April 19, 2023 • 36 mins
In this month's episode, editor Adam D. Young joins our agriculture and environmental reporter Brandi D. Addison to discuss the muddled history of Lubbock's signature cocktail — the Chilton — the mysterious underground tunnels of our region, and Lubbock's Prohibition past.
Find the Weird West Texas series on our website.
To read individual stories, visit the links below:
Got an idea for a topic? Send an email to BAddison@gannett.com with "Weird West Texas" in the subject line.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:08):
Howdy. My name is Brandi Addison. I'm the regional agriculture
and environmental reporter for the USA Today Network's West Texas region.
And this is weird. West Texas, the podcast. Each month
we'll explore some of the most odd, eccentric and sometimes
just plain weird things in our region, from the northernmost
town of Richland down into the big country, eastward into
the rolling plains and all the way to El Paso.
(00:29):
This month, we're exploring the origins of Lubbock's signature cocktail,
the Chilton and the mysterious tunnels that stretch beneath our region. Now,
let's get weird, y'all. Today I'm with my editor, Adam DeYoung.
How are you, Adam?
S2 (00:40):
Doing well. How are you, Brandy?
S1 (00:42):
Good. Did you get a haircut.
S2 (00:44):
A couple of weeks ago? But it was really short,
so it still shows. Yeah.
S1 (00:48):
Yeah. Okay, Well, I'm glad to have you here again
talking weird things. West Texas are weird and wonderful. West Texas, right?
S2 (00:56):
Yeah. I'm particularly interested in this one. We had fun
with Chilton's story going out, speaking with one of your
favorite bartenders in town, cousin over at West Table.
S1 (01:06):
Yeah, we did have a lot of fun with it.
We mentioned him in a podcast. We went over and
taste tested Chilton's. I really enjoyed the blueberry one for
World Cocktail Day. Right? I made a video with him
and he's pretty well established himself as the face of
the Chilton. Now he's like in at least half a
dozen videos and articles at this point related to the Chilton.
(01:26):
So I think he was just the perfect source for that.
S2 (01:31):
Absolutely. I think you said you recently saw that Lubbock
Economic Development Alliance featured the Chilton and the the story
the Lubbock lore behind its origin story.
S1 (01:41):
Yeah. Yeah. There was yeah, some something downtown. I know
that much. Yeah and you know visit Lubbock has featured
it Texas Monthly has featured it. Chilton is really picking
up the pace here now, so. And I'm happy to
see that Right it landed on what the front page
for us as well.
S2 (01:57):
Yeah. We give it some nice play. Our photographer Annie Rice,
got some nice photos. And we also had a different
shoot with Mark Rogers, one of our photographers. So just
I always like a good cocktail photo shoot, pretty photos.
S1 (02:11):
So, you know, talking about the children, it's certainly not
the weirdest thing in West Texas. Right? It's not even
weird at all. I do think it has an interesting background, though.
And that one, it's like one of the only cocktails,
I would say, like in the nation that we could
actually really most people familiar with it are also familiar
with its origin place, its location. Right. Like, sure. Like
(02:31):
we do know that the Manhattan is from New York City.
And some people may say the mint julep is from
the Kentucky Derby. Right. But I didn't necessarily know that
the Sazerac was from LA. Right. Or just, you know,
various different drinks. But everyone who is familiar with the
Chilton does know that the Chilton came from Lubbock. Right?
I mean, you would say that's likely.
S2 (02:54):
Yeah, That's increasingly the story I've heard. It's the, you know,
the origin of this Dr. Chilton, who mysteriously showed up
at the country club and had a very specific but
simple drink request. And the date's always kind of out there, perhaps.
I think you've said it might have started during the
Prohibition era or what the cousin believes.
S1 (03:15):
Yeah.
S2 (03:16):
Yeah, but I think that the agreed upon things are
usually that it was at the country club and it
was in Lubbock. And despite the relatively simple ingredients that
go into a Chilton, which is just club soda, ice,
salted rim, lots of lemon juice and vodka, I guess
(03:37):
the idea is that it originated here and not elsewhere.
S1 (03:41):
You got to say soda water for the Chilton, though
it's not club soda. I know it's the same thing
in theory, but you got to say soda water. Like,
I don't understand why. That's how it goes.
S2 (03:52):
Soda, water, seltzer.
S1 (03:55):
Nope. It's got to be soda water. Yeah. So, you know,
as Adam said, basically some mysterious figure named Dr. Chilton.
We don't know if Dr. Chilton was even real, if Dr.
Chilton was a male or female. Just went up to
the bar one day after playing golf and demanded, not demanded, but,
you know, instructed rather, the bartender to make a chill.
(04:17):
And basically he said, you know, grab a highball glass,
salt the rim. Pour some ice at a standard shot
of vodka. Add the juice of two lemons and then
pour the rest of for the rest up with soda water.
So it's very simple for sure. I mean, I don't know.
(04:37):
I do like the I like the deviations of it, though. Like,
I like the blueberry one and I really enjoy the
elderberry one.
S2 (04:46):
Yeah, there were just, you know, based on different bars
in town and just personal preference, there are some know
add ins and enhancements I guess different bartenders or folks
have to, I guess personalize it but still has those
base ingredients.
S1 (05:01):
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. And you know, it's
really influenced a lot of various drinks here as well.
They have like the chilled and cocktail in the Can
now from Tupps Brewery in Plano, I believe Plano or
McKinney over in Collin County. They have Tupps Brewery made
a Chilton cocktail in a can essentially kind of just
like a seltzer like a ranch water in the can. Right. But,
(05:21):
you know, we also have like the Chilton goes at
two dogs. Right. So it's just it's interesting to see
how much it inspired around the state. It's not really
made its name outside of Texas yet, honestly, just making
its way to San Antonio right now because instead. But
it's really stuck home here and a little bit in
(05:42):
the DFW area, but not much. But that's just because
we've have so many Tech grads in DFW. Right? So,
I mean, that's pretty much how that's happened.
S2 (05:51):
But yeah, I thought that was just a really good
piece for you or that you identified to pursue with
your developing weird West Texas series just because there are
some knowns about it, but just so many rumors. It's
just been a good series to kind of explain an
origin story. So I thought that ended up being a
(06:11):
good read.
S1 (06:12):
Yeah, but we never found it. We still don't have
the origin story, you know, like the Texans with Texas Monthly,
as I noted in my story, he went on a
similar hunt to and you know, for an answer rather,
and he was able to talk to someone who worked
there all the way back into the 70s, and it
had already existed by the time she started as a
bartender there. And so, like you mentioned earlier, there's this
(06:35):
idea that maybe it happened during the Prohibition era. So
that was an idea that I got from Cousin because
Cousin said, well, one, like any of the ingredients, if
you bought them, it wouldn't it doesn't necessarily lend itself
to an alcoholic beverage. Right. Like Lemon doesn't So the
water doesn't salt doesn't. So it it wouldn't really raise eyebrows,
(06:57):
you know, at the grocery store. If you're buying these things,
people just think you're going to cook with it or whatever.
And then grain alcohols are a lot more accessible for
us here because we grow those crops, right, to make
them So corn, sorghum, wheat, whatever. So that's just kind
of where his theory is. He doesn't know for sure.
That's his own perception. But I like that he said
he thought he was kind of charming, that one. It
(07:19):
started at the country club and we can pinpoint that.
But he think it's really just interesting that, you know,
everybody can make up their own story for it. And
that's his story. And I really like that interpretation that
he had there.
S2 (07:34):
Yeah, absolutely. The these Lubbock is the agreed upon city
there though. So that was you know worth blending in
for this series.
S1 (07:42):
Yeah yeah. Well we do know that and I also
thought it's really cool that like just like he's now
a big part of this story too. Like I said,
he's kind of the face of the Chilton now for Lubbock. But,
you know, he mentioned to us that he whenever he
started dating his now wife, that her grandmother would make
Chilton's just a batch of Chilton every single morning. And
he thought this was a drink specifically for her. So
(08:05):
after we did that video with him, I thought it
was really sweet. He was like, I think she would
be proud of me today knowing that, like, here I
am doing this. And like, people associate me with her
favorite drink these days. I think that's sweet.
S2 (08:16):
Absolutely. And he certainly makes them a lot better than
I did when I was experimenting with them. We had
our sports editor, Carlos Silva, join us for that taste
testing session, and he said he usually didn't like the Chilton's.
He had one that I made at my house. I
think it upset his stomach. And he was he was
not a happy camper. But believe, Carlos, that the ones
(08:36):
that cousin made were considerably better. So I don't know,
I guess just what a bartender can do versus what
I'm going to be able to do in my living room.
S1 (08:43):
Yeah, and you don't use salt anyway, so, you know,
that changes it. Well, yeah, but you know, I did
have a few people email me. I actually had one
guy call me twice. He came from Portland. Obviously I
wasn't going to answer a Portland number on first call,
but I did. I am happy, I answered. Eventually he
worked at the country club and he said that the
(09:04):
first person to create the Chilton was called Ernest Hicks.
He was a bartender there and he says that it
was in the 60s. Like I asked him way to Dundee,
back to the Prohibition era, because, you know, it made
sense to me that it would. And he was like, Well,
hell no. And I was like, Oh, okay. You know,
like just this really cute. Country girl. I thought it
was really sweet that he said that. And have you
(09:26):
ever heard someone say sweet, like, Well, you're getting gusta.
S3 (09:30):
A.
S2 (09:30):
Little bit or bless your heart, things like that. Yeah, it.
S1 (09:32):
Was a sweet thing. It was sweet. Yeah, I know.
