Marlee And Mrs. Owens Go To City Hall

Marlee and Mrs. Owens decided to walk a bit further down the street. At the end of the block she pointed straight down the street. See down there, Marlee? That's where I used to live right next to where City Hall is now. I actually sold them a couple of feet of land one time so they could build a bay for their fire truck.

Down the street in a brick house is where the Blacksmith used to live. Oh, I could tell you all about this little town and how it was through the years. Did you know at one time it had over fifty (50) businesses? It had a enough business for everyone to make a fairly decent living.

Marlee took Mrs. Owen's hand with her little sticky hand (from her candy) and looked up her and said, "Did you ever have a husband? My daddy is a husband, you know." Mrs. Owens smiled at Marlee and said, "I sure did. His name was Glen but everyone called him Rick. He was born right here in Humansville, but his family was from Kentucky. He was a Private in the United States Army during WWl.
 He was a few years older than me, but that didn't matter. We got married a long time ago in 1922. We got along good. I kept a watchful eye out for him and he did for me too. I never did drive a car, but he drove a truck for his business."
"He was a hard worker. It's been told he painted so much that he probably at one time had painted every building in town. He did a lot of lettering on signs and even on trucks that wanted to advertise their businesses. He taught some of our neighbor children how to do lettering. He enjoyed teaching them. He was a pretty good artist too. Want to see some of his paintings?" Marlee nodded her head and away they went across the street to City Hall. There on the wall were several of Rick's paintings.
"See this one here? He told one of my friends that he would point to a spot on the water where he had painted a boat, but it sank. Isn't that funny? He was quite a man. He always signed his paintings Rick Owens. Here are some more. He even painted a cabin that was supposed to be Mr. Human's store."
Marlee noticed that there was a big picture hanging up high. She asked what that was. Mrs. Owens explained that her little home town had a celebration a long time ago because it was a hundred (100) years old. It was called a centennial. It was fun. Everybody dressed up like they did back then. Ladies wore long dresses and bonnets on their heads. How would you like that?" Marlee didn't know what to think of wearing long dresses and a hat on her head all the time. She didn't think that she would like that very much. Mrs. Owens said that there were old cars and a parade, picnics and all kinds of activities that weekend. A lot of the men even let their whiskers grow and wore beards just like they did in the olden days. Everyone had a good time. They were also very proud of their little town and the people that had worked so hard to make it a good one.

City hall
Fire station bays

 Those little pictures in that big frame are what some of the buildings looked like way back then."
"My husband did the lettering for a fleet of trucks that hauled gasoline too. A little boy loved to play with a handmade replica of those trucks that he loved so much."
The bottom picture was a painting of an old homestead in Cedar County that may have been painted on masonite. His "canvases" were not always of the same materials. He usually framed his paintings himself too."

About then the lady at City Hall said that there were books at the library they might like to look at.
"There were some very famous people that were born here. Someday we will talk about those folks if you would like to." Mary Owens looked down and noticed that her new little friend was yawning. She needed to find this little one's mama. The next stop/step was to go to the library to look for her.
                                         ********************
There are some of Rick Owen's paintings hanging in the Humansville City Hall. However, some of the ones in this story are owned by folks that were once friends of Mr. Owens. He was a very well known man and would sometimes mumble under his breath about his wife. (Just like many married couples do.) He was well liked from what I have gathered from talking to folks that once knew him. He passed away at the age of 84 years. He and his wife, Mary are buried in a Humansville cemetery. Mary passed away at the age of 105+ years.