The Baylor Bears Scandal - Will The True Victims Be Forgotten?

Another college football dynasty explodes into a billion fragments even as the old Floyd Casey Stadium crumbled into ashes in Waco.  Amid the allegations of sexual assault and other criminal behavior, and the allegations that Coach Art Briles, his staff, other Baylor administrators, and even possibly Ken Starr, the famous lawyer and former US Solicitor General, covered over these crimes instead of dealing with them, comes the question:  DID YOU NOT LEARN ANYTHING FROM THE NOTRE DAME SCANDAL????

Before I go any further, first let me say that, as always, a person is innocent until proven guilty.  The people involved in the scandal at Baylor may be innocent of the things said about them; however, I think the cast of characters remaining very quiet in the face of their demotions and sanctions, and the silence of Coach Briles himself, is speaking volumes about the accuracy of the Pepper Hamilton investigational findings.  But, who can say at this point?

Now, supposing these many allegations are true, how did the coaching staff, administrators, and even the college president of a PRIVATE DENOMINATIONAL UNIVERSITY ever "look the other way" on even ONE incident?  But the investigation reveals not one, but many, maybe dozens, maybe more than that!  Some of the allegations go several years back, while some incidents were possibly "swept under the rug" even as Joe Paterno and Notre Dame were crumbling before our very eyes.  It begs the question once again, WHY WOULD ANYONE COVER UP FOR A RAPIST, OR A BUNCH OF RAPISTS??  The corresponding question is this: Isn't the safety of all students, especially women, and their dignity and treatment AFTER being victims of sexual assault, MORE IMPORTANT THAN A FOOTBALL DYNASTY OF SUCCESS??

Maybe the answer to the above question is the new McLane Stadium that recently opened in Waco.  The cost of this new "facility" is actually difficult for me to determine, as a couple of sources quote the price tag of $235,000,000, while another source stated that the price tag of the finished stadium actually ran NORTH of TWO HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS.  Would this ridiculously expensive monument to college football have ever been constructed if Art Briles had not been lured to Baylor to rescue a very dismal football program?  Briles accomplished "miracles" with the Baylor Bears, turning them into a championship team within two years of his arrival.  A winning team means BIG DONORS DONATE BIG BUCKS.  And the Bears just kept winning.  There is no doubt that Art Briles far overshadowed all other Bear coaches, including Grant Teaff, the legendary head coach of the '70's and 80's.  Art Briles accumulated a record of 55-34 games in seven years, including one season in which Reggie Griffin III was injured in the third game.  The Bears left the basement and became a team to be feared across the college football scene...but at what cost?

The Pepper Hamilton Law Firm, in its rather lengthy and apparently WELL SUBSTANTIATED report found that Baylor staff were allegedly allowing vicious rapists to play, and not only that, were protecting those players from the law as well as they could.  More disgusting and discouraging, Pepper Hamilton found that Waco Police had reported several incidents of sexual assault to Baylor authorities, but the players involved remained on the team, apparently unsanctioned.  Also very disgusting was the apparently substantiated finding that some of the victims of these rapists were "discouraged" from pursuing charges against their attackers.  Exactly HOW these ladies were "discouraged" was not made public, for legal reasons.  At least two football players were "dismissed" from the team for "violating team rules" during this period.  Exactly WHICH rules was not made public, and these players were not subjected to criminal prosecution, but simply "left town" and probably ended up on other college teams.  Did they continue to violate "team rules" in their new homes?  But no doubt the dignity, the humanity, the value of all the victims were certainly deemed less important than the continued success of the Bears football team.  So it seems NOTHING was learned from the ashes of Notre Dame's destruction.

I admired Art Briles for his success at Baylor, and I admired the Baylor Bears for the improvement and determination they showed from the beginning of the Briles era to the end of the 2015 football season.  But like the rest of the nation, I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes, so to speak.  I love the game of football, and I most of all love college football, but after all it is just a game...it really is.  Sure, teams want to be successful, students want their team to win, alumni want
their alma maters to do well...so they can spend their money "wisely."  It is fine to want to win, to expect to win, but it is much more important that we, as "fans" demand FIRST that ALL FOOTBALL PLAYERS - STARS OR NOT - BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS OFF THE FIELD AS WELL AS ON.  We as fans should demand coaches and administrators STOP PROTECTING CRIMINALS.  These football (or ANY SPORT) players should arrested if they are suspected of criminal acts- end of story.  No cover-ups, no being "dismissed" for violating "team rules." 

