That Was Then... This Is Now

I was privileged to visit the delightfully treed, copiously gardened, wonderfully architectured, hidden away gem called CA (Colorado Academy) for two days this week to meet, greet and teach kiddoes from itty bitty Pre-K's (My gosh tiny human beings are cute!) up to fifth graders.

The first day was full of assemblies, storytelling and workshops and the second day was full of creative writing workshops with excited, involved, engaged and FUN students!

I love the energy children bring to writing! It is SO much fun to work with their ideas of WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and WHAT and to mold it into a fun picture book stories while they buzz about the room coming up with VERBS that will activate the sentences and story!  There is nothing more refreshing that seeing something appear out of a child's imagination and then to see it bloom and flourish into a story someone might actually want to read in a book!  Magical this job of mine!

FIVE years ago I visited CA for the first time and wished I could go back to school.

It was a beautiful Autumn day and we all decided to do some pictures.  I took a picture with the little children pictured and was presented with a great photograph to remember the day by.  

As I was going through my bulging school files over the summer I came across this picture and thought it would be fun for the folks at CA to see the kids as they were "back in the day" and my host, the AWESOME Allison Peters (librarian), set out to find them to take another picture.  Only one was not at the school any longer.  
 

SO, that was then... 

This is NOW! 

I would say for the first time in a photograph in a long time, I am the least changed of all.  That is a nice thing when the days, weeks, months and years seem to slip by.

Perhaps I'll catch up with them again in five years when they are in their last year at CA.  Now that will be some picture, huh?

Several days in a different part of the same country.

On a recent trip to small town TX (Wharton, population 9000ish near Houston), I noticed things you don't see back home in Colorado.  

The small things most people might not notice are those things I cultivate.  IF you are a writer, you know how that goes.  Here is a pictorial representation of things that speak of TX to me!  As weird as it sounds, one of my favorite things to do when I travel is to go to the local grocery store.  It is a place where the cultural and regional differences are displayed in a relatively small space and gives a tiny window into the things people in that area "take for granted" but seem a bit foreign to those outside! 

In TX the Mexican food is authentic and great, the BBQ is unmatched and great, the watermelons grow large and juicy and the cotton spreads out for miles in every direction.  The land is ironing board flat and the trees grow wildly. 

The accents are as thick as the humid air.  The people are very warm and friendly.  The frogs croak in a beautiful evening chorus and every so often a cooling breeze makes the evening charming.  

The buckle of the bible belt allows for free prayer (twice) at a graduation ceremony and NO ONE gets offended!  BIG POINTS FOR TX in this guy's opinion!

Humidity and heat out of this world in early June, cotton is high and that is why! Humidity and heat need one more ingredient to be awesome and that is OCEAN! 

I LOVE ZAPPS and have ordered them by
the case because they are not distributed in COLO.
In TX they are on the shelf.

     SO glad we don't need this in COLO!

 

Tortilla chips shaped like the LONE STAR STATE and a woman taking pictures of those chips...  Seems I'm not the only one who finds these local things interesting! ALL chips strips are shaped like Colorado!

Grits as common as any other regular hot cereal. One point for TX! Truth is they might be available at my local store... haven't checked lately.

 Monkey Brains????????????????????????????? Haven't had them, don't know what they are.

These coconut candies are good and so are the Mrs. Annie's Peanut Patches!

Fried Pork rinds in numerous kinds, great road trip grub, but it is negated by the lollipops that are layers of picante, salsa and other hot seasonings for nachos.  NOT how I want my suckers!

Weird candied fruit and cactus for your salad.  The tomatillo salsa at the restaurant we went to was OUTSTANDING!

Everything IS bigger in TX!  Check out that moth! 

Imagine hundreds, no thousands of those doing what miller moths do to your front porch light. 

My beautiful blond and our friends at the awesome local BBQ joint! One point for TX! TALLEY one for the friends and they are also from Colorado!

In the BBQ place, in a corner there is a turkey on a sewing machine base with a plastic fern and an American flag? Uh, WHAT?

My beauty playing an OLD pinball machine.

The merengue on these pies at the BBQ joint are as high as a Texas woman's hair.  

Strange greeter for a BBQ joint! The foods so good he's stuffed!

A guy wins the lottery and spends it to renovate the coolest motel in Wharton, TX. 

