It really is with some slight reluctance and a little trepidation that I bring up a Wink, Texas potential controversy.It seems just about any Wink related subject can erupt into controversy, spinning off in the oddest directions.
The worst case being the brouhaha that erupted over a totally innocent question about the Wink Sinkhole. Eventually that brouhaha led to the entity known as Fubbolu making clear what a twisted, demented, hypocritically strange nutcase she is.
I don't know if today's blogging about a Wink subject is brouhaha worthy. I suspect not.
A guy calling himself "rickvandiver" commented on a posting from way back in June of 2009 about Wink's Roy Orbison Festival.
"rickvandiver" commented, "How can Wink have a sign that says original homesite of Roy Orbison when he was born just south of Vernon in the Greyback community?"
Now, I think I do not need to go to Wink's go to source for all matters pertaining to Wink, that being the Queen of Wink, to answer this question.
Wink is not claiming that Roy Orbison was born in Wink. Wink is correctly claiming that Roy Orbison lived in Wink. And so the Winkites have erected a primitive sign at the location of the Orbison homesite.
I think it may be the use of the "original" word that is a bit confusing.
The Wikipedia blurb about Roy Orbison and his stay in Wink and his eventual departure from the town is a bit amusing. But I don't know if ardent Winkites will find it so.
From Wikipedia...
"Roy Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas, the middle son of Orbie Lee Orbison, an oil well driller and car mechanic, and Nadine Shultz, a nurse. Both were unemployed during the Great Depression, so the family moved to Fort Worth for several years to find work, until a polio scare prompted them to return to Vernon. To find work again, the family then moved to the town of Wink in West Texas. Orbison would later describe the major components of life in Wink as "Football, oil fields, oil, grease and sand", and in later years expressed relief that he was able to leave the desolate town."
I think I've heard Wink native, Gar the Texan, describe Wink in a similar manner, that he was relieved to leave the desolate town.
I really don't see how modern day Wink is all that desolate. Kermit is close by. Odessa and Midland are a short drive from Wink. In Roy Orbison's day there was nothing to combat the desolation, like TV, the Internet or cell phones. So it really was desolate, in Roy's day, I suppose.
I really don't get what Gar the Texan was complaining about, regarding Wink being desolate, since much of the Wink desolation had ended by the time Gar the Texan became a practicing Winkite.
I grew up in Kermit. I spent only 3 years in Wink.
ReplyDeleteI think they've only recently got Internet out there ;).
We had one radio station (KERB Country). That just gave me chills.
Seems like I remember trying to watch TV. You could occasionally pick up a channel from Odessa. I remember creating my own remote control by getting an extension for my rabbit ears and sitting them in my lap while I watched (as opposed to having to get up and walk over to the TV to make adjustments).
Funny story. Back in 1989, Wink Bank financed a car for me. The dealership in Amarillo actually laughed when they tried to call and got a busy signal. "What kind of bank is this?"
I think they only had one line.
As for the sign? The summer heat causes delusions of grandeur.
Gar, thanks for the clarifications as to the desolation of Wink. I sort of get what you are saying about Wink's summer heat and delusions. This would explain that Winkite who insists on being addressed as the Queen of Wink.
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