Sunday drives

I did some research today on the best ways to stretch & mount watercolor paper before painting, and it got me thinking again about Dad, his painting, and exploring the backroads. All those Sunday afternoon drives, three little girls in the back of a light blue station wagon, then a black 1956 Bel Air. A window apiece, kneeling on the bench seat to gaze out the back window. Sunset Highway to Issaquah salmon; Maple Valley Highway and Aqua Barn horses, enormous maples lining the road. It was different then, farms and fields so close to our home, we were in the country before we knew it.

As a horse-crazy girl, these drives were heaven. Dreaming about the house I wished we lived in, one surrounded by green pastures, with a horse in the pasture and a cozy barn in the back.

I have to wonder if my dad drove these back roads with an artist’s eye, looking for the next subject for his brushes and paints…  just as I’m beginning to. Some of his paintings we recognize… we were there when he painted the shore birds and the wind-swept trees at Beachside state park, the Admiralty Head lighthouse at Fort Casey, and the missing mountain at Tipsoo Lake. But where did he paint the rustic red shack by the railroad crossing sign? Or the grey house surrounded by maples in autumn colors? We will never know.

And what about those regular Sunday afternoon drives? Was this the entertainment they could afford, a family of five on an architect’s salary? Or did everyone drive out into the country in those days? There were no stores open on Sunday, no malls, no grocery stores. Just nature… with open arms.