We spent the weekend in Lubbock, Texas, my husband's birthday was the excuse - if we needed one!
Lubbock is a biggish city (pop. around 230,000) in the north western part of the state, known - by those who know - as the Llano Estacado. Buddy Holly and Mac Davis are a couple of Lubbock's famous sons - each has a road or avenue named after him. Lubbock houses three universities incuding the huge Texas Tech University. The city's nickname, Hub City, stems from the fact that it's the economic, education, and health care hub of a multi-county region, the South Plains, and largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world.
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"Gem of the South Plains" is how Lubbock is described in the visitors' blurb. Now, "gem" is rather over-stating it! I think Mac Davis's song, "Oh Lord it's hard to be humble...." has been taken to heart by the department putting out visitors' information leaflets.
Another example of "hard to be humble": on a local Tex-Mex cafe a signboard proclaimed "come and try our world famous burritos" - when translated from Mac Davis speak = "come try our burritos, people around here seem to like 'em".
Lubbock, even with around 230,000 inhabitants is like an overgrown small to medium sized town, it doesn't feel at all metropolitan. The people of Lubbock are super-friendly (no Mac Davis speak there!) They are even friendlier than in our S.W. Oklahoma hometown - where they are pretty friendly. Whenever one passes someone in a street, store, parking lot in Lubbock, there's an exchange of smiles, greetings, sometimes a wee wisecrack....even to us, total strangers. This is the sunny side of Texas. We won't talk about the shadow side today....
John Steinbeck on Texas:
The weekend's weather was on our side. We left home Thursday, in heavy rain, temperatures struggling to reach 50 degrees (Fahrenheit.) Rain followed us for 100 miles or so, until we were around halfway to Lubbock, when the skies cleared. Friday and Saturday we had clear blue skies all day, temperatures reached the mid-80s, remained so as we drove home on Sunday.
Photographs from my husband's pocket camera :
We saw this large, solid concrete, very heavy zodiac sculpture for sale in the outdoor area of an antiques mall. If we'd had the space in the car, and arms strong enough to lift it, it might have come home with us - not sure where I'd have put it though.
One astro item I did find and bring home, from a used book section of an antiques store. More on this tomorrow.
In an antiques mall where husband searched for more vintage photgraphs for his collection, this gorgeous old juke box with 78 rpm records. Price $14,500 !!!
And a Buddy Holly LP going for a song - $250
Buddy Holly, like Mac Davis, was born and raised in Lubbock. The Buddy Holly statue was down for cleaning and repair so a pic from Texas Tripper.com :
And a little something that nearly put me off my breakfast in a down-home cafe across the highway from our motel:
Lubbock is a biggish city (pop. around 230,000) in the north western part of the state, known - by those who know - as the Llano Estacado. Buddy Holly and Mac Davis are a couple of Lubbock's famous sons - each has a road or avenue named after him. Lubbock houses three universities incuding the huge Texas Tech University. The city's nickname, Hub City, stems from the fact that it's the economic, education, and health care hub of a multi-county region, the South Plains, and largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world.
""Gem of the South Plains" is how Lubbock is described in the visitors' blurb. Now, "gem" is rather over-stating it! I think Mac Davis's song, "Oh Lord it's hard to be humble...." has been taken to heart by the department putting out visitors' information leaflets.
Another example of "hard to be humble": on a local Tex-Mex cafe a signboard proclaimed "come and try our world famous burritos" - when translated from Mac Davis speak = "come try our burritos, people around here seem to like 'em".
Lubbock, even with around 230,000 inhabitants is like an overgrown small to medium sized town, it doesn't feel at all metropolitan. The people of Lubbock are super-friendly (no Mac Davis speak there!) They are even friendlier than in our S.W. Oklahoma hometown - where they are pretty friendly. Whenever one passes someone in a street, store, parking lot in Lubbock, there's an exchange of smiles, greetings, sometimes a wee wisecrack....even to us, total strangers. This is the sunny side of Texas. We won't talk about the shadow side today....
