The Hollow Men - Episode 1
Setting the stage, Drew observes another example of when the numbers just don't add up, Drew lines up some career insurance and the gang splits up.
“But an empty man will become wise, when a wild donkey's colt is born a human being.”
Job 11:12
Let’s get caught up on things
The Hollow Men is the second collection of not entirely true tales of Texas. The Cold Days of Summer was the first collection and covered the time frame from the early 1960’s to 1976. The Hollow Men covers the time frame from 1976 to 1986. My plan is to publish a new episode every Sunday.
This section is to provide you a little background so you can pick up the story right here at the start of The Hollow Men. If you’re the type that likes to read things from the very beginning feel free to start with Introduction to and Episode 1 of The Cold Days of Summer. Each episode contains a link to the previous and next episode so you can easily move through all of the episodes.
The Main Players
The living
Drew Remington – Drew’s primary motivation is to do enough to get a decent grade, have enough money to have a good time, and stay out of trouble. One thing that makes Drew unique is that he hears voices and sounds that no one else does.
Rick Anders – a close friend of Drew’s, more pragmatic and hard working than Drew. Always looking for the angle and to the future. Along with Drew he know his college years will start at Odessa College.
Mark Johnson – Drew’s closest friend in high school. Conversations with them get a little strange as they seem to have the ability to complete each other’s sentences. Where Rick is pragmatic and hard working, Mark is always interested in having a good time.
J.T. Billings and Sue Madison – Two of the rare decent people that one comes across in life. Put them together and the goodness and decentness is almost more than what Drew can stand, but he considers both of them dear friends.
Jason Kline – Jason was in the same first grade class with Drew and it was from Jason that the legend of Werd was first heard. Jason finished in the top 10% of the 1976 Permian graduation class and is determined to get an Engineering degree at a good Texas university.
Barry Rains – Played varsity football and basketball at Permian his junior and senior years and was in several classes with Drew and Jason. He has definite plans to go off to college and is interested in staying somehow involved in sports, perhaps as a broadcaster or journalist.
Jack Blessing – Lived two houses down from Drew from elementary through high school. Jack is a year older than Drew, but “took a year off” the first time through ninth grade and had to repeat it. At first Jack comes off as the neighborhood bully but over time Drew realizes Jack is the most hard working, loyal and determined person he knows (save for perhaps Drew’s Dad). Drew helps Jack get back on a good academic track and from that point on Drew knew Jack would always stand by him.
Mike Garret – a year older than Drew and has known Jack since childhood. Mike was a starting defensive back for the Permian Panthers as a junior and senior, but a lack of size and speed did not lead to any opportunities to play college football. Mike works at a refinery in the afternoons and on weekends while going to Odessa College in the mornings. At the beginning of The Hollow Men Mike and Jack share an apartment in northeast Odessa.
Eugene and Joyce Remington – Drew’s parents. Drew’s relationship with his Dad is like a lot of teenage boys, a love/hate relationship that often burns hot. Joyce loves her family and is often the quiet, sane person who helps calm down a situation. Eugene has worked in the oil/gas industry since his time in the Naval Construction Battalion during World War II. Eugene and Joyce moved to Odessa in the mid-late 1950’s after their first son, Edward Stanley Remington, died at the age of four in east Texas. Eugene at the time of The Hollow Men is an oil field sales representative for Cody and Teague Steamers. Joyce has an office admin job in downtown Odessa.
Elizabeth Blessing – Four years younger than her brother Drew, Elizabeth is everything Drew doesn’t appear to be: extroverted, motivated, popular, top of her class. However, Elizabeth can sometimes be wrapped up in her own world and not be aware of what’s going on around her.
Bill and Sherry Remington – Drew’s uncle and aunt. Bill is several years older than his brother Eugene (Drew’s Dad) and moved to Odessa after World War II. Bill is more calm and stable than Drew’s Dad, but they clearly come from the same bloodlines. Bill is a vice president of the National Bank of Odessa. Sherry was a teacher during their first years in Odessa, and is active in the Junior League of Odessa.
