Archer City, Texas
Posted: Thursday, January 05, 2012
by Octavia Hansen
Octavia Hansen
There is nothing like Archer City, Texas. It's not just another small town, there's a feeling there -- a way of life. You will never just stumble across it, you have to be looking for it. Even in this day and age of GPS, you will be driving with one hand and have a map in the other. It's not near anything. It's not close to anything. It's not actually on the way to anything. You have to want to go there.
Yup, that's pretty much the way it is in some small towns. Some places are so small, the United States Post Office is just a card table set up in the back of the feed store. Some small town signs claim populations of one hundred or fifty or only ten people. One small town claims only two residents, there is actually only one person there now but the highway department hasn't gotten around to changing the sign yet.
But Archer City is wonderful! It's a day trip out of Dallas or Fort Worth, easy driving. Since most traffic, including those nasty yet necessary large trucks, takes the interstate, you'll find driving winding country roads to be relaxing, giving you time to think and enjoy the landscape.
Archer City is also home to Larry McMurty, writer and also bookseller. He's known mostly for Lonesome Dove but there's a lot more to the man and his work. Somehow, I heard somewhere that he owned and ran a bookstore in Archer City. I love books. Let me say that again . . . I LOVE books. Not just any books. I dismiss romance pulp that sell in the millions. I hate to think of how many trees gave their lives for such crap. But just about everything else, I'll go for. Somewhere, when I heard about the bookstore in Archer City, it was said the guy bought up books by the trailer full and took them to his bookstore. Okay, I love unusual places and a good story.
I found Archer City. The drive was incredible. The hills went on like the blanket on an unmade bed. I could contemplate the land formation of Texas . . . most of it was underwater eons ago, in a shallow sea. Because of this fossils are everywhere. Can't make a highway without a great dinosaur find around Texas. The town is great. It was rather empty when I stopped but it's a small town. I'm a loner when I travel, as a single female I'm no threat to anyone and I've never been hassled. Maybe people see a lone woman as an object of sympathy or needing protection . . . I've been around the world and had no problems. Long as I was there, I looked around the outside of the last picture show. Looked okay to me. The kind of place that I would buy in my retirement years to live inside . . . the way in Alice's Restaurant that Arlo Guthrie's friends lived in an old church. I have always loved unusual buildings with the idea of making them into an unusual home.
But it was the bookstore I really came to see. It wasn't just a bookstore. It was bookstores -- multiple of the same thing. There were so many books. They were kind of in an order, but that's half the fun. I miss that with on-line shopping. When I am in a library, looking for something specific, I see books on either side of my subject, things I would never have found any other way . . . and these books would add to my treasure trove of knowledge. Even Google just takes you to the topic, nothing in a peripherial interest. Oh, well, that's technology for you.
It was mid-morning in Archer City, a very nice local lady opened the door to let me inside. I was looking for art books, architecture and design are favorites.
"Well . . . ," she said began, looking out the window. In her one beginning word I could hear the entire history of Texas in her voice -- the soothing, long drawn out syllables combining Southern hospitality and a hard fight for individualism. No, really, there's nothing like that in Idaho or Rhode Island, neighboring Oklahoma comes close but Texas is a flavor unto itself. "All those books are across the street in that store. Take these keys, and when you find what you want, bring it back here and I'll check you out."
Man, that's small town! She gave me the keys to the store she was in, the store across the street, there were so many keys I'll just bet some were to her house, her car, her entire life on that key ring. And the book? Look, I'll be passing right by my car . . . TWICE . . . bring it back and pay for it? Well . . . I'm an honest person and I thought this was too funny! How trusting. How small town. How fun!
So I did. I went across the street. I look both ways no matter where I am . . . nope . . . no traffic, no people, no problem. And I did eventually find a book I wanted. I brought her keys back, asked her if she wanted me to go back and lock it.