John Steinbeck on Texas:
"I have said that Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that. It is a mystique closely approximating a religion. And this is true to the extent that people either passionately love Texas or passionately hate it and, as in other religions, few people dare to inspect it for fear of losing their bearings in mystery or paradox. But I think there will be little quarrel with my feeling that Texas is one thing. For all its enormous range of space, climate, and physical appearance, and for all the internal squabbles, contentions, and strivings, Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans."
-John Steinbeck, 1962.
The weekend's weather was on our side. We left home Thursday, in heavy rain, temperatures struggling to reach 50 degrees (Fahrenheit.) Rain followed us for 100 miles or so, until we were around halfway to Lubbock, when the skies cleared. Friday and Saturday we had clear blue skies all day, temperatures reached the mid-80s, remained so as we drove home on Sunday.
Photographs from my husband's pocket camera :
We saw this large, solid concrete, very heavy zodiac sculpture for sale in the outdoor area of an antiques mall. If we'd had the space in the car, and arms strong enough to lift it, it might have come home with us - not sure where I'd have put it though.
One astro item I did find and bring home, from a used book section of an antiques store. More on this tomorrow.
In an antiques mall where husband searched for more vintage photgraphs for his collection, this gorgeous old juke box with 78 rpm records. Price $14,500 !!!
And a Buddy Holly LP going for a song - $250
Buddy Holly, like Mac Davis, was born and raised in Lubbock. The Buddy Holly statue was down for cleaning and repair so a pic from Texas Tripper.com :
And a little something that nearly put me off my breakfast in a down-home cafe across the highway from our motel:
11 comments:
GP: Very nice reporting, T.
Impressive Wurlitzer you found there!
Llano Estacado reminds me of "serra estacada" - possibly in the same region, when bandits changed the sign-poles in the desert so new settlers going West would get lost and easily could be robbed...
Mrs Baird's bread of heaven?
:)
Anonymous/Gian Paul ~~
Thanks. Yes, the juke box was in wonderful condition, don't know whether it was in working order, but suspect it was - at that price it ought to be. :-)
I haven't seen the term "serra estacada" used in relation to the
South Plains area, GP - but perhaps it was in the past. There are other areas where it could have been used too though - further west and further south.
Crafty, and creative bandits! And we think we have problems in 2012!
JD ~~ Maybe so! :-D
GP: Came accross an interesting view the other day. History, despite all the imperfections we still see today, and all are not even seen as such (cruelty against animals, plants, the environment in general), shows nevertheless that there is positive evolution.
Human sacrifices in religious practices were substituted by animal slaughterings, then "just" by koscher food (still cruel to animals) and so on.
Slavery and serfdom disappeared by now practically everywhere. Except for the modern, accepted forms of consumerism and similar bondages of the mind (and purse, which for most is about the same).
I am assissting with some pain to see it happening how the simple Brazilians are being rapidly turned into modern consumers. Even Samba and Carnival are now totally dominated by commerce.
But few are aware of the infernal spiral which foreseably will not stop by itself.
Much of your idealistic "fight for justice" in the US might find a similar outlet in Latin America. Not so much politically, but more socially, for at least a few not falling into the same trap. So much for a reaction to your comment on my comment...
Anonymous/Gian Paul ~~
I see what you're getting at, re past/present. Things like this move almost imperceptibly slowly don't they? It takes several generations to pass so that we can stand back and see what has happened.
I agree that things have improved some - but there is still a form of serfdom and slavery going on - not as cruel as in days of yore, but similar, in the sweat shops of China and other countries.
History rhymes. ;-)
I hope South American people can learn from what they see happening in the USA! But perhaps it is necessary to go through the full cycle, maybe a modified version, to get to where we all ought to be.
How many generations? "How many roads....(cue for a song) must a man walk down before......?"
I deleted the duplicate by the way.:-)
Geez! I had a dozen or so Buddy Holly LPs. I could have made a fortune. Oh, well, if I ever get to Texas (God forbid!) I'll have to make do with a Jesus butty. (Hope they take the nails out first!)
I know, I'm way too irreligious. Glad you had a good trip.
RJ Adams ~~ You'd strugge to be too irreligious for me, RJ! LOL!
If they want to be silly, no reason we can't be silly back. ;-)
Thanks, yes, we enjoyed the welcome change of scene.
buddy holly the real king of rock and roll
Anon - Yep - though uncrowned.
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