The Dictionary In Tularosa school, first or secondgrade. I was in the bathroom andgot called to the principal’s officewhere I was worried I wouldbe punished for some infraction.Instead, the principal presentedme with a dictionary. He had seenme carrying an old battered onearound the school—my early loveof knowledge and words—and gaveme the signed dictionary. […]
Read MoreGraveyard Chicken In Lemitar, New Mexico we boys played onegame to test one another’s braveryin the dilapidated graveyard nextdoor to the school with its chipped,hard to decipher tombstones andleaning, wooden crosses.A boy had to stick his arm down into one of the gopher holesinundating the graveyard’s mesquite and tumble weed-adorned surfacebecause he had been “dared”and […]
Read MoreI became a father during one of the coldest winters on record in the Permian Basin. I was working for Dowell as a Service Supervisor and we were cementing several wells between Midland and Andrews. They were deep wells and so the cement jobs were in stages. Barbara had had a tough pregnancy suffering from toxemia, […]
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