The Hollow Men - Episode 17
Sue and J.T. host the New Year's Eve party of the century at their new home in Gardendale, Texas, and Mike explains the concept of "sand and starch" to Drew and Rick.
Last week in Episode 16 of The Hollow Men, Rick and Drew learn of Fidelity Magellan, the tank business reaches a new level of craziness, Rick and Drew make a big deposit, and J.T. tells Rick and Drew of his and Sue's Gardendale plans.
If you like to read things from the very beginning feel free to start with The Cold Days of Summer, the first collection of not quite true tales of Texas. Each episode of The Cold Days of Summer and The Hollow Men contains a link to the previous and next episode so you can easily move through the story.
Sand and starch
Throughout the month J.T., Sue, Rick and I tracked down people for the party. Jack had worked through the Christmas weekend and was getting off Thursday, New Year's Eve. He planned to get up early Thursday morning and drive to Odessa. Mark was riding down with him. Jason had been in town since a couple of days before Christmas. Kate would fly into Odessa on the Tuesday after Christmas. James would close up the Pinkies store he managed at 9:00 pm, and hoped to be at the party by 10:00 pm. Art promised to be right on time. Barry was working at the television station in Corpus over the entire Christmas break and wouldn't be able to come. Elizabeth and Bud had come back to Odessa a week after they had completed finals and weren't planning to go back to Lubbock until Sunday, January 3rd.
Ned and SouthWestern Tank started assembling the first five vessels for New Mexico Chemicals the last week of December. With all of the parts already made up, putting together the vessels was like putting together a simple Lego vehicle, the assembly went fast. By New Year's Eve the first vessel was complete.
On Thursday, New Year's Eve, we worked hard, closing out paperwork and our books for 1981 but at 5:00 pm we called it a day. We locked the doors, stopped by Pinkies and loaded up Rick's trunk with Coors, drove home, had dinner with our families and cleaned up for the party. Officially the party started at 8:00 pm and Rick and I knew that we would be in trouble for all of 1982 with Sue if we showed up late.
At 7:30 Jack was at our front door ready to go.
“Let's go Remington. We don't want to keep Sue waiting.”
“Coming.”
Outside I gave Kate a hug, slapped Jack on the back and slipped into the back seat of Jack's car.
“You sure you want to drive? Hell, you already driven a lot of miles already today.”
“Drew, don't worry, Mark and I got an early start on the day. I drove the first two hours, then Mark drove the rest of the way. We pulled into Odessa just after 12:00 noon. Had lunch, took a good nap this afternoon and feel great.”
We stopped to pick up Rick, loaded upthe beer Rick and I had bought at Pinkies that afternoon, then drove to Gardendale. It was the first time any of us had been to Sue and J.T.'s house, she had insisted we couldn't see the house until the official house warming party. We pulled up and saw we weren't the first one there. Mike Garrett and J.T. were standing on the front porch drinking a beer.
We unloaded the beer from the trunk of Jack's car and carried it into the house.
“All right, they come bearing gifts. Though, most people bring something else other than beer as a house warming gift.”
“Mike, our housewarming gifts are coming with Elizabeth and Bud a little later. Our taste in housewares is woefully limited. We felt that Elizabeth would do a much nicer job. Before you rag us any more, just what did you bring?”
Mike just smiled and turned to J.T.
“He brought a very nice frame, and some fresh cut flowers. Caught me off guard, but he completely won over Sue. She's going to have a photo of the house put in the frame and she loves the flowers.”
“Damn, didn't expect to be shown up by Garret, at least not at a housewarming party.”
“Just goes to show how little you think of me, boys. Keep your eyes open, who knows what surprises this night may bring.”
The night didn't bring that many surprises. It wasn't a surprise that Sue was the best at getting people to come. Several of her Pepette friends with their boyfriends or husbands showed up. Several of us drank too much. Jack drank hard until 11:30, then drank only water after that. Rick, Mike and I stuck to beer and kept a good pace up. Elizabeth and Bud arrived shortly after us and Elizabeth did Rick and I proud with the housewarming gifts she picked out: a nice set of steak knives and a cutting board. They left a little after 10:00 pm to join up with their own group of friends for the New Year. Mark and Jason showed up around 9:00 but quickly won over Sue's heart and avoided her anger at them being late by oohing and ahhing appreciatively at Sue's interior decorating skills.
At one point, Mike, Rick and I were having a beer in the back yard. It had gotten loud in the house and the sounds had worn me down. That's why I was out there.
