Category: Every car is a story.
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FORT STOCKTON
I get asked from time to time, “How come I can’t find any of the places on the Google-Maps you talk about in your stories?” Or, occasionally, I get “Was driving through town and wanted to stop at The Grounds for Divorce and buy you a cup off coffee. Maybe meet Lucinda. But I couldn’t…
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DIAL ‘B’ FOR BIARRITZ
It was a night like few others. An aluminum colored fog gripped Fort Stockton like a mother clutching a newborn baby, shrouding the Lucky Lady in a dew as thick on the outside as the mystery taking place on the inside. Few, if any, of the locals saw the Alpine White Eldorado parked out back.…
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MICHAEL CORLEONE: THE ALFA MALE
Got to the Grounds for Divorce late this morning. By the time I slid into the corner booth there was already a debate brewing, along with a fresh pot, and it was over this listing on BaT. “What would have happened,” Rusty said in a serious tone, “if the bomb Fabrizzio was planting in Michaels’…
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A FORK IN THE ROAD
Hadn’t seen one of these since Tristan Newberry dragged one into Fort Stockton behind a ’51 Cadillac Fleetwood Seventy-Five back in early 1952. Well, it looked like a Fleetwood Seventy-Five. It was actually a short wheelbase GMC school bus chassis that had been re-bodied with the body and interior of a brand new Cadillac. Mr.…
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LBJ’S BORROWED CONTINENTALS
Buford down at Dusty Plains Savings & Loan married into money. No one ever faulted him for it, ‘cause he never let it go to his head. If your lottery ticket looks good in a swim suit, all the better. People said he never owned a pair of shoes until he hit junior high, but…
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CHAW AND BEATRIX TEMPT FATE
Chaw Bufflen was an able bodied man’s man. A rare breed of cowboy who knew both the rugged intricacies of a life lived on the open plains as well as the subtlest of plot twists in Shakespeare’s finest works. Living in a bunkhouse several miles west of Fort Stockton, his needs were primal and few. …
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VALIANT EFFORTS
Judy, Joyce, and Justine had gone through all twelve years of school together at Our Lady of Immeasurable Concern and graduated as a group in 1964. Joyce and Justine had gone off to college, Joyce at Texas Tech and Justine at UT. Each of them had found husbands and not returned to Fort Stockton. Only…
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LINCOLN RUNS WITH THE STARS
What a big bowl of ripe red cherries with a dollop of Cool-Whip on top this new offering appears to be. Without too much effort and no more than two Gibson cocktails, one can imagine this burgundy beast gliding past the HOLLYWOOD sign and heading up Sunset Boulevard. Behind the wheel is George Reeves, fresh…
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COOTER’S COURIER
While these are rarer than hen’s teeth these days, back in ’59 they were actually a fairly common sight in small Texas towns like Lefors. Fort Stockton had one that saw a fair amount of duty back in the day. Probably the most infamous story of its service in town was the day Cooter, Leroy,…
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MORE. NO, MORE. I WANT MORE!
Dateline: Late 1956, Detroit, MI “Have you seen what those bastards over at Chrysler have done?” Albert Clawson yelled as he lit one cigar off the glowing remains of an old one and chopped on it like it was a hot dog. Of course, all the other executives around the mahogany table had seen exactly…