Annotations for Topic: Future

And then other times you drive through the town and you realize that, man, this place is bigger than I than it needs to be. 'cause, and it is funny because people, it, it is like, we got, we, we, we got a [[]] and [[]] decided they're going to move in, put in a [[]], and there were people in this town that were just absolutely raising all kinds of static about having another grocery store. And I mean, hey man, it is different. Give golly, give somebody else a choice. You know, not everybody likes to shop at [[]] or [[]], you know, but, you know, it's just the politics, you know, of a small town. But, uh, yeah, as far as living here, uh, I lived in [[]], grand Prairie, [[]], uh, working with my job as a carpenter, and

I stayed out. When I graduated high school, I thought to myself, man, I will, I'm, I want to get out this one horse town. At that time, there was one red light in the middle of town, and I just thought, I, I want to get out of this one horse town, get to a big city, and just not ever come back. I moved, I lived in [[]] for a little while. I lived in [[]] [[]]. I lived in West [[]]. Uh, and then I moved back to [[]] and . I had a bullet come through my apartment one night from three apartments down. And that kind of changed my mind that I need to get back to the country, , if somebody's going to shoot me. I wanted to know who it is, , and know that I probably deserved it, , but, but it is just, uh, you know, it's, it's home, you know. Um, I used to live out in the country and we moved into town,

community and a rural life, and that people, uh, are going to be attracted to that because like I say, it's lower crime rate, lower, you know, now there's, you know, there's, there's crack houses around and there's bad boys and bad girls, but I mean, our police department stays on top of it. And, you know, it's, it, they don't hang around very long, you know, so, but yeah, it's, it's a, it's a great place. It's about a lot of changes because like I say, we used, when I went to high school, we had one red light right in the center of town, and it wasn't really a red light. It was a red flashing light this way, and a red flashing light this way, you just , it wasn't even a red light, uh, to make you stop and go. It was just, you stopped, let the other car go and you go. And now there's probably a couple of hundred red lights, you know?

you know, everybody's kind of going like, man, do we really need a city hall that big? But then it's, and, and, you know, it's a mixed bag of being bad and good because, you know, they got this huge city hall, the taxpayers are paying for it, but we've got a public library in it, and it's going to be a big library, you know? And, you know, I think that's great. 'cause that gives people that hadn't got access, uh, to computers and stuff. And it gives them a chance to go in there and educate yourself or, you know, read a book or, you know, and, and like I say, it's kind of, it's, it is pro and con. There are some things that are good about it, and there's some things that are bad about it. The only other, uh, bad thing that I would say about it is the fact that, and this, this is just my age, uh, telling off on me, is the fact that we're growing way too fast.

the projection of this, this area is that there, they're, they're the next 10 years, they're planning on building 400 houses a year. So it's 400 families, and that's supposed to be the trend for the next 10 years. So let's, my boy, my math is terrible right now. So 10 times 400, that's, uh, 40,000 or 4,000 mm-hmm . It's 4,000 families. It, they got to do something with the infrastructure because it ain't right to people to shut their electricity off or to sell 'em. And, uh, the, the only, and the thing with the building, the buildings and the housing is that the city council, the, and this is, like I say, this is just my age.

The, the city council does not allow anything less than about a $275,000 house. Uh, you know, there, and there are companies out there that would come in and build $1[[]],000 houses if they could. Uh, but, you know, our, our city fathers and stuff all will that'll attract the criminal element because they got these substandard houses. Well, , I live in a substandard house. I mean, it's, I got 1800 square feet, that's, you know, and, and I, I, I work on houses and stuff, got five, 5,000, 6,000, 8,000, uh, square feet in them. And, you know, and it, it just amazes me. It shocks me sometimes that, you know, what, the value of things has gone up so much. I mean, this, this lot. I live on a corner a lot. And when me and my wife bought this lot, uh, my brother lived next door,

But, uh, you know, like I say, it, it is, it is. There's not anything that's really terrible other than, like I say, sometimes the infrastructure and just the overpopulation, and you look at it. But, you know, I'm a realist too, and I know that it's not going to get smaller. It's going to get bigger every year. You know, there, there used to be a lot of country, uh, that you could drive back roads and drink beer and never see anybody for hours. And now it's, I mean, it's a solid city from [[]]. There's a little bit of country, and there's a little bit of country between here and [[]]. And from [[]] to [[]] is almost solid cities. And same way going north and south, you know, there's, it is just little stretches of country and just, you know, and it's just going to grow. It's just gonna get bigger and bigger and more stores, more houses, and, you know, I guess it's progress, but, you know, old guys like me is sometimes it's too much progress. .

gets stronger that I know what awaits me, or I, I've got a faith in what awaits me, and I'm not ready to go tomorrow, but I'm not scared of when this happens, you know? And that's, you know, and that's, that's another good thing about coming from a small town, small community, is the fact that you can do this. That you, you get to know your neighbors and you get to trust them. And I mean, I've, I've worked with people up in [[]] that I've, you know, I'm working on their house and I've been there about two, three months and, you know, and just in conversation, man, how, how are you neighbors? You got good neighbors? Well, I don't know. What do you mean you don't know? They live right next door to you. Oh, yeah. But we don't talk to 'em. How long have they lived there? Oh, we lived beside each other for 15 years. You know, we wave and say hi, and that's about it, man,

