A Greater Yes: The Story of Amy Newhouse

From the KFDA website:

Pampa Teen Immortalized in New Movie

by: Kristen Guilfoos

Amarillo, Texas - A movie shot entirely on location in Amarillo and Pampa hits store shelves nationwide on December 15th... It's called "A Greater Yes."

It's a full length movie about a 16-year-old girl named Amy Newhouse who grew up in Pampa. It chronicles her life... From her passion for making the world a better place by starting Pampa High School's first alcohol and drug-free club to her state volleyball championship to the biggest battle of her life... Fighting cancer.

It's a battle she lost nine months after being diagnosed.

The movie showcases sights and sounds of both Amarillo and Pampa. Director/Producer/Actor Bradley Dorsey says, "We used Pampa High school, various locations around there. We used Consuelos Mexican Restaurant. Baptist St. Anthony's hospital. We used the exterior shots of their hospital. And then their old hospital, which used to just be St. Anthony's, we used that for all the interior shots of the hospital."

The movie was made by a local film maker who says he never knew Amy, but he went to her funeral and when he saw thousands of others there as well, he knew there was something special about this girl... And something he needed to share with the world.

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UPDATE: The original video was taken down, sorry. I found this one on YouTube, but who knows how long IT will remain up?

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Your boyfriend is also your uncle

That's the advice given from "Dr. Wallace" in a column at the Chicago Post-Tribune.

The title caught my attention (and I bet it did yours, too); it was in a Google Reader feed I have for any instance of Pampa in the news. Pampa wasn't mentioned in the first bit of advice (about the uncle) but rather the second letter to Dr. Wallace:

Dr. Wallace: I'm 18 and do a little drinking on the weekends with friends. I never get drunk, but I know that alcohol can alter your judgment. I need to know how long I should wait before driving after I've had two beers.
-- Nameless, Pampa, Texas

Nameless: According to the American Council on Science and Health, everyone should abstain from alcohol a minimum of five hours prior to operating a vehicle. Even the consumption of one beer or one glass of wine can affect a driver's judgment and coordination.

Since you're only 18, you shouldn't be drinking at all. The minimum age for consuming alcohol in all states and the District of Columbia is 21. Every time you have a beer, you break the law! Have you considered new friends?

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What? And do away with one of the very few things there are for kids to do in this town?

Yes, it does.

Happy Birthday, Woody Guthrie!

From Wiki:

Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar. His best-known song is "This Land Is Your Land", which is regularly sung in American and Canadian schools. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress.

Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, earning him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Troubadour". Throughout his life Guthrie was associated with United States communist groups, though he was never an actual member of any.

The article has a short paragraph about Guthrie's time in Pampa:

Eventually, Guthrie's father sent for his son to come to Texas where little would change for the now-aspiring musician. Guthrie, then 18, was reluctant to attend high school classes in Pampa and spent much time learning songs by busking on the streets and reading in the library at Pampa's city hall. He was growing as a musician, gaining practice by regularly playing at dances for his father's half-brother Jeff Guthrie, a fiddle player. At the library, he wrote a manuscript summarizing everything he had read on the basics of psychology. A librarian in Pampa shelved this manuscript under Guthrie's name, but it was later lost in a library reorganization.

This Land is Your Land
(with some of one of the only two surviving pieces of video of him)



The trailer from "Bound for Glory" with David Carradine in the role of Guthrie

May 15th Storm Vids

Was just going through some vids at YouTube and noticed there were several new ones taken during the May 15th storm I wrote about in "Dodged a Bullet" and "Friday's Storm".

This first one is from a tornado watcher's vehicle, taken just a few blocks from my house. (I'd already left by that time, headed away from the storm, although I did give some thought to trying to take some photos...the first huge hailstones changed my mind for me, though)




These next two are vids of one of the tornados that touched down. The first one was shot just off of Hwy 60; I think the second one was on the opposite side of the storm; it looks to have been shot on Hwy 282, just a few miles from where I grew up.