But no, it was funny just hearing him because he
seemed really passionate about it and he said, you know, no,
it wasn't from the 60s. And, you know, I've gone
down and actually seen a couple other emails. I got
one from Melissa H. Who said she wouldn't doubt the origin,
referring to the Prohibition era because she remembers that in
(09:52):
the late 60 seconds her mom would make a Chilton
for her dad. He also worked at Lubbock Country Club
as an assistant golf pro, so it only sounds logical
to her. Let's see. Larry said he was a bartender
in Lubbock beginning in 1976, Main Street and Avenue X
Uncle Nasties to be exact. Now, we talked about this
(10:12):
Uncle Nasty wasn't here while you were around.
S2 (10:14):
No, I don't. If it was, it wasn't one that
I was ever invited to.
S4 (10:18):
Oh, well.
S1 (10:19):
Hey, sorry. And so he said that the Chilton was
already well established. The year that he became a bartender.
He ran nightclubs throughout Lubbock until 2003, and they always
been a staple of Lubbock. And then Chris Vee, he said,
without going into a million details, his grandpa started a
catering business and a couple of restaurants in Lubbock. He
(10:40):
grew up in Lubbock as well. It is truly his hometown,
he says. We are at one point the largest catering
business between Dallas and Phoenix and fed people all over
West Texas. We used to feed all the bands in there,
road crews that came to the area and played at
the old Coliseum. We were going to be the caterer
for the grand opening of the Civic Center in 1976,
but the big Texan Steakhouse beat us on price and
they catered the first dinner and that building from there
(11:01):
now closed and bulldozed restaurant on 50th. Is that the
same one as the one up in Amarillo? Is that
the name of the one in Amarillo?
S2 (11:09):
The Big Texan Steakhouse? Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's the famous
one where they have the 72 ounce steak competition. But
is that.
S1 (11:16):
The same one from Lubbock here?
S2 (11:19):
Shame on me for not knowing, but I'm not sure.
S1 (11:22):
You're supposed to be the Lubbock Encyclopedia Atom.
S2 (11:24):
I've only been here since 2005 only.
S4 (11:26):
Um.
S1 (11:27):
Anyway, he said they drink chilterns all the time. He
learned to make them at a young age, as everyone should.
You need to go.
S4 (11:34):
Have a lesson for Violet and lavender later.
S2 (11:39):
Okay. Chilton bartending.
S4 (11:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
S2 (11:43):
I mean, when I made them at my house, my
nine year old daughter was intrigued, and she wanted me
to make her one, so I made her a virgin.
CHILTON It was just some some fizzy water and lemon juice,
but she felt like she was part of the group.
S1 (11:56):
Well, that's all that matters. Yeah, for sure.
S4 (11:59):
Yeah.
S1 (11:59):
So I just think it's really interesting. I had a
lot of people reach out about the Chilton, so I had, like,
someone from my kid's daycare, like, Hey, I saw that story.
You know? It was just really weird seeing that a
bunch of people now associate me with that one Chilton story, too.
So I thought that was cool.
S4 (12:15):
Yeah.
S1 (12:16):
So let's go into the tunnels. Those were I mean,
that was a.
S4 (12:21):
Probably my longest story since I've been here in.
S1 (12:24):
June. It's pretty lengthy.
S4 (12:26):
But there were a lot of areas to touch.
S1 (12:29):
Right. I mean, did you learn anything from it?
S2 (12:31):
I did. I liked the background that you had about
the the tunnels in the El Paso area and kind
of different origins and, you know, explanations for why they
might be there.
S1 (12:42):
Yeah. You know, so I thought that one was really
interesting because it went from, you know, a smuggling immigrants
to being Chinese opium dens to, you know, smuggling arms
during the Mexican revolution. So it's just interesting to see that.
And so even.
S4 (13:00):
An.
S1 (13:00):
Expert within the Border Patrol, right, he told Fox 2018
or sorry, Fox News in 2018 that he believed it
was to smuggle immigrants as well. But some local historians
were like, you know, I don't know if that's possible.
S4 (13:15):
You're not going to build a tunnel beneath a.
S1 (13:18):
River, Right.
S4 (13:18):
So I don't know.
S2 (13:22):
Yeah, just. I know there are a lot of tunnels.
You hear about something like eastern New Mexico and places
like that that usually for immigrant smuggling and things like that.
But yeah, I don't I've never heard of one going
under the river.
S1 (13:36):
No, it seems like it'd be a pretty tedious task.
S4 (13:39):
So I don't know.
S1 (13:41):
I did think it was interesting that a researcher out
there who is specifically.
S4 (13:45):
Researching the.
S1 (13:47):
Yeah, researching researchers, researching.
S4 (13:50):
Specifically researching the Chinese population in El Paso, she said
that it probably didn't make sense that it would be
immigration as.
S1 (13:59):
Far as the Chinese Exclusion Act.
S4 (14:01):
So I.
S1 (14:02):
Don't know. What do you think about that?
S2 (14:05):
Yeah, I don't know. I really can't speak to that.
I'm not an El Paso expert, but I know that
the tunnel system that I was a little bit more
interested in, that you pursued was the origin of the
eight plus miles under the Texas Tech campus here in Lubbock.
S4 (14:19):
Yeah.
S1 (14:19):
So technically, the stories I read said 9 to 12 miles.
I don't think they actually have an exact number on it.
The tunnels were constructed with the first construction.
S2 (14:29):
Of administration building and the old campus, and they've just
generally built them around. I know going back to when
I was a student at the Daily Trade or when
I was a student writer at the Daily Trader on
the Texas Tech campus, I did my own piece just
on the the tunnels and explaining what they were for.
So I had a pretty good understanding of that and
(14:51):
in interest. So I was encouraged when you wanted to
pursue a story on that topic.
S1 (14:57):
Yeah, and it's mainly just for, like, systemic things.
S2 (14:59):
Utilities, hot water, steam, things like that. Fiberoptic lines to
some extent. But a lot of students think that they
are there for exploring and doing shenanigans.
S1 (15:07):
Yeah. And we're going to note here that it is
totally illegal to trespass any of the tunnels that we
have covered without permission.
S4 (15:14):
Um.
S1 (15:14):
You know, I'm sure that you could get permission, even
if you're not a journalist. I'm sure you all could
get permission if you are that interested.
S4 (15:21):
Just got to find the right people. That said, yeah,
you know, there was this kind of folklore going around that.
S1 (15:27):
Said that that.
S4 (15:29):
A guy would go, like.
S1 (15:30):
Walk around campus.
S4 (15:32):
At night, you know, sneak around and then broke into the.
S1 (15:34):
Tunnels so he could make it to his girlfriend's dorm.
S4 (15:36):
And then he got trapped behind him. I would like
to think that tech.
S1 (15:40):
Students are a little bit smarter than that, right? That
they can't find their way.
S4 (15:43):
In or out of a tunnel that has multiple exits.
Or maybe at that point it would have only been
one exit and one entrance.
S2 (15:50):
Yeah, that story, that rumors, it seems like probably a
bridge too far to believe. But you know, it's just
kind of in line with a good mystery there. I know. Ah,
Once you shared that story, the Texas Tech Alumni Association
president Kurt Lankford recently shared, I guess, his take and
memories of being a student, if you don't mind me
(16:10):
sharing this one. He wrote about the OR he recalled
that some not so good memories he had as his
time as a student when he was chased by a
university policeman beneath campus by on his freshman year and
narrowly escaped up a manhole. And he said getting caught
underground was grounds for immediate expulsion. Uh oh.
S1 (16:31):
Wait. So he made it up, though, right?
S2 (16:33):
Yeah, He was able apparently he was able to escape,
according to Kurt.
S4 (16:37):
Well, you know. And look where he is now. So
you good on him for making his way out of there? Um,
I also got an email about it and Chuck.
S1 (16:47):
H said, I just read with interest your piece on
the mysterious tunnels under our feet across the southern high
Plains area. It brings to mind an old acquaintance in
our dorm group during the mid 1970s at West Texas A&M,
then West Texas. So what does the stand for?
S3 (17:02):
Texas State University.
S1 (17:03):
State University. Okay. In Canyon, Herb Smith was a tech
transfer and would tell us all about the maze of
tunnels he and others explored while at tech. Different groups
were under such names as the tech tunnel rats and
so forth. His prized memento from this era, a map
of the system he still possessed. Now that would be
cool to have now. Don't know whatever happened to him
as we all went our separate way anyway. Just some
(17:23):
old memories kindled by your article.
S4 (17:26):
I bet there's a lot of tunnel rats though, in
tech tunnels.
S2 (17:31):
Understood. I know there are various access points. I'm not
going to specifically mention them, but kind of hard to
miss around campus.
S1 (17:38):
No, no, I'm talking about actual rats, so. Or, you know,
prairie dogs.
S2 (17:41):
Prairie dogs. I don't know about prairie dogs, but yeah,
I'm sure there are rats, cockroaches, bugs like that. But
I don't remember seeing one on my tour of the tunnels.
But it's been a while. It would have stood.
S3 (17:51):
Out to the subway.
S2 (17:52):
No snakes. It's like Indiana Jones and the, uh, you know,
going down. It had to be snakes. That's certainly what
I didn't want to see down there. But no snakes.
S1 (18:01):
13 line squirrels, any of those, You know, they've got
to find somewhere in the winter. And it makes sense that.
S4 (18:08):
Infrastructure underground would be a good place for them. I
don't know. But it does get hot down there.
S1 (18:13):
Then you say it was pretty warm down there.
S2 (18:15):
I don't recall that being warm.
S5 (18:19):
It was either extremely warm or extremely cold. I can't
quite remember.
S1 (18:23):
I've read so many stories about it. And one of
the funniest things that I read was from The Daily Toreador,
then the University daily, where one of the writers suggested
that they did classes in the tunnels during World War
Two and said, You know, if.
S4 (18:38):
Some jokester.
