Southwest Missouri
View allAll Photos Tagged JOPLIN
Between Joplin and Neosho, the scenery gets pretty nice again. Our late AM SBD rolls well on a perfectly clear day in SW Missouri.
On Sunday night a Tornado ripped through the town of Joplin, not far from where I live. Here in Overland Park, as the massive storm passed overhead, sirens sounded and shook our home. I know Joplin and made pictures there on one of my route 66 trips. This is one of them. If I wasn't leaving for NYC tomorrow morning I would drive down there with my camera..
You will notice the love for the arts as you drive through downtown Joplin, MO. On many of the buildings, there are these beautiful murals, such as this Pride Love one. What is great about them is they are kind of hidden. You will never notice if you are staring at your feet while walking down the street. So look up and enjoy.
There's not much for this Kansas City to Shreveport manifest to stop for in Joplin these days, but I imagine this grassy field was once filled with tracks. Just out of the frame to the left is the old Joplin Union Station, now nothing more than a decaying concrete shell.
I love her little guitar!
I've been thinking about painting her nails gold. Your thoughts? :P
Adopted! ;~;
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"Grandma spoke of the big city all-a-time. How as a lil girl she and friends ran the streets of the lower east side hollering and screaming and doing the things kids do growing up on tenement streets. I saw the old photographs and how the sun hit the smiling faces of people sitting on summer stoops. I saw the open hydrants and kids with wet underwear jumping into piped waterfalls of glistening, gushing streams of water. The people up on the fire escapes, looking down on their world of streets lined with garbage cans and chalked sidewalks and shoppers buying vegetables and fruit from colorful outdoor stands. A dog running loose, a radio somewhere blasting a salsa song from a curtained window, the smell of fried fish and a baby crying. The mailman coming up the street with his mail-sack slung across his back and older folks waiting for him in doorways to get their monthly welfare checks. All this came to mind as I sat here on this bench having just come off that bus. Joplin, Missouri is a long way off now, in time and place. A duffle bag a new watch my ‘good jeans’ and jacket. Got some money in my wallet and strong hands to work and make some more. Gonna do it too. Rivington Street is just up the block. Got this address here in my pocket, an apartment for rent. Got a number too, a place on Delancy needs a dish washer and someone to sweep. These hands learn real quick and if I "smile a lot you’ll make new friends", Grandma always said that. I see a fella across the way taking my picture. Thinks I don’t see him. Guess he got nothing better to do. Maybe him and me could be friends. My first. Yeah, das right. Gonna get up now and introduce myself…….”Hey photographer man, glad to meet you, my name is Archie Lee Weston from Joplin…"
- SS