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Chasing Rainbows
When times were tough,
I would chase rainbows, traveling nearly 1,000 miles round trip
for a chance to make some money. Winter is always tough when
you make your living working outdoors and moving to California
didn't change a thing. When I moved there, I thought I would
work year round because of the mild weather, but no such luck.
Art shows ended right after Christmas and didn't begin in earnest
until late April. But every February, over the President's Day
Weekend, there was an art festival in Laguna Beach about 30 miles
south of LA.
I did this show out
of pure desperation for three or four consecutive years and never
made more than a few hundred dollars but I always held out hope
because of the upscale, affluent reputation of the community.
My third time there, we had heavy rain on Saturday morning and
the show was called off for the day. I found a supermarket parking
lot and fell asleep to the sound of rain on the roof....
When I awoke, I saw
a magnificent rainbow displaying itself over the ocean. My first
instinct was to shoot it immediately, but on further thought,
I said to myself, "I need something to go with it".
I set out heading south on US 1 in search of … something!
Near San Clemente,
I saw a sign pointing in-land that read "Camp J. H. Pendleton
USMC Training Center". I turned left and raced up the road
hoping my rainbow would wait. Rounding a curve, I saw what I
was looking for, something out of the ordinary.
Whether it's gym
sneakers or army boots, when they hang over a wire it signifies
a right of passage: a graduation ceremony of sorts. I figured
this marine must have wished his "ruby slippers" would
take him back to Kansas more than once during his ordeal. |