STICKY DOORKNOBS

A church that's serious about no smackin'

 
 Maybe the next really good idea Our Lady of Guadalupe will enact is, instead of a coat check, a place where parishioners can check their cell phone during Mass.

Paula Munoz: A Midland pioneer quietly passes

A common feeling to experience when attending someone's funeral, I would imagine, is to think to yourself how you wish you would have had a chance to know better whoever it is who has died.

That's the thought I had when I attended Paula Munoz's funeral this week. I had the opportunity to visit with Paula twice in the last year. The first time was last Christmas as my family joined Felipe and Celia Morales' family for Christmas. We spoke again earlier this year when Felipe and Celia celebrated their 50th anniversary. Both times, I was struck by this 74-year-old woman's bouncy, vivacious, contagious love of life.

 Paula was "Aunt Paula" to the many members of the wonderful Morales family, one of the finest in Midland. Last Wednesday afternoon, as a friend and I joined Felipe for a cerveza and some chips at the family-owned Gerardo's Casita, Paula was at home cleaning her house for company that she thought might drop by for Thanksgiving. At 6 o'clock last Wednesday evening, Paula took a bag of trash to the dumpster behind her home in east Midland. She collapsed and died and was found later that night by a passerby. It was a tragic end for a woman loved by not only her family but by anyone who loved Spanish music in Midland. Anyone who enjoys Latin ballads, cumbias or the hard-to-resist Tejano dance tunes owes a debt of gratitude to Paula Munoz.

And that's the part I learned about this charming woman when Celia told me about her sister at Paula's Rosary Monday night.

Raised and educated in the Valley town of Weslaco, Paula met and married Ruben Munoz, her childhood sweetheart, and together they moved to Chicago where Paula received a degree from the Chicago College of Therapy. When my family met and talked to her last Christmas, we laughed at her exuberant love of life and especially for Chicago. "I Love Chicago!" she would say, clapping her hands gently and recalling what no doubt were wonderful memories she and Ruben shared in their younger days.

Often during the last 12 months, my family and I would frequently remember Paula whenever the subject of Chicago would come up. Coincidentally while we played a game last Tuesday night, the night before a heart attack stilled her, the answer to one of the questions in a board game we played was "Chicago" and we all looked at each other and laughed and remembered Paula and her love for the great city. We shared a fond memory and a warm laugh over her, not knowing that 24 hours later, she would no longer be here.

When Paula lived in Chicago in the late 1950s and early 1960s, her family said she was struck by the number of music stores in the Windy City.

She and Ruben would later move to Midland in the 1960s and she brought with her not only her love for Spanish music but also her keen sense of business. Paula opened El Nopal Record Shop, a music store originally located on Main Street, on the site of where the present-day Midland Center now stands. The Morales family remembers how it was Paula who brought the first Spanish music store to Midland and, as Celia said, the only Hispanic woman-business owner in downtown Midland in the mid 1960s. "Can you imagine?" Celia said.

El Nopal would later move to its present location at Neely and Big Spring, in the same building that houses her nephew Jerry's popular Mexican food restaurant.

Celia marveled at Paula's business acumen and recalled when she moved to Midland, she not only started a music store that would continue on even after her death, but long ago ran her husband's barber shop and managed a beauty shop.

But it was music and dancing that filled her soul with the most joy, and so it was only fitting that during her rosary Monday, the recitation of the prayer was interrupted after the second decade of "Hail Mary's" with the playing of a cumbia. It was a non-traditional rosary, but for Paula it was perfect. As her niece Cindy would mention during her words of remembrance, "Paula would have loved it."

Anyone who loves Spanish music in Midland is today should be saddened at the passing of a true business pioneer in Midland, but gladdened at the knowledge that Paula Munoz is dancing a cumbia in heaven.

Midland's new Community Christmas tree awaits first light

Midland's new Christmas tree in Centennial Plaza ... a lighting ceremony will be Saturday, Dec. 5,
and will also feature the city's first after-dark Christmas parade, which will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Turkey of the Week

Oklahoma's Ryan Broyles (85) makes what is apparently his first career touchdown to help the Sooners escape a day without 6. Well, except for the two field goals they had.