S1 (18:39):
Wanted to turn the lights off, it doesn't matter because
most students are in the dark as far as their
classes are.
S4 (18:43):
Anyway.
S1 (18:45):
I love a good tech joke.
S4 (18:48):
You know, they.
S2 (18:48):
Had good commentaries back then.
S4 (18:51):
And today, you know, between the thing about the tortilla
toss and how they derived.
S1 (18:58):
Because.
S4 (18:58):
Of.
S1 (18:59):
Texas Tech would graduate the most Taco Bell managers And
this one I thought it was really funny.
S4 (19:05):
I am an instructor.
S1 (19:07):
At Tech.
S4 (19:07):
And Adam's.
S1 (19:08):
Wife works at Tech. We are big tech fans. We're
both graduates. So, you know, it's just funny to poke
on your own school, but not as much as it
is to poke on you and UT.
S2 (19:18):
Is true.
S1 (19:19):
I like that a little bit better and A&M for sure.
But yeah, so we got the Texas Tech tunnels and
El Paso tunnels.
S4 (19:26):
Now, let's talk.
S1 (19:27):
About how weird it was that this.
S4 (19:30):
Resident just found a tunnel in his backyard.
S1 (19:32):
I don't think he found a tunnel in his backyard.
I think they were doing yard work and they thought
it was a sinkhole. Kind of it collapsed a little bit,
but there was an entire construction out there and they
actually never found, like the purpose of the tunnel. Right.
It stretched 90ft. It was three feet wide, six feet tall.
So it's a pretty good sized tunnel.
S2 (20:02):
Vince supported with railroad ties. It was a fairly substantial,
I guess, bit of engineering. Yeah, looked like it was
certainly intelligently put there for some reason. But the I
know the purpose was never quite clear or determined, but
that was in 2013 when that made the rounds. And
I know you got some feedback on that.
S3 (20:22):
Yeah.
S1 (20:22):
Yeah. So a historian at the National Ranching Heritage Center
at TEC had decided then that he was going to
research by. His first guess was that it also had
to do with the Prohibition era because.
S4 (20:34):
Like I've noted, you know.
S1 (20:35):
Farmers, ranchers, they.
S4 (20:36):
Like to drink after a hot day. And, you know,
prohibition era is probably.
S1 (20:39):
A little bit.
S4 (20:40):
Tougher on West Texas than some boring place, you know,
that didn't drink as much, that didn't have as many
blue collar workers and outdoor workers. So, you know, I
this also.
S1 (20:54):
Came back to the Prohibition era.
S4 (20:56):
And his theory.
S1 (20:57):
Was that.
S4 (20:59):
There was a lot of.
S1 (21:01):
Activity going on as far as bootlegging close to Plainville.
S4 (21:06):
And close to.
S1 (21:07):
Loveland right.
S4 (21:07):
There. He remembered.
S1 (21:09):
Reading through the archives of the A-J that police officers
would literally just go chase down bootleggers on.
S4 (21:16):
Foot.
S1 (21:17):
Funny, you know, there are bootleggers, so.
S4 (21:19):
They go and but they would literally like alcohols in
their boots, right? Because that's what bootlegging is, which.
S1 (21:26):
I put two and two together that they didn't actually
necessarily ever understand the.
S4 (21:30):
Process of bootlegging. So when he taught me that, my
mind was kind of blown. That's not how they do
bootlegging these days, right? It's just like.
S1 (21:37):
They drive up in the car and nonchalantly and just
like bring alcohol after 2 a.m. like and just charge
$40 for a 12 pack of beer. Right. That's how
it goes these days. You're doing the math there.
S2 (21:50):
Yeah, perhaps so. I don't know at this point. I
think probably there are other, um, I guess banned substances
that are being bootlegged. Probably not alcohol as much since
it's pretty readily available.
S4 (22:02):
Yeah, but not after 2 a.m. and Lubbock doesn't like
to shut down at 2 a.m.. Lubbock likes to.
S1 (22:07):
Keep it going.
S4 (22:08):
You know?
S2 (22:08):
So fair enough for those who don't plan ahead. I
guess I get that.
S4 (22:11):
Yeah, there's.
S1 (22:12):
Definitely bootleggers around here. I'm keeping my mouth shut on that.
S4 (22:16):
One, though I do not know from.
S1 (22:18):
Experience, I.
S4 (22:18):
Promise. And so, yeah, I.
S1 (22:22):
Thought that was really interesting that that also went back
to the Prohibition era. Just like really shows what a
toll this.
S4 (22:27):
Era took on West Texas. And, you know, obviously they
had to make money back then.
S1 (22:33):
I'm sure farming and ranching is not necessarily the most
high paying job back in the 20s.
S4 (22:39):
You know, early 30s. But yeah, so.
S1 (22:41):
His first theory was that it was the Prohibition era
and maybe they were just like, you know, smuggling alcohol
down there. And so of course I called him because
I didn't want to report old news from literally a
decade ago. And I was like, Hey, you know.
S4 (22:55):
You were mentioned in this story a decade ago. I
don't know if you remember it or not, but.
S1 (23:00):
And of course, he remembered it because it's not every
day that you find a tunnel in your backyard.
S4 (23:04):
And he said that.
S1 (23:05):
He thought.
S4 (23:06):
That maybe it.
S1 (23:07):
Also could have been an old mining.
S4 (23:09):
Tunnel.
S1 (23:10):
But there were no mining tunnels around Lubbock. They were
mainly up in like Amarillo area, but none around Lubbock.
So he kind of made that. He also had even
researched history, like within, um, you know, one of the state,
you know, databases and that didn't prove it. So his
idea is still that it was prohibition era. Um, and
(23:31):
he even said, you know, that they never could find
an answer, that they did a ton of research, they
went through a bunch of different possibilities. And, you know,
this is really the best he could get. And he
noted that this is, you know, his idea. They kind
of gravitated towards this because Lubbock County only recently lifted.
S4 (23:49):
Their packaged alcohol.
S1 (23:51):
Ban. Right. Like sell rather. You know, the strip was
around since 2009 or, you know, ended.
S4 (23:58):
The the strip.
S1 (24:00):
Was around until 2009. So that's still pretty recent that
Lubbock County began.
S4 (24:04):
To allow the.
S1 (24:04):
Sale of packaged alcohols. So it makes sense to me.
S2 (24:08):
Sure. Just the kind of culture of having to do underground,
I guess business to some extent. But yeah, I suspect
that was probably not for bootlegging. My thought is it
probably was just somebody digging. Maybe it began as a
storm shelter or tornado shelter and just became a tunnel project.
I don't know.
S4 (24:29):
It was 90ft, you know, like what's the purpose of
having a 90 foot tunnel?
S5 (24:35):
It makes sense to me that it could.
S1 (24:36):
Be storage for bootlegging, perhaps.
S2 (24:39):
You were really fixated on the bootlegging thing, but perhaps
you're right.
S4 (24:43):
I don't know. I don't know. I'm just, like, going
through my theories. I don't know why.
S1 (24:46):
Anyone would go build a 90 foot tunnel just for storms.
That seems like way too much effort.
S2 (24:53):
Perhaps so. Fallout shelter.
S4 (24:56):
I mean, possibility, you know, store food down there. Maybe
they had a couch down there at one point. It
was a big tunnel, 90 foot long. Actually, it was
only three feet wide.
S1 (25:07):
So ex may the couch.
S3 (25:08):
Finesse.
S2 (25:09):
Some extra square footage out of a house that's smaller
than you wanted it to be.
S3 (25:15):
Yeah.
S2 (25:16):
Some underground tunnel space.
S1 (25:18):
Maybe they put a dog down there.
S2 (25:20):
A man cave, perhaps. Or entertainment tunnel. I don't.
S4 (25:23):
Know. I don't know. I know my neighbor has a
dog run. Yeah, it could have been a dog run.
A really dark dog run. I don't. I don't know.
I just. I don't know. That's really funny, though. Just
thinking of all the possibilities. Like, I don't even know
what I would do.
S1 (25:40):
If there was a 90 foot tunnel under my house.
S2 (25:44):
I would probably explore it, but I would let somebody
know I had this nightmare thinking about that tunnel that
if I would explore it, not let anybody know where
I was and then there would be some cave in
and I would be buried alive. I was thinking about
that late last week.
S3 (25:59):
Yeah, that sounds terrible.
S4 (26:01):
No, I mean, that's pretty scary. Yeah. I don't know
if the residents ever, like, went down there, but I
know the archivist didn't, and none of the city people did.
S1 (26:09):
Because obviously no one wanted to go to a mysterious.
S3 (26:12):
Tunnel. Yeah, I'd.
S2 (26:12):
Want to take, like, an oxygen tank and let everybody
know I was there and have my cell phone. I
don't even know if, depending on how far underground it is,
if it would ping down there. But I don't know.
I thought about that way too much. The the tunnel
I'm much more comfortable exploring is the tunnel that traverses
Avenue J between the the two buildings. Going to our
(26:37):
old warehouse had some signage that it had been a
fallout shelter back during the height of the Cold War.
But my daughters used to like checking that out.
S4 (26:48):
You did not tell me that.
S1 (26:49):
I thought it was like merely for like, just like
moving papers from our place to the warehouse.
S2 (26:54):
Well, that was its primary purpose, was for logistical reasons,
for transporting equipment. And the large paper rolls from the
nearby section of railroad tracks, but being protected by a
bunch of street and layers of ground. They also turned
(27:14):
that into a or at least utilized it as a
potential fallout shelter if there was ever an issue. And
it was also a tornado shelter a few years ago,
we would do our tornado drills and hang out down there.
It's also a very good ramp for chair races.
S1 (27:33):
Yeah, I haven't done that yet, but someday.
