2018 Summer Vacation Day 1: From Fort Worth to Carlsbad

The first stop on our summer vacation was Anson, in Jones County, Texas, where my grandmother was born on September 15, 1905.

Along the way, we stopped at an elaborate, newly-built (2016) rest stop in Eastland County, where I learned that Conrad Hilton opened his first hotel in nearby Cisco, Texas in 1919.

We stopped at a grocery store in Anson, had a picnic bench lunch near the elementary school playground, and then walked by the abandoned Anson Opera House (1909) and the Jones County courthouse (1910), which first opened at the time when the population of Anson was booming and my great-grandfather, N.G. Ferrell was elected sheriff (January 1, 1909-July , 1910).



On our way out of town, we saw the weird sculpture below on a lonely highway in the barren waste southwest of town.

Our next stop was Odessa, where we waited for the current residents of 1336 Westbrook to stop smoking and go inside before we took a photo on the sidewalk outside their house, where I lived from midway through my freshman year to midway through my junior year of high school. Dad told Emilio before the trip that Odessa was the "armpit of Texas," but I have great memories of the years when we lived there, which suggests that any place is livable if you have good friends. In Odessa, I felt appreciated. And I don't remember a time in my life when I had more friends.  It must also be said that Odessa Permian was by far the best of the three high schools I attended.

After driving by various old haunts--Nimitz Junior High, Westminster Presbyterian, Taco Villa (closed), Harrigan's (gone)--we made our way to Odessa Permian high school. The parking lot on the north side of the auditorium was mysteriously full on a Saturday night.  We drove by John Wilkins field, where I made some big plays in the spring game of my freshman year and found an ominous "No Trespassing" sign on the south parking lot, which I drove right past. I told the police officer who was parked there that I wanted to take a photo with the sign above (we chatted a bit about Permian --he was a '94 graduate and his kids attend the school--and he told me he thought the crowd on the north lot was there for a choir concert).

On the the practice field behind the sign above, I climbed my way to a starting spot at cornerback on a junior varsity team that went undefeated in 1982 and then an undefeated varsity team that would win the state championship in 1984. I ran a 4.61 forty, made impressive interceptions and spectacular tackles, ran past the point of exhaustion, had a finger smashed between my helmet and another player's, got vomited on by all-state defensive end John Fuller, avoided blocks by future University of Texas legend and NFL linebacker Britt Hager, and got exempted from gassers (practice-ending wind sprints) by the above-mentioned John Wilkins one day when I was the only flanker taking reps on the scout team during our practices for an upcoming game against San Angelo Central. Wilkins also looked up at me in a huddle one day and, noting my growing moustache--apparently for the first time, told me to shave it.

We had dinner that night  at Furr's cafeteria at the Music City mall under a large painting depicting an action shot from a Permian-Odessa High game, picked up some Permian fanwear from a local supermarket, and then headed out again over the desert to the Carlsbad, New Mexico KOA campground, where we managed to set up our tent just before sundown.