It is very likely that the Baylor Bears will be "sanctioned" by the NCAA just as was Notre Dame.  At least one former Bear player is in prison, another under investigation by police.  Art Briles is gone and Ken Starr is publicly demoted and disgraced.  These things may seem very traumatic, and no doubt some will be more concerned that the Baylor Bears may be stripped of some of their victories, just as were the Fighting Irish.  But those that lost the most, the victims of rapists who were protected by the "system," are in danger of being largely forgotten.  Already the news is full of speculation as to who will be the new head coach and whether or not Baylor can recruit quality players for the coming season.

I hope that college and university administrators and coaches will finally follow through with their commitments to campus safety and the protection of potential victims of campus crime, but even more, I hope that fans will actually demand this of their respective colleges and teams.  I know I am suggesting the almost sacrilegious, but we fans must demand that our teams, coaches, and administrators walk this walk that they have talked about for so long.  If they do not, than we should not attend their ball games, and hopefully, advertisers will find other teams on which to spend their money.  I, for one, believe that no college athlete is above the law, and that anyone who sexually or physically assaults another should face the LEGAL consequences no matter what his status as an athlete may be.  Nothing can heal the emotional scars of these victims except a lot of support and a lot of time, but perhaps if they received the same kind of support that we reserve for our favorite football teams, college students would be safer and college athletes would know that if they commit crimes of violence, no one will cover for them.  College athletes would know that they cannot escape the consequences of their actions by wearing a football uniform and winning a couple of bowl games.

Black Lives Matter Reaches A NEW LOW At Dartmouth College

This is one of the most disgusting political acts on a United States college campus in quite sometime.  This particular week in the United States is Police Officer Memorial Week.  In honor of Police Memorial Week, the Student Republicans at Dartmouth College made a bulletin board display honoring police officers killed in the line of duty. 

Today the Black Lives Matter representatives at Dartmouth took it upon themselves, not to set up a counter-display - if they felt that was needed, but instead to tear down the Police Memorial Display then plaster the bulletin board with Black Lives Matter posters, and even more disgusting, with posters containing this statement:

You cannot co-opt the movement against state violence to memorialize its perpetrators. ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬

It is outrageous that one group, Black Lives Matter, believes it has the right to interfere with another group, the Republican Students,  who have the same right to post opinions as do the Black Rights Matter thugs.

First of all, who is Black Lives Matter to take it upon themselves to assert that there is "state violence" against Blacks.  This is not a "fact," instead it is a feeling or a belief that some people hold.  Curiously, quite a few of those Black persons who were "victims" of "state violence" were actually killed while in the act of attacking police officers or other persons.  "Unarmed persons" "murdered" by the police?  One notorious "unarmed person" was killed while in the act of trying to steal a policeman's weapon AFTER beating the police officer to the point where the officer was in fear for his life.  Remember Ferguson?  Then there was the Black teen who was "murdered" by police in a park after the police department received frantic calls from people in a city park.  These callers saw a teen alright, but the teen was armed with what appeared to the callers to be a military-type rifle.  When police arrived, there was the "teen" holding the rifle.  Police order him to drop the rifle; instead the teen pointed the rifle at the police who fired TO PROTECT THEMSELVES.  ANYONE, not just the police, has the right to protect himself.  I would have fired at a person who pointed a rifle at me!  The youth was Black, the cops were White.  Must have been racially motivated, right?  State violence against Blacks?  No, police officers protecting themselves from death or serious injury from criminals who happened to be Black.

