elderboblog

Prodigal Joe, Libertarian

Goofyjoe, originally uploaded by elderbob.

Return of the Prodigal Brother

Well, Arizona is probably relieved this morning. My little brother, Joe, has returned to Texas. He had been an Arizona resident for a number of years, living in Bisbee and Phoenix. He is now settling into new digs in Victoria Texas. I know that the Great State of Texas welcomes him, and it will be interesting to see Joe work in a Rebublican/Libertarian environment. Watch out for Gators, Joe.

Did you see that?

voodoo, originally uploaded by chlamygirl.

I met Elvis...

When I was almost eight years old, I got to see Elvis.

Some of my earliest significant memories of music are of driving down some farm-to-market blacktop in rural west Texas, with my Grandfather. The AM radio would be tuned into some gospel program from far off Louisiana, cranked up to the max, with the both of us singing about as loud as we could. My grand father loved to sing gospel-bass in the Baptist Church choir. He loved the music and he had a wonderful tall and big physique made to accompany that guttural, deep, deep, low-down voice needed to sing his part of our two part harmony. He was like having a built in boom box right there in that old car we drove all about the county whilst he sold wholesale groceries at every screen-doored, cross-road grocery we would happen on. The deep reverberations of song would be rattling the windows as skidded onto the graveled parking area of those combination, gas, grocery and farm implement stores that are gone now just like my grandfather. The only stations we could hear would be WBAP, some backwoods Pentecostal station from Louisiana and the occasional skip of the station across the border at Laredo, where I later would dial to hear Wolfman Jack. Along the way the Stamps Quartet, the Blackwood Brothers, the Gaithers or maybe even the noon Lightcrust Doughboys show from Fort Worth would be our backup singers and choir.