Murals

Yesterday I found an unusual vase at a flea market in one of the barns at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center in Fort Worth. I knew Val loves “interesting” vases, but this was a little too large and awkwardly shaped for me to easily get back to England, so I didn’t buy it. When I spoke to Val this morning, she was intrigued, so I decided to return – if it was still for sale, that was a sign that I was meant to buy it (and I’d figure out how to get it back somehow).

I parked the car (they gave me a red Chevy Malibu this time), and started walking towards the barn where the flea market is held every Saturday and Sunday. You have to remember that the Will Rogers Memorial Center is a huge custom-built center for anything to do with horses and cattle – large areas of stabling, several arenas, parking for vast numbers of horse trailers – and this weekend it is hosting the cutting-horse championships (a cutting horse is used for “cutting” selected cattle out of the main herd, and requires precision horsemanship). As I’m walking, I hear a “clink, clink” behind me, and I turned to see the cutest cowgirl, complete with hat, neatly pressed jeans, and boots with spurs that were clinking as she walked. Naturally, I took the opportunity to ask some of the dumb questions that have been bothering me since I’ve been watching the equine events that seem so much a part of life here (and, no, I wasn’t chatting her up – she was probably only Amy’s age, with an armful of school books). Do they wear the spurs just for show, or are they really necessary? How do spurs fit onto boots? Do they hurt the horses they ride?

She didn’t find the questions at all dumb, and was happy to answer. If these are questions that bother you, too, I’m afraid you’re going to have to find your own cowgirl.

The vase, by the way, was still there, and only $8. I told the woman behind the counter that my wife was worth it – not the $8, but the grief associated with trying to get it home in one piece!

Duty done, I looked for something more … recreational. I’ve noticed while driving around the concrete jungle that is the DFW “metroplex” that several valiant attempts have been made to brighten things up with murals. You may have noticed, in some earlier notes, murals from Corsicana (the dilapidated railroad town) or Olney (whose only claim to fame is as the home of the “one-armed dove hunt”). It would take a lot more than a mural to make these towns anything more than what they are, but I came across some today that are quite extraordinary. Take, for example, the one (or two, if you count both sides) on the underpass where Belt Line meets Interstate-30 in Grand Prairie, just a few miles south of my hotel – scenes of wild horses, deer and buffalo on the plains, wolves in the forest, and egrets in the bayou. The whole mural is probably about eight feet high by a hundred yards long.

Or how about the mural on the wall of the Cowgirl Museum, within the Will Rogers Center – obviously professionally done, but still magnificent.

As you’re driving towards Fort Worth along Interstate 30, there is a tantalizing glimpse of a Hispanic-flavoured mural to the south. I tried to find it today, and it probably took me over an hour of driving round some of the backroads surrounding the Union Pacific railyards (where you definitely drive with the doors locked) before I found it. It was worth it – a ray of hope in an otherwise decaying area that will one day be the place to live, once the yuppies and the financiers realize the potential of these once splendid buildings (from a time when “architecture” meant more than the variety of things you can do with concrete, steel and glass). And I wonder where the poorer people will be living then?

The first IKEA in the area will be opening next week. This is only the 2^nd in Texas, but don’t worry if you missed it – there’s bound to be more (http://www.ikea.com).

The 10^th execution in Texas this year took place on Friday. Don’t worry if you missed it – there are 8 more scheduled for this year (http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/scheduledexecutions.htm).