The dead
Tommy Myers – A close friend of Rick, Drew and Mark, Tommy died in a car accident west of Abilene in October of 1975. After Tommy’s death, Drew sometimes have dreams of a field where Tommy is waiting.
Socks – A dog that Rick hit with his car on the way back from Golden Acres Country Club one evening. Socks was waiting in the field when Tommy died.
The line-up
I'm 18 years old, just graduated from Odessa Permian in May of 1976. I was born and raised in Odessa. There are days when I like this town and there are days when I can't wait to finally leave. Problem is I need to develop some skills and build some cash reserves before I leave Odessa because if I do leave this place I don’t plan on coming back. There's a hardness to west Texas and that's one of the reasons I drink: to make the hard edges a little softer. The other reason I drink is because I like to. I like things to be a little fuzzy, out of focus. The only plan I have for the future is to work this summer, go to Odessa College in the fall and go to Quarter Beer night every Wednesday night at The Place. Yeah, I like to plan big.
I've got some good friends and a good dog to keep me sane. To counter balance their effect I hear voices and sounds that no else hears and dead people visit me in my dreams. There are days when it is hard to tell the difference between what is real and what is a dream.
4 out of 7 = 7?
The summer after high school was a wild one, but as time passed, people’s memories of it were even wilder.
Most of us were working, either as that first step into the full time working life or as a way to save money for college. I worked for the Ector County Parks Department and spent my summer picking up trash, trimming trees and mowing at Sherwood Park just north of 42nd street and Dixie.
Rick spent his days driving across the oil fields delivering oil field equipment to rigs all across Ector and surrounding counties. Mark worked for his dad, who owned a surveying company, and was out of town often during the week. Jack continued his job at Albertson's. Sue worked at a lawyer's office in downtown Odessa while Kate, Jack’s sister, was a receptionist at a local dentist's office. J.T. worked at his Dad's television repair shop. Jason got a job as a roustabout at one of the local rigs, hard, dangerous work but for good pay. Finally, Barry worked at his uncle's architecture and design firm.
Wednesday night was quarter beer night at one of the local nightclubs and Rick, Barry and I made every Wednesday night that summer. If Mark was in town he was there as well. Jason made more than his share while we could count on J.T. to show up a couple of times a month. Quarter beer night lasted from 8:00 to 10:00 am. For a $2.00 cover charge to get in and another $5.00 to buy beer one could have a good night. The beer came in small 8 ounce plastic cups and was Budweiser on tap. Final call was around 9:45 and we would pool our dollars together with whoever was at the table to buy one last round, large enough to last until 11:00 pm. By that time, we were in bad enough shape to head home.
Thursday mornings that summer always hurt, but the bright Thursday mornings hurt the worst. Hungover, dehydrated, strung out, tired from the night before we headed off for work. Usually by about 11:00 am I felt alive again.
I somehow managed to hit the clubs again on Thursday night, but was usually at home by about 10:00. We all moved to a slower pace on Thursday nights and as a result Friday mornings were a whole lot more pleasant than Thursday mornings. Then it was time for the weekend. Often we spent Friday night at Boulder park with a larger group of friends drinking beer and listening to music. If we felt particularly flush with money around 10:00 pm we would head over to one of the numerous bars in town.
Saturday night was usually spent clubbing, though on occasion one of us would have a date. Nearly every Sunday afternoon Rick and I played golf at Golden Acres. Mark and Barry sometimes joined us.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights I usually spent at home, partially to keep my Mom from getting too annoyed with my gallivanting around and also to catch up on lost sleep. Occasionally we would go out on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday night and it was from those occasional nights out that a myth emerged. I heard about it in August, not long before folks were heading off to college. The myth was that Mark, Rick and I had gone out every night that summer. I knew it wasn’t true. Rick and Mark knew it wasn’t true. Mark made sure everyone heard the myth and before the summer was over the myth became real in most people’s minds. Somehow, in people’s minds, four nights out a week added up to seven.
I did learn one important thing from that summer. Once people start believing in something that thing becomes true, even if it is a lie.
