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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MOVIE REVIEW: AMERICAN GRAFFITI
Despite The Captain’s best efforts to get me to review The French Connection as an homage to the late great Gene Hackman, I went a different direction. (I’m still waiting for the check to clear on the first movie review, so I figure I can have some latitude in which movies I pick to review.) If the premise of…
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THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD, Part V
THE FINAL INSTALLMENT OF A FIVE PART SERIES Mount Rushmore. The Gateway Arch. The Statue of Liberty. America loves her some monuments. Painstakingly created edifices that speak to the hopes and dreams of her people. Symbols that represent the art of commerce, the greatness of materialism, the spiritual nature of what we hold dear. Throw in some whimsy, add a…
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THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD, Part IV
THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT OF A FIVE PART SERIES Nine Cadillacs. Well, ten really. But nine that I’ve shared stories about. The tenth Cadillac had stories to go with it, as well, I assume. Maybe better stories than the ones you’ve read so far. However, in contacting the heirs of the tenth Cadillac they declined to share any information about their…
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THE STANDARD OF THE WORLD, Part III
THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF A FIVE PART SERIES Lawrence Royce was no more than a boy when he went off to serve his country in The Great War. He was a patriot, raised in Houston to believe in God, country, and duty and strive to honor both. When he returned after his two extended tours of duty…
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STANDARD OF THE WORLD, Part II
THE SECOND INSTALLMENT OF A FIVE PART SERIES Families can be a hard thing. Hard to define. Hard to endure. It can be a challenge to maintain those relationships sometimes and the bigger the family, the tougher that struggle becomes. One would think that perhaps growing up on a small island, even in a big family those waters would…
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STANDARD OF THE WORLD, Part I
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF A FIVE PART SERIES David and Sandra Weslaco bought their Cadillac when it was two years old and David was about to retire. “It don’t make sense to spend all that money on one that is brand new. Gonna lose half its value the minute it leaves the lot. Find a low mileage trade-in…
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THE THING ABOUT COWBOYS
Jolene Bremond knew better. It wasn’t her first rodeo, after all. And it’s not like she didn’t have plenty of examples around her. Her own mother had fallen for a cowboy 20 years earlier. It didn’t end well. Just a broken heart and a belly full of baby. At least in that case he’d stuck around long enough for Jolene’s mother…
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FROM A WHOLE DIFFERENT GALAXIE
Peter Killian normally wasn’t all that excitable. After all, he’d seen duty during the war and been a commercial pilot at American Airlines for a number of years. But there was something about the 1959 Fords that got him going. Stirred something deep within. He couldn’t fight the feeling any longer and finally made his way down to…
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THROWING DARTS AT THE PROBLEM
Grande Fromage came back to his office looking pale and distressed. As Head of Dodge Division he’d been called up to the Big Suite where the Chairman of the whole corporation had beckoned the top brass from every division to share the latest market information. It wasn’t good. “Get every top level manager and every designer…
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THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES
Dixon Ticonderoga was a MoPar Man through and through, displaying a level of loyalty that far exceeded its justification by the time the late 70s rolled around. His passion for posh ponderous parade cars started when he made a fortune in pork bellies in ’54 and marched into Tumbleweed Chrysler-DeSoto-Imperial in the fall of that…