Small towns, rattle snakes and peach ice cream
Moving on from Marfa takes us on a trip through intermittent small towns strung out along four hundred miles of small to medium sized highways. Alpine, Fredericksburg, Sisterville (?), Anothertown, Notthereyette. They all look pretty much the same, only varying in size. Small, smaller, even smaller. The big difference is in the landscape. It changes after a couple of hundred miles of hills cutting through arid, scrubby semi-desert to lush green tropical plains. It doesn't cool down from stinkin' hot, the opposite in fact, just gets more humid and flatter.
The four day with stopovers trip to the city of Austin covers just a small south west corner of the vast and renowned state of Texas. Its good to get to know it a bit first hand as reputations tend always to fix on some extreme or other. Sure there are cowboy dance halls, stuffed animal heads on every other restaurant's walls and more churches than you would find pubs in similar sized towns in Scotland. There are also really friendly and welcoming people, holistic healers and unique, creative individuals like Ran Horn and the rattle snake man, whose name is Ross and ancestors hail from my old home land.
The rattle snake man is one I forgot to mention. His place back in Fort Davis is a family sized 'seasoned' sand colored weather board house.
The 'family' in this house is somewhat different to the average mom, dad and 2.4 kids. There are quite a few residents in each of these categories, but there the similarity to human be'ins ends. The man breeds rattle snakes and takes great pride in showing his collection. He knows all about them too, and has featured in various movies and documentaries. The building houses twenty or so rough clad concrete tanks that are furnished with rocks and tree branches. Each tank contains two or more rattle snakes, mom, dad and sometimes one of the kids that still lives at home. Just to add a little variety there are BIG hairy spiders (tarantulas) and stinging scorpions. The only 'benign' creature in the place is a cute little turtle in a tank safely removed from view by the rattlers.
Its always a treat to get close up to critters that would at the very least freeze you in your tracks outside of the concrete and glass containers. One or two of these step right up to the occasion and rattle their tails at passing viewers. The faces look designed to threaten, dark piercing almond shaped yellow eyes split through the middle with black, set aside of tapering, arrow shaped heads. The rattles are actually beautiful to see – large scaled translucent tips on the tail end – capable of producing a warning sound that can only be described as ominous. Some tips are longer and some shorter, but all sound just the same. SCARY! Most tanks also house discarded skins, as rattlers shed once a year or more. Thankfully we don't get to view feeding time, which is only once a fortnight or so. Rats and mice are bred on site for the purpose.
On a lighter note, feed for humans in these parts ranges from 'cowboy breakfast' of eggs, bacon, potatoes, grits and gravy to home made peach ice cream from the greener orchard regions on the approach to Austin. Portions are big but far from challenging, as indulgence and holiday mode are fully established by now.
The four day with stopovers trip to the city of Austin covers just a small south west corner of the vast and renowned state of Texas. Its good to get to know it a bit first hand as reputations tend always to fix on some extreme or other. Sure there are cowboy dance halls, stuffed animal heads on every other restaurant's walls and more churches than you would find pubs in similar sized towns in Scotland. There are also really friendly and welcoming people, holistic healers and unique, creative individuals like Ran Horn and the rattle snake man, whose name is Ross and ancestors hail from my old home land.
The rattle snake man is one I forgot to mention. His place back in Fort Davis is a family sized 'seasoned' sand colored weather board house.
The 'family' in this house is somewhat different to the average mom, dad and 2.4 kids. There are quite a few residents in each of these categories, but there the similarity to human be'ins ends. The man breeds rattle snakes and takes great pride in showing his collection. He knows all about them too, and has featured in various movies and documentaries. The building houses twenty or so rough clad concrete tanks that are furnished with rocks and tree branches. Each tank contains two or more rattle snakes, mom, dad and sometimes one of the kids that still lives at home. Just to add a little variety there are BIG hairy spiders (tarantulas) and stinging scorpions. The only 'benign' creature in the place is a cute little turtle in a tank safely removed from view by the rattlers.
Its always a treat to get close up to critters that would at the very least freeze you in your tracks outside of the concrete and glass containers. One or two of these step right up to the occasion and rattle their tails at passing viewers. The faces look designed to threaten, dark piercing almond shaped yellow eyes split through the middle with black, set aside of tapering, arrow shaped heads. The rattles are actually beautiful to see – large scaled translucent tips on the tail end – capable of producing a warning sound that can only be described as ominous. Some tips are longer and some shorter, but all sound just the same. SCARY! Most tanks also house discarded skins, as rattlers shed once a year or more. Thankfully we don't get to view feeding time, which is only once a fortnight or so. Rats and mice are bred on site for the purpose.
On a lighter note, feed for humans in these parts ranges from 'cowboy breakfast' of eggs, bacon, potatoes, grits and gravy to home made peach ice cream from the greener orchard regions on the approach to Austin. Portions are big but far from challenging, as indulgence and holiday mode are fully established by now.
posted by Cathy Gunn at
June 01, 2008
2 Comments:
Great descriptive writing, Cathy. You make me want to travel with you. Those rrattlers sure sound scary. I was interested in your comments about the Judd installation. He was an artist who wanted his work to be strong and definite. That site also has the work of the light-artist, Dan Flavin who used fluorescent light in his work.
Hi Anon,
Judd's work sure does achieve those objectives. I was a little dubious about the thought of endless aluminum cubes as an installation until I saw it. I found the fluoro light work quite fascinating also, though have to say the appeal began to fade a little after the third or fourth building... Have you seen this and if so, what did you think?
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