thoughts on the news of the day: west texas

hmmm…..

            Governor Rick Perry is in the news a lot lately.  His bid for president has propelled him into the national spotlight.  This morning there was an article about his West Texas roots and his boyhood in Paint Creek, Texas.  I don’t know a lot about Rick Perry, but I do know a thing or two about west Texas.   Having lived in Andrews, Texas, even farther into the west than Paint Creek, was an experience to be remembered.

            First of all it’s flat.  And when I say flat, I mean as a pancake.  I heard that when Midland was recruiting doctors to serve in their hospitals back in the day, the doctors wives refused to even get off the plane, the land was so flat and desolate.  A friend of mine said that she could look north out her back door and see all the way to Canada; and that she had to tie her young son on a rope to the clothesline when he went out to play – there were no boundaries – or people to hinder the young tyke.

            And did I say desolate?  There actually is a forest of trees in west Texas that very few people know about because the trees are only inches tall.  We had a saying about meeting half way on the road to Odessa.  We would “meet at the tree”. Everyone knew what that meant because there literally was only one tree on the highway between the two towns. 

            But for all the flat and desolate land, there was an incredible beauty about it when the sun went down.  The altitude was actually pretty high.  And because of the flatness and lack of trees, the sky looked enormous.  You could see every star in the sky and pick out every constellation on a star map.  We used to drive out into the desert, away from the city lights just to experience that beauty.

            All that goes to show that there is good and not so good in everything.  Even Rick Perry.

            hmmm…..