S4 (27:35):
Someday. Um, yeah. So, you know, it was.
S1 (27:38):
Interesting that I learned that, like, not.
S5 (27:40):
Only does the have a tunnel, which you told me
while I was working on this.
S1 (27:44):
Because.
S5 (27:44):
That's just interesting since I've worked here for now, what,
nearly a year.
S4 (27:50):
So, um, I do.
S5 (27:52):
Come into the newsroom, y'all. I promise.
S4 (27:54):
It's just.
S5 (27:55):
Really interesting that I didn't even know that that was
not part of my first day of.
S3 (27:59):
Work tour.
S2 (28:00):
It's not on the orientation training.
S5 (28:02):
No, but we went to the roof on the first
day of work, so.
S2 (28:05):
Well, sure. I show you the best vantage point to
see the approaching Hobbs.
S6 (28:10):
Yeah. Yeah.
S5 (28:11):
And best place to watch the fireworks on 4th of July.
But it was interesting to learn that, like, basically every
historic building, every building that's pretty old downtown has a
tunnel to it. There were some theories that there were
some bomb shelters around which maybe they were talking about
the AJ one.
S4 (28:31):
I don't know. Like as a fallout shelter.
S1 (28:34):
There is some theories that you can.
S5 (28:35):
Get to the bank vault through a tunnel, which I
can't imagine that that would necessarily be like the smartest
move to get to the bank vault. But I'm not
completely ruling that out.
S3 (28:47):
Yeah, that's.
S2 (28:47):
An Ocean's 11 level planning for a heist.
S5 (28:52):
Yeah, I mean, especially considering that, like, we're in Lubbock, Texas,
and that bank's been around.
S4 (28:56):
For a while, right? Like.
S5 (28:58):
I don't think that they would have gone into that
much of planning.
S4 (29:01):
Um, but they did.
S5 (29:03):
Use this to transfer inmates, right?
S2 (29:06):
Yeah. There was a a tunnel connecting, you know, for
logistical purposes with the jail helping for transport of inmates, uh,
court proceedings and things like that and getting to the
Sally port. But there's not too much of a mystery.
It was just kind of a matter of fact tunnel
that they had there.
S4 (29:26):
No. Yeah, it was the most accessible way It made sense. Like,
you know, they then, you know, want inmates.
S1 (29:33):
To argue with one another or fight according to a
story with Caleb that I read.
S4 (29:38):
About it. So it makes sense. But now they don't
even have to do that because.
S1 (29:41):
One, you know.
S5 (29:42):
They moved where the inmates are, you know, sheriff's.
S1 (29:45):
Offices now, not here.
S4 (29:48):
But.
S1 (29:48):
Also thanks to COVID, they can now do their court
hearings via Zoom. So that's the virtual tunnel.
S5 (29:55):
Is that what you said last week?
S3 (29:57):
Yeah.
S4 (29:58):
The the new tunnel is waiting for the host to
let you in the meeting. That's. That's the new Lubbock
inmate tunnel.
S2 (30:06):
Not as fun to explore.
S4 (30:08):
No, no, no. But, you know, it is what it
is at this point. It's probably a lot less scary.
You know, could you imagine, like having to walk through, like,
mysterious tunnel to go to court?
S7 (30:22):
Just put the.
S2 (30:25):
Hands and legs bound by cuffs.
S3 (30:28):
Yeah.
S2 (30:29):
Down into the abyss. Yeah. I don't know. I just
want to avoid getting a mug shot and being led
down a tunnel.
S4 (30:36):
Yeah, I mean, that's something I don't want to avoid.
And then getting on the front page of the AJ. Okay.
Now you know you specifically.
S2 (30:46):
Yeah, you all would probably roll with that if somehow
I ended up booked for some reason.
S1 (30:51):
Oh, I would absolutely do the best for that.
S4 (30:54):
But you're not going.
S5 (30:55):
To because, you know, you're, you know.
S4 (30:59):
You're well behaved. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah. Did we talk
about them? Oh, we didn't talk about the.
S1 (31:06):
Clarity tunnel yet.
S2 (31:07):
Yeah, that's the best for last.
S4 (31:09):
Yeah, I mean, that's what I saved it.
S2 (31:10):
That's one. That's actually something that people can explore. And
just playing into a perhaps a day trip from Lubbock
or Amarillo or cities around the region go up to
Caprock Canyon State Park and check out this old railroad
tunnel and include that on a hike, right?
S3 (31:27):
Yeah, It.
S4 (31:27):
Was only one of.
S1 (31:28):
Three in Texas anyway, which I think is cool, but
I thought it was really cool that it kind of
has become a home for bats. 500,000 bats, in fact.
So I think that's really cool. It's not necessarily like
a I forget the actual term they use for like.
S5 (31:43):
Birthing bats.
S1 (31:44):
You know, for growing the population. As far as bat pups,
it technically can't serve as a birth place for them
or an actual home to them because they need a
closed in space, you know, an enclosed space. But the
tunnel is open on both sides, which makes it a
lot cooler than what they need.
S4 (32:00):
Or a lot hotter, you know.
S1 (32:02):
And depending on the.
S4 (32:03):
Week or month, no, depending on the hour.
S2 (32:07):
And it's not the controlled environment of a cave or
a cavern that they see, like at Carlsbad or some
of the ones that they have down in in central Texas.
S4 (32:16):
But yeah, but, you know, there are some still like.
S1 (32:19):
Being born there. It's just not like as much as
you would see. Right. And those places you mentioned, I
don't know. I can't remember. A cave's hot or are
they cold? I feel like they're really cold.
S4 (32:29):
Right?
S2 (32:31):
I think more than anything, they are a consistent environment
because it's controlled by the ground temperature. Typically, I imagine
they get a little colder in the winter.
S5 (32:41):
Right? That makes sense. I don't know. Bats are warm blooded.
S3 (32:45):
That's right. Okay. They are mammals.
S8 (32:48):
Yeah.
S4 (32:50):
I'm second guessing.
S1 (32:51):
Everything I ever learned in biology here.
S4 (32:52):
So regardless, it's definitely a cool.
S1 (32:55):
Place to explore. I actually one of my favorite sources,
Mike Glass, told me that clarity tunnel he lived out
by Clarity Tunnel and he really enjoyed visiting there. So
definitely encouraged me to go. I actually haven't been to
Caprock Canyons at all, so I need to make my
way up there. I always I didn't know.
S5 (33:12):
It existed.
S1 (33:13):
Until I moved back up here. I always had heard
about Pilot early, you know, I didn't know that we
had so many state parks around here like we have
on a big spring. And, you know, we have some
mountain peaks and of course, Fort.
S5 (33:24):
Davis and big band.
S1 (33:25):
Lots of nice places to visit around here.
S4 (33:42):
Yeah. I'm really just.
S5 (33:43):
Interested about the.
S1 (33:44):
Bike. I was about to say Vikings.
S4 (33:47):
No, no Vikings up there. Bisons up there.
S1 (33:50):
I was really.
S4 (33:51):
Interested about the.
S1 (33:52):
Bisons.
S4 (33:53):
I don't know. I didn't realize that we had bison
around here. Do we have some over at.
S1 (33:57):
Buffalo Springs to.
S3 (34:00):
Um, not to my knowledge.
S4 (34:01):
I feel like someone said that there were some also in.
S1 (34:04):
Like, the kind of the canyons over.
S5 (34:07):
There, like Ransom.
S1 (34:08):
County and those types of areas. Like, maybe a few.
But I don't know if that's true or not since
it's not state land.
S2 (34:15):
Yeah, there might be some private bison collector out there,
but I'm not familiar with a bison herd or individual
bison out there.
S3 (34:23):
Okay, well.
S4 (34:24):
Cool. Well, regardless. Yeah. I'm excited to go visit the
Clarity tunnel.
S5 (34:29):
Hopefully this year.
S4 (34:32):
The summer, right, Once I get back from New York.
S2 (34:34):
Yeah. June. Good. Early summer vacation trip.
S4 (34:38):
Day trip. A day trip? I'm not a vacation trip.
I'm not going to go take some PTO to go
on vacation. And Plainview, I'm sorry. It's just not, you know,
not on my plans.
S3 (34:49):
But hey.
S4 (34:51):
This is what it is.
S3 (34:53):
Good topics. What are some other topics you're looking at for.
S2 (34:57):
I guess, upcoming West Texas, Weird West Texas.
S3 (35:00):
Pieces?
S4 (35:00):
Yeah. So I want to hit the UFO sightings for sure.
S1 (35:05):
That's going to be my next one. UFO sightings reported
across West.
S4 (35:08):
Texas, although I am not.
S1 (35:10):
Going to hit Lubbock Lights because I feel like that
is pretty interesting enough that it deserves its own little
column an episode. But we will talk about UFOs throughout
the time. I'm going to talk about some, you know,
the black eyed children and Abilene, which is kind of
this what would you describe them as?
S3 (35:28):
Yeah, I gather just kind of a.
S2 (35:32):
Mysterious sighting that just really seems like it happened around
the time I was in.
S3 (35:36):
High school or perhaps a little before, but I never
heard about this.
S4 (35:39):
Yeah, it was actually a journalist.
S5 (35:41):
With Abilene Reporter news. Right.
S1 (35:43):
That reported that first sighting. And then he wrote that
there was another sighting up in Washington and Oregon or something.
Just kind of like this, like, phenomena, right?
S4 (35:52):
A supernatural being on the stuff.
S3 (35:54):
It would be on.
S2 (35:54):
Coast to coast or overnight talk.
S3 (35:56):
Radio, conspiracy theory.
S2 (35:57):
Stuff more. I know. More on that to come in
the next episode.