Second, imagine the outrage that would have followed students tearing down a Black Lives Matter display at some college.  Oh my God, the cries of racism!  Why do Black Lives Matter groups have more "right" to protest than any other group?  Why does Black Lives Matter have the right to put up their displays, even those that they put out in the middle of busy highways and interstates, and expect not to be have those displays and protests disrupted, but they then do not grant the same courtesy to opposing view points?

Particularly disgusting and outrageous to me is that these particular members of Black Lives Matter decided that they needed to desecrate a memorial to police officers during Police Memorial Week.  This is akin to having the Ku Klux Klan spread posters of their own hate-mongering during a Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial celebration.  Can you imagine the outrage, the news stories decrying this terrible thing?  Yet this is exactly what went on at the Dartmouth campus.  Were these students punished in any way?  No.  In fact, they were given their own bulletin board just down the hall to put even more racial baiting material disguised as true protest of a social wrong.

If Black Lives Matter bothered to educate its members, they would find that White persons are far more likely to get shot by police officers, and that White offenders are injured far more frequently than Black offenders.  Not my "facts."  Please check the FBI's annual reports on police-involved shootings and other injuries to civilians. 

I do not believe anything will change because of what I have written here, but I will finish with this challenge, just the same.  I challenge Black Lives Matter to give the same courtesy to other groups that people are extending to Black Lives Matter.  I challenge Black Lives Matter to protest peacefully and to stop blocking streets and highways, stop intimidating people, stop appearing as thugs and start protesting in a way that brings credence and sympathy to their movement.

And one more thing you should know.  There are people, Black, White, Brown, and any other color, who respect honest police officers for the difficult job they do.  So when you, Black Lives Matter thugs, desecrate police memorials you are doing the equivalent of stepping on the Star-Spangled Banner.  You will never gain public support with these kinds of actions.  You are just undoing any good you could have done.

Please, Black Lives Matter, find some real case of police abuse of a Black person and protest that.  Then, add some credibility to your cause.  Find some WHITE person the police abused and protest THAT TOO.  But, I know this will never happen, because the leadership of Black Lives Matter is only interested in promoting unrest and racial division.  Unfortunately, many persons who "represent" Black Lives Matter are merely thugs covering their acts of crime and vandalism in the good name of social protest. 

Black Lives Matter...that has become just another hate group.  But...please hear this.  ALL HUMAN LIVES MATTER.  If you are Black, your life matters.  If you are White, your life matters.  If you are Hispanic, your life matters.  If you are ANY RACE, your life matters.  I am not lumping all members of Black Lives Matter into the "thug" category, but there are many who are.  Wouldn't it be a great thing if the sincere protesters would separate themselves from the thugs and then address their concerns in a civilized manner?

Yes, I am sure my words will not change anything, and maybe these words will even upset someone.  But I am upset, too.  I am angered and outraged that Black Lives Matter is allowed to run amok, allowed to block public passage ways and highways, and yes, even allowed to disrupt students using the Dartmouth library, and face no punishment or consequence.  Yes, Black Lives Matter, and yes they have their rights to protest in LEGAL ways.  But MY LIFE MATTERS, too, and so does the life of every American, no matter what race.  So too, the lives of all people in the world matter.
If someone violates the law, including assaulting me or anyone else, in the name of Black Lives Matter, that person is no longer a protester, but is a thug who needs to be arrested and punished.

Think about it...

And God Bless America

I have avoided political topics for several weeks now as I had entered a new focus of my life.  But now I am forced to slip back into a political mode for this post.

The big news today is that President Obama has ordered every single school district in the United States of America to establish "gender-identity rules" allowing "transgender" students to decide which restroom they will use when at school.  If the school districts do not follow the President's orders, they will lose federal funding.  This sort of "bullying" by the Federal Government has gone on years, and we - the Sheeple - have stood meekly in shadows as it happened.

So who decides whether a person is a "transgender" person?  I suppose it is simply a personal choice.  A boy "identifies" (whatever that really means) as a girl, so the boy is not only "entitled," but now may DEMAND, to use the "girl's room."  Not only that, but now as per President Obama, the school MUST ALLOW the alleged transgender boy to use the girl's room or face the loss of "federal money."  More about "federal" money in just a second - let's continue with the restroom issue.