My wife should be licensed to drive a grocery cart

I have to admit one thing before we begin: For me to be introducing this subject, I have to be fairly confident with who I am.

And so I guess I am.

That said, I can admit it openly: I am a better grocery shopper than my wife. I am. There's really no need to debate it any further.

Karen talked me into going Thanksgiving grocery shopping with her over the weekend at our favorite local supermarket, the one where the chip aisle is named in my honor.

Let's see, how to put this ... Karen and I have, umm, different shopping habits. I am a systematic, meticulous grocery buyer. I chart a course, have a plan, and then I carry out that plan in a direct path that takes the least amount of time possible. Karen? She just goes and buys. There is no logic to her pattern, no method to her madness. Going to the grocery store with my wife is like driving bumper cars blinded-folded and in the dark.

It's not fun.

To make matters worse, she drove the cart Friday and I had to tag along helplessly, looking like I didn't know what I was doing when in fact I was the ONLY one between the two of us with experience in how to shop. It was humiliating for me.

I used to tag along with my mom when I was a kid. I would hunker down on the bottom rack of the grocery cart, back in the time before lawyers, when kids could ride with wild abandoned on that bottom rack, when shopping baskets were made so 6 year olds could just have a whole lot of fun. I suppose that is where my ability to shop came from. Lord knows mama had a plan and it worked to perfection. You could set your clock by when mama went grocery shopping every week. (I am not quite THAT exact.)

My ability and even my desire to shop was likely heightened even more so a few years ago when, on occasion, I would run into Ronnie Reeger, the former head football coach at Midland High who once told me he did all the cooking in the off-season, and John Ed Parchman, the head football coach who took Lee to three straight state football championships and who has a building named after him for cry aye.

I figure if these big, tough, respected football guys had the nerve be the designated shoppers in their households, it's OK if am too. And it's OK to talk about openly.

Karen has recently been tagging along with me more frequently and it has been met with varying degrees of success. Normally when we go together, we both grab a cart and go our separate ways. I with my list, she with her free-form style. Needless to say, 10 times out of 10, I am finished before her, even though I buy twice as much as she does. Frankly, it's because I know what I'm doing. I start on the east end of the store, picking up the paper goods first, followed by the toiletries and other dry good items before systematically moving up and down the aisles, left to right, in a smooth, nearly effortless, almost formulaic manner. Occasionally, I pass Karen on those times when she is with me, and she will be looking for something. Always looking for something. I, on the other hand, know where everything is. Truthfully. I may not always know the exact aisle its on, but I'll walk you right to it. It's really something I can do that I'm pretty darn proud of.

"What are you doin?" I ask as I pass her, trying to keep covered a sort of quiet arrogance that follows me on these trips.

"Trying to find the hand soap."

"Well then why are you down the V-8 aisle? Hand soap is on 22. Eye level. On your left if you're pushing the cart toward the front of the store. Its really not that hard to find."

I walk away toward the fish market, she walks toward the toiletries.

I should really do it like Jimmy does it, she is no doubt thinking to herself.

"Sheesh," I say to myself, exasperated, wondering if she'll ever ever ever learn.

It should go without saying the items in my basket are stacked neatly with canned goods on bottom and squishy items on top where they won't get smooshed. Karen usually just sort of tosses her things in her basket almost haphazardly, although oddly she has developed an almost obsessive desire for the checker not to bruise her fruit upon checkout. She will pull the cashier aside and tell him how she won't eat bruised tangelos and can he please be careful.

"Why are you rolling your eyes?" she asks as she turns and looks at me. I watch the checker roll his eyes, too.

As I mentioned earlier, we had no list last Friday night when Karen and I tag-teamed our grocery experience and picked up our Thanksgiving items. It was like a tight-rope walker trying to make it to his destination without using a balancing rod. But Karen insisted she's been prepping and cooking Thanksgiving meals for so many years now that she doesn't need a list. She can remember it all, she says.

