Buck Moon July 27, 2018
Marathon Motel
Marathon Motel
The big thrill of the evening was the lighting of the neon Marathon Motel sign. Evan Voyles had come in from Austin to do the work and a few of us gathered to watch the flipping of the switch. However it started to rain and thunder and so work was delayed. So Monte and I want to make a photograph and he lays down arms stretched. I open the shutter and wait for lightning. The bolt on the left strikes and I feel like we got it and so Monte gets up, but the shutter is still open and the second bolt on the right strikes. It's closer and bright enough to stop Monte's action and you can see his ghostly image rising. I could not have planned any better. A sweet twist of luck. We all miss Monte.
Bill Evans
My Brother Bill
My younger brother has been in and out of the hospital recently. Actually he has been in and out of the hospital for the last 12 years, diagnosed with non-hodgekins lymphoma. The nodes would enlarge and the doctors would chemo them down to a slow leak remission that would last months, but not years. Even his job kept him in and out of hospitals. He installs and repairs the automated machines that dose medications to patients. The Evans' brothers, three of us, are a hard headed stubborn bunch. Recently visiting my brother in the hospital in the neighborhood where we grew up brought those traits to the surface. We are our mother's sons. Mom was a 3 1/2 x 5' little Italian woman who rarely took no for an answer. It was her way or the highway, and man you could rarely get anything into her thick head. My little brother continued to smoke cigarettes, work 50 - 70 hour weeks, play hockey, and eat whatever he wanted. Is it denial, stubborness, or that Evans' hardheadedness? He would tell me the doctors said his lungs were clear and all is well, but deep down I knew better. I would think how long can he go on like this? The answer, about 12 years. He's been coughing so much he had to stop smoking. Then his breathing got real difficult, and now blood clots have formed in his legs and his lungs. He is having a rough go. When I was 20 years old I was working in a machine shop when I purchased a 35mm camera from a fellow worker. I read Andrea Feninger's "The Complete Photographer" and quit my job to make pictures for a living. Making photographs has been the love of my life. The images like kisses. It is that Evans stubborness, hardheadedness, and determination that got us both where we are today, and now for my little brother, whom I love dearly, will be the traits that pulls him through this.