“Man, look at the stars. You forget how many of them there are until you're someplace where you can see them.”
Mike was right, the stars were bright in Gardendale. Back in Odessa the bright street lights washed out the stars. The street lights in Odessa were bright enough you could drive at midnight without your car lights on. I always wondered if the reason for that was to help the drunks find their way home once the bars closed.
“Too noisy for you in there, Drew? I was watching and could practically see you wince as more and more people joined in the party.”
“Yeah, too loud. Had to get away for awhile, just to hear nothing. Give my mind a rest. Didn't know you were so observant, Garrett.”
“I noticed something else. You, me and Rick, we're just working guys, but we do all right. You got that tank thing going on and from what I can tell you more than doing all right. Me? I'm working in Andrews at a refinery, but I'm putting my time in, got good benefits, and in a few more years I'll be a crew chief teaching the newbies how to stay alive. Got a nice pension plan, and if I keep my noise clean and work hard I'll do more than all right in time. I've got all I need. The work isn't too hard. I'm saving money, have plenty of time to play racquetball and basketball and if I do work on the weekend I'm getting at least time and half, sometimes double time.
“But what we three do isn't good enough for some of Sue's friends. We're not college graduates. We're just working stiffs. Shit, I'm willing to bet you two could buy fancy trucks if you wanted, but you don't need it. Drew, you're still driving that truck you had in high school. Rick stepped up a bit, but still you didn't buy a new car, you bought a used one. Me, I need a truck for work and I'm in the fields a lot so why the hell would I have a nice truck that would just get banged up? Makes no sense. But all them girls, if they're not happy with what they've got, they're looking for the next good thing and three working stiffs don't measure up to their dreams.”
I hadn't really noticed until Mike had said it, but now that I thought about it, some of Sue's friends did seem a little distant to me. They would ask what I was doing and when they learned I was working, that Rick and I had our own company they were at first interested but when I explained what we actually did they seemed to quickly lost interest. We weren't professionals. The ones that seemed happily married or attached feigned more interest. I guess they weren't trolling, but the ones looking for something better apparently thought a shift worker and two guys with a tank company wasn't better.
“Funny, isn't it? I hear you're paying for Elizabeth's college, Mary Ann's college. You're doing all right, but because you don't drive a fancy enough car, still live at home and don't have initials after your name you don't measure up right.”
“You hear a lot of things. Who have you been talking to?”
“I read the newspapers first off, saw a picture of you two presenting a check to Odessa College awhile back. I then checked up on it and was told that VP Tanks is funding two full scholarships to Odessa College. I've struck up a few conversations with Mary Ann and she mentioned that you were paying for her college. She keeps the books too so she's seen the VP Tanks checks for Elizabeth at Texas Tech.”
“Hmm, she wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that. Not that there is anything wrong with it, we're just not interested in others knowing about it.”
“Drew, don't worry, your secret is safe with me, but that's not why I brought it up. It's just that the three of us, on the surface we might not look that good, but I would trust my money with you two, and you can trust me. We have what the old guys on the crews call sand and starch. “
“What does that mean?”
“First time I heard it, I didn't know what it meant. This old guy, he's in his fifties, been working at the refinery since the day it opened. He trained me, saved my ass once or twice and I've saved his. One evening we had wrapped up work, were walking out when I realized I had forgotten to take care of one last detail. It was no big deal, but I trotted back into the plant and took care of it, didn't really thing much of it until the next morning when he mentioned to our supervisor that I might have a chance at the plant, that I was made of sand and starch. I overheard him and asked him what it meant. He said a person made of sand and starch is close to the earth, they take care of business, you can rely on them. That sort of explained the sand part, but the starch means there is a resilience, a toughness to them, they just keep on going. He said he suspected I had sand and starch when I stepped up for him once before, but he knew it for sure when I didn't blow off the last detail, I went back in and took care of it. Me, being the curious sort, dug a little deeper. I went to the Odessa College library and talked with the librarian there, asked her if she ever heard of the phrase 'sand and starch.' Turns out she had, according to her it was a form of Western slang and it generally was used as a synonym for heroism, but the trick is that heroism can have two meanings. The traditional meaning we're all familiar with, but the second meaning has more to do with fortitude, endurance, stamina, tenacity, you know, like a dog with a bone. Another synonym for sand and starch is true grit. You remember that movie? With John Wayne? I read the book, damn good book by the way, better than the movie, like most books are. In the book the girl tells Rooster Cogburn he's made of sand and starch. Hell, if I got sand and starch, you two sure as hell do. Like I said, I‘d trust my best girl and my last dollar with you two.”
