The Hollow Men - Episode 27
Drew goes back to college, observes Black Friday (October 14, 1983) from a distance and gets a new four legged friend.
Last week in Episode 26 Drew adjusts to the unemployed life, caught us up on what's been happening in the field world, the Remington family deals with a loss, Rick now has a mantra, and Drew leaves for Austin.
The Hollow Men is the second collection of not quite true tales of Texas. If you have recently subscribed and 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 line.
Back to college
Anyone who heard I was taking 24 hours that semester said I was crazy. Look, it wasn't that bad. Monday through Friday my first class was at 8:00 am. For someone who had been used to being at work at 7:00 for the last six plus years that was like sleeping in. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I took four straight classes until 12:00 noon. Then I would be done with classes for the day. On Tuesday and Thursday I would take three classes until 12:30, then have a long lunch break until 2:00 and take one more class from 2:00 to 3:30. Unless I had to do something on campus I was back at my house by 1:00 pm three days a week and by 4:30 the other two days. Whenever the weather was decent I walked or rode a bike to and from the campus. Back at the house I would spread my work out in my study. I had my blackboards to keep track of important information and dates. I was really quite organized. All in all it was like working part time compared to working full time 50-70 hours a week. Add to that I was a bit more mature than the typical full time student. I knew how to manage my time.
Mark was on the road two to three weeks a month and when he wasn't traveling he was working long hours. Jack was working hard too, getting ready for his own store. The result is I didn't have a crew to carouse around with every day and night and somehow hanging out with people who were five years younger than me wasn't all that appealing. Now, I wasn't a monk, Austin is the live music capital of the world and I did manage to catch several live shows when there was someone I wanted to see. It is just that my focus, for now, was on school.
Saturday mornings I was usually up by 7:00 and would hit the books, making sure I was in good shape across all of my classes. Usually by the early afternoon, I would be at a point where I had little to worry about and would meet up with Jack and Mark for a nice late lunch. If the Longhorns were at home we might catch a game. Fred Akers was the coach and the team was on a roll this fall. Austin was an exciting place to be that year and I was enjoying thoroughly being back at school.
Sundays were my lazy days. If I got real adventurous I would go play a round of golf at Hancock Golf Course, the original site of the Austin Country Club. Sunday evenings I would get ready for my Monday courses.
Diana had given up on finding me a girlfriend. Billy had traded wiffle ball for touch football games. Jay and I were competing through our lawns.
I called back to Odessa about once a month, sometimes twice. Most times I just talked to Mom. Occasionally Dad would get on the phone, when Mom insisted he do so. We didn't have much to say, no more than a grunt or two across the phone lines.
Black Friday
Surprised to see the measures again? I still look at them from time to time. The numbers for the last three months are particularly interesting. The price of oil is stabilizing around $30-31 a barrel. Rig counts were actually up from earlier that year. Sort of looks good, maybe things aren’t really headed downhill in the oil industry. Then the news from West Texas on October 14, 1983 said something much different. The First National Bank of Midland closed their doors on what came to be known as Black Friday in West Texas. This was the second largest bank collapse in United States history. The money was gone. The Tomorrow Men and the Suitcase Men were busted.
After reading about the First National Bank of Midland in the Austin American-Statesman I called a few people I knew over the next several days.
Mom and Dad were all right for now. While things were slow for Dad’s work, there was still work to be done. Mom was the office manager for a temporary employment agency and with lots of people being laid off she had lots of business, at least for now.
Uncle Bill sounded a little nervous. For now, the National Bank of Odessa was still open, but the parking lot was starting to fill up with repossessed vehicles and the real estate market was showing signs of weakness.
J.T. was still at Shell, but things were tight there. Budgets were being cut and yet there was still a little hope that this was a temporary lull.
All I knew was that I was glad that I had shut down VP Tanks earlier in the year. I was no longer a part of the insanity.