Ford Crestline Sunliner

EDIT: New post, because some doofus came in and insisted it was a '52 model. He gave no proof or references and didn't even leave a link to compare, which makes me question his self-proclaimed expertise on this vehicle. I will admit my own ignorance as to the year model because I went solely by the license plate. Honest mistake, because I couldn't find the owner to find out more about it.

Whatever, it's still a lovely car.

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Photos taken at downtown car show Friday 5/22.

(click any pic for larger view)



Lovely car. If there was anything that detracted, it would've been the yellowing whitewalls.



Note the reflections of a big doofus in all the chrome.

'67 Mustang

(click pics for larger view)

'50 Chevy Trucks

3100 Model

(click any pic for larger view)



From "How Stuff Works"

(Note: After seeing quite a few hits on this post, I thought I should clarify something: The photographs are mine, the info comes from "How Stuff Works)

1950 Chevrolet Truck

The 1950 model year brought about the end of the postwar seller's market. Now, suddenly, America's insatiable appetite for anything on wheels came to an abrupt halt. Buyers were starting to pick and choose again (though they would make 1950 a record-setting year for car and truck purchases, spurred on to some degree by the start of war in Korea). Trucks had sold well during the previous four years, and Chevrolet had topped the market; total Chevy truck registrations had reached 345,519 by '49. But with buyers now in control, Detroit recognized that the sales race was about to heat up.



Even so, not much changed on 1950 Chev­rolet trucks. Horsepower and torque did increase by two on the Thrift-Master, to 92 horsepower at 3,400 rpm and 176 pound-feet at 1,000-2,000 rpm, thanks mainly to a revised Rochester carburetor and slightly bigger exhaust valves. Tubular rear shocks became standard, and the three-quarter-ton pickup now used eight-leaf front springs.



On panels and canopy expresses, a new single-sheet plywood load floor replaced multiple-board construction for better dust sealing. The Suburban resorted to single-tone standard paint and made available panel-style rear doors, marking the first time since 1946 that customers could choose between side-hinged doors or a top-and-bottom tailgate.

In 1949, Edward H. "Crankshaft" Kelley became Chevrolet's chief engineer. He continued to make minor improvements in the division's trucks, but he concentrated on his main areas of expertise, namely economy of manufacture and plant efficiency. Under Kelley's direction, Chevy's 1951 pickups lost some of their previous standard equipment, notably the rear bumper and spare-tire locks. But he did add conventional door-window ventipanes to replace the cowl vent on the driver's side.


3600 Model

I didn't research extensively, but I found a post in a forum that stated the only basic difference between the 3600 and the 3100 models was the bed size (8ft. bed and 6ft. bed respectively) and the heavier duty suspension, as well as the # of lug nuts(8 lugs and 6 lugs repectively)





Both trucks had lovely wooden slat beds.

King Midget

There was a car show at a downtown bank's parking lot and I noticed this little gem straightaway.



From a car club website:

The evolution of King Midget began in 1946 when Claud Dry and Dale Orcutt, who met while civil air patrol pilots during World War II, conceived King Midget as an inexpensive, affordable car that anyone could buy. They developed and sold King Midget as a single passenger kit car in which any single cylinder engine could be installed. The kit contained the frame, axles, springs, steering mechanism, dimensioned patterns for the sheet metal, which could be fabricated by a local metalsmith, and an assembly book. In the late 1940’s, and through 1951, the Model 1 became available from the factory as either a kit or as a fully assembled car with a 6 h.p. Wisconsin engine.

Glancing through the different types, I determined that this was a Model 2.

(NOTE: I've been informed in the comments section that it is a Model 3.  Thanks to the two posters who set me straight...and their courtesy is much appreciated.  I've been corrected several times before on other posts but in a rude manner...and a couple of times they were the wrong ones, not me.  In this case I'll defer to the experts. - Mike)

Note the crown hood ornament.





















By 1951, Dry and Orcutt had developed the second model King Midget, a two passenger convertible offered either fully assembled or as a kit, powered by the 7.5 horsepower Wisconsin AENL engine. This model firmly established King Midget's reputation and incredible ability to perform extraordinary feats. It could carry more than its own weight, it could pull exceptionally heavy loads, it had the agility of a mountain goat; all over arduous terrain with durability and economy for thousands of miles.