So transgenders want to use the restroom traditionally used by the other sex.  From what I have seen so far, this involves a lot more males than females.  I am not sure why, and I will leave that to experts to figure out.  But the only criteria, it appears, for gender "identity" is that a man wants to use the women's room, or a woman wants to use the men's room.  What this means for the man or woman, girl or boy, who is "certain" of his or her sexual identity, is that he or she will be constantly in fear of a person of the opposite sex coming into the restroom while the other person is at his or her most vulnerable.  It does NOT have to be this way.

For those schools that fear the loss of "federal" money, I am sure the installation of a few "transgender" only restrooms will meet the "needs" of the transgender population, whether or not President Obama is happy with this solution.

The second way to handle this is for the school district to thumb its collective nose at the Federal Government's coercion.  The loss of this money may hurt, but schools will be able to function without it.  And, having thrown off that yoke, schools that do not choose to build transgender restrooms should take the step of making it mandatory that each sex have their own restrooms and that each person must use the restroom corresponding to his or her sex. 

I realize that the above paragraph probably will result in some people deciding that I am either a Neanderthal or that I am an intolerant, bigoted, sexist, racist, homophobic, islamophobic, republican.  But I recall that just a couple of years ago it was a fairly simple matter to go to the restroom.  Boys went to the "boys' room" and girls went to the "girls' room."  This was a concept so simple that even a preschooler could understand it.  No, you DID NOT have to be smarter than a fifth grader to figure this out. 

A certain loud minority, led by President Obama, is determined to fundamentally change America, the Land of the Free.  Who can use what restroom is important,  but we had that figured out long before the turn of the century.  What is more important is that the Federal Government is literally out of control and has overstepped its authority.  As the Texas Governor Abbott said, "President Obama is not King."  This latest "order" by President Obama is just another in the hundreds of "executive decisions" this despot has made without regard to the Constitution and the authority of each branch of the government.  The bigger issue than who can use a restroom is the Federal Government, whether the President or the unelected head of some alphabet soup agency, is now dictating some new law or rule nearly every day WITHOUT including our (supposedly) representative government in the process.  The Constitution MANDATES that Congress make our laws.  There is no provision for the President to make laws, and no provision for agencies of the Executive Branch to make laws that govern our personal lives.

The biggest issue of all is that we - the People - have indeed (for the most part) become sheeple.  Law and order is a good thing, taken in moderation.  We must have laws to live by, because laws are what separate civilization from barbarism.  A society cannot thrive without laws, and without the majority of the people FOLLOWING those laws.  The most important law we have is the Constitution of the United States.  This document enumerates the power - and more importantly the limitations - of our Government.  President Obama, while not the first President to ignore the Constitution, is certainly the WORST President when it comes to trampling the Constitution, much the same way as some people step on and stomp the flag of this great nation.  And while all this trampling and despotism is going on, we- the Sheeple - are just standing by.  Many of us, myself included, are loudly decrying all the things going on, but that is about all we are doing.

I am not sure why Americans, including myself, have not already marched on Washington en masse and demanded the impeachment and removal of this most arrogant and unfit President we have ever elected...TWICE!!  I AM sure that people around the world are watching us - the Sheeple - and wondering how much we will tolerate, how far we will let this out-of - control government strip away more of our freedoms until we finally act!  If we, citizens of the United States are afraid to stand up to our own government and reign it in, how can we expect the same of people who will literally be shot, or tortured THEN shot by their leaders if they dare stand up for liberty?

I am not convinced that it is not already too late for Americans to reign in our government by conventional means.  Our representative government is not representative of people, but rather is representative of the corporations that buy elections for senators and congressmen, and yes, even the presidential candidates.  Thus our "representatives" are actually afraid to stand up to the President and either make laws to reign him in or reject his bills and programs that are neither constitutional nor helpful to most Americans.  And, I might add, NOT WANTED by most Americans.

