Remembering Odessa...
I first went to Odessa, Texas in 1949. I had graduated from grammar school and, as a reward, my mother sent me to Odessa to visit my dad and brother and sister and their families. (There were a bunch more family, the Christmases, Manions and Thackers)
This was in June of that year. The thing I am remembering right now is; One day I was walking from my dads' house on Lindberg to my sisters' house on West Ada.
When I got to Ada, I turned east. The day was very hot and the caliche roads were an inch deep in caliche dust.
I was barefoot, of course. No one wore shoes except to go to school.
Anyhow, after I turned east to get to my sisters' house, I heard a clap of thunder. It was just a little one at first. Then a big clap sounded and I watched a thunderhead form in the east and head toward me, coming right on down the street.
First I smelled the rain. I hurried a little because I figured it would cut loose at any minute.
Now comes the part that takes me back.
As I walked down the street, raindrops began to hit in the dust. At first I heard them then, as I watched , enthralled, the rain drops began to land in the street and little puffs of caliche dust popped up all across the street and I could see them get closer and closer to me. I just stopped and watched the rain as it approached me. It was amazing. I had never seen it rain a little at a time before, certainly not advancing down the street as it was doing then.
Just a little memory of Odessa.
Later...
posted by Ca... @ 3:50 PM
3 Comments:
I miss it bad Jim. I just wish I could live there and still do right by my family.
I lived outside of town in a place that was just highway when you were there.
My neighborhood had a 7/11 at the corner of Moss and University (27th). Imagine a 7/11 with hitching posts. That is where I grew up.
Those streets are only two blocks apart. How far did you go?
BWH, My brother and Dad built a house on Lindberg and my half sister and bro-in-law, Lit and Roy Christmas lived on the next block. It was about four blocks all together. I don't remember the address. My sister and brother-in-law (Eva and Joe Bob Smith)turned their house on Ada into a little Mom and Pop store a few years later. They were right across the street from the Hensons.
You know, I kinda miss Odessa and the West Texas way of life. I never knew until I first went to Odessa in 1949 how much fun you could have jumping into a water tank at one of the windmills in the countryside around there.
Later my Dad lived in a house out at the very end of West Tenth street. Once I remember clearing sand off of the sidewalk leading into his front door then doing it again a few days later after another sand storm.
I loved the movie, Lonesome Dove. That is exactly like some of the little towns and farms and ranches around West and South Texas in those days.
In those days a Mother or Dad might say, "James, you be sure and go outside before you go to bed." 'chuckle'
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