Interesting topic, Andrea.

This past August my former mother-in-law passed away in Clarksville, Texas. I had visited that town a few times on day trips, but this time I ended up being there for nearly a week. I did live in Texas for six years, but it was spent in Dallas, with occasional forays to San Antonio and Austin. What a strange slice of Americana!

Clarksville is a very economically depressed town up in the northeast corner of the state (in the oldest of the 250 Texas counties according to my junior college government class). Much of the land is scraggy and barely used, and void of any natural beauty. It gets so hot that the cattle look withered. That time of year, everyone is hiding in the air conditioning. Those that do venture out regularly have got to be lizard$.

After a few days of that I was getting stir crazy, so I decided to take a quick road trip to the nearest "big town", which is Paris, a mere 35 miles to the west. They have a movie theatre there, so I decided to head over and see Pirates of the Carribean, which was still playing the first run theaters. The evening ticket prices were $4!!!!! I couldn't believe it.... heck, I could have gotten in for 2 bucks if I made the matinee.