continued from page 4
8am - 2pm every Sunday, Breakfast and Brunch
405 North Austin Street
c
Marfa 432.729.4653
www.austinstreetcafe.com
Groups by Appointment
Wedding & Special
Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner
Occasion Cakes
Homemade Sweets and Savories for Take-Out
Thank
You
W. Jay Fielder, D.D.S.
for over 25 years of service
to our community
talk to me, he said, “I want
you to come to the barber
shop. I need to cut your hair.”
And I said, “Dad, you just cut
it last week.”
“It’s time for another one!”
And he’d have a man-to-man
talk with me.
I always had short hair.
And I still can’t grow long hair.
Every time it starts getting
long on me, I tell Viola – she
cuts it now for me – I say,
“You gotta cut my hair. I’m
starting to get headaches.”
disappeared. But, you know,
ever since then, Valentine, it’s
kind of stabilized itself. Some
people leave, and some people
come. We’ve been holding
our own.
Viola: You get people that
come from out of town, and
they just can’t get used to it.
Wal-mart’s two or three hours
away, and they don’t like that.
They don’t stay very long.
115 N 2nd St • Alpine
432.837.5581
Alpine
City Limits
Riata
Inn
Hwy 67 N. • Presidio
Swimming pool
Wireless internet
Large rooms
King size beds
432.229.2528
22
Cenizo
Seafood • BBQ
Steaks • Chicken
Open 11-2 and 5-9
2700 W Hwy 90
Alpine, TX
432.837.9088
alpinecitylimits.com
My dad, he barbered for like
40 years here. Of course, we
had a lot more people then.
After him, nobody took his
place.
Viola: I think Valentine was
just like any small community
around this area. Ranching
and railroad, that’s what kept
the people here. And then,
once those railroad places
started closing down, people
started moving out and trying
to find work elsewhere.
Chuy: A lot of them left
when the railroads stopped
exchanging crews here. But
then the farms over here start-
ed their business, and that
kept going for about 10 years.
Then the farmers went broke.
That’s when everybody just
Second Quarter 2009
said, “No, we don’t have any
doctors in Valentine. Doctors
kill you.” We do have a lot of
older people that live here, but
you don’t see the ambulance
picking anybody up hardly!
We don’t need an ambulance.
We don’t need hospitals. If we
need to see a doctor, we just
drive over there to see him.
Me, I’d need to be dying
before I’d go see a doctor.
But that’s the thing, we’re
used to this kind of life. We
can go to San Antonio, and
we have the biggest time. But
after two or three days, we say,
“It’s time to go home. We’ve
had enough of
this.” Everybody
seems to be in a
hurry all the time
for
everything.
Viola and I are
Tractor by the Road,Valentine,Texas.Watercolor on paper, 11” x 17”
Chuy: There’s disadvan-
tages. Like buying groceries –
you can’t buy a loaf of bread
or a gallon of milk here …
Viola: … not having any
gasoline. But we’ve adapted.
Chuy: If you get sick, you’re
kinda far away from the near-
est doctor or hospital. But you
know, I don’t remember any-
body dying of a heart attack
in Valentine. Do you?
Viola: No, knock on wood!
You’re not supposed to talk
like that!
Chuy: This old man told me
the other day, “You know why
people live so long here in
Valentine?” And I said, “It
must be the water.” And he
always busy, but it’s not that
rush-rush thing. Life is a
different pace over here. It’s
slow, you know. We’re happy
with it …
Viola: … and we’re just try-
ing to keep it going. We’ve
been here all our lives. We
don’t want it to die. That’s
why we try to stay so busy. So
Chuy, he holds three jobs. He
works at school half a day;
he’s got all his city stuff to do;
and then he works with FedEx
till he comes home in the
evenings, about 8 o’clock. And
then he still comes back here
and grades papers or does city
stuff.
Chuy: I’ve been mayor since
’76. Nobody has run against