Back after the war, Fort Stockton was going through the same growth spurt the rest of the country was.  New shopping centers were popping up everywhere.  City planners were figuring out how to expand as quickly as possible without the town losing the tumbleweed atmosphere the residents had grown to love and take for granted.  New tract ranch homes were being built on land that had previously been ranches and feedlots for two hundred years.

Studs Stanley was in the thick of all that development, being the most successful homebuilder in town.  Stanley & Sons were selling three bedroom / one bath ranch homes out in Road Runner Estate quicker than they could build them.  Studs went to the Studebaker dealer in Grandfalls and bought a brand new ’48 Studebaker M16 to help with the heavy lifting.  The doors of the red and black work horse were highlighted with gold lettering that said “Stanley & Sons.  We always Measure Up”, and that was pretty much the case.

So strong was their reputation in the community they even got the contract to build the add-on over at the Second Baptist Church, as the postwar baby boom created a demand for additional nursery space.  That lead to a contract to build the new home for the choir director and his wife, Jamie and Jimmy Sue Buckles.

The Buckles lived in a little apartment not far from Road Runner Estates and, like most young couples building their first home, were on the job site most every day checking progress.   In fact, once the house was framed up, their little girl Jenny would run down the block the minute she saw Studs driving the Studebaker into the subdivision and want to be put to work.  A family man himself, Studs would find countless little jobs for Jenny to do while he and his sons worked on the house.  She’d fetch tools, stack small pieces of scrap lumber, or go out to the Studebaker and grab cold Cokes for the workers at lunch.

At the end of the job Studs reached into his pocket and pulled out three crisp one dollar bills and handed them to little Jenny, her “wages” for all the work she’d performed throughout the construction process.  Jenny was excited.  Jamie and Jenny Sue saw it as the perfect opportunity to teach her a life lesson about hard work and earned wages.

One morning shortly after moving into their new ranch home, Jamie and little Jenny walked over to the home Studs was building across the street and asked him for a lift downtown.  The three of them climbed into the tan cab of the M16, Jenny in between the two men with her three dollars clinched in her fist.  Studs dropped the two of them off at Prairie View State Bank, just off the square.

Jenny marched into the bank and right up to the counter where Gladys looked over the top of her glasses and asked how she could help.  “I want to open an account.  I earned all this money,” she said, sliding the soggy bills over the counter.  “I helped build a house and got paid, just like all the men who worked on it!”

“Fantastic!” Gladys exclaimed, winking at Jenny’s dad behind her and Studs standing in the lobby next to the loan officer.  “Will you be helping them next week, too?”

“I will be if those SOB’s over at the lumber yard get the effing roof rafters delivered like they’re supposed to!” Jenny blurted out.

Studs was almost as proud as when he’d picked up his new Studebaker.