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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TWO DeSOTOS, Part III
The car rolled into Fort Stockton like it had something to prove. A 1968 Chrysler 300 Convertible, Scorch Red and humming like temptation on a warm breeze. White vinyl top, rear window flapping slightly, like it was winking at the world. Lucinda stepped out of the Grounds for Divorce diner with a pitcher of iced…
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TWO DeSOTOS, Part II
The 1957 DeSoto Firesweep Sedan came off the line as an entry-level car, but nobody told it that. Sunlit Yellow with a sweep of Frost White curling down its flanks, it looked like it had been dipped in custard and victory. Tail fins like ambitions. Whitewalls that glared at the pavement. It parked like it…
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TWO DeSOTOS, Part I
The 1958 DeSoto Firesweep Four-Door Shopper Station Wagon had no business being on the road, let alone barreling down County Road 240 with a load of rusted metal, old sprinkler parts, and what appeared to be the frame of a porch swing rattling in the back. But there it was—fins slicing the air, tailgate chained…
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PANDORA’S BOXES
Fort Stockton didn’t feel like home anymore. The air was still dusty, the pecan trees still dropped their fruit right where folks would twist their ankles, and the wind still carried gossip faster than a party line ever could—but it wasn’t home. Not for Leland. Not for Les, either, really. Not now that Gertrude Leander…
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STILL A DAMN FINE IMPLEMENT
Pa died doin’ what he loved most: drinkin’ corn liquor and ignorin’ basic safety protocols. The accident happened out in the south forty, right where the clay breaks bad and the weeds grow spiteful. According to the sheriff’s report—which was dictated mostly by cousin Cletus who found the body while huntin’ for scrap iron—Pa had…
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FULL CIRCLE
The 1948 DeSoto Custom Coupe arrived in Fort Stockton on a flatbed train car two months after Elroy Brewer returned from the Pacific. Freshly painted in Monterey Blue with tan vinyl seats you could lose a cigarette in, the car looked like something from the future, or at least a future Elroy hadn’t expected to…
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THE NOVA AND THE NEW KID
Fort Stockton, Texas – 1970s Caleb Canton arrived in Fort Stockton with a duffel bag of clothes, a box of books, and an accent that drew double takes. His father’s new post at the Proving Grounds plucked the family from somewhere vaguely referred to as “Michigan,” which might as well have been Iceland for all…
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SHAKESPEARE IN THE STOCK TANK, Chapter Six: The Final Bow
Opening night. It had all come down to this—six weeks of duct tape, crushed dreams, half-memorized soliloquies, and enough hairspray to qualify as atmospheric pollution. The folding chairs were full. The concession line was wrapped around the Rusty Hammer’s water heater display. And Lucinda’s lemon bars were already gone before Trixie’s eye shadow dried. Hairless…
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SHAKESPEARE IN THE STOCK TANK, Chapter Five: The Bishop Cometh
The night before opening had that crackling tension that usually precedes tornados, shotgun weddings, or the announcement of a new Whataburger going in on the bypass. Fort Stockton hummed with gossip. The mayor’s wife claimed she’d heard Trixie and Sugar Plum got into it over lipstick shades at the Lucky Lady bathroom. A woman at…
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SHAKESPEARE IN THE STOCK TANK, Chapter Four: Is This a Pontiac Which I See Before Me?
If there was one thing Fort Stockton had never asked for, it was a theatrical dress rehearsal with a suggested donation and full concessions. But thanks to Sister Thelma, her never-ending grant spreadsheet, and Lucinda’s unstoppable lemon bar hustle, the town was getting one anyway. Flyers had gone up on telephone poles, post office cork…