The smiling dog
In November I realized I was a little lonely in the afternoons. I enjoyed the class work but every once in awhile I took a break and wandered around the empty house. I needed some company. I decided to go to the mall and see what the pet store had to offer. What I found was a wide selection of pups, some purebred, some not, a wide range of prices as well. Part of me was still dealing with Kaiser's death so it panged my heart a little to look at the pups. Most of them were excited to see a human show interest in them and were swishing their tails fast and furious. At the last cage I found a pup who wasn't like the others. This one had white straight fur, about an inch long all over, two ears that stood straight up and stump of a tail that was crooked. She was small, not more than twelve inches high and about the same in length of body. She had a good, smart looking head and a pink noise. She sat in the corner of her cage on her haunches staring at me. I stared back at her.
“She's a Samoyed mix.”
I turned to see one of the store employees talking to me.
“We think she's about seven weeks old.”
“You don't know?”
“Not exactly, like I said she's not a purebred so we don't have any papers on her.”
“How big will she get?”
“About twice as tall as she is now, maybe thirty pounds.”
“She doesn't seem that excited to see me.”
“She's like that, very quiet, reserved. She's going to be hard to sell when you compare her to the rest. Kids like the rambunctious ones, the ones that like to play. She’s not like that.”
The pup kept staring at me. She hadn't taken her eyes off of me the entire time.
“I would like to take a closer look at her.”
The employee opened the cage, picked up the pup and carried her to a small enclosed area where customers and the dogs could spend a few minutes with each other, sizing each other up.
“Are you used to dogs?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Okay, I'll leave you with her. Let me know when you want me to come get her.”
“Thanks.”
The little dog had moved to a corner of the enclosure, sat on her haunches and stared at me. I stepped into the opposite side of the enclosure and hunkered down close to her level. We just stared at each other. I made a quiet clucking noise. She heard me and cocked her head while never breaking eye contact. I talked softly to her. She listened but didn't respond.
I scuttled over to her. She didn't stiffen or cringe, she just kept staring at me. I reached out and petted her. Her fur was soft to the touch and glistened in the fluorescent light. I reached behind her ear and scratched, she leaned her head against my hand. I kept talking softly to her while I scratched. I picked her up. She squirmed a little as I held her in front of me. She continued to stare at me. I pulled her a little closer and found myself in a staring contest. We continued to stare at each other until she leaned her head forward, opened her mouth and bit me on the noise. Not hard, not at all, but she did place her mouth on my noise and bit down gently. I laughed, that was not what I expected and when I laughed I saw her little stump of a tail swished. I put her down on the ground and looked at her.
The store employee walked up.
“What do you think?”
“She's good, got a bit of stubbornness to her, but that's not a bad thing at all.” I pointed to her tail and asked “What happened to her tail? It looks crooked.”
The employee looked embarrassingly at the ground and said “Day after she came here, her tail got caught in a door. She whelped and whimpered and wouldn't let anyone near for a couple of days. She seems okay now though.”
The little pup had gone back to her corner, sat on her haunches and started staring at me again.
“How much do you want for her?”
“Seventy-five dollars. She has all her shots for now. She'll need another round when she's six months old.”
“Sold.”
Five minutes later I was carrying in one hand a small cardboard container that was swaying back and forth. In the other hand I had a sack of puppy food, a leash and a collar. At my truck I opened the passenger door and placed the box on the floor of the passenger seat. Once I was in on the other side I opened the box and a little white head poked out.
“Come on, you can get out of the box. We're going home now.”
The pup stared at me from the box.
“Okay, you can stay there for now, if you're comfortable.”
I started up the truck and drove home. Once I was there I carried the box with the pup into the backyard. I turned the box on its side on the ground and watched as the pup slowly and cautiously stepped out. She sniffed the air, stretched and began to walk around the back yard. After a short tour she walked up to a few feet away from me, sat down and stared at me.
“What are we going to call you, little one?”
I thought it over and decided on a simple name: Sam, for Samoyed. I stood up and walked towards the back door of my house. At the door I turned and called to her.
