Woodstock | Plus 40

In two weeks, it will be the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Hard to believe. The Summer of Peace and Love not withstanding, it was a seminal event with some of the world's best rock musicians. Fitting that it occured in 1969, because to me, this was the year that the original and classic rock n' roll ended. In the 70's and afterward it was different, losing it's free spirited, hard driving enthusiasm to commercialism which ended up, temporarily, ending music as we know it with.....Disco. I'll be playing clips of some other classic performances in coming days. But above, probably my favorite....Santana. Rock on...!

The Eagle has landed.....

It's hard to believe that it's been 40 years since Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on another cosmic body.....the Moon. Hard to believe that from Alan Shepard's first 15 minute ride into space in 1961, we developed the technology to send men to land on the moon just 8 years later.

If you weren't old enough to have been around in the 1960's to witness the "space race" culminating in the "moon shot", it was an amazing time. The venture into space was the cutting edge of technology, at a time when new technology wasn't a daily part of life. We are technology jaded today. Then, with only three broadcast TV channels, most of the population was glued to the family TV watching this all unfold. The astronauts were tops on the hero list.

As has been noted in recent times, the computers that guided the Apollo 11 spacecraft had less computing power than today's small personal cellphones. Watching and listening as Neil Armstrong overrode the computer to land the Eagle moon lander by his own piloting skills has to be one of the most thrilling moments of TV history. In total, twenty-four American astronauts have traveled to the Moon, with twelve walking on its surface. The lunar landings occurred over a short 3 year period, the last coming in December of 1972. Quite frankly the technological task of getting us to the moon in 2009 would be a daunting prospect. To do it in 1969 was nothing short of phenomenal.

The photo above is a shot I took with an old camera of the TV screen on July 20th 1969, with Neil Armstrong already on the lunar surface [right] and Buzz Aldrin climbing down the Eagle's ladder to join Armstrong. One of my prize possessions, courtesy of my brother at NASA is a personally autographed copy of Gene Cernans' great book, "Last Man on the Moon". Gene was the last man to have trod on the lunar surface.

Chaparral 2J | The Sucker Car

Yesterday, we ran the historic Chaparral 2J, "the sucker car" for it's semi-annual mainentance laps. One of the most historic and innovative racing cars ever built, the 2J always draws a big crowd, even some folks driving from Austin for the event. We run all the Chaparrals during a years time. If you want to be put on our mailing list to be notified when we are running the Chaparrals at The Petroleum Museum, let me know! The video above was shot in 2005 at Laguna Seca Raceway in California, when the Chaparrals were the featured cars at the Rolex Vintage Car event, the largest in the USA.

McNamara....

Probably you saw or read that Robert Strange McNamara died today...and yes his middle name was Strange. His passing is sad in a historical way, and for his family, but most of us of the Vietnam era who served in the military have fairly strong feelings about the man who directed and shaped the war.

Despite President Kennedy's and Johnson's philosophical leadership, McNamara, as Secretary of Defense, was the chief architect of how the war was fought. And for a good deal of the war it was poorly served by his leadership. It was the accountant and statistician McNamara who after the battles in the Ia Drang Valley where my friends fought, came up with the concept of the "body count" as a measure of how we were doing. After the battle at LZ Xray McNamara decided that if we could keep on killing the enemy in much greater numbers than they were killing our soldiers, the North Vietnamese could not sustain the war. In the end the North Vietnamese lost numbers some put close to three million soldiers and civilians, the U.S. lost close to 59,000 troops....and still we were defeated. While being interviewing for the book We Were Soldiers Once and Young, General Giap, the military commander of North Vietnamese forces, told General Hal Moore that North Vietnam would have been willing to endure three times the casualties that they did and would have fought for 20 years more if it meant winning the war.

Perhaps our disdain for McNamara stems from his lofty Ivy League "I'm obviously right, so let's stick to the business plan" attitude, which reduced our brother soldiers to statistical highlights making it seem OK to lose 100 Americans if only they killed 500 Viet Cong as they were dying. It was obvious to the troops dying in the mud that he certainly wasn't right about much nor had the willingness to change strategies or listen to the commanders in the field. And certainly his mea culpa book in 1995, admitting that early in the war he knew he was wrong but did nothing to change the outcome, has left his place in history with Vietnam Vets on the dung heap.

Added as it appeared, my friend Joe Galloway's comments on McNamara

4th of July | Midland

Happy Independence Day!
Photo slideshow of the 4th in Midland

The naked lamp is lit..

