"Brown County Heat" - Central Texas 1960s-1970s

I grew up in central Texas in the 1950s and 1960s, graduating from high school in 1969 before moving on to attend college elsewhere. That backdrop has had a significant impact on my writing, and it has provided the fodder and inspiration for many of the poems and short stories.

Specifically, I grew up in Brown County. During this period, this area did not offer a tremendous amount of opportunities and at times was downright boring. That boredom often opened the door to drinking and some serious marijuana smoking. I certainly did my share of both, but as I said, I moved on. I had friends who stayed, spending their entire lives right where they started. Some of them went much deeper into drugs than I did. They often sold pot and other drugs both for the income and the thrill. At the same time, there were others who grew up in the exact same setting but who went completely in the opposite direction.

Brownwood was a small town, so you were very likely to know someone who followed each of these opposite paths. Also, if you happened to be one of those who leaned in the direction of drugs, you knew someone who went into law enforcement. If you chose the law enforcement route, you were going to know somebody who dealt drugs. In fact at some point, you might have been good friends with a person who eventually went in the other direction. That is the setting for "Brown County Heat".

These two guys grew up as friends. They might have stayed close during their teen years. They might have talked about leaving for a better life, but for one reason or another they both stayed and, for one reason or another, each of them chose a different path. One picked drugs and the other picked law enforcement.

I had friends named "Buddy" and "Roy", but neither of them served as the inspiration for the two main characters. I just liked the names. Roy was the cop and Buddy was the dealer, Inevitably in that little town, their paths were going to cross, and it was possible that the crossing would be as a result of the "vocations" they had chosen. It was also likely that it was not going to end well.

In this story, I continued their friendship up to the day of the bust for dramatic effect. Roy had to lead the bust that resulted in the arrest of his old friend, Buddy. Poof, their friendship - gone in a heartbeat. Even though he had to do it, and as would likely be the case, he never felt good about it. In fact, it affected his life for the worse as time passed. He always wondered if somehow he could have made it turn out differently, but it was too late. My favorite line from the poem - "He's already too old to die young".

When I wrote this, and to this day, I believe there is a good country song hiding somewhere in this poem. I have sent it to a couple of friends to see if they might be interested in moving it in that direction. We will see.