In my early years at the station, it was hard to get away. I was on call 24/7 and if I needed a break I’d drive down to Terlingua for the night. At the time, there were maybe four Airbnbs in the area (now there are 432) and I spent more than one night camped in my truck behind the Starlight, more than one night at a backcountry campground in Big Bend National Park before everything was reserved months in advance.
I remember the first time I went down. It was to meet Sharon Gavin at the Starlight. And I noticed immediately a completely different vibe from Marfa, one that put me at ease.
It’s always been interesting to me how each town in West Texas is so different from the next. Not to reduce it to clothes, but where Marfa was hipster, Terlingua was hippie. It reminded me of the years I’d spent in small town Alaska. People were laid back and friendly.
In those first years I had heard about a woman named Betty. People said that we should meet.
Then in 2018 I hosted a series of storytelling workshops and one of our stops was Terlingua. Sitting at La Posada, people shared how the town was changing and that they wanted to preserve stories about the early days. Betty was one of them. I liked her immediately.
You know how when you meet a new person you have to come up with a name for them in your phone? For me it’s a combo of their geography and some trait that stands out. In my phone, Betty became “Betty Storykeeper Terlingua,” and it stuck.
I didn’t know it at the time, but Betty would become a dear friend. Over the years I would head down and see her at a moment’s notice. A couple weekends ago, after umpteen station projects finished up, I found myself once again taking a break from Marfa.
I got down to Betty’s after work. and we spent the night catching up on her back porch. She told me she’d made a pickleball court. That made me laugh out loud. She did not tell me it was her birthday. She was turning 83.
The next morning we headed to the pickle ball court. People would sneak in a comment like “I heard it’s your birthday.” Betty would ignore it. She doesn’t seek out the spotlight and will probably hate that I am writing about her in the dispatch.
After breakfast, we headed into the park to the hot springs. We met women from Odessa who had grown up in Terlingua. We met couples that had come for the Chili Cook-off that weekend. We both stared at this one handsome couple who told us they lived in one of the nearby communities with less than ten people, wondering how they’d ended up there.
Betty and I both had a feeling that every viewpoint was represented in those hot springs, three days before an election for which we didn’t yet know the outcome.
The heat hadn’t cut, even though it was November. With the river so low, it was hard to cool off between soaks.
When we got back to her house, I fell asleep hard. I woke up four hours later at 10 pm.
It was Dia de los Muertos. I walked over to the cemetery which was lit up with a sea of glass candles.
I walked among the dead then wandered over to the Boathouse where people were still celebrating.
In the morning, I went down to Betty’s house for coffee and we kept talking. We talked about podcasts. We talked about awe. We talked about generosity and helping each other out.
Betty read me this quote by the author Kate Forster:
“I think it's a deep consolation to know that spiders dream, that monkeys tease predators, that dolphins have accents, that lions can be scared silly by a lone mongoose, that otters hold hands, and ants bury their dead. That there isn't their life and our life. Nor your life and my life. That it's just one teetering and endless thread and all of us, all of us, are entangled with it as deep as entanglement goes."
And then I headed home.
Caló
Nambe - a contraction of the modern Spanish words, no and hombre, as in “no, hombre.” There’s an equal expression in English, “no, man.” In Caló, it’s used to emphasize a contradiction. You think she’s gonna win. Nambe, no chance.
Caló is a borderland dialect. You can find more episodes here.
Other programming:
One of the offices Texas Republicans took over from Democrats in the Nov. 5 election was the District Attorney for the 143rd Judicial District - a sprawling rural part of West Texas that straddles the bustling oil patch and parts of the mountainous Big Bend Region. The area’s new top prosecutor is Sarah Stogner, an oil and gas attorney and vocal critic of President-elect Donald Trump. Travis Bubenik recently spoke with Stogner about what she plans to do when she takes office in January. Listen to that conversation here.
The Odessa City Council approved a ban on transgender people using bathrooms that match their gender identity, a move that establishes penalties ranging from criminal charges to civil lawsuits. Mitch Borden has that story here.
High Five
DJ Dr. Love was back on the airwaves last night with a special gratitude-themed Dear Doctor Love show.
Here are five songs from last night's show to get you in the mood for gratitude:
- At My Most Beautiful - R.E.M.
- Tenderness - General Public
- I Couldn't Love You More - Sade
- Lovesong - Adele
- That's What Friends Are For - Dionne Warwick
You can find DJ Dr. Love's entire show on our Mixcloud.
PSAs
Sul Ross State University invites the public to Arthike: Alpine From Above, a guided hike on Hancock Hill during Artwalk Weekend on Saturday, November 23 at 9 a.m.
The 1.8 mile, moderately challenging hike will focus on seeing and photographing various views of Alpine and the surrounding hills and vistas.
Space is limited and advance registration is required. For more information or to register online, visit SulRoss.edu and search for “guided hikes.”
If you have PSAs you want on the air or in this newsletter, head to www.marfapublicradio.org/psa.