Needless to say, I will see all of you -- at least three or four times -- this week at the store, picking up items forgotten. With my list in hand and my wife at home.

Texas Monthly gives nod to Jody Nix, Stampede dance hall in Big Spring

Randomness:

• In its December issue on newsstands today, Texas Monthly's cover spread is on a handful of old dance halls in Texas. The magazine prominently features Jody Nix and The Stampede in Big Spring, built and opened by his daddy, Hoyle, in 1945. The floor, Jody reveals, has never been replaced, smoothed or polished although the renowned fiddle player and band leader says he has to drive an occasional nail back down. It's an entertaining, albeit brief look into what is one of West Texas' most historic old dance halls. Kudos, too, to TM for not including Gruene Hall or Luckenbach in the article, opting instead for out-of-the-way, little-heard-of halls in Anhalt, Quihi, Seaton, Helotes, Victoria, Coupland and Schulenberg.
• KIDS TODAY: Conversation with my son this morning while listening to Paul McCartney's new live album recorded at CitiField Ball Park in New York earlier this year. "I don't like Paul McCartney's cover of 'Eleanor Rigby,' he said. "Ummm, Paul McCartney did not COVER 'Eleanor Rigby. He created it, sang it with the Beatles and is now singing it solo. It's HIS song. You don't cover songs YOU wrote." He told me again he didn't like it because he sang it differently than the Beatles did. We bantered back and forth a few more minutes. He may be 15, but this was one disagreement he had no hope of winning.
• OLDIE BUT GOODIE: Bet I might have something in my pocket today that few other people have: A 1952 wheat penny.
• DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE: My office mate Stewart learned the other day that when dialing a phone number that contains a word as part of the number, the letter 'Z' is located on the '9.' I didn't know that ...
• I DIDN'T KNOW THIS EITHER: I thought the other day it would be interesting to write a book about the stories and towns along U.S. Hwy. 180. Get up one day the east end and write about the people along the way, in Albany, Anson, Roby, Snyder, Lamesa, Seminole and such, and be done with it in a couple of weeks. The highway's eastern terminus is Weatherford, or Hudson Oaks if you want to get technical. I thought the western terminus was maybe Salt Falt, TX, near Guadalupe Mountains NP. I thought such a  project wouldn't take much time to research. Nope. Hwy. 180, the same road that starts near Fort Worth and runs though Snyder, dead ends at its west terminus at the south rim of the Grand Canyon, two states and another world away.
• MOMENT OF SILENCE: Online reports in the Bryan Eagle say that thousands of Aggies gathered this morning at 2:42 a.m. on the campus of Texas A&M to remember the 12 killed during bonfire collapse 10 years ago today. My wife Karen and I never attended the school, but we met and married in College Station. I may not be an Aggie, but I grieved for them just the same on Nov. 18, 1999, and in the days that followed, and I remember them fondly, and the time we spent there, still...

Dave Campbell's Texas Football: Nice guys can finish first -- for 50 straight years even

Three weeks after I first came to work at the Reporter-Telegram in 1988, I was invited to lunch with the editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald. The paper had an opening in their sports department and even though I had just been hired here I thought I'd go see what it was all about and what they had to offer. The job itself, a sports copy desk position, was not to my liking but the interview and lunch I've never forgotten.

Waiting at the table at that Waco restaurant along with the Trib sports editor was Dave Campbell. Any kid sports writer who'd ever even thought about covering a high school football game in Texas knew who Campbell was. His smile was accompanied by a demeanor to match and 21 years after that lunch I can still say safely he is the nicest man I ever met in the sports writing business in Texas, with the late Amarillo sports icon Putt Powell a close second.

Dave Campbell is a legend. When we had lunch that day, he was busy putting together what was the 29th edition of his Texas Football magazine -- the sport's undeniable Bible for fans in the state. (When June 1 comes every year, you know that Dave Campbell's Texas Football on newsstands isn't far behind.) Last month, the 50th anniversary commemorative edition of the magazine was released and it is a pleasure to see such a fine man have such great success for so long.