S1 (36:07):
Do you have a different tale to tell about any
of our topics? Don't hesitate to tell us. You can
reach out to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal or Amarillo Globe
News on Facebook or Twitter. You can also send an
email to be Addison at Lubbock Online with the subject
line Weird West Texas or shoot us a text at
806496 4073.
Howdy. My name is Brandi Addison. I'm the regional agriculture
and environmental reporter for the USA Today Network's West Texas region.
And this is weird. West Texas, the podcast. Each month
we'll explore some of the most odd, eccentric and sometimes
just plain weird things in our region, from the northernmost
town of Richland down into the big country, eastward into
the rolling plains and all the way to El Paso.
(00:29):
This month, we're exploring the origins of Lubbock's signature cocktail,
the Chilton and the mysterious tunnels that stretch beneath our region. Now,
let's get weird, y'all. Today I'm with my editor, Adam DeYoung.
How are you, Adam?
S2 (00:40):
Doing well. How are you, Brandy?
S1 (00:42):
Good. Did you get a haircut.
S2 (00:44):
A couple of weeks ago? But it was really short,
so it still shows. Yeah.
S1 (00:48):
Yeah. Okay, Well, I'm glad to have you here again
talking weird things. West Texas are weird and wonderful. West Texas, right?
S2 (00:56):
Yeah. I'm particularly interested in this one. We had fun
with Chilton's story going out, speaking with one of your
favorite bartenders in town, cousin over at West Table.
S1 (01:06):
Yeah, we did have a lot of fun with it.
We mentioned him in a podcast. We went over and
taste tested Chilton's. I really enjoyed the blueberry one for
World Cocktail Day. Right? I made a video with him
and he's pretty well established himself as the face of
the Chilton. Now he's like in at least half a
dozen videos and articles at this point related to the Chilton.
(01:26):
So I think he was just the perfect source for that.
S2 (01:31):
Absolutely. I think you said you recently saw that Lubbock
Economic Development Alliance featured the Chilton and the the story
the Lubbock lore behind its origin story.
S1 (01:41):
Yeah. Yeah. There was yeah, some something downtown. I know
that much. Yeah and you know visit Lubbock has featured
it Texas Monthly has featured it. Chilton is really picking
up the pace here now, so. And I'm happy to
see that Right it landed on what the front page
for us as well.
S2 (01:57):
Yeah. We give it some nice play. Our photographer Annie Rice,
got some nice photos. And we also had a different
shoot with Mark Rogers, one of our photographers. So just
I always like a good cocktail photo shoot, pretty photos.
S1 (02:11):
So, you know, talking about the children, it's certainly not
the weirdest thing in West Texas. Right? It's not even
weird at all. I do think it has an interesting background, though.
And that one, it's like one of the only cocktails,
I would say, like in the nation that we could
actually really most people familiar with it are also familiar
with its origin place, its location. Right. Like, sure. Like
(02:31):
we do know that the Manhattan is from New York City.
And some people may say the mint julep is from
the Kentucky Derby. Right. But I didn't necessarily know that
the Sazerac was from LA. Right. Or just, you know,
various different drinks. But everyone who is familiar with the
Chilton does know that the Chilton came from Lubbock. Right?
I mean, you would say that's likely.
S2 (02:54):
Yeah, That's increasingly the story I've heard. It's the, you know,
the origin of this Dr. Chilton, who mysteriously showed up
at the country club and had a very specific but
simple drink request. And the date's always kind of out there, perhaps.
I think you've said it might have started during the
Prohibition era or what the cousin believes.
S1 (03:15):
Yeah.
S2 (03:16):
Yeah, but I think that the agreed upon things are
usually that it was at the country club and it
was in Lubbock. And despite the relatively simple ingredients that
go into a Chilton, which is just club soda, ice,
salted rim, lots of lemon juice and vodka, I guess
(03:37):
the idea is that it originated here and not elsewhere.
S1 (03:41):
You got to say soda water for the Chilton, though
it's not club soda. I know it's the same thing
in theory, but you got to say soda water. Like,
I don't understand why. That's how it goes.
S2 (03:52):
Soda, water, seltzer.
S1 (03:55):
Nope. It's got to be soda water. Yeah. So, you know,
as Adam said, basically some mysterious figure named Dr. Chilton.
We don't know if Dr. Chilton was even real, if Dr.
Chilton was a male or female. Just went up to
the bar one day after playing golf and demanded, not demanded, but,
you know, instructed rather, the bartender to make a chill.
(04:17):
And basically he said, you know, grab a highball glass,
salt the rim. Pour some ice at a standard shot
of vodka. Add the juice of two lemons and then
pour the rest of for the rest up with soda water.
So it's very simple for sure. I mean, I don't know.
(04:37):
I do like the I like the deviations of it, though. Like,
I like the blueberry one and I really enjoy the
elderberry one.
S2 (04:46):
Yeah, there were just, you know, based on different bars
in town and just personal preference, there are some know
add ins and enhancements I guess different bartenders or folks
have to, I guess personalize it but still has those
base ingredients.
S1 (05:01):
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. And you know, it's
really influenced a lot of various drinks here as well.
They have like the chilled and cocktail in the Can
now from Tupps Brewery in Plano, I believe Plano or
McKinney over in Collin County. They have Tupps Brewery made
a Chilton cocktail in a can essentially kind of just
like a seltzer like a ranch water in the can. Right. But,
(05:21):
you know, we also have like the Chilton goes at
two dogs. Right. So it's just it's interesting to see
how much it inspired around the state. It's not really
made its name outside of Texas yet, honestly, just making
its way to San Antonio right now because instead. But
it's really stuck home here and a little bit in
(05:42):
the DFW area, but not much. But that's just because
we've have so many Tech grads in DFW. Right? So,
I mean, that's pretty much how that's happened.
S2 (05:51):
But yeah, I thought that was just a really good
piece for you or that you identified to pursue with
your developing weird West Texas series just because there are
some knowns about it, but just so many rumors. It's
just been a good series to kind of explain an
origin story. So I thought that ended up being a
(06:11):
good read.
S1 (06:12):
Yeah, but we never found it. We still don't have
the origin story, you know, like the Texans with Texas Monthly,
as I noted in my story, he went on a
similar hunt to and you know, for an answer rather,
and he was able to talk to someone who worked
there all the way back into the 70s, and it
had already existed by the time she started as a
bartender there. And so, like you mentioned earlier, there's this
(06:35):
idea that maybe it happened during the Prohibition era. So
that was an idea that I got from Cousin because
Cousin said, well, one, like any of the ingredients, if
you bought them, it wouldn't it doesn't necessarily lend itself
to an alcoholic beverage. Right. Like Lemon doesn't So the
water doesn't salt doesn't. So it it wouldn't really raise eyebrows,
(06:57):
you know, at the grocery store. If you're buying these things,
people just think you're going to cook with it or whatever.
And then grain alcohols are a lot more accessible for
us here because we grow those crops, right, to make
them So corn, sorghum, wheat, whatever. So that's just kind
of where his theory is. He doesn't know for sure.
That's his own perception. But I like that he said
he thought he was kind of charming, that one. It
(07:19):
started at the country club and we can pinpoint that.
But he think it's really just interesting that, you know,
everybody can make up their own story for it. And
that's his story. And I really like that interpretation that
he had there.
S2 (07:34):
Yeah, absolutely. The these Lubbock is the agreed upon city
there though. So that was you know worth blending in
for this series.
S1 (07:42):
Yeah yeah. Well we do know that and I also
thought it's really cool that like just like he's now
a big part of this story too. Like I said,
he's kind of the face of the Chilton now for Lubbock. But,
you know, he mentioned to us that he whenever he
started dating his now wife, that her grandmother would make
Chilton's just a batch of Chilton every single morning. And
he thought this was a drink specifically for her. So
(08:05):
after we did that video with him, I thought it
was really sweet. He was like, I think she would
be proud of me today knowing that, like, here I
am doing this. And like, people associate me with her
favorite drink these days. I think that's sweet.
S2 (08:16):
Absolutely. And he certainly makes them a lot better than
I did when I was experimenting with them. We had
our sports editor, Carlos Silva, join us for that taste
testing session, and he said he usually didn't like the Chilton's.
He had one that I made at my house. I
think it upset his stomach. And he was he was
not a happy camper. But believe, Carlos, that the ones
(08:36):
that cousin made were considerably better. So I don't know,
I guess just what a bartender can do versus what
I'm going to be able to do in my living room.
S1 (08:43):
Yeah, and you don't use salt anyway, so, you know,
that changes it. Well, yeah, but you know, I did
have a few people email me. I actually had one
guy call me twice. He came from Portland. Obviously I
wasn't going to answer a Portland number on first call,
but I did. I am happy, I answered. Eventually he
worked at the country club and he said that the
(09:04):
first person to create the Chilton was called Ernest Hicks.
He was a bartender there and he says that it
was in the 60s. Like I asked him way to Dundee,
back to the Prohibition era, because, you know, it made
sense to me that it would. And he was like, Well,
hell no. And I was like, Oh, okay. You know,
like just this really cute. Country girl. I thought it
was really sweet that he said that. And have you
(09:26):
ever heard someone say sweet, like, Well, you're getting gusta.
S3 (09:30):
A.
S2 (09:30):
Little bit or bless your heart, things like that. Yeah, it.
S1 (09:32):
Was a sweet thing. It was sweet. Yeah, I know.
But no, it was funny just hearing him because he
seemed really passionate about it and he said, you know, no,
it wasn't from the 60s. And, you know, I've gone
down and actually seen a couple other emails. I got
one from Melissa H. Who said she wouldn't doubt the origin,
referring to the Prohibition era because she remembers that in
(09:52):
the late 60 seconds her mom would make a Chilton
for her dad. He also worked at Lubbock Country Club
as an assistant golf pro, so it only sounds logical
to her. Let's see. Larry said he was a bartender
in Lubbock beginning in 1976, Main Street and Avenue X
Uncle Nasties to be exact. Now, we talked about this
(10:12):
Uncle Nasty wasn't here while you were around.