"No, I'll catch it later, hon." Hon: short for Honey, regional colloquialism displaying friendliness and warmth. I haven't heard that for many a year. Already we were family. I gave back the keys. I purchased my book -- there wasn't even a cash register. She pulls out this battered pad of receipts where she hand writes the information, including how much money I gave her and how much change she returned. All this time it was intensely quiet. I suspected that if there had been any music to play, it would come out of an AM radio with a coat hanger antenna, sitting on the sparkle plastic cushion of a shiny steel dinette chair in the back room next to an equally old fridge and sink. Just a wild guess, I'd seen that kind of arrangement before in buildings converted to a public business when it used to be a private office. I had worked in that kind of operation more than once.
I still have the receipt. Laminated, it was relegated to a bookmark years ago as a gentle reminder of adventures past.
. . . And then I drove off into the sunset. If I EVER get back that way, I'm going shopping again!
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Loved following you on your trip. I spent over 7 years in Texas. When you get passed those 3 big cities, it is indeed filled with tons of charming old towns. It is so darned vast, that when two roads came together, tiny towns evolved there. "The sun has riz, the sun has set, and here I iz, in Texas yet." Once I drove my wife across the southern part of Texas to the west of San Antonio. I told her I would take her to El Paso. After we had driven about four hours, she asked how far we had to go. I said, "Oh, across miles and miles of this countryside, then 8 hours from now, we'll be at the other end." Lovely article.Just when I thought I heard it all . . . LOVE your comments! I also heard Texas is for people who like to drive all day without leaving the state! It is said that everyone else in the US says they are Americans. But those of us from Texas will always be a Texan first, then American. It came from us being an independent nation who joined the US, and only our flag can be at the same level as the US flag. What a heritage!Yes. Yours is the pallatable historic truth. It appeals to the Texas heritage. Deeper analysis is that Texans are mainly ex-Tennesseans. Those people weren't "Americans" when they were in Old Hickory's state. They settled there from the East getting away from "American control". They even made Daniel Boone feel like he didn't have a place. He had to move to Missouri. All that's just interesting history. But it did set up the "hard headedness" of Texas. They had no right to it, so they just went and took it. If you want some fantastic battle history, go right now, and get a book, or get on Google. The Battle of San Jacinto. Sam Houston and his boys beat Santa Anna in 18 minutes. That's right. 18 minutes. I know so much about it because I used to live very close to the actual battle ground near Pasadena. But its one of the most amazing stories. Right after the Alamo, they ran and ran from SantaAnna, turned around one morning and walloped the whole force.
The timing of the FLAG deal is also got a more interesting explanation. Because the US did not want another slave state in Texas, the Texans had to become their own country. Then when the Civil War was over, that issue went away, and they became a State. So, the pride of being our own nation is really the stubbornness of being a slave state. That doesn't ring quite so magnificently, but hell, its all just history. What you have left is history. I had Texas history in Lubbock. They opened up the class by saying: Texas should really be about 5 separate states based upon culture, ethnicity, history, economy, etc. That was one cool class.I heard from somewhere that Texas is the ultimate illegal alien success story. Settlers were brought in as arrow fodder between the roaming indians and the Spanish, defended themselves, stayed on and kept the land. Of course, the invention of the repeating guns made it possible.
Yes, I lived in Houston way back and hung out at both the San Jacinto battle field and Washington on the Brazos. I think only California and Alaska have as much interesting history as Texas.Yes, one of my girl friends in Lubbock was Debby Sequin - Blonde and blue eyed. The Texicans came down as MEN and intermarried with the resident Hispanic and Indian female populace. Just like the Vikings who came to Normandy. They married the local French girls. So the Normans who attacked England were only half Viking. Even the white as white Texans who have been there over a hundred years probably have Hispanic blood. It is a great example of assimilation. That's because there was a well established Spanish upperclass in San Antonio for generations. They say the northernmost city in Mexico is - you guessed it. San Antonio. Draw a line across to Baja. SA is way south.
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