The First One - Dan Blocker

Okydoky.  After encouragement from several different folks, I'm starting a blog.  I'll share some stuff here, be forewarned, I suspect there will be much food and music discussion.  No tellin' what else.  But, I'll begin by explaining the profile pic.

My husband, two sons and I took a little road trip to Lubbock last year (daughter and I took one a few weeks later). ~look out, first music reference coming~  There's a singer/songwriter from Lubbock whom we adore, named Cary Swinney.  He has a song, "Hero on the Square" that is about a little statue in O'Donnell, TX, south of Lubbock.  It's Dan Blocker's hometown.  You remember Dan Blocker right?? Of course you do! He was Hoss Cartwright on Bonanza!  Now, if you still don't know who I'm talkin' about, you might either: a.) Google him; b.)search Bonanza on youtube or hulu or netflix or c.)realize you may have a hard time following me.  I digress.

So Cary has a song that talks about the day Dan Blocker returned home, and was honored with a parade.  He paints such a clear picture of the day, describing the hero riding through town in the Chevrolet from the local dealer.  And in the little town, there is a bronze bust of Blocker. 



From the time we first heard the song, I've wanted to go see it.  Yes, one of those silly little "bucket list" things that few would have on their list......but my spouse and I decided long ago we'd do it someday.  And we did.

It was a lovely Lubbock May day, we flew in, checked in to our hotel, and headed back out to find O'Donnell.  My boys (who have grown up in the D/FW area) were just amazed at the dramatically different landscape....FLAT....yet beautiful in its own way.  We stopped first in Tahoka at their little museum, full of relics from the area so rich in local history.  From there, O'Donnell.  It's a tiny town, didn't take long to find the statue.  We took several pics, and just as we finished we saw them closing the museum. Yes, there's a museum, with (from what I hear) lots of cool stuff, including stuff that belonged to Dan Blocker. But, we wouldn't see that this day....


We found out when we went to find lunch, that it was high school graduation day.  The owners of the little drive-in had a child graduating, so it was closed.  We ate at the Mexican food place on the north edge of town (where eavesdropping gave us the drive-in info), and enjoyed the food and the feeling that everyone knew everyone but us. 

Then it was back to Lubbock, with an evening concert in the garden of an art studio with none other than Cary Swinney (with other faves Michael O'Connor and Adam Carroll), whose song prompted a big portion of our Lubbock adventure.

How's that for a long winded explanation about a picture.........