S2 (10:14):
No, I don't. If it was, it wasn't one that
I was ever invited to.
S4 (10:18):
Oh, well.
S1 (10:19):
Hey, sorry. And so he said that the Chilton was
already well established. The year that he became a bartender.
He ran nightclubs throughout Lubbock until 2003, and they always
been a staple of Lubbock. And then Chris Vee, he said,
without going into a million details, his grandpa started a
catering business and a couple of restaurants in Lubbock. He
(10:40):
grew up in Lubbock as well. It is truly his hometown,
he says. We are at one point the largest catering
business between Dallas and Phoenix and fed people all over
West Texas. We used to feed all the bands in there,
road crews that came to the area and played at
the old Coliseum. We were going to be the caterer
for the grand opening of the Civic Center in 1976,
but the big Texan Steakhouse beat us on price and
they catered the first dinner and that building from there
(11:01):
now closed and bulldozed restaurant on 50th. Is that the
same one as the one up in Amarillo? Is that
the name of the one in Amarillo?
S2 (11:09):
The Big Texan Steakhouse? Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's the famous
one where they have the 72 ounce steak competition. But
is that.
S1 (11:16):
The same one from Lubbock here?
S2 (11:19):
Shame on me for not knowing, but I'm not sure.
S1 (11:22):
You're supposed to be the Lubbock Encyclopedia Atom.
S2 (11:24):
I've only been here since 2005 only.
S4 (11:26):
Um.
S1 (11:27):
Anyway, he said they drink chilterns all the time. He
learned to make them at a young age, as everyone should.
You need to go.
S4 (11:34):
Have a lesson for Violet and lavender later.
S2 (11:39):
Okay. Chilton bartending.
S4 (11:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
S2 (11:43):
I mean, when I made them at my house, my
nine year old daughter was intrigued, and she wanted me
to make her one, so I made her a virgin.
CHILTON It was just some some fizzy water and lemon juice,
but she felt like she was part of the group.
S1 (11:56):
Well, that's all that matters. Yeah, for sure.
S4 (11:59):
Yeah.
S1 (11:59):
So I just think it's really interesting. I had a
lot of people reach out about the Chilton, so I had, like,
someone from my kid's daycare, like, Hey, I saw that story.
You know? It was just really weird seeing that a
bunch of people now associate me with that one Chilton story, too.
So I thought that was cool.
S4 (12:15):
Yeah.
S1 (12:16):
So let's go into the tunnels. Those were I mean,
that was a.
S4 (12:21):
Probably my longest story since I've been here in.
S1 (12:24):
June. It's pretty lengthy.
S4 (12:26):
But there were a lot of areas to touch.
S1 (12:29):
Right. I mean, did you learn anything from it?
S2 (12:31):
I did. I liked the background that you had about
the the tunnels in the El Paso area and kind
of different origins and, you know, explanations for why they
might be there.
S1 (12:42):
Yeah. You know, so I thought that one was really
interesting because it went from, you know, a smuggling immigrants
to being Chinese opium dens to, you know, smuggling arms
during the Mexican revolution. So it's just interesting to see that.
And so even.
S4 (13:00):
An.
S1 (13:00):
Expert within the Border Patrol, right, he told Fox 2018
or sorry, Fox News in 2018 that he believed it
was to smuggle immigrants as well. But some local historians
were like, you know, I don't know if that's possible.
S4 (13:15):
You're not going to build a tunnel beneath a.
S1 (13:18):
River, Right.
S4 (13:18):
So I don't know.
S2 (13:22):
Yeah, just. I know there are a lot of tunnels.
You hear about something like eastern New Mexico and places
like that that usually for immigrant smuggling and things like that.
But yeah, I don't I've never heard of one going
under the river.
S1 (13:36):
No, it seems like it'd be a pretty tedious task.
S4 (13:39):
So I don't know.
S1 (13:41):
I did think it was interesting that a researcher out
there who is specifically.
S4 (13:45):
Researching the.
S1 (13:47):
Yeah, researching researchers, researching.
S4 (13:50):
Specifically researching the Chinese population in El Paso, she said
that it probably didn't make sense that it would be
immigration as.
S1 (13:59):
Far as the Chinese Exclusion Act.
S4 (14:01):
So I.
S1 (14:02):
Don't know. What do you think about that?
S2 (14:05):
Yeah, I don't know. I really can't speak to that.
I'm not an El Paso expert, but I know that
the tunnel system that I was a little bit more
interested in, that you pursued was the origin of the
eight plus miles under the Texas Tech campus here in Lubbock.
S4 (14:19):
Yeah.
S1 (14:19):
So technically, the stories I read said 9 to 12 miles.
I don't think they actually have an exact number on it.
The tunnels were constructed with the first construction.
S2 (14:29):
Of administration building and the old campus, and they've just
generally built them around. I know going back to when
I was a student at the Daily Trade or when
I was a student writer at the Daily Trader on
the Texas Tech campus, I did my own piece just
on the the tunnels and explaining what they were for.
So I had a pretty good understanding of that and
(14:51):
in interest. So I was encouraged when you wanted to
pursue a story on that topic.
S1 (14:57):
Yeah, and it's mainly just for, like, systemic things.
S2 (14:59):
Utilities, hot water, steam, things like that. Fiberoptic lines to
some extent. But a lot of students think that they
are there for exploring and doing shenanigans.
S1 (15:07):
Yeah. And we're going to note here that it is
totally illegal to trespass any of the tunnels that we
have covered without permission.
S4 (15:14):
Um.
S1 (15:14):
You know, I'm sure that you could get permission, even
if you're not a journalist. I'm sure you all could
get permission if you are that interested.
S4 (15:21):
Just got to find the right people. That said, yeah,
you know, there was this kind of folklore going around that.
S1 (15:27):
Said that that.
S4 (15:29):
A guy would go, like.
S1 (15:30):
Walk around campus.
S4 (15:32):
At night, you know, sneak around and then broke into the.
S1 (15:34):
Tunnels so he could make it to his girlfriend's dorm.
S4 (15:36):
And then he got trapped behind him. I would like
to think that tech.
S1 (15:40):
Students are a little bit smarter than that, right? That
they can't find their way.
S4 (15:43):
In or out of a tunnel that has multiple exits.
Or maybe at that point it would have only been
one exit and one entrance.
S2 (15:50):
Yeah, that story, that rumors, it seems like probably a
bridge too far to believe. But you know, it's just
kind of in line with a good mystery there. I know. Ah,
Once you shared that story, the Texas Tech Alumni Association
president Kurt Lankford recently shared, I guess, his take and
memories of being a student, if you don't mind me
(16:10):
sharing this one. He wrote about the OR he recalled
that some not so good memories he had as his
time as a student when he was chased by a
university policeman beneath campus by on his freshman year and
narrowly escaped up a manhole. And he said getting caught
underground was grounds for immediate expulsion. Uh oh.
S1 (16:31):
Wait. So he made it up, though, right?
S2 (16:33):
Yeah, He was able apparently he was able to escape,
according to Kurt.
S4 (16:37):
Well, you know. And look where he is now. So
you good on him for making his way out of there? Um,
I also got an email about it and Chuck.
S1 (16:47):
H said, I just read with interest your piece on
the mysterious tunnels under our feet across the southern high
Plains area. It brings to mind an old acquaintance in
our dorm group during the mid 1970s at West Texas A&M,
then West Texas. So what does the stand for?
S3 (17:02):
Texas State University.
S1 (17:03):
State University. Okay. In Canyon, Herb Smith was a tech
transfer and would tell us all about the maze of
tunnels he and others explored while at tech. Different groups
were under such names as the tech tunnel rats and
so forth. His prized memento from this era, a map
of the system he still possessed. Now that would be
cool to have now. Don't know whatever happened to him
as we all went our separate way anyway. Just some
(17:23):
old memories kindled by your article.
S4 (17:26):
I bet there's a lot of tunnel rats though, in
tech tunnels.
S2 (17:31):
Understood. I know there are various access points. I'm not
going to specifically mention them, but kind of hard to
miss around campus.
S1 (17:38):
No, no, I'm talking about actual rats, so. Or, you know,
prairie dogs.
S2 (17:41):
Prairie dogs. I don't know about prairie dogs, but yeah,
I'm sure there are rats, cockroaches, bugs like that. But
I don't remember seeing one on my tour of the tunnels.
But it's been a while. It would have stood.
S3 (17:51):
Out to the subway.
S2 (17:52):
No snakes. It's like Indiana Jones and the, uh, you know,
going down. It had to be snakes. That's certainly what
I didn't want to see down there. But no snakes.
S1 (18:01):
13 line squirrels, any of those, You know, they've got
to find somewhere in the winter. And it makes sense that.
S4 (18:08):
Infrastructure underground would be a good place for them. I
don't know. But it does get hot down there.
S1 (18:13):
Then you say it was pretty warm down there.
S2 (18:15):
I don't recall that being warm.
S5 (18:19):
It was either extremely warm or extremely cold. I can't
quite remember.
S1 (18:23):
I've read so many stories about it. And one of
the funniest things that I read was from The Daily Toreador,
then the University daily, where one of the writers suggested
that they did classes in the tunnels during World War
Two and said, You know, if.
S4 (18:38):
Some jokester.
S1 (18:39):
Wanted to turn the lights off, it doesn't matter because
most students are in the dark as far as their
classes are.
S4 (18:43):
Anyway.
S1 (18:45):
I love a good tech joke.
S4 (18:48):
You know, they.