OC s t pl8 2 b
In July of 1976 I came across an interesting ad in the wants ads of the Odessa American that read:
Lab Technician, $12,000 a year. Requirements: high school diploma, one year of college chemistry. Apply at Shell Refinery.Of course, the ad also included the telephone number and mailing address, but I'll guess you are not that interested in that level of detail.
The following Monday during lunch I called the number. After initially being bounced around I talked to the hiring manager. I told him my situation, that I had just graduated from high school, that I had two years of high school chemistry and that I planned to take college chemistry that fall at Odessa College. The manager said to give him a call next spring while I was taking my second semester of college chemistry. He said there was always a need for good lab technicians and that they fully expected to have one or more slots open next spring and summer. He wanted to know what I planned to major in at college and I realized that the best thing to do was say what I thought he wanted to hear, versus what was the truth which was I really didn't know what I was going to major in. I told them I was focusing on engineering with a good concentration of business classes. Well, he loved that, took my name, phone number and address down and said to definitely give him a call in the spring.
In early August I took a morning off from the Parks department to register for classes at Odessa College. I signed up for 15 hours that morning: Inorganic Chemistry with a lab, College Algebra, Business Law, Golf and Spanish II with a lab. I also convinced my counselor that I was smart enough to take advanced placement tests for American History, English I and Trigonometry. I'm not sure why he needed convincing, after all, I was willing to write the check to take the tests and Odessa College would get some of the money.
My class choices weren't completely random, I had put some thought into it. I based my decisions on two things: I wanted credits that would transfer easily to a four year university like the University of Texas, I also wanted classes that would keep me from falling off the ladder and instead allow me to fall down the stairs at worst. Yep, I was continuing to follow my Dad's advice from several summers back. I had taken two years of drafting at Permian and from what I could tell I had enough experience to possibly pick up a job as a draftsman at one of the local engineering firms. Drafting paid better than the current minimum wage of $2.20 an hour, in fact, some drafting jobs were going for as high as $5.00 an hour. I saw drafting as my first step up on the ladder. The second step was to take a year of Inorganic Chemistry so I could be a lab technician at Shell or at one of the other energy companies in the area. The starting salary of $12,000 a year worked to be around $5.75 an hour and one could expect to grow from there. I was one step up on the ladder and I would have step two by the end of the spring semester. From there I could figure out what the next steps would be.
To make sure anything I took would transfer to a good four year university I used the UT catalog as my guide. As I worked through the course schedule at Odessa College I compared the classes, their level and their description to what was in the UT catalog. Not a perfect system, but I felt it was a reasonably safe way to make sure I took only courses that counted. After I registered I went and bought my books and an Odessa College t-shirt that said in small print on the left shoulder “OC s t pl8 2 b.” I had to stare at that for a moment to figure what that was supposed to mean. When I quit trying to treat it as some kind of magical code and said it phonetically it made sense: “OC is the place to be.” Not sure if I agreed with the sentiment, but, what the hell, for right now, OC was as good a place to be as anywhere else.
My last day at the Parks Department was Friday, August 13th, giving me a full week off before classes started at Odessa College on Monday, August 23rd. My Dad didn't understand why I needed a week off between work and school but I thought I deserved a rest before college started up.
It was a good week, a week of parties, hanging out and having fun. Then, on Monday morning at 9:00 am my college career started. I had arranged my schedule so that, save for Wednesday when I had Chemistry Lab in the afternoon, I was out of class by 12:00 noon. I wanted to keep my afternoons free in case I decided to pick up a part time job later on in the semester.
My first class was College Algebra, a requirement for just about every Associates degree at Odessa College. It didn't make much sense to me, but the counselor said I needed it, I couldn't convince him I didn't, so there I was at 9:00 am Monday morning with my textbook, notebook and pencils in hand.
I saw a few friends from Permian in the class and we sat together in the back of the classroom.
