After a painful breakup with a girlfriend named Lulu, I decided to get in my car and go. The car in this case was a light blue Ford Pinto, and my destination was Mississippi. That state is not generally considered a place for tourists. On the...
Nearing the end of my freshman year at the University of Texas, I was not sure what to do in June, July and August. If I had possessed wisdom, maturity and direction—which I most certainly did not in those days—I might have stayed in Austin to...
In the summer of 1963, the Pennington family (which did not yet include Paul) moved to a different neighborhood in east Dallas. One of the first friends I made was Randy Fisher. He was not athletically inclined and thus did not take part in...
In 2003, I Googled “international pen pals” because I thought that might be interesting. It led to various degrees of communication with people in China, England, Lebanon, Peru, Russia, the Philippines and Romania...
In October 1990, I moved to Travis Heights, a neighborhood south of the Colorado River in Austin, Texas. I lived upstairs in an old house on Newning Avenue for about 18 months before departing when it was turned into a bed-and-breakfast hotel...
In the spring of 1978, I moved to Durham, North Carolina. My reasons for having done so seem dubious in retrospect. It was not unlike when I went to Lexington, Kentucky the year before. Both were southern college towns—the University of...
I was a student at Hill Junior High School in 1967 when the American Basketball Association was formed. This would be of no consequence had the Dallas Chaparrals not been a member of the league. I was an enthusiastic supporter from the start...
Through the mid-1960s, I did not know what “segregation” was but I could look around and see there were no black people in our east Dallas neighborhood. And since it was not exactly a sociopolitical hotbed, nobody made a fuss or...
April 27, 2005 Darrell Royal University of Texas University Station Austin, TX 78712 Dear Coach Royal: I am prompted to write this letter because of the recent death of Prentice Gautt, the first black football player at your...
Six years after college graduation, I was washing dishes at the Capital Oyster Bar in downtown Austin. Not exactly on the fast track to the top, was I? Some kind of change was in order, so I quit my job and took a long drive—4,200 miles...
I encountered Roland Wood in the summer of 2005. I was driving my old Mazda south on San Jacinto Boulevard in central Austin and was zooming by when I caught sight of him: a big black guy slouched over in a wheelchair. Downtrodden people are...
1. Dallas White Rock Marathon / December 4, 1988…….……..……..2:48:02 (68) 2. Houston Marathon / January 5...
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