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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DAMN GLAD TO MEETCHA
“Hal Holstregren. Damn glad to meet ya,” the somewhat burly salesman said as he walked up to his first customer of the morning. The air was crisp in Odessa. The wind was light so the whiff of the oil patch outside town was barely noticeable. Hank had driven from Fort Stockton to shop for a…
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PRESSING BUSINESS
The following is taken directly from Wikipedia, and is the full story of Giles Corey: Giles Corey was an English-born farmer who was accused of witchcraft along with his wife Martha Corey during the Salem witch trials in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. After being arrested, Corey refused to enter a guilty or not guilty plea. He was subjected to torture in the form…
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FROM THE BACK OF THE BERMUDA, 10/21/2024
Folks fully expected the Grounds for Divorce to be empty this morning when they went in, being a Monday and all. It was just the opposite. The place was packed, like everyone in Fort Stockton wanted a cup of Folgers all at the same time. Lucinda was having a hard time keeping the coffee cups refilled. Notably, she’s…
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A DIFFERENT BEAT, Chapter 7
In the Escalade on the highway headed back to the home in Fort Stockton she shared with fourth husband Doyle Lipscomb, Janice Amos thought about the fact that she didn’t feel guilty. She chalked it up to the fact that monogamy was unrealistic. Despite the best efforts and intentions Doyle put forth, there was something about a…
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A DIFFERENT BEAT, Chapter 6
Janice Amos was slipping her bra back on in the dimly lit hotel room a block and a half from the Cadillac dealership. She asked Kent Borden to fasten the hooks in the back. It was hard for her to reach back there, her arms sore from some of the more acrobatic moves she’d been put…
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A DIFFERENT BEAT, Chapter 5
Wells Teague is a douchebag. That is not an arbitrary opinion just thrown out there with no evidence to back it up. That is an established fact based on documented evidence. There are five firmly established guidelines to determine whether someone is, in fact, a douchebag and Wells Teague has checked off each and every one of…
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A DIFFERENT BEAT, Chapter 4
Sally-Sue Shackelford was a sweet girl, despite the cards she’d been dealt that put her in a less-than-ideal position most of her life. Wise beyond her years and without a jail record despite them, Sally-Sue didn’t come to Fort Stockton till after she’d graduated from Zapata High School and wanted something more. Of course, most folks have…
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A DIFFERENT BEAT, Chapter 3
There are some who perform whatever task they’re given with a determination to do the best job possible, regardless of the circumstances or limitations. Call it a servant’s heart. They possess a disregard for rank or status, but instead proceed on with any assignment with the same attitude of the astronauts that were on the first moon…
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A DIFFERENT BEAT, Chapter 2
Janice Amos was a singer of some regional renown, playing mainly lounges and bowling alleys in and around Fort Stockton. Attractive in her prime, she still held together pretty well for a woman who’d been rode pretty hard and put up wet. Over the course of her career she’d recorded a handful of LPs, none of…
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A DIFFERENT BEAT, Chapter 1
Shamus and Minerva Alvord each marched to the beat of their own drum. The types that were generally picked last at sports, tended to read a lot, and rarely volunteered an answer in class, but when called on were always correct. Loners, in other words. They both graduated from Jim Bowie High School, “Home of the Fightin’…