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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SIN WITH BUCKET SEATS, Part Three: The Backfire
THE FINAL INSTALLMENT OF A THREE PART SERIES The first vehicle to leave Second Baptist was Maybelle Watkins’s pale green Buick, although Maybelle would later insist she had gone directly home and had no idea why three separate people remembered seeing her arrive at the Cattle Baron Hotel before the benediction had finished echoing. Behind…
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SIN WITH BUCKET SEATS, Part Two: The Sermon
PART TWO OF A THREE PART STORY By nine-thirty Sunday morning, Second Baptist had more cars in its parking lot than it had members who could remember the last time Brother Bob had preached from Revelation without frightening himself. The church bulletin still listed the sermon as Walking With God in an Age of Distraction,…
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SIN WITH BUCKET SEATS, Part One: The Arrival
PART ONE OF A THREE PART STORY There are automobiles that arrive in Fort Stockton quietly, perform whatever modest duty brought them there, and leave without disturbing anything more consequential than the dust behind the Dairy Twin. A Plymouth carrying vacuum-cleaner salesmen might spend the night at the Cattle Baron Hotel and be forgotten before…
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“TAKE THE BOSS’S CAR”
The first cold breeze of autumn came off Nantucket Sound before sunrise on Tuesday, October 16, 1962, carrying the smell of salt water, wet rope, and the faint remains of yesterday’s fish. It moved through Hyannis Port with the confidence of something that had crossed the Atlantic without asking permission, rattling the windows of the…
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A STAR WAR IS BORN
By the time the house lights went down at Our Lady of Immeasurable Concern, three hundred respectable citizens of Fort Stockton were already packed into a parish auditorium rated for considerably fewer, two fire exits had been partially blocked by folding chairs, Delgado had sold enough Bantha Burgers to put the GFD Airstream food truck…
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A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
There are certain honors a writer secretly hopes to receive in his lifetime. The Pulitzer Prize is one. The National Book Award would be nice. A Presidential Medal of Freedom would probably look good hanging on the wall, although in Fort Stockton accepting one would immediately cause half the people at the Grounds for Divorce…
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MOVIE REVIEW: TOP GUN
By Jimmy Don Ventura Movie Critic, Stockton Telegram-DispatchGuest Reviewer — CMC Blog I’ve often said that there are two completely different movies playing on the screen every time you walk into a theater. The first one is the movie the director intended you to watch. The second one is the movie car people can’t help…
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SOMETIMES IT’S BETTER BY HAND
After completing the recent rejuvenation of the trunk of the Fairlane 500, I did something I hadn’t done in far too long. I backed the old Ford out of the garage, parked it squarely in the middle of the driveway, uncoiled the garden hose, and washed it by hand from top to bottom. The original…
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WELCOME ABOARD
Bruce Borger had spent twenty-three years learning that the secret to advancement in corporate accounting was preparation. Preparation could overcome almost anything. A weak quarterly report could be prepared for. An acquisition could be prepared for. An audit could be prepared for. A hostile board member could be prepared for. Even a meeting in which…
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THE GRAND INTRODUCTION
It all began with an inauspicious statement. “Ford Division confirmed today that it will introduce a new line of cars this spring,” said the press release issued February 6, 1964, by Lee Iacocca, vice president of Ford Motor Company. “The new line of cars will be called the Mustang. No further details on the new…