As these more and more outrageous mandates from President Obama or his minions flood the various states, it is now PAST time for the state governments to do their duty and protect their citizens from the overreach of the federal government.  As for American citizens, if we were to re-read the Declaration of Independence, we would see that in many ways we are FAR MORE oppressed by the government of the Land of the Free than our forefathers EVER WERE by the British Crown over two hundred years ago. 

In the long-run, transgender restrooms are just another divisive and diverting issue.  The bigger picture is that we - the Sheeple - appear to be simply rolling over before this latest government mandate.  The biggest issue of all is that we - the Sheeple - are either unwilling or unable to force our representatives to reign in the President, and are unwilling to do more than gripe and complain as our democratic republic is being stripped away before our very eyes.  Why do we keep electing these people year after year then stand amazed when business proceeds as usual in Washington?

As the election of 2016 nears, our choice of presidential candidates appears to be narrowing such that we can either vote for a woman who will carry on President Obama's various agendas, and is therefore a "known evil," versus a man whose motives and intentions are basically unknown.  Can he be any worse than Obama or Clinton?  Well, YES...he could.  But we can be pretty sure of how devastating it will be for this nation of Hillary Clinton is elected.  We need an alternative...but the alternative we have is an unknown quantity.  People who do not want to vote for Hillary, and who do not want Trump, are in a dilemma because a vote for someone OTHER than Donald Trump is essentially a vote for Clinton.

All I can say is...

God Bless and Save America

Today the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATF or simply ATF) in Houston announced that their agents had finally determined that the fire at a West, Texas fertilizer factory had been deliberately set.  This fire led to the horrendous explosion that devastated that town and killed at least fifteen people, injured many others, and destroyed billions of dollars worth of property.  Deliberately set?  Really? And it only took the ATF and other federal soup agencies THREE YEARS to reach this conclusion!  I think a lot of people were way ahead of the government on this one.  I really do.

The VERY DAY of the blast, a certain firefighter (who was since arrested for possession of BOMB-MAKING MATERIALS) stated over the radio to emergency dispatchers that a BOMB had just exploded at the fertilizer plant.  How could this volunteer firefighter have POSSIBLY KNOWN that a bomb had just exploded?  Fertilizer explosions NOT DUE to bombs are fairly frequent.  This person could only have known a bomb had exploded if he HIMSELF placed the bomb or knew who placed it.  This radio call was played several times immediately after the explosion but then seemed to have disappeared from TV news land.

Today, three years later, the ATF is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person responsible for this act of arson.  Does this infer that the federal agencies have somehow botched the investigation?  Does this mean that the ATF believes the West volunteer firefighter, arrested within days for possession of bomb-making materials, WAS NOT responsible for this cowardly act?  I think the people of West deserve much better.  I believe that the ATF and/or other federal agencies, who pushed local law enforcement to the side, may have in fact botched their investigation and possibly allowed a man to walk away from the most deadly and costly crime in West's history.

Many people lost friends and loved ones that day in April, 2013.  I am sure that the shock must have numbed the people there, possibly making it unthinkable that one of their own firefighters set off the explosion.  But the many federal agents who converged on the city were not emotionally involved, and should have been thinking of all causes, both accidental and intentional.  I am sure that a certain man was suspected immediately of this criminal act.  Why was he not charged with THIS crime, not just possession of bomb-making materials?  Now, after THREE YEARS of investigation, the "Bureau" is begging for information and offering a large reward for this information.  Justice thwarted by incompetency? 

I hope that the people of West have recovered sufficiently to demand answers from the BATF as to why this case is now "cold."  Further, I hope that the people of West will look to their local law enforcement for answers since the feds have apparently come up empty handed.  The only problem is that various federal agencies have the evidence, which they may or may not make available to the local police, Sheriff McNamara, or the Texas Rangers.  The truth is not "out there."  The truth is right in the city of West, and the people of West deserve to know it now.

May God bless the City of West

And God Bless America

Historical Markers - Reasons To Drive Slow On Texas Highway 67

I said yesterday that I would post some of the roadside history I found during the first part of my journey westward on Texas Highway 67 on Friday.  The first historical marker that caught my eye was just a few miles west of Big Lake, or is that a few miles EAST of Rankin?  I am sure the residents of either town would argue this point.  This marker tells the story of Santa Rita No.1, the first gusher in the Permian Basin.  Santa Rita No.1 was the strike that started it all. 