S2 (18:48):
Had good commentaries back then.
S4 (18:51):
And today, you know, between the thing about the tortilla
toss and how they derived.
S1 (18:58):
Because.
S4 (18:58):
Of.
S1 (18:59):
Texas Tech would graduate the most Taco Bell managers And
this one I thought it was really funny.
S4 (19:05):
I am an instructor.
S1 (19:07):
At Tech.
S4 (19:07):
And Adam's.
S1 (19:08):
Wife works at Tech. We are big tech fans. We're
both graduates. So, you know, it's just funny to poke
on your own school, but not as much as it
is to poke on you and UT.
S2 (19:18):
Is true.
S1 (19:19):
I like that a little bit better and A&M for sure.
But yeah, so we got the Texas Tech tunnels and
El Paso tunnels.
S4 (19:26):
Now, let's talk.
S1 (19:27):
About how weird it was that this.
S4 (19:30):
Resident just found a tunnel in his backyard.
S1 (19:32):
I don't think he found a tunnel in his backyard.
I think they were doing yard work and they thought
it was a sinkhole. Kind of it collapsed a little bit,
but there was an entire construction out there and they
actually never found, like the purpose of the tunnel. Right.
It stretched 90ft. It was three feet wide, six feet tall.
So it's a pretty good sized tunnel.
S2 (20:02):
Vince supported with railroad ties. It was a fairly substantial,
I guess, bit of engineering. Yeah, looked like it was
certainly intelligently put there for some reason. But the I
know the purpose was never quite clear or determined, but
that was in 2013 when that made the rounds. And
I know you got some feedback on that.
S3 (20:22):
Yeah.
S1 (20:22):
Yeah. So a historian at the National Ranching Heritage Center
at TEC had decided then that he was going to
research by. His first guess was that it also had
to do with the Prohibition era because.
S4 (20:34):
Like I've noted, you know.
S1 (20:35):
Farmers, ranchers, they.
S4 (20:36):
Like to drink after a hot day. And, you know,
prohibition era is probably.
S1 (20:39):
A little bit.
S4 (20:40):
Tougher on West Texas than some boring place, you know,
that didn't drink as much, that didn't have as many
blue collar workers and outdoor workers. So, you know, I
this also.
S1 (20:54):
Came back to the Prohibition era.
S4 (20:56):
And his theory.
S1 (20:57):
Was that.
S4 (20:59):
There was a lot of.
S1 (21:01):
Activity going on as far as bootlegging close to Plainville.
S4 (21:06):
And close to.
S1 (21:07):
Loveland right.
S4 (21:07):
There. He remembered.
S1 (21:09):
Reading through the archives of the A-J that police officers
would literally just go chase down bootleggers on.
S4 (21:16):
Foot.
S1 (21:17):
Funny, you know, there are bootleggers, so.
S4 (21:19):
They go and but they would literally like alcohols in
their boots, right? Because that's what bootlegging is, which.
S1 (21:26):
I put two and two together that they didn't actually
necessarily ever understand the.
S4 (21:30):
Process of bootlegging. So when he taught me that, my
mind was kind of blown. That's not how they do
bootlegging these days, right? It's just like.
S1 (21:37):
They drive up in the car and nonchalantly and just
like bring alcohol after 2 a.m. like and just charge
$40 for a 12 pack of beer. Right. That's how
it goes these days. You're doing the math there.
S2 (21:50):
Yeah, perhaps so. I don't know at this point. I
think probably there are other, um, I guess banned substances
that are being bootlegged. Probably not alcohol as much since
it's pretty readily available.
S4 (22:02):
Yeah, but not after 2 a.m. and Lubbock doesn't like
to shut down at 2 a.m.. Lubbock likes to.
S1 (22:07):
Keep it going.
S4 (22:08):
You know?
S2 (22:08):
So fair enough for those who don't plan ahead. I
guess I get that.
S4 (22:11):
Yeah, there's.
S1 (22:12):
Definitely bootleggers around here. I'm keeping my mouth shut on that.
S4 (22:16):
One, though I do not know from.
S1 (22:18):
Experience, I.
S4 (22:18):
Promise. And so, yeah, I.
S1 (22:22):
Thought that was really interesting that that also went back
to the Prohibition era. Just like really shows what a
toll this.
S4 (22:27):
Era took on West Texas. And, you know, obviously they
had to make money back then.
S1 (22:33):
I'm sure farming and ranching is not necessarily the most
high paying job back in the 20s.
S4 (22:39):
You know, early 30s. But yeah, so.
S1 (22:41):
His first theory was that it was the Prohibition era
and maybe they were just like, you know, smuggling alcohol
down there. And so of course I called him because
I didn't want to report old news from literally a
decade ago. And I was like, Hey, you know.
S4 (22:55):
You were mentioned in this story a decade ago. I
don't know if you remember it or not, but.
S1 (23:00):
And of course, he remembered it because it's not every
day that you find a tunnel in your backyard.
S4 (23:04):
And he said that.
S1 (23:05):
He thought.
S4 (23:06):
That maybe it.
S1 (23:07):
Also could have been an old mining.
S4 (23:09):
Tunnel.
S1 (23:10):
But there were no mining tunnels around Lubbock. They were
mainly up in like Amarillo area, but none around Lubbock.
So he kind of made that. He also had even
researched history, like within, um, you know, one of the state,
you know, databases and that didn't prove it. So his
idea is still that it was prohibition era. Um, and
(23:31):
he even said, you know, that they never could find
an answer, that they did a ton of research, they
went through a bunch of different possibilities. And, you know,
this is really the best he could get. And he
noted that this is, you know, his idea. They kind
of gravitated towards this because Lubbock County only recently lifted.
S4 (23:49):
Their packaged alcohol.
S1 (23:51):
Ban. Right. Like sell rather. You know, the strip was
around since 2009 or, you know, ended.
S4 (23:58):
The the strip.
S1 (24:00):
Was around until 2009. So that's still pretty recent that
Lubbock County began.
S4 (24:04):
To allow the.
S1 (24:04):
Sale of packaged alcohols. So it makes sense to me.
S2 (24:08):
Sure. Just the kind of culture of having to do underground,
I guess business to some extent. But yeah, I suspect
that was probably not for bootlegging. My thought is it
probably was just somebody digging. Maybe it began as a
storm shelter or tornado shelter and just became a tunnel project.
I don't know.
S4 (24:29):
It was 90ft, you know, like what's the purpose of
having a 90 foot tunnel?
S5 (24:35):
It makes sense to me that it could.
S1 (24:36):
Be storage for bootlegging, perhaps.
S2 (24:39):
You were really fixated on the bootlegging thing, but perhaps
you're right.
S4 (24:43):
I don't know. I don't know. I'm just, like, going
through my theories. I don't know why.
S1 (24:46):
Anyone would go build a 90 foot tunnel just for storms.
That seems like way too much effort.
S2 (24:53):
Perhaps so. Fallout shelter.
S4 (24:56):
I mean, possibility, you know, store food down there. Maybe
they had a couch down there at one point. It
was a big tunnel, 90 foot long. Actually, it was
only three feet wide.
S1 (25:07):
So ex may the couch.
S3 (25:08):
Finesse.
S2 (25:09):
Some extra square footage out of a house that's smaller
than you wanted it to be.
S3 (25:15):
Yeah.
S2 (25:16):
Some underground tunnel space.
S1 (25:18):
Maybe they put a dog down there.
S2 (25:20):
A man cave, perhaps. Or entertainment tunnel. I don't.
S4 (25:23):
Know. I don't know. I know my neighbor has a
dog run. Yeah, it could have been a dog run.
A really dark dog run. I don't. I don't know.
I just. I don't know. That's really funny, though. Just
thinking of all the possibilities. Like, I don't even know
what I would do.
S1 (25:40):
If there was a 90 foot tunnel under my house.
S2 (25:44):
I would probably explore it, but I would let somebody
know I had this nightmare thinking about that tunnel that
if I would explore it, not let anybody know where
I was and then there would be some cave in
and I would be buried alive. I was thinking about
that late last week.
S3 (25:59):
Yeah, that sounds terrible.
S4 (26:01):
No, I mean, that's pretty scary. Yeah. I don't know
if the residents ever, like, went down there, but I
know the archivist didn't, and none of the city people did.
S1 (26:09):
Because obviously no one wanted to go to a mysterious.
S3 (26:12):
Tunnel. Yeah, I'd.
S2 (26:12):
Want to take, like, an oxygen tank and let everybody
know I was there and have my cell phone. I
don't even know if, depending on how far underground it is,
if it would ping down there. But I don't know.
I thought about that way too much. The the tunnel
I'm much more comfortable exploring is the tunnel that traverses
Avenue J between the the two buildings. Going to our
(26:37):
old warehouse had some signage that it had been a
fallout shelter back during the height of the Cold War.
But my daughters used to like checking that out.
S4 (26:48):
You did not tell me that.
S1 (26:49):
I thought it was like merely for like, just like
moving papers from our place to the warehouse.
S2 (26:54):
Well, that was its primary purpose, was for logistical reasons,
for transporting equipment. And the large paper rolls from the
nearby section of railroad tracks, but being protected by a
bunch of street and layers of ground. They also turned
(27:14):
that into a or at least utilized it as a
potential fallout shelter if there was ever an issue. And
it was also a tornado shelter a few years ago,
we would do our tornado drills and hang out down there.
It's also a very good ramp for chair races.
S1 (27:33):
Yeah, I haven't done that yet, but someday.
S4 (27:35):
Someday. Um, yeah. So, you know, it was.
S1 (27:38):
Interesting that I learned that, like, not.
S5 (27:40):
Only does the have a tunnel, which you told me
while I was working on this.
S1 (27:44):
Because.
