“The Bible declares that on the sixth day God created man. Right then and there, God should have demanded a damage deposit.”
Thirty-six years ago, I sat in Ray's Cafe in Bastrop, Texas along with Jim Hightower and Jim Rockwell, the latter a former UPI photographer who had moved to the Hill Country and contributed photos to our paper, way overqualified for the position, doing his work as more of a gift to us as anything else. (I would learn about technique from Jim Rockwell but as much about how to stop and listen to people.) I was a young journalist on one of my first stories, and Hightower made it easy with his witty repartee. Ray's Cafe is no longer there. My standing joke is that Ray's was the original farm-to-table concept. At one end was a tank full of minnows for fishermen to scoop up. At the other end were tables where diners would sit and be served up fried catfish.
Hightower would later be two-time state Agriculture Commissioner, fostering in our state's organic program and farm-to-table concept. This past weekend, I talked some with Jim as he came through town speaking for the Sanders campaign, whose rally I was attending along with my daughter, who would be voting in her first election. Waiting to take the stage to speak, Jim had been looking down at the folded sheets of paper that were his notes, but I asked Jim to look up for a moment for a photo.