The Black Gold Rush that followed put Midland, Big Lake, and the entire Permian Basin on the map.  In fact, prior to Santa Rita No.1 coming in, only a few geologists even knew what the Permian Basin was.  But for West Texas the Permian Basin was the fortune maker and dream crusher of many an oil man and many a roughneck.  This famous gusher came in on May 28, 1923.  At that time, like in the Gold Rushes of the century past, all that oil men and town mayors could see was the Big Boom!  It would last forever, so they thought. 

The Oil Boom ushered in by Santa Rita No.1 seemed to make cities like Midland, Big Lake, Big Spring, Rankin, and Kermit double in size overnight.  New towns seemed to pop out of the desert floor like cactus flowers after a rare desert rain.  One such town was Texon.  This was a company town owned by the Texon Oil Company.  Texon featured several stores and businesses, doctors,lawyers, a theatre, as well as a school and churches.  This company town even had a semi-professional baseball team.  Within a couple of years, Texon boasted a fully functioning hospital.

Yes, the boom was on.  But like many a gold boom town, the towns brought to life by the Santa Rita black gold rush faded away within one, two, or a few decades.  Actually Texon bustled for nearly forty years, but then the decline began.  By 1962 the oil company town was closed.

Today when one drives along Texas Highway 67 the remains of Texon cannot be seen, but on a small farm road that runs beside the Santa Rita No.1 historical marker, one can drive south for about two miles.  At that point the remains of Texon can be found, including old streets and cracked sidewalks.  Strangely enough, two of the structures that remain in Texon are still occupied.  Even stranger, some of the street signs have been replaced by shiny new signs.  Could it be that someone believes Texon will rise again, like the fabled Phoenix bird of mythology?  I guess we won't know...until the next big oil boom.

After leaving Texon and the Santa Rita No.1, I continued west on Texas 67, my speed slowed now by every historical marker I saw along the way.  One of the most interesting markers I found was located just east of the city of McCamey.  This sign marked the spot where a once bustling night club was

also brought to life by the 1923 boom that doubled or tripled McCamey's original population.  This night club was known as the T.P. Tavern.  The original tavern was opened in 1927.  By 1934 the owners, two brothers named Fitzsimmons, were forced to build a new and larger tavern at the site now marked by the historical marker at the left.  Along with boxing matches and rattlesnake "derbies" (which were the forerunners of today's rattlesnake roundups), singers and bands appeared at the Tee Pee, as the tavern was locally known.

As I read this marker I thought, sure...singers?  Way out here several hours west of the middle of nowhere! Right. I figured the singers would be named Dandy Bob and the Prairie Barkers, or maybe the Desert Snooze Band.  I was wrong, and I apologize to the Tee Pee.  Just look at the sign.  Along with unknowns similar to those I mentioned above, we see that Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, and even (brace yourself) Lawrence Welk and his orchestra came through McCamey.  I have to admit I was quite impressed.  I listened to all of these artists when I was a young man, and saw both Ernest Tubb and Lawrence Welk (both alive in my youth) on television on many a Saturday night. 

When the first oil bust hit the area, and the population of McCamey declined, so did the patronage of the Tee Pee.  As the years went by, fewer big names appeared at the tavern, and by the early seventies the tavern was just another wayside bar.  The T. P Tavern burned in 1974 and was never rebuilt.  Now all that remains of this once popular night club is the blue sign post that is visible just to the right of the marker.

As I drove into McCamey, I looked around at all the closed businesses, abandoned work yards, and boarded up homes, and I tried to imagine what McCamey would have looked like with well over five thousand residents and temporary workers, maybe as many as ten thousand.  Today McCamey is, like many a town in Permian Basin, just a shadow of its former self, but the people there are thriving, as are the many businesses that either hung on during the bust years, or those that moved in later.  As these thoughts ran through my mind, my telephone rang.  Child B wanted me to please come "hang" with her and Baby Baby for just a little while.  My trip was over and I headed for Odessa.

