Thursday, February 26, 2009

A ST JOE RIVER GOTHIC

Joseph Nathan/North Bank of the St Joe

There are so many things that speak to me about this picture; yet I am almost helpless to comment. She was typical of all his babies, blond, blue eyed and beautiful. Yet she's out of place here in his lap, as most women were when they were with him on the St. Joe. He was a completely different person then as the Joe was his emotional and spiritual home, open to only a few. Typically it was his sons that were invited in but on this day, she of dimples and sweetness sat on his throne. Now days, she is a grown up girl's girl who loves pretty dresses and party shoes but says just the same that this picture proves that the St. Joe is in her blood.

We all feel the same; besides the AT&T stock he inherited from his father my dad's legacy to us was the cottonwoods and meadow grass, the high, fast, muddy water of Memorial Day, the huckleberries and the apples, the woodpeckers and hummingbirds and the fish, elk and deer. On the Joe, my dad was man of immense means and we benefited from a largess of clarity and spirit among pine trees and splashing streams as we tramped up and down the mountainsides of the St. Joe River.

You don't see tractors like these too much any more and you sure don't see the ingenuity that would place a plastic bucket on the exhaust stack to ward off rust. I miss my dad but I am rich, rich, rich in what he left here with me and in what he took with him when he left.


JBelle
Bellemaison
The 'Kan EWA

12 comments:

Julie said...

That picture does speak volumes! It is simply wonderful. As far as the tractor...There are still quite a few of them out there. They often come across my desk for the Lancaster Farming newspaper. A good many folks sell them for restoration.

Unknown said...

that was awesome. I always like it coming here. You show me the great stuff.

thanks.


my family used to have one of those, something very close looking to that tractor. Think we had it in blue. The coolest day of my life ever when my uncle let me moved the wheel.

thanks again.

JBelle said...

(swooning at ace's comment.) (reviving, rushes online to buy a ticket to Jakarta.)

JBelle said...

Jules, I think that picture is magnificent. My good buddy Joe Nathan took it. It makes me a little bit faint every single time I look at it.

MarmiteToasty said...

I LOVE old family photos.... its like peeping into others lives... and dreaming...

x

Unknown said...

great pic Belle, funny how those things can bring a flood of memories. Happens to me all the time and makes me wish for my folks to still be around...

The Fool said...

My dad was a master mechanic for Massey-Ferguson...when I saw the red, it brought me back. I also worked the farms as a teen...and to drive the tractor was the ultimate. Thanks for sharing.

On a similar note...on remembering fathers...my eldest son surprised me by dropping in Friday night. I hadn't seen him in about 7 months. His hair was cut close...and darn if I wasn't looking at a young version of my father. I'd never noticed the resemblance before. Time comes around on you...

Kerri Rankin Thoreson said...

From a fellow daddy's girl, my "dad" places are standing with my hand over my heart when the veterans carry the American flag at the beginning of the 4th of July Parade down Sherman Avenue or standing in the waves on a Pacific Ocean beach.
You always knock it out of the park, my friend.

Me said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Me said...

I have a picture sitting next to my grandfather in his boat. Every time, I pull it out, I can smell the green water and my wet tennis shoes. I was 6 and I will never forget fishing Saturday mornings with my grandpa.

Sparky

JBelle said...

In my mail this morning:


...as always when I read your stuff I go into to Wayne & Garth mode....as in "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!" Nice work, Sis! Nice work!

Joseph Nathan - North Bank of the St. Joe River

Christy Woolum said...

I am a bit delayed on this comment... life has exploded a bit this week. This is a post that infers so much. You have such a knack for expressing you inner thoughts without going on and on. What a treasure of a photo and what a splash it made on HBO. So many people could relate.