PERILOUS AND POWERFUL

DRUGS

I don't do drugs.  But I am no stranger to drugs and I would imagine you aren't either.

Chuckwa: drugs are cunning baffling powerful...they have caused me to ruin my life and they almost took my life more than once.  Due to them, I did take someone's life

 and I am where I am because of them.

I would like to tell you a true story about drugs.  Do you remember the statement made years ago by our SISD Elementary Principal where he said he knew at a very early age those that would have troubles in life?  I wish I would have discussed this further with him to know...

why?  what were the signs he was able to see that foretold?

When I  was a senior in high school, our football team, for the first time ever,

made it all the way to the state football playoffs.  We all knew it, but about half of the guys took drugs and the other half tolerated it....we were winning!  Even my parents were aware of the drug culture in our community because there were certain kids I was not allowed to hang out with.

Many years later, one of these friends of mine sat in my living room and told me 

one of the saddest things I have ever heard....

He said this:

"When I was in the 4th grade, I rode my banana seat bicycle to the First Christian Church where I scored my first drug deal.  Later, I began to drink, and use pot and speed heavily.  I would get high before school, leave for lunch to get high, get out of school before sports to get high, and go home to come down before bed.  By doing this I was able to keep my 'mixture just right' to stay wasted the entire day.

My parents knew it, my friends knew it, my coaches knew it...

and 

no.one.would.help.me."

these incredible words came from the star of the team...one of the good kids...

one of the privileged kids

I cannot shake the image of him on his bike...riding home with a baggie of pot

 in his little corduroy coat pocket

luckily and surprisingly, today,

he is a successful executive for a very successful company

he is healthy, wealthy and a great and talented husband and father

Chuckwa and many others, aren't the lucky ones

Chuckwa:  "I got arrested on Christmas Eve when I was 26 and went off on the cops and was charged for Assault on a Public Servant.  That landed me in prison for 4 years.

When I got out, I moved back home and lived in a tent and picked up cans for money before I finally found work.

Just when I finally got things half way going for myself again I was notified that Lipscomb County was gonna re-indict me on the DWI I was out on bail for.  I had just gotten back on my feet, had my kids in my life, had met another woman, had a good job...and then the rug got jerked out from under me."

***what seems like such a simple thing as a bail bond revocation will prove to be a life changing fork in the road for Chuckwa.... Below is the official arrest record for Chuckwa.

01/22/2000        DWI                        3 yrs       Sentence began    02/05/2002

12/24/2001        Retaliation               5 yrs       Sentence began    02/24/2002

12/24/2001        Retaliation               5 yrs       Sentence began    02/24/2002

12/24/2001        Aslt Pub Serv          7 yrs       Sentence began    02/24/2002

12/24/2001        Aslt Pub Serv          7 yrs       Sentence began    02/24/2002

10/27/2010        Murder                    40 yrs      Sentence began   10/27/2010

Do you believe that alcohol is a drug? Or that only illegal substances can be considered drugs?

As for how it affects the mind, it is best understood as a drug that reduces a person's ability to think rationally and distorts his or her judgment. 

Requiem For A Dream

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

THE SCRIPT FOR THE CALLISBURG KID

Yesterday I had a pleasant and unexpected chat with 

Ochiltree County Sheriff Terry Bouchard

Grace and I drove to Perryton, and while she took care of her business,

she dropped me off at the sheriff's office for an impromptu and off the record visit.

 While there, 

the whole idea of THE movie script took a different path from what I had originally planned.

Let me explain...

from the very beginning, when I read the first word of this 2010 murder case,

I had a vision....of a movie based on this true story, set in the Texas Panhandle

after talking to Sheriff Bouchard,

I realized the movie will be more about him, and Chuckwa will take the 2nd lead

ACT I Scene I

set along the woodsy creek...two young boys are running shirtless and barefoot 

with fishing poles...along the creek bed..

their spotted coon hound chasing them not far behind...

the voice of Chuckwa begins to tell the story of his childhood....

"I was raised by a coon tick hound and an appaloosa...."

ACT I Scene II

A loud bang scatters the birds from the trees at the homeplace

we hear the real 911 call from Chucwa's mother, as 

the Ochiltree County Sheriff cars race

to the farm of Mike Miller....to find he has been shot dead

the manhunt begins....

when you read, do you see words or pictures?

When I read the report of this murder...I saw a movie...from the very beginning

and the story of how life can go so wrong...how can life go so wrong?

things like this don't happen very often..hardly ever in fact, in our small rural communities

IN COLD BLOOD 

is a famous novel and movie about the Cutter Family Murder

in a town near us...Holcomb, Kansas.  

Our local swim team competes here each summer and I have always been intrigued with this story written by Truman Capote.

As we drove home through Ochiltree County into Hansford County,

I mentally gathered my cast of characters

My school chum, actor Rex Linn, will play the part of Sheriff Bouchard

he will have to get some hair but he is no stranger to a cowboy hat or a badge

The Callisburg Kid

Robert Knott will play the part of Old Chuckwa

it hasn't come to me who will play Young Chuckwa

John Cusack will play Mike Miller...the victim

Sadly DA David Scott and Philip Seymour Hoffman are both deceased

he would have been perfect!

