Childress: Bill's boyhood hometown (well, one of them...!)

Believe it or not, Bill had moved five times by the time he was about 4 or 5 yrs old!!  Born in Wichita Falls, his folks then moved to Oklahoma, then to Iowa (Des Moines), then back to Wichita Falls, and then Childress.  And this basic pattern continued through Bill's childhood.  Moving was not only conducive to work (construction) and  perhaps part of his dad being in the SeaBees, but it was also apparently something his parents just enjoyed!  I doubt Bill enjoyed being that rootless though.  In fact, one of the moving events happened without any forewarning for Bill.  He was visiting relatives.  When it was time to leave, he was told "oh you're not going back there.  Your parents moved."  Can you imagine?!!  I'm sure this had big influences on Bill's development as a person - how could it not?!

 Talk about a walk down Memory Lane!  Since Bill was so young when here last, you can understand what a challenge it was for him to locate anything!

Like with so many older towns, there's a new part and an old part.  The new part has stuff like Walmart and is paved with stop lights and all.  The old part has many of the original buildings still and is paved with bricks!

 This town, incredibly, had TWO movie theaters!  Here is one that Bill remembered "going to."  He has NEVER been much of a movie-goer, so when his mom or folks would go to a movie, Bill would go read a comic book in the car!  Hmm, sometimes not much changes...!!

 Billy's grammar school (well, one of them)!

 Built almost the same time Bill was!

Still a really nice-looking, well-kempt facility.  And yes, more bricks! 

 The cotton gin, where Billy used to be his uncle's little helper!

 Bill was surprised to see a new lake in the area and was thinking at first that the home he once lived in may have ended up underneath it!

 Bill was, of course, too young to be attending high school then, and his parents moved him again way in advance of him being ready for it, but this school was here when he was here.

 And again, more beautiful brickwork!

 We're not sure if we found Billy's old home or if it might have just fallen down and disappeared, but in the process of looking, we found this nice guy!  We thought his house might be the one so we stopped and asked if we could photograph it.  The current owners think that Bill's building may indeed be gone, but it was still really neat to meet this fellow!

 One of my favorite flowers (and colors!!) - cornflowers.  The bugs love them too, apparently!

 More potato flowers.

 Bill admires a car collection in an old building...

 Neato court house (or "municipal building").

 Some cars in that collection Bill was checking out...

 While now defunct, the building that this display lives in was once a Ford dealership.  

 Childress, a "few" years ago...(and really, in the scheme of things, it really was just a few years ago!)

 I just loved the special hood ornament adorning this old beauty!

 Hanging out with another neat guy... (had been buddies with the now deceased owner of the cars.  He was just driving by and saw Bill looking in the windows and stopped to let him in to see the cars!)

 Car decor.

 The owner had had a lot of these.

 Love this devil of a taillight!

Hints of the past...

Billy got to live in Childress for a whole 3 or 4 years, before getting shipped off to Lubbock for another 4 or 5 years, and then on to Odessa, then to Houston, and then back to Odessa, where he actually got to live long enough to finish his 3 yrs of high school!  Just an example of how hard all this moving had to have been on Bill:  at the end of a Christmas visit with some relatives, a still pretty young Billy was told he would not be returning to his old home in Lubbock - instead, his parents left him with the relatives, went back to the house, got all the stuff, and then came back for Bill and  moved to Odessa!!!!

More of Texas: Childress

Our next stop was Childress, TX, revisiting a part of Bill's past..

Along the way, we were surprised to see so many yuccas blooming beside the road!  They were so numerous and looked so happy in that dry, almost-desert environment!  Must've been a good rain season for them?

 Bill wrangles two of the kids at a rest stop.

Nothing like a good frolic on a spring day!  Just kick up your heels and go!  Don't worry, Mama will catch up - that's what mamas do.

A pretty day.

Our accommodations in Childress.

 There were only two options for RVing in Childress.  One was this city park, the other a Best Western motel that allowed RVs but no pets, so that one was out!!  They city park RV spaces were a bit run down (in fact hook-ups looked to be functional in only 2 of the 5 sites!), but it was actually in a nice setting, and we were the only ones there!  So we paid up for two nights (on the honor system - only a few places where they do that anymore!) and really enjoyed our stay!

 One of the great aspects of staying in the city park was being right next to a pretty pond and paved path.  It was a good spot for walking the critters!  They were doing improvements though, so there were patches where some good ol' dirt walking was necessary, but our animals are 4WD so they don't mind!

 One of the afternoons, I took Tractor out for his own special walk, just the two of us.  Turned out to be very stressful for him, and the reason is something I never would've guessed!  Nor would you, I bet!

 A little catfish!!  We met up with someone who was fishing, and they just happened to catch this little fellow while we were strolling past.  It was a catch and release deal for this fisherman, so he removed the hook and set the fish down for a second for Tractor to see.  These fish can survive on land for quite awhile, but they make weird breathing sounds, and let me tell you, that little fish had Tractor fully spooked!!  I mean, FREAKED OUT!!!

 I couldn't believe it.  Our big, bad-ass cat, whooped by the sight of a harmless little fish!  Oh well, so much for macho!!!

 So, there was nothing for it but to go back.  Tractor wanted no more of the walk or anything else at that point!  Sheesh!

 Sure that the Evil Mr. Catfish is following him, Tractor risks a glance back (and fortunately manages to maintain his balance on the wood railing, even though it's a sharp edge on the up side!)

 Ouray, waiting on our return, and glad to hear that Tractor survived his run-in with a fish...

 Relaxing outside the motorhome (yeah, the doggiess are out too, of course!).

A very cropped - and not very good! - shot of one of the neater birds in TX (and Oklahoma, as it turns out) - the scissortail.  Gee, wonder why they call it that?!

Some kind of turtle, hanging out in the grass by the pond.

 Walking the pond loop with the dogs.

 Cool stormy clouds and lighting, so of course I don't have the good camera with me!  But at least I have my little p&s.

 By the time I went back with the good camera, the good lighting was gone.  But since I had the camera, I was going to take pictures with it, of course!