Perhaps you read the bizarre story about the airline passenger who suddenly felt the need to strip naked and lay in his seat thusly, causing the flight to land in Albuquerque. Obviously this poor fellow had some break with reality, but on some plane trips in the past I can almost identify with him. One such trip in 1988 comes to mind.

The wife, at the time, and I had been at my family's home on Torch Lake, Michigan an hour north of Traverse City. To return home we had to catch a commuter flight from Traverse City to either Detroit or Chicago. On this trip we changed planes in Detroit which required about a 2 hour wait in the airport. We boarded the American Airlines flight to Dallas, taxied out to wait our turn in line to take off at which point all hell broke loose in the unfriendly skies as a huge group of thunderstorms started letting loose over the airport. They went on.....and on, until the captain informed us that this might go on for awhile and so to save fuel he needed to shut the engines down and with all the gates full we were going to stay put on the taxiway.

So there we sat for the next 3 hours in the darkness, with only some emergency lighting on in the cabin. And with no engines powering the ventilation systems we sat in the stifling humid still air. The crew strongly suggested that we not leave our seats and being in the window seat I could not stretch my 6'2" frame out at all. To make matters worse, I had on my favorite lizard skin cowboy boots, which were only good for about 6 hours of comfort before they started feeling like beaver traps on my feet. Being the sort who likes to move around often, my only option was to squirm around which irritated the wife to no end.

Which brings me back to the naked guy in the paper today. I think that probably I was only minutes away from a claustrophobia attack, which is what could have happened to this guy. If I could have gotten out of my window seat I would have surely stripped off those lizard skin boots and may not have stopped there.

Kim Miller | Midland talent

Kim Miller was a classmate of my sister's at Midland High. Their class is having a reunion this week and I ran across Kim's entry on their website. Kim lives in Wimberely, as does my friend Connie Nelson who is still involved in the music business. I hope to put them together....

Preview more of Kim's music at Kim Miller.Com

Father's Day: Gone but never forgotten..

My Dad.....and Mom with me

Photographic legacy...

I'm daily being reminded of where my photographic interest, and whatever talent I have, came from. My Dad. After my Dad passed away I took possession of his photo archive; thousands of color slides, which he took from the late 1940's until the early 1990's. My goal is to put as many of them as I can into digital format to not only preserve them but also to give copies to my brother and sister.

I have about 20 slide carousals full, as well as a photo file box with many 100's of loose slides. I was helped along by my Mom, who some years ago made a good effort at organizing the carousals into topics roughly by the years in which they were taken and/or by subject. So I have many from the 40's and 50's of Mom and Dad's families, me and my siblings as small kids, trips taken over the decades [including to the original Disneyland not long after it opened], scout photos and memorable events. I have to admit that reviewing all these photos is a very poignant experience. Seeing family members [including dogs] long gone, remembering trips taken and reliving good times is a joyful yet very melancholy experience.

I really need to acquire a good slide scanner, but as I was reviewing the slide carousals shown on our original family slide screen, the thought occured to me that I might be able to photograph the slides with my digital camera. The old fashion slide screen provides excellent luminosity and the results have been mostly good.

The photo above is one. The shot taken by my Dad is of his mother, out rowing at our house in Michigan. She's probably close to 80 years old when the photo was taken in the late 70's. She was quite a woman. My Dad was in our vintage Old Town canoe, a beautiful creation of wood and canvas.

How hot is it.....?

How hot is it.....? Well in West Texas terms it's not that bad. It's been close to 100° every day for several days, but that's not too bad comparatively. In 1994 I lived through the hottest day on record here, 119°, that's hot. It's just that our daily weather is turning into those kinda' days that are like living on Mars. No clouds most of the day, so the sun is "on" with no breaks. We have had some thunderstorms build up in the afternoons, late in the afternoon, but these are just an irritant. As anyone who has lived in Midland knows, there is a phenomenon peculiar in these parts, that a storm, no matter how big will suddenly veer, or split, or just stop before it gets into the City of Midland. Weathermen friends confirm this. So......lot's of storms and rain around, none on our yards.

It's the kinda' hot now that starts to bug man and dog. I know when this starts because of D. Daphne Dog. Usually when I say the magic words, "out back" or "ride", she's on her feet like her legs were spring loaded. Now, with D. Daphne laying under the air conditioning vent the king of words, "ride", illicits that kind of look that says, "if you make me I'll go, otherwise I'm fine right here". That's kinda' the way I feel too.

