Wading the Marsh

As an Indian woman wades through a marsh in Madras,

a flock of white birds flies gracefully up and across her path.

 

As you read this we will be leaving Spring Mill State Park in Indiana, where we have been attending the Jenkins Family Reunion, the first one since 2017. It was a great time.

When my parents were living it was an annual affair, held on or near their anniversary. On the occasion of their 65 anniversary in 1999 I think almost every one of their descendants was present. Counting spouses, around a hundred people.

Things became somewhat sporadic in this century, especially after 2010. However, my sons Rob and Don and some of their cousins have undertaken to make this a more regular event.

From here we plan to go to northern Michigan, then across to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and maybe, points west.

Monday evening:

Sorry this is late. But it is still Monday! We had no cell phone or internet service for the four days we were at Spring Mill, so we are both suffering from withdrawal. Also, I wasn't able to post the blog this morning, as I like to do. 

We had rather a long, difficult day of travel through a lot of road construction around Indianapolis and including some minor (we hope) trouble with the truck, and are now at a campground in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

(The photograph was made with an Olympus OM camera, an 85mm f2.8 Olympus Zuiko lens, and Fujichrome 100D slide film.)

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.

 

Fisherman's Family, Madras

An Indian mother and her children, Madras

 

"Wannakil" --"hello," I said with a smile, right hand in front of my face with fingers up, palm slightly out in the South Indian gesture of casual greeting.

"Wannakil," replied the young Indian mother. She smiled, as did her daughter and the toddler. The little boy regarded me with an intelligent, quizzical look.

Still smiling and with a question in my eyes, I tilted my camera slightly.  With a pleased smile, she nodded. They seemed pleased, even honored, to have me make their photograph.

"Nandri" -- "thank you," I said with a repeat of the salute-type gesture.  She responded in kind, we both smiled, and I moved on down the street in search of other opportunities to make brief but no less genuine personal contacts with the people of India. Photographing in more than 30 countries on five continents has taught me that people in other countries are can be amazingly gracious and patient. If you show them friendliness, you will most likely get friendliness in return.  

Whether this smiling young woman and her three bright-eyed children are actually the family of a fisherman, I’ll never know. But I’ve always thought of them that way, finding them as I did on the sidewalk in front of their home just inland from Madras City Beach. Perhaps they were waiting for their husband and father to return with the day’s catch.

Olympus OM camera, 35mm f2 Olympus Zuiko lens, Fujichrome 100D slide film.

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.

The Women at the Well

The community well An early -- and better -- version of Facebook.

Strange as it may seem, there was a time before Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest of the anti-social media when people gathered and actually spoke to each other. For these women in Madras, India, it wasn’t just a daily chore to come to the community well to wash clothes or draw water for their families — it was the social event of the day. A time and place to catch up on the latest gossip, enjoy time with old friends, and sometimes, to make new ones.

With water that’s piped into our homes and available at the turn of a tap, we have come a long way from the community well — although in my own lifetime I have both pumped water from a well and carried it from a spring for our household use. (Yes, I have lived a long time, in case you're wondering.) 

But do the electronic communications that connect us to anyone and everyone meet our heart’s need for true companionship? Or do the women at the well have something many of us have lost?

See also my post The Lost Art of Porch Sitting.  

Photographs and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.

Moving On

At home in Pigeon Forge

 We have been in Pigeon Forge for about two weeks, camping at the Walden Creek RV Park, and will soon be moving on. We've been pleased with the park, and especially with our site, which is one of the nicest we have had so far.

The traffic is another matter.

we came to the Pigeon Forge-Gatlinburg area many times for weekend getaways in the 1970s when we were a young family, and always enjoyed it. But no more! The whole world seems to have discovered Pigeon Forge and has descended upon the place in innumerable cars and trucks and SUVs and motorcycles and RVs. The traffic is truly unbelievable. Let's just say we don't plan to come back. Been there, done that.

Today we're going to Chattanooga to have Louise's hip checked. It was broken last January and she is afraid she may have re-injured it. We also hope to see an audiologist, because her hearing aids are not functioning well.

On Tuesday we plan move back to the Raccoon Valley RV park just north of Knoxville for one night, then on Wednesday move on to Spring Mill State Park in southern Indiana, the traditional site for the Jenkins Family Reunion, which will take place next Saturday, August 6th.

As has been the case since my mother passed away in 2006, I'll be the oldest one there. Fortunately, no one treats me like an old man. My first cousin Sarah Williams and I discovered a few years ago that we were each other's oldest living relative. Mostly I'm okay with that, but if I want to know something that happened a long time ago in family history there's no one to ask.

Sadly, the four siblings immediately younger than I have all passed away, I miss them greatly. Only my two youngest brothers and I remain.

But this is a happy time. We have kids and grandkids and great-grandkids to enjoy. And we will.

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone

My book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is now out of print, although copies are apparently still available from Amazon, and possibly other sources. The second edition is now in the editing stage and is scheduled to be released on December 6th.