I was thinking about what Mike had said. Did we have 'sand and starch?' We did have an idea about a company and we decided to run with it. We sometimes were too principled for our own good, particularly Rick. I saw a look in Rick's eyes. I nodded my head and Rick spoke.
“Mike, we're not interested in your last dollar, but if you've got some spare dollars we know of an investment you ought to look into.” Rick told him about Fidelity Magellan and he pulled from his wallet the business card of our broker.
“You should go talk to him when you get a chance. We're putting a lot of our spare money into Fidelity Magellan. There's no guarantee that things will always go well, but what we've read and studied about it gives us confidence.”
Mike took the business card, looked it over and smiled. “You see, that's what I mean. Damn, now I have to think of a way to help you two out.” He thought for a moment, smiled again and said. “I've got it, at least the first part of it. There's going to be some good football over the next few days. Come on over to my apartment and we'll cook some burgers on the porch, drink beer and have a hell of a time. Don't bother to bring anything other than yourselves, I'll provide the beer and burgers.”
The invite sounded damn good, Rick and I agreed to be at Mike's place by no later than 12:00 noon New Year's Day. Pretty much everyone was closed on New Year's Day so we were looking at a nice long three day weekend.
Once we had finished our beers we walked back into the noise. The buzz from the beer was drowning out enough of the conversation noise that I could handle it. Midnight arrived, the old year rolled out and the new one rolled in. Someone attempted to sing “Auld Lang Syne” but not enough of the sober ones knew the words and the drunk ones just bastardized it to shreds.
Around 2:00 am Jack and Kate were ready to go home and since they were our ride home, Rick and I were both ready as well. Sue gave us all a hug and J.T. shook our hands. Jack was in good shape, Kate was sober, so Rick and I just plopped our drunk selves into the back seat.
I woke up about 11:00 New Year’s Day morning and surprisingly felt rather decent. Mom and Dad hadn't made any plans for the day other than spending some time with Elizabeth and Bud. I was the fifth wheel and felt absolutely no guilt in leaving for Mike's apartment after I had showered and put on a fresh set of clothes. I decided to walk the three blocks to Rick's house, then rode with Rick over to Mike's.
When we got there we had a bit of a surprise. We weren't the only guests. Mark, Art, Jason, Jack, James and Lyle were camped in front of the television. There was plenty of beer, in the refrigerator there was at least two cases, and on the porch were two large ice chests, iced down with a case each. Mike motioned to us to join him on the porch where he was lighting charcoal in his barbecue pit.
“Guess I drank and talked too much last night. Before I knew it invited all of these galoots. Good thing is they bought their own beer. Hell, James and Lyle must have scavenged Pinkies, they brought bags and bags of chips, pretzels and snacks.”
We weren't complaining. Good football, good beer and good friends, that was a great way to start 1982 off. There were three solid games that day. Clemson beat Nebraska 22 to 15 in the Orange Bowl. Pittsburgh beat Georgia 24 to 20 in the Sugar Bowl and in the Cotton Bowl Jason's and Jack’s alma mater, the University of Texas, beat Alabama in a tight, low scoring 14 to 12 duel.
As the day wound down, Mike called Rick and me out on the porch again.
“Not sure what everyone else's plans are for tomorrow, but you two better come over for the NFL games. We've got Dallas playing Tampa Bay and that ought to be a win for Dallas and then we have Miami playing the Chargers. There's something about that game that has me thinking it will be a good one. The Dallas game starts at 12:00 noon, be here a little before the kickoff. Don't bring any beer or food, I still owe you from our talk last night.”
Free beer, free food and NFL football? We couldn't turn that down.
But, you see, Rick and I are cautious folks and the last thing we wanted to have happen was to run out of beer during a good NFL game. So on the way home that evening we stopped by a 7-11 and bought a case of Coors just in case.
The next morning we were over at Mike's place at 11:45. This time it was just the three of us. We walked in with our case of beer.
“Hmm, so you guys didn't trust me?”
“We just didn't know who was going to be here and we wanted to be sure there was enough beer.”
Mike laughed and opened his refrigerator, a quick scan of the contents told me there were roughly three six packs awaiting us.
“Ah well, better safe than sorry, I suppose.”
We placed our case on a shelf of the refrigerator and each grabbed a beer to get the day started. Looking around we noticed the apartment looked surprisingly good after the bowl marathon of the day before.
“After everyone left last night I cleaned the place up. It wasn't in too bad of shape, turns out we run with a relatively neat crew.”
