Month: July 2024
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GRAND MARQUIS DREAMS, FAIRLANE 500 REALITIES
In late ’78 I was 20. Buttercup was 18. We were engaged and due to be married in May of the following year. Both of us still lived at home, but spent as much time together as physically possible when I wasn’t in class or she wasn’t at work. Wedding plans were in full swing, but simplicity ruled the day and that…
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HAWKING HISTORY
The Nazca people, who lived 1500 years ago, in the pre-Columbian period of Peruvian history, constructed the Cantalloc Aqueducts. More than 40 were built, 32 of them still in use today, carrying water to farmers relying on them to water crops in the arid region just west of Nazca, Peru. That may be the only design…
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OUTSIDE CHANCE
“Chance Collinsworth could step in a pile of fresh cow dung and come out smelling like a rose.” That’s what folks used to say at Jim Bowie High School when he was there. He was the type of guy who things just seemed to work out for. A case in point would be bringing home the first…
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HIGHWAY TO HICO
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…
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FROM THE BACK OF THE BERMUDA, 7/7/2024
Last week we endured controversy and consternation over presidential candidates that were either felonious or feeble. Things stepped up this week, making last week look tame, as we took on the Oxford comma and prepositional phrases. “Will it never end?” I asked as I drove the Fairlane 500 over to the Grounds for Divorce this morning, parking in…
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THE SHOTWELL LITTLE COMET
In August of 1965, Mary Shotwell-Little seemed to have just about everything a young southern girl could want. An attractive 25-year-old girl, she was getting married to Roy Little. She had a good job working as a secretary at a bank in Atlanta, Georgia. To top it off, she drove a new Mercury Comet. From the outside, it looked like…
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HANK’S FAREWELL GIFT
Ol’ Hank, the postman here in Fort Stockton retired several years back after 37 years of faithful service to the community. He’d driven a 1969 Ford F-100 just like this one almost that entire time. He bought it new up in Comanche instead of from the local dealer here in town because his nephew worked…
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JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH
There’s always something special about summer in Fort Stockton, especially around the 4th of July. It’s kind of like Christmas in the heat, but without all the running around shopping for gifts. The hot weather brings out the Daisy Dukes and halter tops. The display of styrofoam coolers stacked to the ceiling over at the Piggly Wiggly…
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GOD BLESS AMERICA. AND THE AMERICAN RIVIERA.
God bless America. And this ’67 Riviera IS America, my friends. RED air cleaner and valve covers. WHITE wall Supertrac tires. And metallic BLUE, by god, metallic paint. You shouldn’t kick the tires on this rolling piece of Americana, you should salute it and thank it for its service. “Chipped paint on the valance around…
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CHILD’S PLAY
I was born in the generation of Baby Boomers whose parents lived through Dubya Dubya Deuce and had childhoods that included rationing and doing without. As a result, they seemed to want to do more for their own kids than their parents had been able to do for them. But only to an extent. I…