It began as the 500 pound car for $500. The Model 2 King Midget was a basic vehicle with a hand start cable on the left, outside behind the seat. It had a black three spoke steering wheel, brown plastic seat upholstery, no speedometer and no reverse.


However, it was this model which first offered the optional automatic transmission, reverse, electric starter, shatter proof safety-glass tinted windshield, top, steel winter doors with sliding Plexiglas windows, hot air heater, speedometer, turn signals, hand operated controls for handicapped persons and the golf model, complete with two golf bag racks, extra wide traction tires on the rear, special low gearing, foot rests on the front fenders and an extra quiet muffler system. The Custom model was introduced in 1955, along with the standard model King Midget. The Custom got a new two spoke white steering wheel, bright red and bone white upholstery, chrome bumper and cowl parking lights. New Philippine mahogany doors and winter enclosures became standard for both models, too.

Friday's Storm

Photos at NWS website from two Swiss storm chasers.

Damage surveys determined that 3 of these tornadoes were EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, while 1 tornado was an EF1, and the strongest tornado was rated as an EF2.

Leona Blanche Ray

Leona Blanche Ray

AGE: 79

DIED: February 12, 2009, in Pampa, Texas

SERVICES: 2:00 PM Monday, at Memory Gardens Mausoleum, with Corey Searl, her grandson, who is with Victory Life ministries from Seguin, officiating.

BURIAL: Memory Gardens Cemetery under the direction of Carmichael-Whatley Funeral Directors.

BIOGRAPHY: Mrs. Ray was born March 18, 1929 in Dalhart to A. L. and Mary White. She attended schools in Dalhart. She was a seamstress and homemaker. Leona married Robert Ray in 1984. She was preceded in death by her husband: Robert Ray; 2 daughters: Karla Cho and Julie Vinson; 1 son: Hank Vinson; 1 sister: Nello Beth Willoughby; and her parents: Aram and Mary White.

SURVIVORS: 6 sons: Steve Vinson and Scott Vinson, both of Amarillo, Tracy Vinson and Jimmy Vinson and wife Shirley, all of Austin, David Vinson and wife Tracye of Seabrook, and Jeff Vinson of Pampa; 3 daughters: Cheryl Vinson, Terry Searl and husband Danny, all of Pampa, and Kelly Richey and husband Charles of Amarillo; 1 daughter-in-law: Pam Brown of Austin; 22 grandchildren: Andrew Vinson, Ashlee Vinson, Jeffrey Vinson, Sierra Vinson, Jaycob Vinson, Tracie Jolic, Brent Noble, Christy McCollum, Corey Searl, Bryan Vinson, Stephanie Vinson, David Gruber, Lindsey Cho, Matthew Cho, Amanda Richey, Allison Richey, Ryan Richey, Terry Lynn, Stephanie, Brian Vinson and David Vinson; 16 great-grandchildren: Peyton Vinson, Emily Vinson, Gregory Vinson, Tessa Noble, Joshua Noble, Gracie Noble, Haley Jolic, Layla Jolic, Alexandra Jolic, Hannah McCollum, Hope McCollum, Kelly Gruber, Michael Gruber, Thomas Vinson, Chloe Vinson and Haylie Vinson; 1 sister: Doris Dando and husband Jim of Springfield, Missouri; 2 brothers: Ernie White of Houston and Irvin White and wife Lou Ann of Temple.

MEMORIALS: BSA Hospice, 800 N. Sumner, Pampa, Texas 79065, or the Harvest House, 736 S. Cuyler, Pampa, Texas 79065.

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This wouldn't mean anything to any casual reader of this blog, and even my friends and family who drop by probably wouldn't recognize the name.

"Mizz Ray", as I called her, was the mother of one of my very best friends I've ever had, Julie, who passed away about five years ago.

Mizz Ray was a lot of fun to be around; she had a good sense of humor and a native intelligence that lent itself to that extremely rare quality: common sense. I often went to her for advice on different things, especially those that I would've had some trouble talking about to my own mother. I was always welcomed in her home and if I was hungry when I got there, I never was when I left.