“Now here's the plan, we'll start off with some cold beer, some chips and salsa. At halftime of the Dallas game I fix some burgers, then we'll kick back for the rest of the game and from there just go right into the Chargers Dolphins game.”
We liked the plan.
The Cowboys Buccaneers game was a scoreless tie at the end of the first quarter, but things started going Dallas' way in the second quarter and at the half Dallas led 10-0. Mike proved to be quite the chef with the hamburgers and in the second half Dallas poured it on. The final score was Dallas 38, Tampa Bay 0. The Dallas defense was intimidating, holding the Buccaneers to 24 yards rushing for the entire game.
As the Dallas game wound down we switched over to KMID 2, the NBC affiliate. We all felt this was going to be an explosive game. The Chargers had the best offense in the NFL and the Dolphins were no slouches. The only real questions were on the defensive side of the ball. Could the Dolphin's Killer Bees defense slow down the Chargers or could the Chargers defense (ranked 26th out of 28 teams) slow down the Dolphins long enough for the Chargers to win?
The Chargers offense, often referred to as Air Coryell for the head coach Don Coryell, was amazing. They had three 1000 yard receivers with Wes Chandler, Charlie Joiner and Kellen Winslow. Dan Fouts was the quarterback and had thrown for over 4800 yards in the regular season. Add in running back Chuck Muncie, who had run for over 1100 yards in the regular season, and you had an offense that was nearly impossible to stop.
And at first, that's how it looked. At the end of the first quarter the Chargers led 24-0. It was some amazing football, just excellent execution on the Charger's offense and their defense wasn't looking too bad. The fact that this was all happening at the Miami Orange Bowl stadium was even more impressive. Opposing teams didn't play like this on the Dolphin's home turf. The Dolphin's starting quarterback, David Woodley, seemed lost and it wasn't surprising to any of us when early in the second quarter Dolphin coach Don Shula replaced Woodley with Don Strock. Technically, Don Strock was the backup quarterback, but he wasn't your typical backup, he had played in nearly every game that season. Woodley was a solid quarterback and a good scrambler but he didn't have the stuff this day. Strock was a thrower and right away put the ball up.
Quickly the Dolphins drove down the field and scored a field goal. The Dolphin defense woke up and forced a fumble in Chargers territory. Strock drove the Dolphins down to the 1 yard line and tossed a 1 yard touchdown. The score was now Chargers 24, Dolphins 10.
The ball went back and forth for most of the second quarter until late in the quarter the Chargers drove into Dolphin territory. The drive stalled and the Chargers decided to kick a 55 yard field goal. They missed and the Dolphins had the ball near midfield. With six seconds left in the half the Dolphins were at the Chargers' forty yard line with time enough for one more play. That play was like watching grown men play a sandlot football game, where you come up with crazy ideas to keep the ball moving. The ball was snapped, Duriel Harris ran a hook pattern to the 20 yard line, Strock threw the ball perfectly. Harris caught the ball, held it just long enough to draw the Chargers' defense to him and then tossed it underhand to Tony Nathan running at full speed across the field and down the sidelines. The defense had collapsed around Harris, their whole goal to stop him from advancing the ball on his own. Nathan was wide open and ran untouched to the end zone, a perfect hook and ladder. There was no time on the clock as the Dolphins converted the point after attempt and at the half the score was 24 to 17, the Chargers barely holding onto the lead.
We were stunned by the play, then it all sunk in and we were shouting, laughing and talking. It had been a hell of a half. In the first quarter the Chargers controlled the field and in the second quarter the Dolphins, seemingly whipped, had turned it around.
We all had to have a beer after that play, and we watched it over and over along with the rest of the highlights during the halftime.
In the third quarter the Dolphins continued their resurgence by driving down the field. Strock completed the drive with a touchdown pass to their tight end, Joe Rose. The game was now tied 24-24.
One might think that the Chargers just might fall over and die at this point, but they didn't. A six play, 60 yard drive led to another Charger touchdown, a 25 yard touchdown pass from Fouts to Kellen Winslow. The Chargers had regained the lead 31-24.
The Dolphins came right back as Strock completed six straight passes, finishing off the drive with a 50 yard touchdown strike to Bruce Hardy and the game was tied again at 31. Right at the end of the third quarter Dan Fouts was intercepted by Lyle Blackwood, who returned the ball to the Charger 15 yard line. On the first play of the fourth quarter the Dolphins' Tony Nathan scored a touchdown on a 12 yard run and the Dolphins had their first lead of the game, 38-31.