As I discontinued my foray along Texas 67 and drove toward Odessa, I took a few minutes to contemplate the history I had seen, both that captured on the roadside historical markers, and the spirit captured in the desert country and in the cities and towns along this old highway.  I was blessed to be able to learn this history, to see it play out in my mind.  The lives of those who lived and worked out here in those rough and dusty times, the men and women who made fortunes, and those who lost it all, what a picture it was of the people, the land, and the ongoing saga, that we are proud to call Texas.


God Bless Texas

Following My Dream - Twenty Years Later!

We frequently hear statements like "Life is short, follow your dreams," or "don't labor your entire life at a job you hate, follow your dreams!"  Well, this past Friday I decided to literally follow my dream.  No, not the dream of fame and fortune or "making it big."  The dream I decided to follow was a dream I had while sleeping, some twenty (something) years ago.  I am not sure what was so special about this past Friday, except that I was off work.  Oh, and one more thing, the main character from that dream of twenty years ago was in a dream I had on this Thursday night past.  THAT was a surprise.  So when I awakened Friday morning, I rushed through some chores I needed to do, and by 2:00 PM I was on the road.  Destination: Somewhere on US 67 west of Big Lake.

For a little background, here is the gist of that dream of over two decades ago.  The dream started with me and my little family driving down FM 137 on the seventy miles-or-so drive from Midland to Big Lake.  I do not recall why we were going.  We stopped at the one "twenty-four hour" store in Big Lake.  As I walked across the parking lot to go inside the store, there was the stereo-typical mysterious, wise man in a long white beard and long white hair.  I do not know why the man was interested in me, but he walked toward me and beckoned me.  So I met him half way.  He only said these cryptic words: Go to ............. before they destroy it."  I was a history major in college at this time, if that has anything to do with it.  I thought the name of this mysterious destination was something like "Cuidado Tenejas," but I really was not sure.  Spanish words, one meaning "secure" and also "city."  I do not what "teneja" means or if that is the word I heard, but I think there is a similar word meaning "lakes" or something like that.  In any case, this name is what I understood from that dream.  The man was gone when I looked back, and I do not remember any more details of the dream. 

I consider myself a fairly reasonable and rational person, but this dream was so intriguing to me that I determined I would immediately drive west on US 67 until I found a town, a ghost town, a spot in the road, or something that sounded like Cuidado Tenejas.  I got out maps (Google was not around then - this was before "the turn of the century.") and also the famous Texas Gazetteer.  I scoured the main road and all nearby backroads, physical formations, bodies of water, known historical sites, etc., but to no avail.   There simply was no place listed in any resources that sounded like Cuidado Tenejas.  No matter, I would just run the entire highway from Big Lake to Highway 67's terminal point at the US/Mexico border south of Presidio.  Immediately!  Or not... 

Who knows what happened?  I let everything else get in the way, and soon this mission (but not the dream itself) was forgotten, buried among the various trials and busy-ness of life.  I thought about the dream and the mission from time to time, but next thing I know, five years had slipped away, then ten, then...good grief! twenty years.  Then, fast forward to 2016, another dream, the one I wrote about earlier, the dream that had nothing with the original dream, but the mysterious man was in it, not really a part of the dream, just standing there looking at me.  I had to do it.  I had to seek that mysterious destination: Cuidado Tenejas. 

From my residence it is just a 35 mile drive to the intersection of Texas 349 and US 67 at Rankin.  I started to take that route but then I decided to basically re-enact the dream...meaning I needed to drive from Midland to Big Lake and stop at the convenience store there.  That deviation would add another 90 miles to the trip, but I did not mind.  It was for a good cause.  So I turned left at I-20 and drove to Stanton, turning south on SH 137 head for Big Lake...the city of the "vanishing lake."  Less than an hour later I was there.  And in for BIG surprise!

