Bark Cloth Memories

Check out my living room drapes. They are made from 50 year old bark cloth from an old hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas. As far as colors and design goes this fabric would not be my first choice. But...these curtains are the result of my dad rescuing them. Many years ago he bought them at an auction of items sold from a hotel that was about to be demolished. He used them as a partition in an old panel truck that he used for a camper. He liked them because they were heavy and dark and kept the light out so that he could sleep in the back of the truck on his time off from working on the Kansas City Southern railway. Years after he retired I noticed them hanging from a nail in his workshop, and thought they were too striking to be ignored. My dad and I were alike in that we hated to waste something that was still useful and good looking. I videoed him telling me about how he had acquired them and had planned to send the tape to a television station in Little Rock that did stories about local history but never got around to sending it in before my dad passed away. Now I have a tape with no VCR to play it on. At least I can enjoy my memories of my dad every time I look at them and know that I am paying tribute to his recycling ways.