Sweet & Sour

This will be short and sweet, or sour actually. In approximately 10 minutes, I am heading to the famed Sour Lake, TX for the weekend for a memorial service for my great aunt who passed away over the holidays. She was 86, ill for a long while, and the closest thing my dad had to a mother, besides his own mother.

Sour Lake is a tiny town in southeast Texas, population just under 2000, near Beaumont (another Texas town you've probably have never heard of). I often refer to it as the "armpit of Texas" as there just ain't much going on there other than a unique odor that can only be found in southeast Texas. Ahhhh, oil rigs and refineries with a wisp of sulfur, nothing like that sweet, cancerous smell to make you feel at home!   The stories my dad tells about his childhood in Sour Lake fall under the category of "truth is much stranger than fiction" with a few "holy ****! You lived through that?!" thrown in.  If you are lucky, I'll get him to tell me a few and actually write them down. Like the story about how my great-grandfather got a job as "manager" on an oil rig by knocking out the old manager with a shovel, then declaring himself the new boss in town.  True story! 

I do have plans to get in my 100 minutes and pages while I am there, I'm taking my running shoes so I can run and walk around the small town, maybe catch up on some family history too. I'm taking a few books so I can read on the car ride (no, I am not driving). Since the internet craze has not quite hit Sour Lake yet, I might not be able to post much, but be keeping up with the challenge and will post upon my return Sunday/Monday.

As Davy Crockett allegely once said, "you can go to hell, I'm going to [Sour Lake] Texas!"