Le Mans..

Jim Hall | Del Sloan
The 24 hours of Le Mans being run today is the premier sports car event in the world...in my opinion. Cars of all makes, models and capabilities running a grueling and long track for 24 hours. I'll be watching during the day....and night with special interest this year. My old friend and business partner Del Sloan is there.

I had some business with racing legend Jim Hall this week and Del accompanied me to my visit at Chaparral Racing to lend a hand in the oil business talk. But the highlight of the visit was hearing Jim talk about his career at Le Mans, especially the 1963 season when Jim teamed with another racing superstar, Dan Gurney, to drive Le Mans. Hearing some of the inside stories about those "golden days" of sports car racing from one of the legends of the era is magic!

A Good List....

By Regina Brett, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. Yield.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey
is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

June 6th 1944 | D-Day

Thank you for your sacrifice for our freedom....

Dogs in cars...

Many of you may remember the old photo website, "The Mirror Project", a great website that killed itself because it got so popular that it became too much work for it's creator. It's premise was to submit photos of yourself in reflective surfaces. I spent several years submitting over a 100 photos and I miss it. The photos chronicled my life for those good years.

So now I occasionally chronicle the life of D. Daphne Dog in a British based web vehicle called, "Dogs in Cars". You can guess the premise of this effort I suspect. If you're a dog lover you'll enjoy looking around.
Here's one of Daphne
And a recent one....

Firing up a Chaparral...

Too wet to drive the Chaparral 2E, but it sounds good, we try to run again on Friday, 29 May. The guy in the shorts and black shirt looks familiar :>]

Memorial Day

C.W. Craig, 1923-2006
45th Infantry Division: Italy, France
WWII 1943-1946

Springboard Center Grand Opening

Video of The Springboard Center grand opening [thanks to Jimmy Patterson]

Irish ancestral serendipity.....

Craig family home, Castlecatt, Country Antrim, Northern Ireland

A month ago I wrote that I found out the name of the small town in Northern Ireland where my Dad's grandfather emigrated from, Castlecatt, and that I had just Googled up names there and found the Craig Cottage B&B and that I had written the owner Rosemary seeing if she could help me learn a few things about my family.

Well Rosemary has sure come through, referring me to her older uncle, Robert and his friend Nevin Taggert. Nevin, I've learned, in many emails is rather the local historian, and I get the feeling he's helped many Irish expatriate families get in touch with their pasts. Amazingly it turns out that Robert's wife, Margaret, quite possibly is a distant cousin; not from the Craig family but from the Wallace side of my family [from whence is derived my first name]. That side of our family name stopped with my Great/Great Grandmother Ellen Wallace who married Robert Howard Craig on 18 August 1859 in the First Presbyterian Church in Bushmills, County Antrim [something that Nevin found out for me]. Margaret Thompson's old family name is Wallace and Nevin tells me he thinks all the Wallace's in the area are from one family.

I've enjoyed meeting such great people far away and people whose sense of family and history runs deep. Nevin has gone so far as to visit several places around Castlecatt that he knows are related to my family history, taking photos for me. Like the photo above which he took yesterday. The yellow house was my Great/Great Uncle Samuel Craig's home, my Dad's grandfather's brother Sam who built the home about 1900. Nevin also sent a photo of Margaret wearing the Wallace family ring inherited from her grandmother. Amazing.

Keni Thomas | Ranger, musician, good guy...

My friend Keni Thomas at the Houston Rodeo.

Fallen Heroes..

Late last year, Mayor Wes Perry asked me to help him think of meaningful ways the City of Midland could honor our local/area soldiers who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan. We've done several small things, but we were looking for something more permanent.

We were mulling over several ideas when serendipity intervened. Several months ago my friend Connie Nelson called to say that through her country music contacts, she had a professional portrait artist friend in Nashville, Corey Frizzell, who wanted to honor our fallen soldiers by doing portraits of them to present to their families. Connie asked me if I had any ideas to assist Corey in getting his "Fallen Heroes" project off the ground. And boy did I!

After consulting with Wes and other city officials I asked Corey if he would be willing to render portraits of all eleven area service members who have given their lives for America, to be placed in a prominent public memorial. As you watch the video clip, below, of Corey presenting his first portrait last week, know that soon he will be working on our Permian Basin Fallen Heroes. Corey is noted for his works of country music stars, including his famous uncles Lefty and David Frizzell.

Corey's story can be seen here as he presents his first portrait to the mother of a fallen Marine. Corey presents portrait