The content of the issue makes for a great read and includes personal reflections of Campbell's time as the magazine's editor as well as articles on the 50 most memorable moments, players, coaches, teams and games.

The magazine reads as a great history book of the sport in Texas ever published. If you haven't picked one up, do ... or tell someone you want it as a stocking stuffer. It's a great read for any football fan.

Congrats to Campbell and a big thanks to him as well for giving us such a quality and well researched publications year in and year out. It is a pleasure to see Campbell, now 84, close out one of his articles in the 50th edition by saying he remains in good health. Selfishly, that's great news for fans of his magazine to know that it will remain under his editorial direction and continue to have his name atop it.

Team building: Lee coach James Morton gives band practice field, then drives to Odessa to support Lee musicians at UIL contest

For Midland Lee football fans, a lasting image of James Morton occurred October 2 in Amarilllo's Dick Bivins Stadium following a Rebels' win over Tascosa. There Morton was, running off the field in the middle of a pack of his players, hand in hand with his young daughter. Then there's a lasting story of the first-year coach, the one he tells about how his son, a first grader, hands out a Player of the Week award after every game, presenting the lucky Lee team member with a handmade silver star and a brief speech about how the chosen player performed well enough to receive the honor -- but won't be eligible again unless he continues to play hard.

The lasting impression of James Morton is the emphasis he places on creating a family feeling in the school's football program. But the family emphasis Morton fosters extends beyond his wife and kids, and has reached into other programs at the school as well.

I imagine good relationships between football coaches and band directors are not rare things. I would think they even happen more often than not. Lee band director Randy Storie said former head football coach Randy Quisenberry loved the band, even awarding them a game ball after one hard-fought win. Earl Miller once got on the band buses to thank them following a game. Spike Dykes referred to the Rebel band as "My band."

While the relationship between Morton and the Lee band may not be unique, some impressive things have happened this football season nonetheless. Taking nothing away from Quiz, Spike, Earl or others who have been and should be commended for keeping open those lines of communications between extracurricular programs, Morton seems to have gone a step further this year.

In the days and weeks leading up to the band's First Division performance at the October 17 UIL competition at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa, Morton gave the band the football team's practice field to use. The lines on the field located just off Tarleton Street are cut better and the spacing more precise than on the makeshift field the band normally uses.

Morton also gave the band a pep talk the week of their UIL performance, but he didn't stop there: On what is arguably the biggest day of the year for any high school band musician, Morton drove to Odessa to watch Lee perform at contest.

Storie has nothing but kind words for the school's new coach, who will guide the team into the first round of the 5A state playoffs tonight against El Paso Coronado (7 p.m. at Grande Stadium).

The football coach even directed the band during a pep rally, something Morton told me made him more nervous than just about anything else this year. A former baritone player in junior high, Morton was also greeted at 6:30 the morning of the Lee-Permian game by the entire band playing the fight song in his front yard, a tradition carried out for years by Storie's band. Hey, some years it works. Some years it doesn't.

Morton says good relations between the adult leaders of different programs at a school fosters a better atmosphere at football games and credited Storie for giving him "instant credibility with his kids" one day when the director talked up the new coach and his support of the band.

"Some people say the game is just about football, or band, or other things," Morton told me this week, "but to me that's why I love working with kids: I like for everybody to feel a part of the cause, and I like for everybody to work together for the same cause, and that's what's best for Robert E. Lee High School."

As for giving the band the football practice field, Morton says its not his field, or the football team's but the school's.

"For all the work the band's done, that's the least I could do," Morton said.

RebelNation has long marketed itself as a "FamiLee," a brand that this year seems to be working especially well.

---

Photo: Marching Band Director Paul Meiste directs the Lee band at Amarillo's Dick Bivins Stadium, Oct. 2. A fixture of the Lee band is its loud and repeated playing of 'Dixie' while the opposing team has the ball and is driving toward a score, making it difficult for the offense to hear the quarterback calling signals.

Morning sky in Midland

How can Friday the 13th be considered unlucky if it starts out like this?

'Well excuse me, but I think you've got my chair'

Have a seat.

Andrews Hwy. and Cuthbert Thursday morning.