S5 (27:44):
That's just interesting since I've worked here for now, what,
nearly a year.
S4 (27:50):
So, um, I do.
S5 (27:52):
Come into the newsroom, y'all. I promise.
S4 (27:54):
It's just.
S5 (27:55):
Really interesting that I didn't even know that that was
not part of my first day of.
S3 (27:59):
Work tour.
S2 (28:00):
It's not on the orientation training.
S5 (28:02):
No, but we went to the roof on the first
day of work, so.
S2 (28:05):
Well, sure. I show you the best vantage point to
see the approaching Hobbs.
S6 (28:10):
Yeah. Yeah.
S5 (28:11):
And best place to watch the fireworks on 4th of July.
But it was interesting to learn that, like, basically every
historic building, every building that's pretty old downtown has a
tunnel to it. There were some theories that there were
some bomb shelters around which maybe they were talking about
the AJ one.
S4 (28:31):
I don't know. Like as a fallout shelter.
S1 (28:34):
There is some theories that you can.
S5 (28:35):
Get to the bank vault through a tunnel, which I
can't imagine that that would necessarily be like the smartest
move to get to the bank vault. But I'm not
completely ruling that out.
S3 (28:47):
Yeah, that's.
S2 (28:47):
An Ocean's 11 level planning for a heist.
S5 (28:52):
Yeah, I mean, especially considering that, like, we're in Lubbock, Texas,
and that bank's been around.
S4 (28:56):
For a while, right? Like.
S5 (28:58):
I don't think that they would have gone into that
much of planning.
S4 (29:01):
Um, but they did.
S5 (29:03):
Use this to transfer inmates, right?
S2 (29:06):
Yeah. There was a a tunnel connecting, you know, for
logistical purposes with the jail helping for transport of inmates, uh,
court proceedings and things like that and getting to the
Sally port. But there's not too much of a mystery.
It was just kind of a matter of fact tunnel
that they had there.
S4 (29:26):
No. Yeah, it was the most accessible way It made sense. Like,
you know, they then, you know, want inmates.
S1 (29:33):
To argue with one another or fight according to a
story with Caleb that I read.
S4 (29:38):
About it. So it makes sense. But now they don't
even have to do that because.
S1 (29:41):
One, you know.
S5 (29:42):
They moved where the inmates are, you know, sheriff's.
S1 (29:45):
Offices now, not here.
S4 (29:48):
But.
S1 (29:48):
Also thanks to COVID, they can now do their court
hearings via Zoom. So that's the virtual tunnel.
S5 (29:55):
Is that what you said last week?
S3 (29:57):
Yeah.
S4 (29:58):
The the new tunnel is waiting for the host to
let you in the meeting. That's. That's the new Lubbock
inmate tunnel.
S2 (30:06):
Not as fun to explore.
S4 (30:08):
No, no, no. But, you know, it is what it
is at this point. It's probably a lot less scary.
You know, could you imagine, like having to walk through, like,
mysterious tunnel to go to court?
S7 (30:22):
Just put the.
S2 (30:25):
Hands and legs bound by cuffs.
S3 (30:28):
Yeah.
S2 (30:29):
Down into the abyss. Yeah. I don't know. I just
want to avoid getting a mug shot and being led
down a tunnel.
S4 (30:36):
Yeah, I mean, that's something I don't want to avoid.
And then getting on the front page of the AJ. Okay.
Now you know you specifically.
S2 (30:46):
Yeah, you all would probably roll with that if somehow
I ended up booked for some reason.
S1 (30:51):
Oh, I would absolutely do the best for that.
S4 (30:54):
But you're not going.
S5 (30:55):
To because, you know, you're, you know.
S4 (30:59):
You're well behaved. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah. Did we talk
about them? Oh, we didn't talk about the.
S1 (31:06):
Clarity tunnel yet.
S2 (31:07):
Yeah, that's the best for last.
S4 (31:09):
Yeah, I mean, that's what I saved it.
S2 (31:10):
That's one. That's actually something that people can explore. And
just playing into a perhaps a day trip from Lubbock
or Amarillo or cities around the region go up to
Caprock Canyon State Park and check out this old railroad
tunnel and include that on a hike, right?
S3 (31:27):
Yeah, It.
S4 (31:27):
Was only one of.
S1 (31:28):
Three in Texas anyway, which I think is cool, but
I thought it was really cool that it kind of
has become a home for bats. 500,000 bats, in fact.
So I think that's really cool. It's not necessarily like
a I forget the actual term they use for like.
S5 (31:43):
Birthing bats.
S1 (31:44):
You know, for growing the population. As far as bat pups,
it technically can't serve as a birth place for them
or an actual home to them because they need a
closed in space, you know, an enclosed space. But the
tunnel is open on both sides, which makes it a
lot cooler than what they need.
S4 (32:00):
Or a lot hotter, you know.
S1 (32:02):
And depending on the.
S4 (32:03):
Week or month, no, depending on the hour.
S2 (32:07):
And it's not the controlled environment of a cave or
a cavern that they see, like at Carlsbad or some
of the ones that they have down in in central Texas.
S4 (32:16):
But yeah, but, you know, there are some still like.
S1 (32:19):
Being born there. It's just not like as much as
you would see. Right. And those places you mentioned, I
don't know. I can't remember. A cave's hot or are
they cold? I feel like they're really cold.
S4 (32:29):
Right?
S2 (32:31):
I think more than anything, they are a consistent environment
because it's controlled by the ground temperature. Typically, I imagine
they get a little colder in the winter.
S5 (32:41):
Right? That makes sense. I don't know. Bats are warm blooded.
S3 (32:45):
That's right. Okay. They are mammals.
S8 (32:48):
Yeah.
S4 (32:50):
I'm second guessing.
S1 (32:51):
Everything I ever learned in biology here.
S4 (32:52):
So regardless, it's definitely a cool.
S1 (32:55):
Place to explore. I actually one of my favorite sources,
Mike Glass, told me that clarity tunnel he lived out
by Clarity Tunnel and he really enjoyed visiting there. So
definitely encouraged me to go. I actually haven't been to
Caprock Canyons at all, so I need to make my
way up there. I always I didn't know.
S5 (33:12):
It existed.
S1 (33:13):
Until I moved back up here. I always had heard
about Pilot early, you know, I didn't know that we
had so many state parks around here like we have
on a big spring. And, you know, we have some
mountain peaks and of course, Fort.
S5 (33:24):
Davis and big band.
S1 (33:25):
Lots of nice places to visit around here.
S4 (33:42):
Yeah. I'm really just.
S5 (33:43):
Interested about the.
S1 (33:44):
Bike. I was about to say Vikings.
S4 (33:47):
No, no Vikings up there. Bisons up there.
S1 (33:50):
I was really.
S4 (33:51):
Interested about the.
S1 (33:52):
Bisons.
S4 (33:53):
I don't know. I didn't realize that we had bison
around here. Do we have some over at.
S1 (33:57):
Buffalo Springs to.
S3 (34:00):
Um, not to my knowledge.
S4 (34:01):
I feel like someone said that there were some also in.
S1 (34:04):
Like, the kind of the canyons over.
S5 (34:07):
There, like Ransom.
S1 (34:08):
County and those types of areas. Like, maybe a few.
But I don't know if that's true or not since
it's not state land.
S2 (34:15):
Yeah, there might be some private bison collector out there,
but I'm not familiar with a bison herd or individual
bison out there.
S3 (34:23):
Okay, well.
S4 (34:24):
Cool. Well, regardless. Yeah. I'm excited to go visit the
Clarity tunnel.
S5 (34:29):
Hopefully this year.
S4 (34:32):
The summer, right, Once I get back from New York.
S2 (34:34):
Yeah. June. Good. Early summer vacation trip.
S4 (34:38):
Day trip. A day trip? I'm not a vacation trip.
I'm not going to go take some PTO to go
on vacation. And Plainview, I'm sorry. It's just not, you know,
not on my plans.
S3 (34:49):
But hey.
S4 (34:51):
This is what it is.
S3 (34:53):
Good topics. What are some other topics you're looking at for.
S2 (34:57):
I guess, upcoming West Texas, Weird West Texas.
S3 (35:00):
Pieces?
S4 (35:00):
Yeah. So I want to hit the UFO sightings for sure.
S1 (35:05):
That's going to be my next one. UFO sightings reported
across West.
S4 (35:08):
Texas, although I am not.
S1 (35:10):
Going to hit Lubbock Lights because I feel like that
is pretty interesting enough that it deserves its own little
column an episode. But we will talk about UFOs throughout
the time. I'm going to talk about some, you know,
the black eyed children and Abilene, which is kind of
this what would you describe them as?
S3 (35:28):
Yeah, I gather just kind of a.
S2 (35:32):
Mysterious sighting that just really seems like it happened around
the time I was in.
S3 (35:36):
High school or perhaps a little before, but I never
heard about this.
S4 (35:39):
Yeah, it was actually a journalist.
S5 (35:41):
With Abilene Reporter news. Right.
S1 (35:43):
That reported that first sighting. And then he wrote that
there was another sighting up in Washington and Oregon or something.
Just kind of like this, like, phenomena, right?
S4 (35:52):
A supernatural being on the stuff.
S3 (35:54):
It would be on.
S2 (35:54):
Coast to coast or overnight talk.
S3 (35:56):
Radio, conspiracy theory.
S2 (35:57):
Stuff more. I know. More on that to come in
the next episode.
S1 (36:07):
Do you have a different tale to tell about any
of our topics? Don't hesitate to tell us. You can
reach out to the Lubbock Avalanche Journal or Amarillo Globe
News on Facebook or Twitter. You can also send an
email to be Addison at Lubbock Online with the subject
line Weird West Texas or shoot us a text at
806496 4073.
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