Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Manhattan Meeting

Had a meeting in Manhattan last night. That's Kansas, the "Little Apple". Our State 4-H Venture crew is planning our summer backpack trip with the teens. I've been a volunteer for a few years. This time we met at a coffee house in the little business/beer district near campus we call Aggieville. I decided to get there a little earlier so I could sketch the storefront. It was getting dark but with street lights it would still be sketchable.

I set up my little three-legged stool in a nook along the sidewalk across the street and was sketching away, in my own world, when I heard "Hello, John!" in an unfamiliar voice. Nobody knows me here and I'm invisible! I kept sketching but the voice got closer. It was a cousin of my brother-in-law that we camp with a couple times a year. He hails from the Topeka area like me, 60 miles to the east. K-State basketball is playing tonight so he must be here for the game. We exchange pleasantries and he leaves with a couple others I didn't know. Then I had a vision of a future conversation. He'll go back home and strike a conversation with my brother-in-law - "Say, I saw John huddled in a dark corner in Aggieville secretly doing something by himself, oblivious to the world. Is he OK?"

5 comments:

rebecca trump said...

Very cool drawings. I really like the light color added. Thanks for sharing!

Cheryl Gebhart said...

Lovely sketch John. I'm familiar with the name Aggieville since my DH went to K-State. We call it "The Strip" in Stillwater, but it's essentially the same district.

Claire M said...

what a great example of sketching just whatever happens to come along in your day. Cute story about running into the cousin of your brother-in-law. I guess he didn't ask and you didn't volunteer what you were doing...

Linda T said...

Funny story! Thanks for your pen report. It was helpful to me.

Barbara said...

Funny! My imagination is going in all directions!!!