Defense Attorney Mike Mosely will be represented by John Lithgow

Susan Sarandon....Diane Crabtree (Chuckwa's mother)

Scott Glenn...Jimmy Crabtree (Cuckwa's dad)

*my grandad told me when I was a little girl that someday I'd be famous*

I have never cared at all for the thought of being famous as I highly regard my privacy

however...it is very appealing to me to bring opportunity to my friend and loved one Rex,

and to bring a monetary gain to our area through the making of a movie filmed on location

I have no idea if this idea in my head will ever make it past being an idea in my head

but one can never get anything done in life if they don't just go out and give it a try

It's so strange...it just all continues to continue..

and I just do the thing that grows in my chest

as if...as if...

something larger than me 

is at work

DON HENLEY'S HOUSE

Singer, songwriter, musician and activist Don Henley was born on July 22, 1947 in Gilmer, Texas. He was raised in Linden a small, dusty town near the Arkansas and Louisiana border with a population of only 2,400. 

~*~

Chuckwa's life has been mostly full of challenges, 

but he still manages to talk about many of the good times he has been blessed with.  

He loves his parents and brother, and family.

He speaks with affection about the mother of his children

and he adores his children.

He has fond memories of hunting and fishing

He loves nature and he 

loves country music!

"These songs I sing in my head have lots of sentimental value.  

I like most all old country music.

You know I used to live in Don Henley's rent house outside of Linden, Texas.  When my boy, Christian was 18 months old, his mom and me stayed there with her dad who was doing some building on Don's house on the other side of the lake.  We would go over to his place in the evenings and he would take us up to the studio upstairs and play music.

All that time,  I had no idea who he was, even though they told me he was with the Eagles.  Ha, ha, I'm a country boy, so country music is all I ever knew.

I used to take his boat and go fishing and paddle up into the lily pads.  Michelle would be sunnin' topless makin' it a little hard to focus on my fishin'. 

N E Wayz...they're rolling the breakfast carts now and it's time to slop the inmates."

Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Psalm 16:5-8

If you would like more information on this area please click the links below.

CADDO LAKE

CASS COUNTY

THE PATCH

If Chuckwa thought riding broncs and bulls was a challenge, he was about to find out it wasn't anything compared to real life.

(Chuckwa on his wedding day...age 16)

By the time he was 17 he was married with his first child--

"I left home and had my first kid on the ground by the age of 17.  Six months after he was born, me and his mama ran into some problems due to some unfaithfulness on both our parts and split up.  This caused me lots of problems and a great deal of heartache."

in the early 1960's came 

the 

Wildcatters

creating one of the most prevalent and dangerous jobs in the nation

in a Texas minute...Chuckwa became a man...

a boy who had to grow up and work a man's job to provide for his family

Chuckwa became a roughneck..a slang term for a person who has a HARD MANUAL labor occupation working on oil rigs

"I went to work in the oilfield on a drilling rig and worked for that company until I was 22.   I got put in jail a few times and due to my heartache I started to do more drinking and the marijuana found its way into my life.  I was going from place to place, living it up and all the time doing whatever I could to kill the pain."

In the oil patch, drug and alcohol use is rampant as these rig crews try to muster through 12 hour shifts and labor up to 14 days in a row.

The roughneck is surrounded by heavy machinery that can kill or maim in an instant.  Falls from the "catwalk" (the top of the rig), being crushed by falling loads, explosions, being tangled in chains and cables...even hearing loss, are very common in this line of work.

The job is very, very hazardous with a high rate of injuries and fatalities.  

Drugs make no sense in this workplace...

yet, somehow, it is a very common.

I remember a scene in THE URBAN COWBOY

(google)

Where Pam says

"My daddy does oil....and all that implies"

for Chuckwa

this implication is not good

he will have four women and four children

Donavan, Cierra, Christian and Ethan

 more than four broken hearts,

and he will begin his arrest record

1 Peter 5:8

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 

RODEO COWBOY

Chuckwa loved his horses...he spent a lot of time with them

in fact...he loved all animals

he is a nature lover who enjoyed having lots of different farm animal pets

dogs, horses, goats

he even let one of his coon hounds nurse a coyote pup

What about a pet skunk?  Yes that too!

Chuckwa and little brother Chris are doing what most young men their age do in rural Texas--

they join 4-H and show animals

"Later I started riding bareback and bulls in local rodeos."

"I got on my first bareback when I was in the 4th grade and my last bull at age 26."

Chuckwa and Chris show off their new chaps

every rodeo cowboy needs a pair of chaps!

This was when life was simple for Chuckwa....a good boy with an innocent boyish charm...but life was about to prove to him what it proves to us all....

sometimes life gets hard

"I got married the first time at the age of 16 and took life by the horns.  I was ready to get away from problems that had brewed up over the years with my dad, due to his problems with drinking."

Heartache is about to come to play in the road up ahead.

 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit--Psalm 34:18