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Date with fate post 65 - Texas
This entry was posted on 10/13/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
Two long departures from Wisconsin now stand out in my life. One diversion was a stint in the Army in Germany, but, the longest foray was in..., Texas. It's a big place that Texas. Heide once said, "Hey, let's take a little weekend jaunt over to Phoenix and see my brother."
A quick scan of the road atlas revealed Phoenix sat a good 1100 miles from Dallas.
Now after 20 years absence from Texas, a few things linger at the surface of memory. There were countless long and beautiful North Texas evenings. The summer seemed to spill well over into December. For a few years we lived just over a hill from Tenison Golf Course in the East Dallas area. At first I would hunt golf balls after work while taking a walk. Soon, I bought a couple of clubs and hopped on the Fifth Hole and golfed the first Nine. Later I actually took up the game. One could easily golf year-round in Dallas.
There was the endless summers that seemed to usurp a fall and a deep winter - suddenly it was spring again. There were however, cold snaps. Our pipes froze one winter at our apartment by the golf course. Years later when I stumbled onto Dallas Cowboy season tickets, one winter it got so cold it froze the stadium pipes; portable toilets were quickly rolled it, the endless lines of people rapped around the area waiting to pee. I went to the parking lot to relieve my bladder, a cop pulled up behind me, gave me a dirty look and just shrugged.
For me, the summer heat became intolerable, it is something a Northern boy just will never get used to. It stayed near 100 degrees from March to November. In mid-summer, the asphalt was still 90 degrees at five in the morning when I left for work - that was not a good sign for the pending workday in the Texas outdoors.
When we first got to Texas, you could drive with a can of beer in your hand. What a strange sight for a kid from nanny-state Wisconsin to see on the Dallas freeway.
"Seen a guy with a beer driving down the LBJ Freeway; he was not even hiding it." I told a co-worker the next day.
The co-worker looked perplexed and said, "Nothing illegal about that, son."
Over the years though, Texas caught up, and to me became more nannified than Wisconsin. Soon the beer at the wheel became only the passenger could have a beer. Later, alcohol left the motor vehicle for good. Soon emission tests were required. Insurance became mandatory to even get a license plate sticker. I have faith that no doubt in the 20 years since my departure, Texas has added a few more gems of control that keep purist Libertarians sleepless at night.
Texas, has boasted no State income taxes for years. What they don't tell you is every other Tom, Dick, and Harry agency and administrative authority office, tax you every time you turn around - city, county, school, transit, college, sales, et cetera, et cetera. Fees are rampant as well.
Heide's job that lured us to Texas, moved to California in anther economic downturn in the mid 1980s. We did not want to follow it to the Golden State. And, not much of an offer was made anyway. And I, well I, was tiring of working in 100 degree sun for nine months out of the year. We lingered in Texas just a few more years.
The proverbial straw that breaks the back of camel is well named. It is after all the little things that take their accumulative toll. We could deal with the fickle jobs, I could have toughed out the heat, the taxes would await us in any next venue, but something else about Texas always stuck in my craw.
You can never be a Texan if you where born somewhere else - no matter how long you live there. After ten years of solid work experience and a good work record, I was passed over for promotion dozens of times by 21 year old kids just fresh out of Texas A & M, Texas Tech, and any State school of your choosing.
The final dagger came one day when a good ol' boy at work told me to go fetch co-worker Kent.
"Which one? There are two Kents working here you know," I queried. I had befriended one of the Kents. He was a native Texan, born over Fort Worth way, yet he had a few Wisconsin ties and we could compare notes. The answer to my question however was deeply ingrained in Texas culture. A culture I then realized I would never be able to breach.
My good ol' boy co-worker gave me a crooked grin, scratched his chin, and said, "You know ol' Kent? That old boy with them ol' mommy and daddy that comed out of West Consin.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Reserve Private First Class Gregory Ronald Goodrich, 37, Bartonville, Illinois (family ties to Hillsboro, Wisconsin), died on Friday, April 9, 2004, near Baghdad International Airport, Iraq. He was killed when his fuel convoy came under attack by Iraqi insurgents using rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Private First Class Goodrich was assigned to the 724th Transportation Company, Army Reserve, based out of Bartonville, Illinois.
The Wisconsin Department of Veteran Affairs notes that Goodrich is the son of Barbara Havlic Goodrich Jones and R. Dale Jones of Hillsboro, Wisconsin. The Web site iraq.pigstye.net using information from the Peoria Journal Star notes that at the time of the attack, two other Reservists were missing and later identified as killed; several other Reservists were wounded, and several private contract drives were also missing and or killed; and, one contractor was known to have been abducted and then escaped 24 days later.
The Web site legacy.com posted an obituary regarding Gregory Goodrich which said he was born in Phoenix, Arizona on November 8, 1966. Gregory grew up in Warner Robins, Georgia, where he graduated from high school in 1985. He received a Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degree from the University of Georgia. He had been in the Army Reserve about two years and had been in Iraq less than two months when he was killed.
An article in the Chicago Tribune mentioned Goodrich was single and childless; he was remembered as a free spirit with a love of the outdoors, hiking, camping, and an instinct to help others. He played guitar, kept a journal, and visited the Peoria Library weekly. He had spent some time in the former Czechoslovakia as an English instructor. In Peoria, Illinois, he had worked at an auto parts shop for six years.
At the time of his death Private First Class Gregory Goodrich was survived by his father and stepmother, Major Ronald N. Goodrich, USAF, Retired and Teresa Goodrich; his mother and stepfather, Barbara Havlic Goodrich Jones and R. Dale Jones; his sister and her husband, Robin R. and Patrick Kilgannon and their two sons, Ryan and Sean; and, his stepsister and her husband, Michelle and Rick Idone. Goodrich was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. He was laid to rest at Greenwood Lutheran Cemetery, Hillsboro, Wisconsin.
Army Reserve Private First Class Gregory Goodrich is the 94th military service person that has been identified by Cool Dadio Media as having Wisconsin connections, and that has died in Iraq since the Spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
102,868 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented).
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,481 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1801 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
954 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.
32,200 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
592 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.
14,342 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
192 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
36 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.
150 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
22 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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