Day One: Texas Roots

On the first day of our summer vacation, we visited Anson, Texas, where Emilio's great grandmother Ida Gustella Ferrell was born on September 15, 1905. His great, great-grandfather, N. G. Ferrell was sheriff there from January 1, 1909 to July 12, 1910.

Behind Emilio in the photo above is the Jones County Courthouse, which was built in 1910, when N. G. Ferrell was sheriff of Anson.

We didn't see anybody in downtown Anson. It was hot.

The abandoned Anson Opera House, built in 1909, held 650 people.

After we left Anson, we headed to Odessa, where I lived in 1982 and 1983.

My junior year, I played cornerback and special teams on a 12-2 Permian varsity in 1983. Both of those losses were to Midland Lee, which went on to play in the state championship--which it lost by 4 points to Converse Judson, 21-25. Twenty-thousand people attended our last game that season. The previous season, when I was a sophomore. I started at cornerback on an undefeated junior varsity team and was called up to the varsity for the playoffs.  For our last game of the year that year, we flew in charter planes to Dallas, where we played at Texas Stadium. I was slated to start at cornerback on the 1984 team that went undefeated and won the state championship, and the coaches listed me as "player to watch" in Dave Campbell's Texas Football.