STORIES
If our lives are a book, the cars we drive define the chapters.
These are stories featuring cars, trucks, and even RVs that played a role in the lives of the people who owned or drove them. Many are set in Fort Stockton, Texas and involve a cast of characters in and around the dusty southwest Texas town. A lot of the stories are shared around the table at The Grounds for Divorce, where the ‘regulars’ meet.
Pull up a chair and let Lucinda pour you a hot cuppa joe and enjoy.
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LETTING THE CHIPS FALL
Fort Stockton was like the rest of America in 1958, suffering through what the newspapers had labeled the “Eisenhower Recession”. City leaders gathered to discuss what could be done to keep the town thriving. Rex Hall from the pharmacy, Rusty Hammer from the hardware store, Clarence who managed the Piggly Wiggly, and the men who…
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THE SILVER ANNIVERSARY PONTIAC
What a beautiful old Pontiac Chieftain Custom Catalina Hadrtop. Spittin’ image of the one Ray Greenbacks bought for his wife back in the spring of ’53 in celebration of their Silver Anniversary. He special ordered it on his lunch hour over at Badlands Buick / Pontiac / GMC in Marfa just to throw Rona off…
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PLAIN BROWN WRAPPER
We’ll, it’s happened. A third of the folks in Fort Stockton swore they’d never live to see it. A third of them are saying it’s years overdue. A third of them don’t even know it’s happened and probably never will because of their own diminished capacities or general indifference. But it was the lead…
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FATHER’S DAY
Got several mug orders recently as Father’s Day bears down on us. One guy said it was a special gift for his dad, who reads the blog every morning. “Then he makes me read it out loud to the whole family so he can laugh all over again,” he said. My apologies to you…
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UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES OF FORT STOCKTON
Fort Stockton is home to a great many mysteries. I suppose most towns are. We humans are a mysterious bunch, so wherever we may gather, mysteries most surely follow. How Mayor Goodman continues to be reelected. Where the leftover funds went once the Pecos Pete statue was erected. Whether the carpet matches the drapes out…
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RAIDERS OF THE LOST CRATE
Several weeks ago Rusty over at the Rusty Hammer Hardware Store was in the Quonset hut warehouse behind the store looking for the back stock of WD-40. It seems Mrs. Thatcher had come in looking for several cans and the shelf was empty. She’d heard it was the only thing that would de-mat the hair…
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GOVERNOR JESTER’S LEGACY
Beauford Halbert Jester was the only Texas Governor to have the temerity to die in office. Born in Corsicana and educated at the University of Texas, Beauford cut a mean figure on his way up the ladder of Texas politics. A relatively young man when elected governor in 1947, he made for a handsome politician…
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TALES OF A SEQUOIA
Fort Stockton has had its share of circuses come to town; not necessarily all of them had tents and tigers, if you know what I mean. Most folks take it all in stride as long as it doesn’t affect the price of cattle or oil. That was the case back in late ’48 when a…
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MONTANA GETS RELIGION
This was from an era when trucks were work horses for those who made a living off the land rather than being tailored to dandies with dreams of glory but a job in a cubicle. Funny this one is in Montana. Back in the day there was a young cowpoke and his bride that moved…
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THE GRADUATE
Dax Shaddock was lost. It wasn’t that he didn’t know where he was. It was that he had no idea where he was going. He’d taken a “gap year” after graduating from Our Lady of Immeasurable Concern, but he’d fallen into the “gap” and couldn’t seem to find his way out. Most of his friends…