The Shadow Of The Fosdic Lake Thin Man On An Oakland Lake Park Ledge Thinking About Wink & Roy Orbison

The Shadow of the Thin Man was not on the Tandy Hills today. Instead the Shadow went walking around Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth in Texas.

I was sitting on the Fosdic Lake Pavilion's rock ledge when I looked down and saw my shadow. So, I stood on the ledge and took a picture. It made for a very different Shadow of the Thin Man picture than those that happen on the Tandy Hills.

Last night I got email from a New York based rock critic who is busy writing an article for Billboard magazine about Roy Orbison.

The hunt for Roy Orbison info led the New York based rock critic to my bloggings about Wink. It sounded like he did not make it all the way to the bloggings about Wink's Roy Orbison Festival. I told him that the Queen of Wink was his go to girl for info about Wink and Roy Orbison, saying I'd forward his query to the Queen of Wink today. And then I forgot. I'll take care of that as soon as I am done with this blogging.

Change of subject back to Fosdic Lake.

It is always a harbinger of the upcoming arrival of spring, and its wildflowers, when I see the first of a special delicate very bright yellow flower.

I would have picked a bouquet of those yellow beauties except for the disturbing fact that they don't really have a very pleasant fragrance.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it before, but I'm from the Pacific Northwest, Western Washington to be precise. The Skagit Valley of Western Washington to be even more precise.

Up in the mountains in Washington you will see wildflowers. But not so much in the lowlands. In the lowlands you see a lot of flowers though. Fields of tulips, flags, irises and bright yellow daffodils of the same type bright yellow as the Fosdic Lake yellow wildflowers.

Rick Wants To Know About A Wink Texas Roy Orbison Sign

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.

The History Of The Queen Of Wink's Texas Domain

You are looking at the building where the Winkler County Justice of the Peace dispenses justice, in Wink, Texas.

Wink lost the "ler" part of the county name when the town of Winkler asked the state of Texas for a post office. The town was told there was already a Winkler in Texas. And so Wink was born. That was in 1927.

1927 was also the year the first public school opened in Wink, one short year after the town sprung up in the West Texas desert after oil was discovered in the Hendrick Oilfield.

Before Wink was 1 year old the town had grown to a population of almost 4,000. By 1929 estimates range as high as 25,000 Winkites.

The Wink oil boom and population explosion brought problems to the new town. Lawlessness in the form of bootlegging, prostitution and gambling were big business in Wink. Organized crime took over the town, including the city government.

Wink was sort of a Fort Worth of its day.

In 1928 a District Judge ruled that the Wink incorporation election was void. The city government was then re-organized and made sort of legitimate, with the first city building opening in December of 1928. It was a jail.

In 1929 the Texas-New Mexico Railroad laid tracks from Wink Junction to Wink, connecting the town to New Mexico.

In 1933 Wink finally managed to get itself legally incorporated. During the Great Depression the Wink oil boom declined, along with the population. Many Wink businesses closed.

Wink's population continued to decline through the 1940s, shrinking to around 1,500, with 40 businesses still operating.

During the 1950's Wink's population remained stable at around 1,500. In 1958 Wink lost its railroad connection to the outside world.

In the 1960s Wink's population rose a bit, to a high of 1,800, but then declined to a new low of less than 1,200 Winkites.

In July of 1960 Wink received an urban renewal grant from the federal government of over 1 million dollars. The money went to paving roads.

In the 1970s and 80s Wink's population continued to decline. By the end of the 1980s the number of businesses operating in Wink had dropped to 5.

The 2000 census counted 919 people in Wink.

Wink is often the hottest location in Texas. At times Wink is the hottest location in the United States.

Wink is also known for its sinkholes. There are some who believe Wink is slowly sinking.

Famous Winkites include Roy Orbison (Wink has a Roy Orbison Festival & Museum). Other well known Winkites are the Queen of Wink and Gar the Texan.

Wink Texas Ghosts, Sinkholes & Roy Orbison

My West Texas Eyes On Texas corespondent, Jammin Mole, has been sending me pictures from West Texas for my humongous Regions of Texas Project that has been tormenting me for a year.

Actually, it has been tormenting me for a bit less than a year. A year ago this coming July 20 I flew up to Tacoma for what turned into a torturous lost month. Prior to leaving I'd built the website framework for my Regions of Texas Project. I brought the reference materials north with me and my intention was to make 5 to 10 webpages a day.

By the time I escaped Tacoma I'd been so traumatized that I'd totally forgotten about my Regions of Texas Project. When I got back here I was more interested in regaining my sanity than working on that website project. And so it remained way in the back of my mind for months and months.

And then last week I was looking at my Google webstats and I saw that the few pages of that project that I had gotten done were doing real well. I had not noticed. I have an awful lot of webpages to try and keep track of. That and I forget things.

So, I'm currently in what's called Big Bend Country. That is where Wink is. Wink is both famous and infamous. Wink is a very little town, it's seen better days. Wink was Roy Orbison's hometown. There is a little Roy Orbison Museum in Wink that you can visit by appointment.

Wink needs to have someone make the town a statue of Roy Orbison, similar to what Lubbock has done for Buddy Holly. And maybe someone could make better signage for the Roy Orbison Museum and for the sign that says "The Original Home Site of Roy Orbison."

Wink is also known for its Sinkholes. There are two of them. The first Sinkhole sank on June 3, 1980. Then, almost 22 years later, to the day, an even bigger Sinkhole sank. And now there is a sagging in the ground, near Wink, that geologists say will become Wink Sinkhole #3.

My West Texas Wink Corespondent tells me that locals travel about Wink in pairs. One car following another with about a 100 foot gap. If the ground sinks underneath car #1, car #2 is supposed to get help, and vice versa if car #1 sees car #2 disappear in the rear view mirror.

That is Wink Sinkhole #2 in the Sinkhole picture.

Little Wink is also famous for being really HOT. As in Wink is often the HOTTEST spot in Texas and the entire country.

Wink is also known for its ghosts. There are several Wink ghost stories. The Wink ghosts are nationally known. By those who pay attention to such things.

So, for a little town of less than 1000 people, Wink has a lot going on. Ghosts, Roy Orbison, record breaking temperatures. And giant Sinkholes.