Big Lake is not much bigger than it was back in the '90s, but there has been some growth and a lot of changes.  The BIGGEST change, as for as I was concerned, was that the convenience store on the corner of SH 137 and US 67, where I had met the white-haired gentleman in my dream, was GONE!  It had been torn down, evidently some years ago, and now only a few gas pumps occupy that spot.  A bigger convenience store, belonging to a popular chain, had been erected on the opposite corner.  The first blow to my "re-enactment."  I was stunned, but after all, it HAD been over twenty years.  I pulled into the "new" convenience store and just hoped something unusual would happen.  But I was disappointed.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened; in fact, I was hardly noticed among all the oil field guys coming in and out of the store.  I was disappointed, yes, but not defeated.  I bought a couple of items and got back on the road, heading west on US 67.

Just a minute or so after I left the store in Big Lake, my cell phone rang.  It was my daughter, Child B.  She was sick and the baby was sick.  Honey (Baby's grandmother) was in Philadelphia.  So I was the next resort.  My daughter asked what was happening with me, and I told her that I was on this little adventure.  Then I told her that her father must be getting a little soft in the head.  After all, Daddy was now over fifty.  It was possible that Daddy was getting weak-minded.  But, I love my daughter, she just said I was not getting soft in the head, I was finally finishing an adventure.  But then she said she was really feeling bad and needed help with the baby.  She knew by now I was in Big Lake and so she said she would call one of her friends to come stay with her.

So I drove from Big Lake to Rankin, passing a couple of historical markers on the way.  Then I passed through Girven, then McCamey.  I had seen no indications of the destination I was searching for, and really I had not expected to, because instinctively I knew that if such a place existed, it was much further south, possibly beyond Presidio, which was still over two hundred miles south.  Then I got the call.  My Baby really needed me to come over...not necessarily for help, just for comfort.  She needed her Daddy.  There was no question then.  My adventure over for the time-being, I turned right at McCamey and drove for Odessa as fast as I dared without attracting the attention of the Highway Patrol or any local officers who might be encountered along the way. 

Within the hour I was at my Child B's house.  She and Baby Baby were so happy to see me.  I was just as happy to see them.  I played with the baby for hours, and did little things for Child B.  A few hours later my son (in law) arrived and took over.  I said my goodbyes and headed home.  I was not even disappointed anymore.  I just thought how lucky I was that my daughter, Child B, would still call me if she needed me, and she knew I would drop what I was doing and come to her aid.  And how lucky I am to have such a cute Baby Baby who will grow up to be such a cute granddaughter, and no doubt, will be just as strong-willed as her mother.  Oh, those pay backs.

Who knows?  Maybe on another day I will finish this dream quest.  And the good news is that I can start at McCamey, a much shorter drive than going from Midland to Big Lake.  I cannot explain why this dream, and this adventure, still call to me to complete the journey and the quest.  But it reminds me of a song by the legendary Marty Robbins.  The song, "El Paso City, is about a man's (Marty's?) uncertain destiny as he decided whether or not to go back to El Paso.  The particular lines I have in mind are these:

Can it be that man can disappear
From life and live another time
And does the mystery deepen 'cause you think
That you yourself lived in that other time

and

El Paso City by the Rio Grande
A voice tells me to go and see
Another voice keeps tellin' me
Maybe death awaits me in El Paso

Child B was so kind.  She assured me that I was not getting soft in the head, that this was a worthwhile adventure, especially for me, with my historical interests.  But, like the song says, the voice telling me to go and see has never really stopped.  I have often wondered, and still do, what awaits me if I do find such a place as Cuidado Tenejas?  I have to say, at the risk of sounding soft in the head, that I have also had a strong feeling of belonging to another day, another time.  Reincarnation?  Who knows?  But, like Marty Robbins, I too have felt over the years a very strong draw toward past times.  As for Cuidado Tenejas, or whatever the correct name is, I will one day finish the quest, hopefully finding this mysterious place that a white-headed stranger wanted me to find before it could be destroyed.  Is it a real place? And, is it now too late?  We will see.

Remember this, my friends, no moment in life is ordinary, except we make it that way ourselves.  Really, life is daily an adventure.

Next post:  Some Roadside History From My Dream Quest