A poet and a one-man band...

I spent the last couple of weeks driving across Texas to visit my parents, to take them to see doctors, to meet David so he could bring Mandy, our sheltie, home with him while I made a long drive back "home." Actually, Houston has been "home" for decades but the home of my childhood was on the south plains of the Texas Panhandle. Floyd County. Once there, there were other drives:

• to Plainview to visit with my mother's nephew, James, and his family
• to South Plains, the farming community where I grew up for the Calahan family (my paternal grandmother, Oma's family) reunion, to the church where my great grandmother was a charter member and where I worshipped for my first 18 years
• to "down below the Cap" a long circle drive from Floydada through South Plains to Quitique and Turkey and back via the Flomot cut and Cedar Hill
• to Lockney to see the shell of the high school that burned
• to the cemetery to visit graves of family & friends

The country was green but most of the crops are very, very late. Saw lots of birds and a couple of cotton-tailed rabbits. And a rainbow. Got to see a summer "norther" and smell rain and see lightening. Didn't take many pictures. This one is from the real estate agent's site where the Pigg Ranch is listed for sale. It's the part of the world where we used to cut our "cedars" for Christmas when I was a child.

We had planned to eat supper at the Sportman's Cafe in Quitaque (once owned by the Pigg family) but when we got there it was not like we remembered. New owners. Passing years. So we drove to Turkey past the Midway theater (which I think is a still operational drive-in movie theater) and ate some of the best authentic Mexican food ever at Galvan's restaurant. (Thank you, cousin Dee, for the suggestion.)


When driving alone, I listened to The Best of Simon & Garfunkel who have only improved with the passing years. Great poetry and songs that the voices shared. Hence the title of this post.


But the other band I remembered is Bob Wills and the Light Crust Dough Boys. When my mother was a very small child, they stopped at the place in Leon County late one night for "coffee with Mama & Papa Wieland." Bob woke up the sleeping girl and said, "See, didn't I tell ya' baby Dorthy has the bluest eyes in the world." Many decades later in the late 1950s or 60s, I heard his brothers, Johnnie Lee and Luther J., pick guitar, fiddle and sing at a family gathering on a Sunday afternoon. As nearly as I can remember "Mammy Wills" was sister to the mother of Thomas Wilson who married Ellen, my mother's older sister.

"Deep in the heart of Texas, Bob Wills if still the king."

A link with more info: http://www.turkeytexas.net/

The other part of the trip was the baptism on Father's Day of our little Joy. She wore the dress her mother had worn but her feet were too big for the shoes. So her mother painted her toenails. Such pretty little pink toenails and when any one said "toes" she kicked and kicked.


My mother has always loved to hold a baby's feet.
















Four generations:

Great Granddaddy Kendall,

Grandmother "Tweetie" Zacha,

Daddy Josh,

brother & sister, TNT