The Ladies of Strawn, Texas

I was going to upload a few pictures of the ladies of Strawn, Texas that I hung out with last weekend but thought better of it. I'm sure a few of you would be more than interested in what they actually look like, but suffice it to say that they would be in more trouble if I plastered their faces online and told the truth about all that we did in that little bedroom city - - such a rural secret.

You have to be GOING to Strawn in order to find it. If you're just cruising around the Ft. Worth area and think you may want to venture out in a southwesterly direction for a while you may run across it accidentally, but it was NO accident for me. I was invited, hell I was PAID to come out to Strawn, Texas and to present a little show or two with my dog Faith. There were a few good reasons for the show, the first was to bring awareness to the community that animals have rights too! Other reasons for my visit weren't so laid out, not until I arrived and found not only the entire town of Strawn, but many folks from around the area - - larger and more metropolis locations such as Gordon, Ranger, and Mingus to name a few. I'm told that the 4 residents of Thurber were busy at the restaurant, but we went over to the Smokehouse and met up with them after my last performance...and then the fun began!

Strawn has a bed and breakfast registered with the Historical Society as The Thomas House, that's where I stayed. Now, when I say I stayed there, I mean I stayed there with my dog Faith and NO ONE else, not the owners, not the manager, not even other guests were in the house - - just me and just Faith. This place has six bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a couple of living rooms and/or parlors, three dining areas, two kitchens, and yes - - it has a really cool spooky basement! I had to go down into the basement! C'mon, there weren't' any lights to guide me, there was a creaky old stairwell, cobwebs and cold concrete, you have to go into the basement! The thing is, I didn't want to go alone - - that's where the ladies come in.

Once we got home from the Smokehouse Restaurant where we met up with local sheriffs, girls going to prom,kids from everywhere, and all the ranchers in the area, the girls and I headed over to the liquor store which is right next to the convenient store so we could pick up a few cigars and Amy had to have her hot spicy pork rinds! When you go to rural Texas and you're drinking and smoking, you gotta have the hot spicy pork rinds, it's just not a party without them! Amy wasn't from Strawn, but she knew the Thomas House was a really cool location to hang out. I'm glad she came with us, we needed someone to dance for us and she was voted in as having the best body to do that! Women can be so crazy with a little beer, a little gin, a little rum, and a lot of laughter going on. (Don't anyone tell the pastor of the First Baptist Church where Terry was that night OK?)

Peggy, Pam, Amy, Paula, Terry, and I decided to take a few trips to the basement and for the fun of it we brought a little flashlight that was sitting next to the door at the top of the stairs. Using my cell phone I took a few pictures of us snooping in and around the place. We found old furniture, heaters, radiators, buckets, and a few brick stacks, things you'd expect to find in an old basement - - but we found more. We found TREASURE..really, not joking, we found two treasure chests and they were not empty! One had letters and documents dating back as far as 1893. OF COURSE we read the letters! We even took pictures of them and then we put them back. We went through every drawer in the offices. We fired up the old working Victrola and danced. We scouted out the upstairs and wandered through every room, every closet, every corner of the old homestead - - because we could!

After we violated the privacy of the old house we sat outside talking until every one of our children called us on our cellphones and told us to go to bed! The ladies left around 2:00 o'clock and Faith and I went to bed. (All of the ghosts that once lived in the house also fell to sleep - there were no disturbances in the night)

In the morning we girls slumbered in our respective places until around 9:00 or so at which time we were joined by another Pam and Tamara, a woman who had been benevolent enough to have funded my stay at the Thomas House. Donna, the manager, and a very sweet woman indeed, was assisted by Tamara in serving us a fine breakfast of exquisite french toast topped with strawberries, juice, and copious amounts of strong Starbucks coffee...but even the aroma of Starbucks was not enough to cover up all the stories, the tales, the fun, and the mischief we brought to the little town of Strawn that night - - maybe it was being thrown out of the Mule Lip Bar in Mingus early on, but something grabbed us and we just had the best of times laughing and exploring like little lost school girls in a castle of sorts with witches, dragons, and goblins all lurking around corners in that basement. It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if Paula hadn't insisted several times that SOMEONE was flushing the upstairs toilet...and of course, we had to explore that as well.

Thanks to the girls, I can't wait to return, and this time I'm footin' the bill for the Thomas House and bringing a few extra ladies who are quite used to my shenanigans....won't this be fun? Maybe we'll talk the boys from a certain war documentary to follow us out to Strawn the night of the big screening - - going to Iraq is one thing you know, but keeping up with a bunch of silly ladies in the basement of an old bed & breakfast; now that's takes bravado!