My Reason For Being
Today was a good reason to get out.
I was in one of those melancholy moods, just thinking of those friends I have lost over an 8-year period and I needed this one just to get my head together. One in particular I lost 2 days ago.
I decided to take myself out to Southmayd. A little hole in the dirt of about 112 people.
Upon reaching this point, I was met by my 4-way road, a road of different directions if you will. My choices were of course North, South, East & West. I decided to go west. It had been a while since I had been that way. If I could bear the warmth, then I would go out to the lake. This turned out to not be the time for it. The lake will be waiting for me I am sure.
The temperature was tolerable, at least at first, roughly 67 degrees. By the time I was finished driving and back at home it would peak at 83, still tolerable by Texas standards. Cattle were already hiding from the warmth under every bit of shade to be found. There were a few however bathing in “stock tanks” that were full from the spring rains. Where I come from we call those ponds. I guess I will never get use to that one. Then again I am sure that there will be a few phrases that I will never get use to.
The railway parallels the road and I am sure that it was there long before the road itself. You can still see remnants of this by the 150-year-old rail depots that still stand in little towns like Prosper, Dorchester and Tioga. I imagine at one time they wanted to be the next big boom town but of course this never happened.
This area, once rich with oil and cotton, is now peppered with horse and cattle ranches, or hay and grass farms. The folks there learned very early on that they could make a better living at putting their stallions out for stud or rotating the crops that they had so they could better serve their interests. The oil rigs still remain in places where they were probably put eons ago. The animals surround them eating sprigs of summer hay in the rocky soil. It is here next to the rigs and along the fencerows where the only reminants of the "Black Land Prarie" still exist. The rest long lost in dust storms during the 30's.
The best place to be in any of these towns is of course the Dairy Queen. Kids with their new and old cars alike fill the parking lots and it looks like a scene from American Graffiti. I have been through these same places at night and you can see what I mean by the neon lights, girls on roller skates and kids racing their cars on back roads in town… Dangerous but still good clean fun. Not something that you don’t see much anymore especially in large town life.
I made the "Big Circle" and finally made my way back to Sherman. Someday it will build up and then just be a part of Dallas. God I hope not, this why I moved up here is to get away from the hustle and bustle. If that happens, then I will just move farther north and into Oklahoma.
Progress has to stop somewhere… Right?
SIK
I was in one of those melancholy moods, just thinking of those friends I have lost over an 8-year period and I needed this one just to get my head together. One in particular I lost 2 days ago.
I decided to take myself out to Southmayd. A little hole in the dirt of about 112 people.
Upon reaching this point, I was met by my 4-way road, a road of different directions if you will. My choices were of course North, South, East & West. I decided to go west. It had been a while since I had been that way. If I could bear the warmth, then I would go out to the lake. This turned out to not be the time for it. The lake will be waiting for me I am sure.
The temperature was tolerable, at least at first, roughly 67 degrees. By the time I was finished driving and back at home it would peak at 83, still tolerable by Texas standards. Cattle were already hiding from the warmth under every bit of shade to be found. There were a few however bathing in “stock tanks” that were full from the spring rains. Where I come from we call those ponds. I guess I will never get use to that one. Then again I am sure that there will be a few phrases that I will never get use to.
The railway parallels the road and I am sure that it was there long before the road itself. You can still see remnants of this by the 150-year-old rail depots that still stand in little towns like Prosper, Dorchester and Tioga. I imagine at one time they wanted to be the next big boom town but of course this never happened.
This area, once rich with oil and cotton, is now peppered with horse and cattle ranches, or hay and grass farms. The folks there learned very early on that they could make a better living at putting their stallions out for stud or rotating the crops that they had so they could better serve their interests. The oil rigs still remain in places where they were probably put eons ago. The animals surround them eating sprigs of summer hay in the rocky soil. It is here next to the rigs and along the fencerows where the only reminants of the "Black Land Prarie" still exist. The rest long lost in dust storms during the 30's.
The best place to be in any of these towns is of course the Dairy Queen. Kids with their new and old cars alike fill the parking lots and it looks like a scene from American Graffiti. I have been through these same places at night and you can see what I mean by the neon lights, girls on roller skates and kids racing their cars on back roads in town… Dangerous but still good clean fun. Not something that you don’t see much anymore especially in large town life.
I made the "Big Circle" and finally made my way back to Sherman. Someday it will build up and then just be a part of Dallas. God I hope not, this why I moved up here is to get away from the hustle and bustle. If that happens, then I will just move farther north and into Oklahoma.
Progress has to stop somewhere… Right?
SIK