Category: Every car is a story.
-
THREE CARS AND A QUESTIONABLE FUTURE
Fort Stockton, Texas – March 1961 Denton Chase stood under the dusty overhang of Frontier Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, shielding his eyes from the West Texas glare with a hand that still trembled slightly from the night before. The sign above the lot read “Home of the Straight Shootin’ Deal!” in sun-faded red block letters. The “g” in…
-
THE BUZZ FROM FORT STOCKTON
FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK AT HOME, THIS IS THE 800th STORY POSTED ON THE BLOG! HOPE YOU ENJOY IT. Before the flies ever reached the back of the rust-splintered 1956 Chevrolet 5700 LCF stake-bed truck, there was already a problem chewing its way through Texas like a chainsaw in a brisket joint. The New World…
-
GOLDEN IDOLS
She arrived in Fort Stockton like an overcooked tornado—no warning, no shame, and no intention of staying in her lane. The 1977 Cadillac Seville she drove in on looked dipped in margarine and glitter. Finished in Sovereign Gold Metallic with a matching vinyl roof, it caught the sun like it was trying to blind onlookers…
-
CFD AT THE GFD. IT WAS A BFD.
If anyone along I-35 between Iowa and West Texas thought they were hallucinating, they weren’t. That really was a red 1960 Porsche-Diesel Super L 318 tractor crawling down the shoulder, followed by a black Dodge Magnum with satin-red hood graphics, and a slightly faded red 1985 Camaro with T-tops and four decades of romantic and…
-
DICK AND THE DODGE
Epilogue? Too final. Let’s just call this a follow-up to the MERCURY, GOLD AND IRON series. When the 1961 Dodge Dart Phoenix D-500 Convertible rolled to a stop in front of Grounds for Divorce, it looked like the future had side-swiped the past and decided to park in the present. The black MoPar glistened with…
-
MEANWHILE, BACK IN FORT STOCKTON…
I was just minding my own business, then BAM—I looked up and 1975 was 50 years ago. That doesn’t seem right. I still remember sitting in the front seat of the first Fairlane 500 at the Prairie View Twin Drive-In with Buttercup, not having a clue what was playing on the big screen up ahead.…
-
MOONSHINE & GLORY, A FORT STOCKTON FOURTH
They found it behind the Fort Stockton National Guard Armory, half-buried in a mesquite thicket beside some rusted-out ammo crates and what might’ve been a Cold War-era grill. The 1930 Ford Model AA Sinclair Tanker had been sitting there since the Johnson administration, still wearing its faded “Lamp Oil and Kerosene” decals like medals from…
-
WORTH THE WAIT
In the fall of 1969, the sun was still unrelenting in Fort Stockton, but Tug Briggs walked a little taller. After thirty-seven years sorting complaints, cradling broken parcels, and chasing down mail fraud as a postal inspector, Tug had earned something he’d never had: time. Tug wasn’t flashy. Never had been. He and Vida had…
-
CREAMLINE CONFIDENTIAL
From the declassified field notes of J. Carl Mooman, Senior Dairy Operative, Project Pasteur January 3, 1956New assignment. Fort Stockton, Texas. Codename: Butterfield. Truck in place—1955 Divco Model 11, registered to Mountain Gold Dairy. Modified under cover of darkness at Fort Bliss: false floor, butter tub compartments, butter churn antenna wired to CB. My cover?…
-
THE LONG WAY TO SWEETWATER
By the time the sun tucked itself behind the Davis Mountains like a child into bed, Lila was already outside the Airfloat with her coffee, watching the last light play hopscotch with the sagebrush. The aluminum skin of the trailer caught the amber glow and threw it back in all directions, like it had never…