The Ghost of Psyche at White Rock Lake (with Wisteria and Water Lilies)

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White Rock Mineral Water advertisement: Life, 28 April 1941 (Gallery of Graphic Design)

Surely I dreamt today, or did I see

The winged Psyche with awaken'd eyes?

John Keats: from Ode to Psyche, 1819

Gora Piezczana Nature Reserve, Poland: photo by Yarl, 2009

Psyche’s clear lake riverhood shining looking glass cold 

Mirrored my life back up to me from the depths of that hollow bowl

TC: from Fractured Karma, 1990

Twilight, Lago Nahuel Huapi, Neuquén, Argentine Patagonia: photo by Cristina Bozzoli, 2007

And at the core of every anima fascination is the irresistible beauty of that most beautiful of all created forms, Psyche. Erotic desire, as the Platonic Socrates makes clear, is always toward the beautiful: "To love is to bring forth upon the beautiful, both in body and in soul" (Symposium 206B). That which attracts us most of all, more than even the Goddess of Beauty, Aphrodite, is the mortal Psyche, the mortal human psyche.... In a man's dreams the anima is often the image for neuro-vegetative symptoms and emotional lability; that is, she represents the semisomatic events which are not yet psychic experiences, which have not yet undergone enough psychization. In these dreams she is closed off, under water, "unable to come out"; or she is as magical and incomprehensible as the symptoms themselves... sometimes she is drowned... -- in need of care...

James Hillman: from On Psychological Creativity, in The Myth of Analysis: Three Essays in Archetypal Psychology, 1972

Bachalpsee in the morning, Bernese Alps: photo by ZachT, 2007

Nymphéas (Water Lilies): Claude Monet, 1919; image by Timothy K Hamilton, 11 January 2006 (St. Louis Art Museum)

One hot July night a young city couple, having driven out and parked on the shore of White Rock Lake, switched on the headlights of the car and saw a white figure approaching. As the figure came straight to the driver's window, they saw it was a young girl dressed in a sheer white dress that was dripping wet. She spoke in a somewhat faltering voice.

I'm sorry to intrude, and I would not under any other circumstances, but I must find a way home immediately. I was in a boat that overturned. The others are safe. But I must get home.

She climbed into the rumble seat, saying that she did not wish to get the young lady wet, and gave them an address in Oak Cliff, on the opposite side of Dallas. The young couple felt an uneasiness concerning their strange passenger, and as they neared the destination the girl, to avoid hunting the address, turned to the rumble seat to ask directions. The rumble seat was empty, but still wet.

After a brief, futile search for the girl in white, the couple went to the address she had given and were met at the door by a man whose face showed lines of worry. When he had heard the couple's story, the man replied in a troubled voice. "This is a very strange thing. You are the third couple who has come to me with this story. Three weeks ago, while sailing on White Rock Lake, my daughter was drowned."

Anne Clark: The Ghost of White Rock, from Backwoods to Border, Texas Folklore Society, 1943

Glycines (Wisteria): Claude Monet, 1917/1920; image by mariuszj8, 2011 (Musée Marmottan, Paris)

One night about ten years ago a beautiful blonde girl ghost appeared on a road near Dallas' White Rock Lake.

Mr. and Mrs. Guy Malloy, directors for display for the world-famous specialty store, Neiman-Marcus, saw the girl. Only they didn't recognize her, right off, for a ghost. She had walked up from the beach. And she stood there in the headlights of the slow-moving Malloy car. Mrs. Malloy said, "Stop, Guy. That girl seems in trouble. She must have fallen in the lake. Her dress is wet. Yet you can tell that it is a very fine dress. She certainly got it at the Store."

By "the Store," Mrs. Malloy meant the Neiman-Marcus Company of Dallas.

The girl spoke in a friendly, cultured contralto to the couple after the car had stopped. She said she'd like to be taken to an address on Gaston Avenue in the nearby Lakewood section. It was an emergency she said. She didn't explain what had happened to her, and the Malloys were too polite to ask. She had long hair, which was beginning to dry in the night breeze. And Mrs. Malloy was now sure that this girl was wearing a Neiman-Marcus dress. She was very gracious as she slipped by Mrs. Malloy and got in the back seat of the two-door sedan.

When the car started, Mrs. Malloy turned to converse with the passenger in the Neiman-Marcus gown. The girl had vanished. There was a damp spot on the back seat.

The Malloys went to the address on Gaston Avenue. A middle-aged man answered the door. Yes, he had a daughter with long blonde hair who wore nothing but Neiman-Marcus clothes. She had been drowned about two years before when she fell off a pier at White Rock Lake.

The point of this story -- for our purposes -- is not that Mr. and Mrs. Guy Malloy, a hard-working, sober, no-nonsense couple, say very firmly that they saw a ghost. Other folks say they have seen the beautiful girl ghost of White Rock. The point of this story is that she was a very well-dressed ghost. And Mrs. Malloy at once identified her as wearing Neiman-Marcus clothes.

