirement bit.

Very, very slight crop on the photo to get the base and right edge correct, but no tilting.

I mentioned in one of my other posts that we found Lake of the Ozarks totally boring, but that was as much because of our circumstances as the place itself. Leela and I didn't hire a car while we were there so we were dependent on the grace of our hosts -- who lead very strict lives.

Grocery runs are on Thursdays (even if you have special dietary needs and arrive on Monday) -- which means that vegetarian Leela was subsisting on salads and baked potatoes for a couple of days and we had a day-long crisis/pout/fume because I insisted on visiting the store on Wednesday.

No wandering around the grocery store when we get there either (even though American groceries are more fascinating than Disneyworld for some of us) and every item that goes into the cart is questioned -- "Who put these bananas in here? Why are there five?" she demands, poised with the two bananas she has chosen for four adults for a week. And -- Catch 22 -- you can't choose your own groceries and pay for them because you're a guest. And, besides, there's no room in the (gigantic American) fridge.

No side trips either to see anything interesting (except a two-hour boat trip on a manmade lake sitting on immovable hard plastic chairs in a cloud of exhaust being sucked in over the transom).

And visions of talking over old times with the old man disappeared when I realized that nothing was more important than the bird feeder on the deck.

"So there we were, Dad, descending Mount Whitney when we came to a snow chute at 13,000 feet. Looking back, I realize the snow had melted in the morning sun and then frozen over like ice, but at the time I just stepped over the edge. My crampons immediately shot out from under me and I went flying headfir..."

"Oh, look, there's that nuthatch!"

Ah, yes, that nuthatch who's already been identified 32 times since our arrival and who alternates in our conversations with the red-headed woodpecker, the cardinal, the bluejay, a legion of sparrows, and "that damned blackbird -- Wave your arms, Don, scare him away!" So there I am flapping about at the dining table wondering why they hate the the blackbird. They like Leela, so it couldn't be color.

Anyway, not being able to escape, you go a little stir-crazy and start photographing lamps. We left, fortunately, before I started wearing them.

Cheers,

Don

Postscript: Our last night was equally memorable. Because we had an early morning flight. we drove to St. Louis International Airport the day before and stayed in a Days Inn that Dad had booked for us. We didn't even have to ask for a room with a view...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/stlouis_sunset.jpg

It Hertz to laugh.

[Eric F.]

Wow Don, What a Story.

I really want to write a few words in defense of the Ozarks, (my home turf) but I really don't like the Lake of the Ozarks area either.:) It is the oldest lake in the area so it got the name first even though it is almost to far North to really be in the Ozarks. Also, I found your story way to close to the way I feel about Oklahoma City, which is where my inlaws are located.

We don't have a lot of tall buildings, traffic jams, hordes of people here. Thank goodness, because I would have to pack up and leave. We do have lots of great places to take pictures of nature, etc. If I had known you were being held hostage, I would have driven the 2 hours there and liberated you for a photo shoot.:p

But it is gratifying to see that you were able to swing the extra cost for the Bridal Suite at the Days Inn. Your ability to capture your trademark sunset from the balcony will help you remember your remarkable journey.

REGARDS,

[Don Ellis]

Eric F wrote: I found your story way to close to the way I feel about Oklahoma City, which is where my inlaws are located.

If I had known you were being held hostage, I would have driven the 2 hours there and liberated you for a photo shoot.

But it is gratifying to see that you were able to swing the extra cost for the Bridal Suite at the Days Inn. Your ability to capture your trademark sunset from the balcony will help you remember your remarkable journey.
Hi Eric,

Ah, yes, and it's all true -- there's more but I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Dad's quite warm and welcoming; it's my stepmother who is, hmmm, somewhat rigid. Fortunately, I was 19 when they married, so I never lived with them.

Dad has, however, developed one annoying habit. Whenever a commercial comes on he hits the Mute button -- even after I mentioned that I was in advertising and was really interested. Worse was when he fell asleep during the commercial and didn't put the sound on again. Television, after all, was one of our major indoor activities.

If I'd had your number, I might have insisted you come visit. I'll bet you would have let us look around the grocery store, maybe even touch some stuff.

After two weeks, we returned to Hong Kong in the middle of a typhoon and home never looked wetter or better.

Cheers,

Don

I should have paid more attention to the sign at the entrance to Dad Drive...

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/deadend2.jpg

[gandini]

Ah, Don:
What would the internet be without you? Your singular experience in the Ozarks has revitalized me! The patience and good humor with which you endured the fortnight of what surely must have been agony is empowering.
And how many times have we all seen that "dead end" sign and wondered if it would be just too cliched to photograph it, and wait for that one great moment in our internet lives when we could email it to someone as the only truely fitting comment to make?
My only concern for you, Don, is that you may be close to using all your 15 minutes. Are some people allocated more than 15? It appears that some celebrities have more, but that's because they've made a deal with the devil to purchase more than their original allotment...
But I will enjoy every minute I get of your photos, and your wonderful stories that accompany them.

cheers,

[Leighow]

DON

Agony perhaps. But a very special kind of agony.

Dare I say; "been there, done that?"

Certainly I have filled similar all-be-they brief gaps between time, space, generations, and their idiosyncrasies.

So too there is my Dad's "Gibbert" (... solid maple...) pipe stand. And the agony emanating from the kitchen window as both parents waved through panes of kitchen glass and we waved back though the windshield of our Mercury Cougar. You see, we were already 3 minutes out the door and on the way home, and the return trip had already taken us one street to the west. Here space and time intersected to permit us one last unspoken message to be sent across a clear slot between 4 houses and overtop 150 feet of back yards.

Treasure the photo. The trip. Your post (and the lamp if it now yours!).

And of course, thanks fun story.

HOWIE

[Don Ellis]

gandini wrote: Your singular experience in the Ozarks has revitalized me!
Then it was all worth it. :) Thanks for your message -- cheered me right up.

Don

[Don Ellis]

Leighow wrote: Agony perhaps. But a very special kind of agony.

Treasure the photo. The trip. Your post (and the lamp if it now yours!).

And of course, thanks fun story.
Hi Howie,

Lest anyone think they'll be seeing me soon on Oprah lamenting my childhood, I was raised in a middle-class American home (two parents, two children) and knew all my grandparents and great-grandparents. We were a multi-generational family who tended to love one another -- at least until my favorite uncle saw me with a beard for the first time and never spoke to me again, but that would be another very short story, wouldn't it.

With that background, I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world. In my travels and on the nightly news I see the traumas that touch other people's lives and know how fortunate I am.

Having said that, something milding amusing had to come out of my closest experience to incarceration and torture.

Don

P.S. The lamp is still in the Ozarks. Dad suggested I look around and mark down the things I wanted after he was gone. I told him to live a long life and forget about leaving anything to anyone.