A few years ago the Town of Timberville, Virginia, commissioned me to paint something for their "Founder's Day" celebration. The original oil on canvas hangs in the Town Hall. They gave me two very, very small, antique photographs to work with. I had to get out my magnifying glass to see everything! The photos were of a scene in 1898 of a horse auction day in the center of town! It was congested with people, horses, and buggies! I thought it would be interesting to paint the lovely dresses the women wore in those days. Not so....there were NO women or children to be seen. It was, after all, "a man's day out", no women or children allowed! After all, if you give women privileges like that, next they would want to, who knows, vote! So, the women and kids had to stay at home, doing chores. Oh my goodness! Anyhow, I tried to pick out the more interesting characters to feature. The whole painting kind of , "tells a story". Or maybe a lot of mini stories, at least I imagined they did! The things that look like electric lines on poles are not what they seem to be. In 1898 they still used gas lights, not electricity. But, they did have telephones! These are phone lines! One went to each house and business in town, then was routed to a central operator who connected them one by one to the party they wanted to talk to. The operator usually knew where to find anyone in town, as she, "kept up" with everyone else's business! (Small towns are like that.) She probably might have, "accidentally" listened-in to phone calls! There was a sign on one of the buildings advertising a restaurant special of "Breakfast 29 cents"! It was probably a great big, hearty one, too! There was lumber over on the grass to the bottom left. This was to be used in the new train depot that was being built. There also used to be a covered bridge going across the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, just out of sight in the foreground. A group of men lean on a wall of the bank, their ancestors are still doing the same thing. Two men just down from them look over a train schedule as their bags wait nearby. (The new depot will be nice to have!) The back, and the top story of the bank building was a hotel. The main street is now State Route 42. It was either a winter, or early spring morning as the snow is still lingering around. Plus, the buggies "lids" are pushed back to let the sun in.

The Bible Scripture title on this scene is:

"And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering."

- Genesis 50: 9