. And that's, yeah, why don't you go go over here and talk to 'em across the fence, man, strike up a conversation. You know? That's, it is just weird, you know? And I don't know, uh, like I say, I'm a dinosaur. I love being a dinosaur. And, uh, I, I like coming from a small town. Uh, in fact, I'm, I'm proud of that fact of that. I come from this town and I used to hate this town. You know, your perspectives change and, you know, you grow up and you realize that, uh, this place ain't as bad as I thought it was going to be, you know, .

do what we can. We help out where we can. You know, like I say, uh, she had two boys, my sons when, uh, ever I met her and they became my sons. And then we adopted two girls after our boys got grown. And, you know, and because, and you know, everybody said, man, hey, old boy, y'all are, you know, you got them girls, you raised them and y'all already raised your kids. You know, y'all, y'all, y'all, y'all. Why are you doing that? They're in our village. I, you know, I don't have any kids of my own, but I do. I got these four, I got 10 grandkids. They're not blood grandkids, but they are my grandkids. I, I took 'em home and, you know, they're going to be my grandkids, you know, even after I'm gone, you know? So, yeah. And like I say, that's, that's the type of values use

I've been a carpenter since I've been doing carpenter work since [[]]. I started with my dad working on weekends and working summers. And then when I graduated high school, uh, I was going to join the Navy and, 'cause my dad was a Navy man, and I thought, boy, he'd be proud of me for joining the Navy. He's, oh, no, no, no, no. 'cause I had a brother that went to Vietnam and hell, I graduated, uh, the wars had been, was ending. And so in Vietnam it was over with. And he said, man, your brother, your mama went crazy when your brother's gone with worrying about him and you're the baby of the family. I don't want you to put me through that . So my dad being his carpenter, and he got me in the carpenter's union in [[]],

how you, you reach out to people like that. And I said, it's real easy. You do what's right. You know. And like I say, that's just part of the values that I grew up with. I had two great amazing parents that instilled that in me and my brothers. I mean, they was four of us and they, nobody went to jail, you know, we knew better, you know, and not a bad, not a bad one in the bunch. We made our mistakes and we, I mean, you know, because they, they might have, I, I spent the night in a jail cell a couple of times, but I never was arrested. It was because I was best friend with the chief of police's son . And so it was, Hey, you get in a car, I'm gonna take you to a bed. And, and he'd take me down to jail and we'd drink coffee and eat donuts. It happened twice. And one year he said, don't, don't make me pull you over again. If I do, uh, there will be a record. And I didn't, uh, you know, it's okay, I'll straighten up. I'll quit drinking , try it.

Ranger. That's awesome. I I really like my history, so. That sounds great. And for our next question, I'm gonna read out three different statements and tell me which one you agree with the most. So first off, I'm American first and Texan second. Two, I'm Texan first and American second, or three being Texan and American is equally important to you.

Excellent. And then for our next question, would you say to be a true Texan, you must know how to speak Spanish on that one to four scale, or Yeah, sorry. That's right.

Four, I think. Yeah. Uh, a four on that one. You come across the border, you going to live in this country, you need to speak the language. Right. And don't play that. I don't hobb bl shit. because, and that's a four, you know, you need to learn, you know, because it's, this is your new country. The basic language is English. So,

I, I think you can, but I think it's real hard. I think it, and that's, that's, there's a, there's a hard struggle because I think because of the fact that, well, maybe you're here illegal and you know, it's, you know, and, and people just, you know, all while they're illegal, well, uh, go, go live in their situation, you know, put yourself in their shoes that, you know, they got drug cartels that are going to kill their family if they don't take this two pounds of cocaine or 20 pounds of cocaine across the border happens all the time. So, yeah. Yeah. I'd say, come to this country, learn to speak language, you know, that ought to be one of the first things that they do.

Uh, well, as we've gotten bigger, uh, I think people are a lot less friendly than they were when I was a kid growing up, kid growing up, everybody in town knew you, so you didn't do anything really stupid to get caught, because everybody knew your parents. And in today's community, uh, there's a lot of strangers out there. You know, it goes back to, you know, the guy that's living next door to you and you never talked to the guy. If you've been living there five years and you don't know anything about him, you know, could be Ted Bundy, you don't know. But, and you know, that's, and that's, that's sad. You know, it's, we were, we've losing that sense of, uh, family

and helping each other out. It's look out for the other guy. 'cause you don't know how bad he's going to screw you. And it, that's, you know, that's just, I guess it's natural because like I say, there's, there's some mean people in the world and, you know, and I, I, I'm sometime amazed how many good people that we still run into that are absolute angels, you know?

