IF I'DA GONE TO TEXAS (Monday Writing Essential...

Looking over my shoulder, I catch a glimpse of the roads I've not taken. No wonder I often feel haunted; there are a lot of them. In certain time spans, I seemed to be presented with a life-altering choice a week, and I see myself striding fearlessly forward – Well, it is said that only a fool knows no fear.

With such a plethora of material to pick from, I choose to go back to the mid 1970s, when my plans were made to leave Boston and move to Texas with a friend/room mate. Instead of this, I married a pleasant-enough young man and moved to New Hampshire. But what if I had gone through with my plan? Looking down that ghostly, non-taken road, I see:

I was working as assistant to two editors in a technical publishing house in Boston, and had been doing my research on jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It looked promising. Cornelia had family in Shreveport, LA, not more than an hour away, so we felt we had enough local backup, without anyone breathing down our necks.

When I found the cost of moving large objects to Texas prohibitive, I held a week-long MOVING Sale, grossing over $2500 (which, in 1974 was substantial). We bought a used and battered Volkswagon minibus for $375, packed our remaining belongings into (and onto) it, and hit the road, south.

Our immediate destination was my roommate's family home in Shreveport, LA. We made this our base of operations while taking day trips over to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. It turned out that the boom in the area made jobs easy to find; housing, not so much, but we finally found a partially renovated barn loft, in an unincorporated area, called Audelia, northeast of Dallas.

Our new home had plumbing (sort of), a walled-off area that we hesitated to call a bathroom, and space … lots of space. A year later, we had a real home, jobs, laughable bank accounts and lots of funny stories about trying to asphyxiate ourselves with a space heater, plumbing the shower backwards, etc.

Looking back from almost forty years, I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't gotten that job promoting Townes Van Zandt's school for singer-songwriters. I'd never have turned my own hand to writing country music: wouldn't have met and married Niel or lost him just ten years later in a tractor accident; wouldn't have eleven platinum records on my wall, or my own recording studio and my grand-daughter wouldn't be getting ready to marry one of the biggest names in country music.

What if I'd gone off and married that good-natured hippy pot-head who wanted me to go “back to the land” with him in New Hampshire (For the life of me, I can't remember his name.). Imagine! Winter isn't exactly warm here in Texas, but, man it is COLD in New Hampshire.

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This week's challenge: what would have been or should have been.

It is New Year's Eve. What could be a better time to hash out what should have been and what would have been had we done this or that. Well, don't find yourself with a would-have-been essay next week. Get crack'n.

Comments: 21

Greg Schiller Dec 31, 2012, 2:52pm UTC

We bought a used and batter Volkswagon minibus for $375, packed our remaining belongings into (and onto) it, and hit the road, south.

STOP RIGHT THERE. Hitting the road in a mini-bus is as good as it gets. You can't improve on heaven. I keep wondering what life would have been like had I not abandoned heaven and left the road. :)

You know, it is not too late to launch your career in country music. I say you gots po-tent-tial!

Greg Schiller Dec 31, 2012, 2:53pm UTC

This was fun!!!

Joann B. Dec 31, 2012, 4:40pm UTC

But way too late to acquire grandchildren, so what do I do with the "big name"?

jeanne clarke Dec 31, 2012, 4:43pm UTC

I thought all the big name guys in country music were taken? Isn't that why the women always write all those songs about cheatin' hubbies?

Joann B. Dec 31, 2012, 4:48pm UTC

Well, if I'd gone to Texas, he'd be waiting around to marry my grand daughter. See, I impacted his life, too!

reply to this comment

Kingston Kaprinski Dec 31, 2012, 3:47pm UTC

What would have been is a reminiscence that takes down a road not taken. Every moment is a fork in the road, but some decisions are huge, but I always wonder if even minor choices can change a lot of things. I guess that's called the butterfly effect that when multiplied changes the weather. Not to be too serious, but I like Yogi Berra's aphorism--"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Greg Schiller Dec 31, 2012, 4:41pm UTC

Yogi Berra's aphorism--"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

This is a commonly misunderstood statement taken completely out of context. In reality, Yogi was an alpha user of Apple Maps and he was just doing what Siri instructed him to do.

Glad to have cleared that up. :)