Okay, so I made up the word – ‘rurality,’ but it seems to fit, and as I about to suggest, out this way in rural, Trans-Pecos Texas, there are a different set of rules. (Trans Pecos refers to the area of Texas west of the Pecos River, or more simply West Texas or Far West Texas.)
As you have been reading, we have been really enjoying our time in Big Bend as well as our ventures into the surrounding areas. We have travelled to Alpine, Marfa, Presidio, Marathon, Fort Davis, Fort Stockton, El Paso, Study Butte, Terlingua Ghost Town, and, with we hope, much more to come. We have learned so much, and are not yet half way through our time in the park.
One of the common themes I think we have tried to convey in these writings is what strikes us as new, distinct, unique, or even just curious. The following is a bit of all of the above and to me are some telling examples of what a rural life is like in the wilds of West Texas!
Lone Scouts: We heard about this in an NPR story last week. Lone Scouts are Boy Scouts, as the name suggests, who essentially are in a Boy Scout troop of one. It is a program for kids who live in rural areas where there are no other kids and distances are great. Lone Scouts participate in the program individually and is somewhat common here in West Texas. (After a google search, I learned these programs are active in several rural states and a few other countries.)
Six Man Football: As the name suggests, Six Man Football is football that is played with 6 people on the field at a time rather than the usual 11. Six Man Football was started in the 1930s for high schools in Texas that either were too rural and small to have enough students or too poor to field a larger team. Six Man Football continues to be an active variation on the sport here in West Texas as well as a few other rural states. We learned about this as we drove through the town of Van Horne, TX and the town’s water tank proudly proclaimed they were home of Texas state champions for Six Man Football!
Disregarded Expiration Dates: There is a practice we have seen out here that I believe would be considered odd back home (meaning the Northeast) and I connect to the rural world of West Texas. If you are in food store you often will see a food item, say a bag of rolls or a package of cheese, and the expiration date is for May 31. And, you know it is June 2. Rather than discarding the food item, the product is discounted, say half-price, and is bought up quickly. This is pretty common and appears to be a fairly typical way people get by and deal with the long distances between people, stores, and products in an area in which nothing goes to waste.
Pizza Places with Limited Hours: First of all, there are very, very few of them. Partly due to the rural area and partly that pizza is not the mainstay here that it is back east! There is one 35 miles west of the park, one 140 miles north, and one 105 northwest. And that is it! And, the hours for these places? Wednesday through Saturday, 5:00 – 9:00 PM. So, you better plan carefully if you want pizza!
These are some of the more notable examples that have jumped out at us, certainly there are others – like the Park Ranger who commutes home on the weekend from Big Bend to El Paso in his personal aircraft (a 4-seater). We hope this will suffice for now! If you would like to hear some more about the rural world and the ‘rural point of view,’ click on the link below for a great song by the Reverend Horton Heat, a Texas rockabilly singer/songwriter – and a really fun song!
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