Inorganic Chemistry was next at 10:00 am. Then at 11:00 am, it was time for Golf, which looked to be, as long as I gave it half a try, an easy A. That was my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule: College Algebra followed by Inorganic Chemistry and Golf to wrap the morning up and then I was free, save for Wednesday afternoons when I had Inorganic Chemistry lab which ran from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. On Tuesday and Thursday my schedule was a little harder: 8:00 am I had Business Law, 9:30 Spanish II, followed by Spanish II Lab at 11:00. By 12:20 I would be done. This meant Wednesday Quarter Beer night at The Place could lead to some painful Thursday mornings in Business Law.
To the four winds
Summer came to an unofficial end on Friday, August 27th, 1976. Rick, Jack and I had already started our classes at Odessa College on the 23rd and Friday the 27th was the day when most everyone who was leaving Odessa for college left.
A group of us met in the parking lot of Pinkie's at University and Grandview. Jason was there and he was leaving for UT in Austin. Kate Blessing was riding with him. She surprised all of us by enrolling in the ROTC and getting a scholarship to UT. Mark and Barry were driving their cars to San Marcos and SouthWest Texas State University. J.T. and Sue were still an item, in fact, most of us guessed they would be engaged before the end of their freshman year. They were traveling in J.T.'s car to Texas Tech in Lubbock. Rick, Jack, Art Kilmer and I were there just to say goodbye.
The final two members of our little going away party were actually working at Pinkies that morning: James Peterson and Lyle Timmons. James was working full time at Pinkies while Lyle was working part time and going to Odessa College with Jack, Rick and me. James had gone to Dowling and Bonham with several of us, but lived west of Dixie Drive so when it came time to go to high school he went to Odessa High. One night during our senior summer I ran into James, we recognized each other from our days at Dowling and Bonham and renewed our friendship. From that moment on the Grandview and University Pinkies received all of Jack's, Rick's, Mark’s and my business and that's how we met Lyle, another Odessa High graduate.
At 10:00 am Pinkie's opened its doors and we all walked in. Those about to hit the road bought a six pack or two and some ice to keep things cool while on the road. Rick, Jack, Art and I bought two six packs to drink after everyone left. We had already decided that class wasn't as important as sending people off properly.
People hemmed and hawed for several minutes before Jason said it was time to head down on the road. We all shook hands. Sue was in near tears and gave all of us a hard hug. Then people climbed in their vehicles and drove off to the four winds. Really, the two winds. J.T. and Sue drove north to Lubbock. Everyone else drove east to Austin and San Marcos. That left the rest of us in the parking lot with our two six packs.
“Well, hell, your beer's getting warm.”
“James, as always, you have the right words at the right time. Who wants to go for a drive?”
“Shit, I can't, I just opened up the store.”
Lyle laid a hand on James shoulder and said “Don't worry, James, I'll keep you company. After all, I know how sad you get at goodbyes.”
We all laughed at that and Rick pulled his keys out of his pocket saying “Shit, guess, I'll drive, these other assholes can't be trusted to drink and drive at the same time.”
Jack, Art and I didn't mind the insult because it meant we could sit back and enjoy the ride, music and beer.
Jack grabbed the shotgun seat, Art and I got in the back seat. We each opened up a can of Coors and took a long sip. Rick fired up the engine, we waved goodbye to Lyle and James, Jack turned on the stereo, got some Deep Purple playing and we drove out of the parking lot. Just to keep things going in a different direction we headed not east or north but west.
One of the first things I do when I write is come up with a title. For me a title helps frame what I am about to write.
Originally the title of this book was “The Hollow Man,” a reference to Drew’s state of mind and his lack of purpose. At some point I changed it the “The Hollow Men,” the same name as T.S. Eliot’s 1925 poem. I changed the title to the plural because this book is as much about Rick as it is Drew.
The poem “The Hollow Men” starts with
We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Learning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Both “The Cold Days of Summer” and “The Hollow Men” are influenced by the poetry of T.S. Eliot. “The Wasteland,” written in 1922, is an influence on “The Cold Days of Summer.”
Next week in Episode 2, in a hungover state of mind Drew learns something about his Business Law course and Drew goes on not just one date, but two with the same person.