A Heart as Big as Texas

Our last day in Lubbock dawned grey, with a slight drizzle. We were waiting for the washing machine part to arrive and had some time to fill until we got "The Call". Lubbock is a quiet town considering it's size, without buildings much over twenty stories tall, but spread out over many square miles. It's an agricultural town, the home of Texas Tech, where Cotton is King, but fine Quarter Horses and Hereford cattle come in close behind. This is a big part of Texas, where you can see nearly to Mexico and the wind blows constantly. Only the generosity of the people of West Texas is bigger than the view.

About fifty miles north of Lubbock lies the small town of Plainview. Now Plainview doesn't have a lot to brag about, being a small farming town and all, but what the town is unquestionably proud of is the fact that it is the hometown of Jimmy Dean. Born to a God-fearing Baptist mother who was a regular at the Seth Ward Baptist Church, Jimmy, like so many before and since, grew up with gospel music in his veins. In spite of himself, he learned moral values and a love of family that he never forgot.

Jimmy joined the Merchant Marine as soon as he was able, and after serving his required year, joined the Army Air Corps.

After his military service, Jimmy found himself doing singing gigs in clubs and bars, but got a break one day when an acquaintance asked him to join an established singing group. He soon was the star of the show and moved to Washington, D.C., where he and his band caught the eye of some television people. He soon had his own show, The Town and Country Show. One of his first interviews on the show was with a shy young man named Elvis Presley. Jimmy later said the interview went like this:

Jimmy: So you're going to do a show tonight?

Elvis: Yep.

Jimmy: It"s on a boat. Have you ever worked on a boat before?

Elvis: Nope.

Jimmy: I imagine you're looking forward to this aren't you?

Elvis: Yep.

"Big Bad John" was perhaps Jimmy's most famous hit. He wrote it on the back of a scrap of paper he found in the seat back in front of him on an airline flight from New York to Nashville in 1961. During the recording session in Nashville, legendary Floyd Cramer picked up a piece of steel being used as ballast to hold up a tv camera and began to strike it with a hammer. Holding it close to a microphone, and with instructions to the sound engineer to "put some echo on it", Floyd worked some magic and the sound of a pick striking a vein of coal became a vital part of the performance.

Jimmy had hit the big time, with performances across the nation, including Las Vegas. Check out this story of one of his performances:

Jimmy valued family above all, and often remembered his Grandfather's advice: "Be yourself, Boy, because if people don't like you as you are, they're not going to like you as somebody you're trying to be." One year, while visiting family in Plainview for Christmas, he took interest in hog farming, visiting his first cousin Lucy's farm. He soon brought his brother into the picture and, with Lucy's husband, changed the name to The Jimmy Dean Pig Parlor. Eating breakfast one morning in Plainview, Jimmy bit into a piece of gristle in his sausage. That was it, and the sausage story began.

The newly formed Jimmy Dean Meat Company opened for business in Plainview. The grand opening was called "the biggest thing to hit the Texas Panhandle since irrigation", and even had the Governor at the time, Preston Smith, in attendance. Over the years, in addition to his musical career, Jimmy served on the board of his company. He sold the company to Consolidated Foods (Sara Lee) and became a spokesperson for his sausage. After investing 35 years in a company he started in his hometown, Sara Lee and Jimmy parted ways. Jimmy always said "somebody doesn't like Sara Lee". He sold all but one of his shares in the company, just as a souvenir.

Jimmy Dean was a true Texan. Born poor, he never forgot what good fortune he had enjoyed. The last picture in the museum dedicated to him in Plainview says it all:

We left the Jimmy Dean museum with a renewed sense of love for the people of this country. Yeah, there are a lot of yo-yo's, but so many Americans hold onto their belief in the basic goodness of people. Jimmy's company motto was "Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it, and try to do it a little better than you said you would." You can't do better than that.

On the way out of Plainview, knowing that we had an hour's drive ahead of us, we stopped at Java The Hut to pick up a hot drink.

Gotta have it!

We picked up the appliance part on the way home, put it in when we got back, and turned on the washing machine......nothing! Oh, well, I guess it's the laundromat for us until we get home and can have it looked at professionally. Drat!