"Hey" Mr. Speaker.....
So I'm at the Ace Hardware this afternoon shopping for carpentry brackets when I hear a voice behind me ask, "Hi Wallace, how are you doing?" When one turns around at the Ace Hardware, one hardly expects to find the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives asking how you are. But this is Midland and one never knows who he will see, from cabinet members to first families.
Mr. Speaker, Tom Craddick, is someone I've known for decades and he and I have always hit it off for some reason. Or.....maybe that's why he has been an elected official for so long, he gets along well with everyone. I originally met him because his sister Bonnie set in front of me in "home room" for four years in high school, we sat in alphabetical order and in those days had home room every single day. Cowden, Craddick, Craig, I got to know Bonnie very well.
The Speaker was in Ace Hardware to get a key made and to buy some assorted hardware. He, like me, was dressed in his Ace Hardware attire, a sweatshirt and shorts. As we shopped we had a nice chat and I had the opportunity to thank him for the funding for our planetarium renovation which he arranged and to put a bug in his ear about several other projects I'm involved in. He was interested to know about the Chaparral raceway project [he is a good friend of Jim Hall] and also said he would check into help from UTPB with the large broadband connection we need to link the planetarium to McDonald Observatory for live shots of what they are seeing down there. I'll see the Speaker again on January 11th for our planetarium renovation announcement party.
As I said above, if your timing is right you can run into some interesting folks in Midland. As an example, we are planning a reunion for Midland and Lee High Schools this summer, for the classes that graduated in the 1960's. On the invitation list are.... the Speaker, the former Secretary of Commerce [his wife and he actually], Gen. Tommy Franks and the First Lady and her husband, what's his name.
So I'm at the Ace Hardware this afternoon shopping for carpentry brackets when I hear a voice behind me ask, "Hi Wallace, how are you doing?" When one turns around at the Ace Hardware, one hardly expects to find the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives asking how you are. But this is Midland and one never knows who he will see, from cabinet members to first families.
Mr. Speaker, Tom Craddick, is someone I've known for decades and he and I have always hit it off for some reason. Or.....maybe that's why he has been an elected official for so long, he gets along well with everyone. I originally met him because his sister Bonnie set in front of me in "home room" for four years in high school, we sat in alphabetical order and in those days had home room every single day. Cowden, Craddick, Craig, I got to know Bonnie very well.
The Speaker was in Ace Hardware to get a key made and to buy some assorted hardware. He, like me, was dressed in his Ace Hardware attire, a sweatshirt and shorts. As we shopped we had a nice chat and I had the opportunity to thank him for the funding for our planetarium renovation which he arranged and to put a bug in his ear about several other projects I'm involved in. He was interested to know about the Chaparral raceway project [he is a good friend of Jim Hall] and also said he would check into help from UTPB with the large broadband connection we need to link the planetarium to McDonald Observatory for live shots of what they are seeing down there. I'll see the Speaker again on January 11th for our planetarium renovation announcement party.
As I said above, if your timing is right you can run into some interesting folks in Midland. As an example, we are planning a reunion for Midland and Lee High Schools this summer, for the classes that graduated in the 1960's. On the invitation list are.... the Speaker, the former Secretary of Commerce [his wife and he actually], Gen. Tommy Franks and the First Lady and her husband, what's his name.