“Come on, Sam, do you want to come inside and see your new home?”
Sam stared at me for a moment then stood up and trotted towards me and into the house. She investigated every corner of every room. Once she was satisfied with the inspection she came back into the living room and laid down on the floor. I went into the kitchen and filled one small bowl with food and another with water. I called to her. She lifted her head, looked at me, stood up and walked into the kitchen. She found the water and took a long drink, sniffed the food and ate about half of it. I walked to the back door and motioned to her that I wanted her to go outside. After a moment she decided that was okay and went in the backyard with me. She walked around the yard, found a spot to relieve herself then came back to where I was standing. I reached down and petted her, talked to her gently and she wagged her tail. We went back in the house. I stopped in the kitchen, grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and walked to my study. She followed me and as I settled down to study she walked around the room, found a spot she liked, circled around, curled up and laid on the rug. In a few minutes she was asleep.
She slept for an hour and a half while I studied. When she woke up she yawned loudly, stretched, rose to her feet and trotted into the living room. Being curious I followed her. She stood by the back door.
“Sam, do you want to go outside?”
She wagged her stump of a tail. I opened the door and we both went outside.
Hard as it is to believe that was the extent of my house breaking her. That first night she woke me up at midnight, her front paws on my bed, staring at me. I don't know if she made a noise, I just woke up and she was there. I walked her to the back door, let her out in the back yard, she took care of her business and came trotting back in the house. Within a week or two she knew her name and a handful of commands. It took a few days for her to get comfortable on a leash but she adapted quickly. Most nights Sam slept on the entry rug by the front door. Sometimes she would come into the bedroom and lay on my bed. Sam liked staying outdoors whenever possible and I found myself reading and marking up texts on the back porch many afternoons while Sam patrolled the yard.
Once I was able to get Diana over her fear of dogs, Billy came over three or four times a week to play with Sam. As a pup, she needed someone to run around with and it wasn't long before she became adept at chasing tennis balls and catching a frisbee. Billy and Sam became close friends but Sam also enjoyed the peace and quiet when Billy went home. After Billy would reluctantly leave for the day, Sam would get a long drink of water, trot up to me and place her paw on my leg (a sign she wanted a little loving attention). Once she was calmed down by my petting she would lie down at my feet and fall fast asleep.
One day I caught Sam smiling, or something that sure looked like a smile. She would fold her ears back, look up and smile at me. I thought it was a neat trick and told her so. I decided to see if I could get her to smile on command. It took a few days and a few treats but within the week if I said “Smile for me, Sam.” she would fold her ears, look up and smile at me.
Author’s note: The above photo is of our adult Sam. We got Sam in 1987. This photo was taken before 1994. Sam crossed The Rainbow Bridge in the summer of 2000. Sam was a very smart dog, protective, loyal and hard working dog.
One time an utility crew needed to trace cable lines through our back yard. Sam and I let them in and she proceeded to walk directly behind them as they walked across the back of our yard. I told them that Sam was herding them. One of the crew members said “No, she’s not hurting us.” I said “No, Sam is herding you, herding with a d. Notice how she’s right behind you, almost pushing you forward. She doesn’t want you in her backyard.” They stopped, looked at Sam, laughed and told her they would soon be gone.
Sam’s hair was almost waterproof, but very soft. She enjoyed getting wet and could dry herself off with a good shake. One evening I was sitting on our back porch with Sam and was brushing her coat. Every few strokes I would pull the hair off the brush and watch as the breeze would pick it up and push it to the edge of the porch. A few Tufted Titmouse birds landed downwind of us. They waited for the tufts of Sam hair to drift near them, would grab a tuft and fly off. In a few minutes they would come back for more. I suspect several nice nests were made that year. As years passed the legend of Sam hair grew and Sam and I could always count on Tufted Titmouse and other birds to show up when I brushed Sam’s coat.
Next week, in Episode 28, Drew completes his first semester at UT, and with Sam riding shotgun, goes home for Christmas.