The Ritual

Early Life Influence

Having grown up in the city, I look back at how fortunate I was to have spent my summers with relatives on farms and ranches; I was particularily fond of time with my Sheriff Uncle (see Lone Star Lawman blog) on his ranch where I fell in love with all things western lifestlye. Caring for livestock, fix'n fences, maintaining ranches, these are the virtures of hard honest working people and symbols of The American West. Having traveled extensively in this State, this early life influence is why I often paint cowboy culture and Texas landscapes.

But that was the summers, and school resumed for this city boy. Pretty good in sports, I quickly realized the girls just seem to naturally gravitate to the athletes. But having blowout a knee, my attention turned to the older cool guys with 'rods'-hotrods that is. With a mechanic father, we enjoyed many engine rebuilds and repairs together, learning a great deal about mechanics. Souping up my old daily highschool driver (i.e. beater) into a suedo-hotrod was great fun on weekends. Guess this eventually led me toward a mechanical engineering degree.

The Ritual in Cowtown USA

Like other large metropolitan cities across the USA, teenagers, with new found freedoms that came with a driver's license, were cruising city streets in route to their favorite drive-in burger joints. Where the allure of juicy smelling burgers and hotdogs combined to produce many a teen romance. Fort Worth (i.e.Cowtown) Texas southside teens had 'Carlson's' on University Drive, where the eastside had 'The Chuck Wagon' in Eastern Hills, 'The Clover' in Poly, 'The Lone Star' in northside, and 'Pal's' in Arlington. Drive-in's with fancy neon signs beckoned one and all. Where "carhops" like Betty (Carlson's) delivered literally carloads of burgers and malts onto protruding metal trays hanging off the many car door rolled-down driver's window.

Slouching teen bodies on fenders, deck lids, and trunks. Parked cars stacked deep side-by-side, car radios tuned to XERF-AM in Acuna-Mexico, listening to "Wolfman Jack" and his late night "border blast" rock 'n' roll program.

Hot rods, muscle cars, family station wagons - they all circled Carlson's swing driveway just to be seen. Open car hoods were common to grasp the latest new speed equipment. Honking car horns signaled hello to passing friends hanging from car windows or open convertible tops on University Drive. An occasional 'muscle car' with open exhaust would roar by being chased by our local motorcycle cop Woody. Yup, this was "our place" to hang-out. Even Car Craft Magazine did a monthly feature called 'Drive-Ins USA' on popular teen drive-in joints around the country; with an article one month on Fort Worth Texas Carlson's. Sadly, Carlson's closed the burger hangout, reopening a modern restaurant in its' place. Like many others it didn't last very long, succumbed to the same fate - into oblivion.

Highschool male graduates in the '60s faced the US Army draft to serve in the Vietnam war. Having several athletic injuries I wasn't eligible, and unlike my pals who did serve, I was spared the atrocities of war. Which now brings me to this rendering sketch you see before you.

Look closely. His consoling girlfriend's touch. His solitary face tells of an awakening to reality of his impending military draft and the conflict he's about to join fighting for his country. He realizes he may never return home as did so many. And in a far away foreign land called Vietnam, in restless sleep he sees a mirage of a two-lane blacktop with an abandoned burger drive-in hangout. And he hears a mysterious whisper in his ear - his girlfriend soft voice "it's all gone". The ritual that he left behind, never to come again.

Art and narrative by Richard A. Sukup, artist.