Bradley Tutt Rescues the very Merferd named after HIM! "Where on Earth is Merf?"
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Ode to Bradley Tutt
This is the first in the series Wherever on the River is Merf Can you find Merferd?If you're through Saint Lou on vacation
Very few Merferds will be found, Missouri Department of transportation Have taken all that they've found down. They called them a distraction For people traveling in a car. What of butt ugly billboards, Monstrous hunks of junk, That trash up the horizon?! Merf is in a FUNK! The Merferds in that Cottonwood While they lasted looked so good. People were encouraged near and far. I lifted Merferds up with me, Trimmed massive deadwood off that tree, Before the Merferds had appeared, A huge dead limb smashed someone's car. Sooo Mo DOT, it's gotten HOT He needs to move on anyways, Beyond the beach, out of your reach, Above Missouri's river-ways! In this inauguration of Merferd's new migration, He'll be easy to be find but not to STEEL. Like a BASS who knows the water Thrown back too many times, This once he won't be COURTeous... Above the river, out of reach By the bridges, by a beach Sometimes tall and sometimes short Sometimes near a raft RESORT. So now my drive will be boring, No Merferds waving high and swaying. But I still will praise and PRAY, And make up riddles as I drive, MISSOURI... MERF is here to stay. Tree Toons have layers of wisdom, and rings of patience and understand from standing in the same place for over 150 years. Along with Merferd's main side kick Red Elm, there is also Quercus, Black Jack and Dog Wood. More tree toons are revealed in our lives, but not until we venture deeper into the woods of our existence.
Although Red Elm is as resilient as a tree can be, having withstood a century and a half of wind and storm, forest fires, lightning strikes, and earth quakes, there are two things in this modern world that he fears more than what nature ever sends his way....the 'DOZERS, and the Bank of Scamalofya. Red Elm once was a WITNESS TREE, used in days of yore to mark boundaries. Ancient boundary stones could be moved by the devious, but a Witness TreeTree could not be moved, and he is one of the few still standing, and he makes the most of that. Merferd knows how to make the best out of a mess. He is a PROPHETIC comic character with big hands, feet, mustache, and a big heart. Besides saving his Treetoon friends who sit on land repoed by the bank of SCAMALOFYA, Merferd is also into saving the printed page. This is a quandry for him, for you see Red Elm, his main Treetoons sidekick HATES 'HARD COPY'...can you wonder WHY?! SAP FLOWS ON in the Tree Toon stand. Where Merferd is prophetic, Red Elm is a seer. Saving the earth, people and the press is a large task, but not if one is as moved as a Merferd and as tenured as a tree. Merferd Over the Years This Merferd was created on a trip out to Montana several years ago. He began to take on earth colors at this point. He welcomes togetherness. Other than having to move a little bit to help one of the tree toons with a snag that needs to be trimmed here or there, Merferd moves slow. Life is worth slow. Can one feel the earth spinning round and round? Answer. No. So too, a Merferd accomplishes much, you just don't see it.... Notice this Merferd (left) was drawn on an envelope. I did not notice the envelope until some time later and the words, The Value of Community. That says it much for Merferd. He is into conversation, community and comic friends. You can see how the roughed out drawing was given color and life in the classic 'Show Me' Merferd portrait next to it (right).
Riddle and rhyme that went with the southern most Where on Earth is Merf in DeSoto, Missouri. DeSoto was once named Fountain City many years ago. Merf was hanging around in front of Redfields fleamarket on Main Street.
Day 13 ( this is a rare one away from St Louis) Will require a scenic drive into the country while the leaves are still sort of at peak. Jesus said he who believes in me Flows fountains of living water. Why would the city have changed its name To someone known for slaughter? Water is life and gold brings strife So which would we rather have? I ner' understood why a name so good Was changed to one so bad. He came with 10 ships and 700 men. To chart a course to China. Though that's what he said, Power goes to the head, The riches and fame will kill ya. Of course the Indians attacked. They wanted their gold and game, And the fury faced devils With the fiery sticks And lust for their women Gone back. With the purest water in the world, A blue ribbon in the 1904 worlds fair. Why change their name To that conquistador Who ner' even made it there ? When tracks were laid Whites, they stayed, On one side, colored's the bottom. One day one braved to build anyway. They burn down his house, Not forgotten. When we had moved down From the burbs of Chi town, The fountains had long been shuttered. Jesus said not what goes into a man, But what flows out to others. There's still old world charm, We had a Tin roof. Merf won't be harmed, We dwelt in the land To cultivate friends. Tried to be faithful, And heated with wood. Now Merf is in town, When a long time ago, When our girls were small, Three bucks for the show, Across from his perch There's a painted parked train, And I once bought Theresa A tin weathervane. This documentary was created Trenton Harris for the Lindenwood University Summer 2017 Communication Capstone Project. This short documentary looks at poverty in the Saint Louis Metropolitan area Wendell Phillip Berwick gives his insight on the closing of the New Life Evangelistic Center, and how land banking is affecting the area, with his Medferd character in the background at the Soulder Inc. Pallet Company located on the outskirts of downtown Saint Louis, MO. Berwick is an arborist, artist, and advocate for the homeless and art director for the New Life Evangelistic Center. Also featured in the project is Shower to the People CEO Jake Austin. For more information visit: showertothepeoplestl.org Please help them keep up with their hygiene donations. Order supplies via Amazon here: https://goo.gl/VWBmYf |