Some of the ladies trying the local CHICARONES (fried pork skin).

 An AWESOME young lady from up north gets her first shot at shooting a real life gun AND hits the target with most!

 So much fun!
 Old West style gun, kicks hard!

 That dude smoked the target!  Note our instructor, what a great guy to share his arsenal!

 My Clint Eastwood pose, gotta do it since we were shooting revolvers and saying... "Right now you're wondering did I shoot five bullets or six..."

 Michael poses for his Old West double barrel shot!

Spending time with good friends in TX makes it a great place to VISIT!  A howling coyote taking us to Colorado from TX and arriving in the evening with the cool air, humidity free Colorado!


Having friends for decades is the best part of the trip.  Michael, Donna, Stephanie, Heather and Smokey (you just go ahead and stay right there) WE love you and were so glad to be a part of your celebration as Stephanie graduated! 

Talley's it was awesome to get to know you better! So sorry Laurie has lost some of her senses, but you can overcome it!


Walter and Rae and Lira, always good to see you!  

Newspaper debut!

I found this old newpaper article in a drawer with a bunch of old stuff.  

Two things stand out about this article: having been in numerous newspapers for my books and writing, I could count on my left hand how many times my last name has been spelled correctly.  ALWAYS two T's in the middle, when the proper spelling is MATOTT!  

Also, funny about this article is that the teachers of the Montessori school I went to figured out how to call something a "method" when in reality they were just getting around child labor laws and getting their silver polished for free... SHEESH!

SIX PHOTOS FOR A WORTHY CAUSE!

When I first was acquainted with the wonderful and delightful Steckels; Richard and Michele, who have put together so many wonderful photographic displays (you have seen them in airports all over the world) I was delighted to be considered for their Milestones Project book http://www.amazon.com/Milestones-Project-Celebrating-Childhood-Around/dp/1582462283/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315604123&sr=1-1 that would be published with the express intent to bring down color, racial, religious, nationalistic and other barriers. With delight I submitted my story, a story about my first pair of glasses, which the editor LOVED and told me would be included in the book. Within a month she called me to tell me my story wouldn't be used after all. I asked why since she had been so profuse about how much she like my story. She replied "Well, we received a piece from JK Rowling and that is what she chose to write about." "WOW, I thought, I have been bumped by the one and only J. K. Rowling, what a claim to fame!" Then she told me she still wanted to include me if I were willing to write on another subject important to childhood. I wrote a piece about my first puppy and it was included. Imagine my delight when I saw the assemblage of people in the table of contents.


Now, the Steckels have asked me to contribute to a wonderful online assemblage of original photographs to feed the hungry and to promote other goodwill, which simply is what they do so beautifully! I am so excited to see who will be included in this wonderful display and see how many people it will help. When Richard called he listed off some whos whos and I felt simply humbled to be included. So, why me? Here is why. Richard and Michele have a delightful daughter who had a delightful daughter who is a fan of my books. SHE told them about me and told them they HAD to include me. Now, how do you like them apples. A little girl who saw me in her school got me in a book with the likes of Eric Carle, J K Rowling, Walter Cronkite and many other much more famous people. Thank you Sutton, you are a doll!

So, here are the photos I chose after looking at thousands and even posting twenty of my favorites on my fan page at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Works-of-Justin-Matott/213624096290 to get other people's impressions and limit it to six. If you were one who chimed in, thank you!

These are some boys my brother and I met in a small village in the Dominican Republic as he, my brother, took be to the villages he had installed fresh water systems in.








This is a homeless man in Dublin, Ireland who was preparing to feed the pigeons in a churchyard on a bench he sat on daily. When I asked him why, he told me that God feeds the lowliest birds, so imagine how he loves us. Quite sure I have read that in the GOOD BOOK.






In one of the villages in the DR, it wasn't unusual to see industrious people carrying water and other income sources on bikes and motorbikes. This one was just too good!










This bloke was a glass worker in the Waterford Crystal factory in Waterford, Ireland. Now, THAT is a character!












This pretty young lass was hamming it up for us in Sammy Sosa's hometown in the Dominican Republic. The people there were friendly and very family oriented.














These two sisters came and talked with my brother and me in the most beautiful spot on earth. We were enjoying some freshly caught fish and a local brew. They were delightful and delighted!