For me, uh, my mom and dad lived on a hundred acre farm and [[]] County when I was a kid, uh, [[]] County come out and dug a rock pit behind our house on our property. And, uh, used the bedrock as a road base on I 30 and I 20 going to [[]]. And we, they, what we got out of it was we got this huge Waterhole swimming hole, fishing hole out of the deal. Uh, it was a great place to, uh, party. And man, we had 4th of July parties, Memorial Day parties, and just growing up on the farm, and as a kid, we had, I could leave, I could leave my house and be gone

Grown up? Yeah, it has. Uh, I think so. Uh, on a scale of one to four, I'd say that was probably about, nowadays it's probably about, uh, about a two, two and a half, you know? And it is simply because I think it's just simply because we're so crowded, there's so many people around, and you don't have time. We're caught up going to work, going the store, doing this, doing that, and you get caught up in your life and you haven't got the time to get to know people, you know? And that's a shame, you know? And it is not just this town. It's, it is the world. And, you know, it's, it's a shame that, like I say, that I think that every kid growing up ought to be able to grow up in the country because country life and country living, we had a, we were, we were poor, but we had cows that pe we had people, some of our neighbors that

and they, and my mother would go and she told the neighbor lady, she said, well, you know, me and my kids, we like farm fresh milk, and if y'all have any extra, I'll trade you for it. So my mother bartered with them, and we were on a barter system because these are proud people. They would know, you ain't giving me nothing. I will trade you. You know, you're going to give me this, I'm going to give you something. And that's what they would do. They would give us farm fresh milk from their cows, hadn't been pasteurized, hadn't been processed and boils that stuff. Good. But that's the kind of thing that went on. You took care, you know, like say they were dirt poor and, you know, mom and daddy instilled this kind of thing. Uh, I come through, when I went to school, we were segregated. Uh, black kids went to one school, white kids went to another school. Um, my first friends

Well, I hate to ramble, but I mean, it's, it is, there's, you know, it's just a, you know, the, the [[]] years I've walked to Earth, I mean, I, I've seen John F. Kennedy get assassinated. I seen Martin Luther King get assassinated. I seen men walk on the moon for the first time. People today. Oh, oh, yeah, man, we've been to the moon. No, man, we've been to the moon. Yeah. You know, uh, nine 11, you know, uh, and that's the reason is, like I say, that if they had a pill, I could live another a hundred years. I don't want it. Mm-hmm . Because I don't want to have to go through. It's just going to get worse, you know, nine eleven's terrible, but believe me, there's worse stuff coming at us, you know? And,

Absolutely. And the next fun question. Some people think it's hard for boys and girls to be friends. What do you think

you know, it's just, she was, she was one of my est supporters and I wanted to be, make her proud that I quit this. And especially when we found out that she had cancer and was going to lose her. I mean, there was no if ands or butts. And, uh, boy, that was probably the hardest thing that I've ever endured was burying my mother. My dad was tough to bury him, but my mother was tough. So I was mama's boy. But people asked me, like I say my, my life's open book. I will share my experiences with you. I will tell you the things I've done. Good. I'll tell you the things I've done bad, not all of 'em, because they're, I got skeletons and you do too. . Uh, nobody needs to know about that , you know? But you know, there ain't no use of lying about things, you know, and that's another thing, you know, with, like I say, living in this community and with my mom and dad and with

the closeness of our village when I was a kid, you didn't lie because you going to get caught in it because everybody knew, you know, my mother come up and said, you know, when I got a license, what'd y'all do last night? I found out real quick. She already knew what we done. And so after about the third time being called on the carpet and getting grounded from my car for a line, well, what'd you do last night? Oh, mom, you wouldn't believe I picked this girl up from [[]]. We went to a motel. God dang mama, she was pretty . And then I'd start really getting into some , explicit shit. My mother would go, okay, that's enough . We asked what I did last night, so, you know, I'm going to tell you the truth. And I did. I, I was, you know, I've always been that way, you know, the only time I lied was to the cops, and it was only to keep from going to jail. . And, you know,

Hard that was. Well, well, the, the, the amazing thing, and like I say, you know, the talking about a God thing, my mom and dad both died from cancer. And God blessed me by letting me know when they were going to die. And I was able to clear the air, bury the hatchet. Me and my dad had some issues with each other. When my mom, dad died, me and my dad become, um, just like that together. I mean, we just, we forgot all the stupid shit that we used to argue with, pardon me. Uh, stupid stuff we used to argue over and . I'll tell this story and I'll quit talking when I was 42 years old and me and my wife had been married a while and our boys were up and grown teenage, and, and my dad had been in my butt over something. Boy, he was chewing it, talking to me like I was 12 years old. And boy, I blew up on him.

Dad, I can't believe you said that to me, , because I mean, he's real stone faced, you know, just, but yeah, it's, it's, I've, I, I have seriously thought sometimes, uh, I wish that I could write a book over the adventures and misadventures I've had. 'cause I mean, it is, it has. I've had a hell of a, I've had a hell of a party in my life with my [[]] years. And yeah, I just hope the rest of it has, will be as good as what everything behind me has been.