Even after Julie passed away, I tried to keep up with Mizz Ray and would see her youngest son around town and tell him to tell her that I asked about her. She and I both loved Charley Pride's music and as I sit here, am looking at a "mix" CD that I had made several years ago for her of his best songs. I should've gone by and visited, but it seemed I always had something to do and would forget or put it off until "tomorrow".

RIP Mizz Ray.

Wild Fires

NW of Pampa



At this time, pasture fires are raging out of control in Gray, Roberts and Carson counties. Sunset should bring some relief with reduced wind and higher humidity.

It's a wrap!

Story at the Pampa News website:

Independent film “Texas and Me” shot near Pampa

Coney Island heaven in Pampa

Story on ConnectAmarillo.com

I have a photo of the "Queen of the Coney" (Linda) somewhere on this computer but can't find it.

I've known Linda for years and years; the first time I met her was at a garage sale I had back in the mid-80's. I had a couple of old bikes for sale and she was looking for bikes for her two little girls who had had theirs stolen that week. My bikes were in pretty shabby shape and weren't what she wanted, but I offered to give them to her because I felt so bad for her kiddos.

Two other stories in this blog about the Coney:

Hey Mister!

and

Blueberries With Wings

Celanese bids farewell

Once a mighty employer, plant has lost its edge

Read the story on Amarillo.com

I'm So Glad

My name isn't on the list of outstanding warrants. (link is to PDF file)

My fellow Pampans owe fines of $991,777.74 on 2896 warrants.

I know several people on that list, but not the ones who have dozens of individual fines. I'm glad I don't know 'em or I might've been in trouble along with them.

Celanese Plant Nears End

Pampa company plans to lay off 200 workers, shut down in January

After a gradual decline, the end is in sight for Pampa's Celanese plant as the company lays off the last of its workers.

"It's like driving past the old homestead," said Dietta Pope, who worked there 28 years before retiring in 2000. "I grew up out there."

The plant opened in 1952 but the Texas Workforce Commission announced Monday that Celanese will lay off about 200 employees. Mundy Contract Maintenance, which has done work for Celanese at the plant since 1989, is also laying off about 58 people.

"We anticipate shutting down production no later than Jan. 4 and removal of finished product by March 1, so it will be a bit of a phased layoff," said Travis Jacobsen, Celanese spokesman.

The plant manufactures a chemical used to make plastics, such as rayon for textiles and film for cameras, and a chemical used in the processing of a range of substances from aspirin to pharmaceutical heroin.

REST OF STORY

Police Standoff Ends in Tragedy

From the Newschannel 10 website



A friend of mine who works for the Texas Dept. of Transportation said he was called to help close off the roads in the area.

He called me earlier this a.m. with the news that the man had died.

The Lesson

This statue is in front of the Pampa Lovett Memorial Library; it's one of a pair that were dedicated Jan. 9, 2005. (blog post about the other, Pioneer Woman)

Here is a closeup of the plaque on the base:

The statue was done by Don Ray of Channing and is named "The Lesson".

A closer look reveals the superb detail:

To me, the woman looks tired, but glad to take the time to help educate her young charge:

I like the expressions on both faces, but the one on the boy's seems to be a combination of love and trust, almost an amazement at what the woman had been reading to him.

The boy is barefoot, and the attention to detail by the sculptor is evident, even in a part that might be overlooked in favor of others.

(and no, I'm not trying for the unintentional hits that this blog received from "My Sister's Feet" )

Stepping around to the back of the statue shows more of the fine detail that normally wouldn't be seen...

...even down to the slingshot in the boy's rear pocket.

From the library's website:

Gift of R. L. Franklin: The sculptures are dedicated to all those women whose service to family, church, and community has brought and brings aspects of American life to what was so recently in historic perspective a dangerous and daunting land. Four women of such acumen and industry are: Virginia Green, Louise Franklin, Betty Henderson, Annie Buckler.

Mr. Mule

My new friend at the horse lots, Pampa, TX.

He loves weeds and being patted on his neck.