Frank X. Tolbert: from Neiman-Marcus, Texas: The Story of the Proud Dallas Store, 1953

James Bowen and his wife Julia, sailing on White Rock Lake in the summer of 1940. Mr. Bowen was an avid member of the Corinthian Sailing Club in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. He designed and built several fast and beautiful sailboats in the garage of his home located on Ross Avenue in Dallas, Texas. He built the boats specifically for club sponsored racing events on White Rock Lake: photographer unknown, 9 August 1940; photo courtesy of Julia Bowen; image by Decodence, 13 September 2011

Nymphéas (Water Lilies): Claude Monet, 1914/1917; image by Claude Desjardin, 24 November 2010

Lilly Lake (Colorado): photo by Trojan, 2004

 Mallard, White Rock Lake, Dallas, Texas: photo by Dodge Rock, 23 April 2012

Russell Lee: Bean Day Rodeo (Wagon Mound, New Mexico, September 1939)

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Riding a buffalo, Bean Day, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Paying admission fee at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Paying admission fee at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Spanish-American family waiting at the gate at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Cowboy on horse, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Cowboy at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Cowboys talking, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Cowboys driving cows down rodeo grounds, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Contestant at Bean Day rodeo examining saddle, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Placing a bar behind bucking bronc to prevent his kicking while in the slot, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

Contestant mounting bucking bronc, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Contestant in goat-roping contest, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Cowboy running to tie calf after he had roped him, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Cowboy riding a steer, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Cowboy riding a steer, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico (with original FSA caption card)

Judges at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Conference of judges, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Spectators at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Spectators at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Spectators at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Spectators at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Spanish-American woman, Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

Spanish-American woman, Bean Day, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

 

Girl at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

 

Spectators at Bean Day rodeo, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Scene at Bean Day festival, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Scene at Bean Day festival, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Scene at Bean Day festival, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Remains of Bean Day festival, Wagon Mound, New Mexico

Photos by Russell Lee, Wagon Mound, New Mexico, September 1939 (Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress)

John Vachon: Like driving from a sunny day into the middle of night (Sunray, Texas, November 1942)

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Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

This afternoon I worked in a carbon black plant.  Do you know what a carbon black plant is?  It's where they burn natural gas with insufficient oxygen and make carbon which is powdery black stuff in big bags worth 3 cents a pound, used in making tires, paints, & numerous other places.  

The [Texas] panhandle is the seat of the carbon black industry, and on any given day in any given spot you can look all around you and in 6 or 7 corners 40 miles away, no fooling, you see little black places above the horizon. These are the C.B. plants. Then as you get nearer, naturally, the little black place gets bigger and bigger. From 5 or 10 miles it's a huge black cloud out there ahead of you. Then you drive right up to it and it's just exactly like driving from a sunny day into the middle of night.  

They make wonderful backgrounds for pictures for quite some distance, and look exactly like dust storms I've seen pictures of, and I'll bet that's just what they were mistaken for by some dumb FSA photographers I could mention. 

The one I worked in today had 300 what they call hot houses.  Each hot house has several hundred gas jets burning. I went in one that was off, then they turned it on for me and I got a picture before it got very hot and got out. It's a beautiful weird sight inside.  High mass.

Anyway, in working there, I got dirtier, that is blacker, than I have ever been in my life. Really black all over. Right through the clothes it goes. I washed carefully my face and hands, but I'm leaving the rest for a while, it's really kind of beautiful. It gets very shiny when you rub it.  

About the best pictures I got this year, I think, will prove to be the portraits of some of the black faced workers there. I got so excited about these guys that I shot up all the film I had with me, and didn't get pix of the buildings, and various operations.  So I'll have to go back again.  And I'll sure make some more of those portraits. 

John Vachon (1914-1975), letter to his wife Penny, 11 November 1942, from John Vachon’s America: Photographs and Letters from the Depression to World War II: John Vachon, ed. Miles Orvell, 2003

 

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

 

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Workers at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Sacking carbon black in plant, Sunray, Texas; carbon black is worth 3 1/2 cents a pound

 

Worker at carbon black plant with cream spread on his face to protect it from black dust, Sunray, Texas

 

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

 

Employee at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Workers at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Foreman of carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Carbon black plant worker getting a drink of water, Sunray, Texas

 

Turning on the gas in carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Carbon black plant workers washing up at the end of the day, Sunray, Texas

 

Carbon black plant worker taking a shower at the end of the day, Sunray, Texas

 

Separator tanks through which natural gas from the Panhandle fields enters the carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas: gas is burned in 350 of these long low buildings called "doghouses"

 

Carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas: gas is burned in 350 of these long low buildings called "doghouses"

 

Carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Drying at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas

 

 

Bags of carbon black at plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Bags of carbon black at plant, Sunray, Texas

 

Well on the pump, vicinity of Sunray, Texas: photo by John Vachon, November 1942

(Carbon black is a form of amorphous carbon produced by the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products such as FCC tar, coal tar, ethylene cracking tar & c. It is employed as a pigment and reinforcement in rubber and plastic products, most commonly as a pigment and reinforcing phase in automobile tires. In tire production it is used to conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, thus reducing thermal damage and increasing tire life. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined carbon black to be possibly carcinogenic to humans. Short-term exposure causes mechanical irritation to the human upper respiratory tract, producing local discomfort.)

Carbon black, aka Acetylene black, Channel black, Furnace black, Lamp black, Thermal black. TWA 3.5 mg/m³ Ca TWA 0.1 mg PAHs/m³ [Carbon black in presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)]. Black, odorless solid, insoluble. Combustible solid that may contain flammable hydrocarbons. Incompatibilities & reactivities: strong oxidizers such as chlorates, bromates & nitrates. Exposure routes: inhalation, skin and/or eye contact. Symptoms: cough; irritation eyes; [in presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: potential occupational carcinogen]. Target organs: respiratory system, eyes. Cancer site: [lymphatic cancer (in presence of PAHs)]. Recommendations: prevent eye contact; wash skin daily.

from Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)


Photos by John Vachon, Sunray, Texas, November 1942 (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)