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.

  • THREE MEETINGS: The Blue Oval

    THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF FOUR STORIES It was the first time in a long time the executives weren’t filled with a sense of dread as they filed into the mahogany paneled and glass walled conference room. Even though the kid had been in the big chair for nearly a decade, he still could…

  • THREE MEETINGS: The General

    THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF FOUR STORIES The automobile industry was roiling in the mid 1950s.  Independent manufacturers were joining forces in a desperate attempt to compete against the dominating Big Three by finding some kind of economy of scale.  American Motors and Studebaker-Packard were created in order to fight rivals with more research and development…

  • FROM THE BACK OF THE BERMUDA: Just the Tip

    Europeans who come to this country for a visit are often amazed.  The things that make the list of their amazement are many, and of course vary from visitor to visitor.  But certain aspects of the good old US of A seem to make every list. The first thing that people from across the pond note is…

  • BRINGING UP THE REAR

    The 1950s were a time of burgeoning ideas.  Each of the Big Three were coming up with more and more creative ideas to capture the imagination and sales of a buying public clamoring for more. Some of these developments took place under the hood, like the overhead valve V8 engines that eventually led to the muscle…

  • MURDER, HE WROTE

    A kid drove through Fort Stockton the other day.  And when I say’kid’, he may have been pushing 35, I don’t know.  The older I get, the younger everyone else looks.  But he was a kid to Rusty Hammer and me.  We were both at the bar over at the Lucky Lady having a cold Lone Star Longneck to…

  • EXECUTIVE ACTIONS

    That year was a big autumn for Dad and me.  For his part, something had stirred him to trade in the 1967 Mustang.  I, on the other hand, had discovered that perhaps girls might not have Cooties, after all.  In fact, they seemed to possess things that were as far away as Cooties as one could get. Yet,…

  • TEARS OF BLOOD

    Bo Scoggins got kicked out of Jim Bowie High School before his senior year for explaining, in exact detail, why students weren’t learning anything and went so far as to offer a number of suggestions as to how Administration could upgrade their efforts.  His wording may have been crude, but the concepts held a certain…

  • CARVIN’ OUT A CONTINENTAL

    This looks just like the one Mr. Binderman, the wood shop teacher over at Jim Bowie High School, “Home of the Fighting’ Knives,” had his sophomore class do for the fall project.  There wasn’t a mesquite, bois d’ark, or pecan tree left standing within twelve miles of the school when they were done with the…

  • THE TALK

    “Have you had The Talk with him yet?”  Gwendolyn rarely asked Jim questions she didn’t already know the answer to.  That’s one of the things that both amazed Jim about her and absolutely drove him bat-shit crazy at the same time.  It seemed passive aggressive. Jim folded his Saturday edition of the Stockton Telegram-Dispatch and laid it down on the…

  • FROM THE BACK OF THE BERMUDA, 11/3/2024

    “Your little Ford is dealing me fits!”  Gary was on the other end of the line, muttering words I didn’t want to hear so early on a Monday Morning. “Go on.”  I braced for bad news. “The only radiator shop left in town took a look at the heater core.  Just shook their heads and said, ‘No way,’”…