At this point we all agreed, this was the best professional football game we had ever seen. What we didn't know was that the game was going to get better.
It might have been January, but it was near 80 degrees in Miami that day and hot and humid down on the field. The Chargers were definitely feeling the humidity but the Dolphins were feeling it too. What we had seen so far was 45 minutes of hard playing, balls to the wall, maximum effort football and both teams were starting to feel the pain and the exhaustion. The Chargers' Kellen Winslow seemed to be in the most pain, suffering from back spasms, heat exhaustion and dehydration, but play after play you could see the exhaustion in every player. For four seconds they gave maximum effort and then the play would be over. Players would get up slowly, walk slowly back to the huddle, trying to regain some energy before they again gave their all on the next play.
The Dolphins held the lead and with a little less than five minutes left in the game they were deep in San Diego territory. And then they fumbled and the Chargers had the ball on their own 18 yard line. Air Coryell returned to the field, for one final drive. With 58 seconds left the Chargers had driven to the Dolphins' nine yard line. Fouts lofted a pass to the end zone and rookie James Brooks ran under it and caught it for a touchdown. The game was tied 38 to 38.
And the game wasn't over. The Dolphins had the ball at their own 40 after a squib kick by the Chargers. On first down Strock threw an incomplete pass. On second down the game looked to be headed for overtime. Strock's pass was intercepted by Willie Buchanon but as he was tackled he fumbled the ball and Miami recovered. The Dolphins continued their drive and found themselves inside the Chargers 30 yard line with only a couple of seconds on the clock. The Dolphins field goal team came out on the field. We watched as the Chargers special teams came out on the field.
“What the fuck? That's Winslow, what is he doing out on the field?”
“Ah, shit, he's on the do or die team.”
Rick and I looked at Mike, hoping he would explain. He looked at us, realized we didn't know what he meant and spoke quickly.
“Every team has a do or die team. Those are the guy who go on the field when it is literally do or die, win or lose, everything must go. Winslow is on that team, he's playing defense, God damn, that's amazing, that son-of-a-bitch is amazing. Shit, watch this play close, this is it, this is the game.”
The two teams lined up, the ball was snapped and the ball was kicked. And Kellen Winslow, six foot five inches tall, leaped up, stretched one arm to the sky and blocked the kick. The ball fell to the ground far short of the goal posts, time had run out with the score tied 38-38. We were headed for overtime.
Now that the first 60 minutes were gone the exhaustion was clear to see on all the player's faces. San Diego had the ball first in overtime and drove down the field inside of the Dolphin's ten yard line. They decided to kick a field goal but the kick sailed wide left and the game continued. This time Miami drove down the field, deep into Chargers territory. They decided to kick a field goal. The Chargers' do or die team came back on the field, the ball was snapped and this time defensive lineman Leroy Jones blocked the kick. The game was still not over. San Diego took over on their own 16 yard line after the blocked kick. Fouts drove the team 74 yards to the Dolphin's 10 yard line. On second down the field goal team came on the field. The ball was snapped, the kick was good and the game was over with the Chargers winning 41 to 38 after 73 minutes and 52 seconds of play.
The totals for the game were astounding, over 1000 yards of offense, 809 passing yards, 79 total points scored, 24 unanswered points by the Chargers, followed by 24 unanswered points by the Dolphins. Don Strock had an incredible game, completing 29 of 43 passes for 403 yards and four touchdowns, but, hell, Dan Fouts out did him with 433 passing yards and three touchdowns. With all of the amazing plays and performances, it came down to Kellen Winslow who had 13 catches for 166 yards, one touchdown and a blocked field goal. After the game ended he tried to walk off the field, but was too exhausted and was helped off the field by two of his teammates.
We were exhausted too, just from watching the game. As the post-game show started we sat staring at the television, drinking our beer.
“That Winslow, that son-of-a-bitch has sand and starch. If anyone has sand and starch he does.”
Rick and I nodded in agreement.
Author’s note
The Miami Dolphins / San Diego Chargers game is still, in my opinion, the best professional football game I have ever watched. I have a DVD of higlights from the same stashed away someplace that I need to dig out and watch again.
An article by Mike Thomas provides a good summary of the game and Winslow’s performance. Mike Thomas references the “desperation team” that Kellen Winslow was a part of while Mike Garrett calls it the “do or die team.”
Next week in Episode 18 the first vessels are shipped to New Mexico Chemicals, a forest is planted in Gardendale, and Drew cuts another deal with Pete Tilden.