Hico, located on Honey Creek in central Texas, sprang up from the prairie in 1860. By the early 20th century there was more cotton traded on the streets of Hico than any other town in America. That’s when the Tolson family made their fortune in cotton and the real estate it grew on.
By 1941 the town’s fate had changed and the population dwindled to less than 1,300. The Tolson family had managed to keep most of their fortune, and sought to use it in some small measure to help revitalize the town as Texas geared up for war. The Widow Tolson built a hotel on Pecan Street that was meant to cater to the young servicemen coming through town en route to their destinies in far away locations. The finishing touch of the Hotel Tolson was the mahogany paneled saloon on the lower floor. The focal point of the saloon was a rare piece of art purchased to hang behind the bar.
A nude lying in repose, the portrait was said to be of none other than the wife of Santa Anna, although that claim was never verified. Mrs. Tolson figured the art piece would be just the thing to keep soldiers missing home planted at the bar for another drink or two before ascending to their room upstairs for the evening. The piece was located by an art dealer with connections in Fort Stockton who’d been told of the painting owned by a rancher just outside town.
Calls were made and arrangements were set for the painting to be picked up by Mrs. Tolson’s only granddaughter, Lorna. Lorna was 26, unmarried, strong willed like her late father, and involved in the family business as she had time in between other goings-on around Hico that only she seemed to be privy to.
When given her assignment to drive to Fort Stockton, inspect and fetch the painting, Lorna balked, as Mrs. Tolson knew she would. “I’ve arranged a new car for you. Likely to be the last one we’ll see for a while. You can pick it up in the morning before you head to Fort Stockton. A convertible, no less,” her grandmother told her. The blue-gray Special Deluxe was very much to Lorna’s liking, the color highlighting her alabaster complexion, the shade of the red interior the same as her lipstick.
Lorna pulled into Fort Stockton after dinner that evening and arranged to see the painting early the next morning. Driving to the seller’s ranch, the painting didn’t take long to inspect. It was every bit as alluring as they had been told, some would call it down right bawdy. Lorna couldn’t help but notice a more than passing resemblance between the woman in the painting and her grandmother, but then she’d never seen Santa Anna’s wife, so she let that notion go. The owner, a gentleman of taste whose appetites were not confined to fine art, had a couple ranch hands crate up the painting for transport while he charmed its young buyer, who’d paid with cash. Lorna, not one who was unused to lewd suggestions of powerful men of means, disregarded his advances while she waited for the crated-up artwork to be secured in the back seat of the Super Deluxe convertible.
Top down on the Ford Super-Deluxe, Lana headed out into the fog with her acquisition safely secured in the back seat and made record time getting back to Hico. At the hotel, the bartender and a cook carried it in, unpacked it, and hung it over the bar off the lobby where Lorna, her grandmother, and a few gathered friends admired the piece over cold adult beverages.
Lorna threw back her mane of blonde hair and laughed telling the story of the suggestions the rancher had made. “In the end,” she said, “he called me a wretched tease.”
“And what did you call him?” her mother asked.
“An ambulance.”
2 responses to “HIGHWAY TO HICO”
Lorna/Lana seems to have dagmars that rival Luchinda’s . . .
Must be more to come. To be continued, El Capitan ?