Category: A Trilogy.
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LIVING HER BEST LIFE
Tilda, or Charlie Underwood as she was known to her legion of dedicated readers, grew in popularity with each novel she published. On the heels of Turquoise and Tombstones came Sharpened Arrows, Shattered Dreams about a woman who lost her husband in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Captured by his killers, she eventually became integrated into the tribe. Her marriage to the…
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TILDA SPREADS HER WINGS
Tilda stayed at Palo Duro Canyon long enough for all three children to come in for her husband’’s funeral service. A minister from Amarillo said words that were kind, if generic. They scattered his ashes on the edge of the canyon at sunset, not sure of the legality, and well after the minister was on his way…
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ANYTHING BUT SPARTAN
“Maybe it’s time to leave Fort Stockton,” Tilda said while she poured him a cup of coffee from the chrome Westinghouse electric percolator. Her words hung in the air. He was deep into page three of the Stockton Telegram-Dispatch, not really listening. When they finally did sink in, he dropped the paper on top of the Formica kitchen table. “What…
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1974: TWO PICTURES AND A PONY, Part III
Part III of a Trilogy Nineteen-seventy-four. Roman Polanski was bringing Chinatown to theaters, years before charges of raping a 13-year-old girl would be brought. Michael Corleone was in the theater just down the hall at the local Cineplex, killing off his enemies one by one. Even his brother Fredo, who went out on the boat on Lake Tahoe, ended up…
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1974: TWO PICTURES AND A PONY, Part II
Part II of a Trilogy The Godfather was the unexpected, yet undisputed box office smash hit of 1972. The novel of the same name had been a bestseller, making Mario Puzo rich. Nobody was quite sure that the story would translate well into film, and very nearly didn’t. The fact that it was made at all is a miracle. The…
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1974: TWO PICTURES AND A PONY, Part I
Part I of a Trilogy It’s impossible to look at a point in time without referencing other points that preceded or followed. It’s impossible to look at one cultural touchstone without seeking others. Everything is woven together; nothing exists in a vacuum. In 1974 Chinatown came out. The script has been called the greatest ever written, but the movie was…
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TRAVEL TRAILER TANGO, Part III
The final part of the trilogy. The scene around the picnic table next to the Vagabond, and behind the Cadillac woody was as bucolic as it was ironic. A group of perspiring middle aged city fathers gathered on one side of a picnic table, sweating in their long sleeved shirts and fat neckties that sat atop…
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TRAVEL TRAILER TANGO, Part II
Part II of a trilogy. It is claimed that in 1878 a rancher in Marfa invented the modern condom by using a sheep’s lower intestine. By the time the concept made it to Fort Stockton it was further refined by actually removing the intestine from the sheep. In much the same way, those who made a…
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TRAVEL TRAILER TANGO, Part I
Part I of a trilogy. World War II took folks to depths they’d never experienced before. Loss of loved ones never to return. Threats to democracy never imagined. Changes to the way life was lived that were abrupt and unexpected. Folks around Fort Stockton put their heads down and moved forward because that’s what folks around Fort Stockton do.…
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A COMPANION NAVIGATES HER WAY BACK
The final installment of a trilogy. “Of all the gin joints in all of West Texas, she had to walk into this one,” he thought to himself. Charlie Chambers found himself back in Fort Stockton a broken man. His gig at Cadillac had become more tenuous with each automotive review that came out on his baby,…