Dr. Doug's Web Log
Dr. Doug's Mental Health Clinic
Guided Group Therapy on the Terlingua Ghost Town Porch
See ya' on the porch...
Welcome to my Wide Open Mental Health Clinic here on the Terlingua Trading Company porch!  Just go through that door over there and the nurse will provide your favorite ice-cold medicine for a small fee. 
Come back here with your medicine and find a place on one of those benches.  I'll guide you through this group therapy session, and I guarantee you will feel better very soon.
Now tell me... What do you think of the view from this porch... Did you know Terlingua is the world's largest open air insane asylum? Yes, and I'm the only mental therapist in this entire borderland region, as far as the eye can see.  This is a task no other therapist will do, a fate of unending hardships.
      But I'll do it, so let's get started.  Do you love your mother?  Is there something bothering you?  How does that make you feel?  I may be able to help you.
My advice is... Live free, take your medicine, and be very, very happy.
Hey, look over there... What a babe!
You are visitor number:
Don't worry, be very, very happy.
Please sign in and leave me a message... Or not.  I realize some of my patients perfer anonymity.
This page was last updated: January 25, 2012
Sign InView Entries
email me
Thirty-six years ago I visited Terlingua with my brother, fell in love with this rugged, resource scarce, hardscrabble, merciless land, and decided to live here for the rest of my life.  With no money, no car, no house and no job, it was difficult to even find water.  I stayed wherever I could, in caves, in abandoned buildings, in a bus...
I survived most of the time with no steady job as a free man, lots of times that meant sleeping under the stars.  I learned to enjoy my freedom, take my medicine like a man, and to be very, very happy.
I work in downtown Terlingua Ghostown and at the El Dorado Hotel. 
This is where you will find me, on the Terlingua Trading Company Porch where I conduct my world famous Open Air Guided Group Therapy Sessions with the many needy patients we find in the Big Bend Area.
Please visit my other webpages here:
Dr. Doug sez:
Dr. Doug's History Lesson

In the 1500's most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying: "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."

Houses had thatched roofs -thick straw- piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof,  When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying: "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying:  "a thresh hold."

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special.  When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon."  They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a..."dead ringer."

In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.  Hence we have 'the rule of thumb'

Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden'.  And thus, the word GOLF entered into the English language.

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone

Coca-Cola was originally green.

The cost of raising a medium-size dog To the age of eleven:  £ 10,120.00

The first novel ever written on a typewriter, Tom Sawyer.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

111,111,111 x
111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle.

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Q.. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'?

A. One thousand

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?

A. All were invented by women.

Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?

A. Honey

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was Lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts....
So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."  It's where we get the phrase: 'mind your P's and Q's'

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the Rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they use the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg.  The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a Word are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the First and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a Taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This Is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by Istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

And that's the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring!
2011 4th of July Parade
Every year this has become a time honored tradition.  As you can see everybody is having a great time. The 4th is one of Terlingua's most favorite holidays.  There were no fireworks displays due to the state wide ban on fires, but there were some water ballon battles.  Pictures from James Ezell, thanks!
i Viva Terlingua!
What? Me worry? What? Me Worry?Where'd everybody go?Gig 'em Aggies!
Dr. Doug's World Famous
Open Air Guided Group Therapy Sessions
on the Terlingua Trading Company Porch

http://historicterlingua.homestead.com
Click on picture to enlarge, Esc brings you back
Photos by Kristinna Blanchard
A TALE WORTH REMEMBERING

His name was Fleming and he was a poor Scottish farmer.  One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog.  He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Thinking and acting quickly, farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Fleming had saved.

"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.

"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to a man you can be proud of."

And that is what he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.

Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name: Winston Churchill.

A READERS REPLY:

KenTuesday, 1/24/12, 8:39 PM

Regarding your note on a Tale Worth remembering, on your home page, about Winston Churchill. I post something from Wikipedia:

"The popular story of Winston Churchill's father paying for Fleming's education after Fleming's father saved young Winston from death is false. According to the biography, Penicillin Man: Alexander Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution by Kevin Brown, Alexander Fleming, in a letter to his friend and colleague Andre Gratia, described this as "A wondrous fable." Nor did he save Winston Churchill himself during World War II. Churchill was saved by Lord Moran, using sulphonamides, since he had no experience with penicillin, when Churchill fell ill in Carthage in Tunisia in 1943. The Daily Telegraph and the Morning Post on 21 December 1943 wrote that he had been saved by penicillin. He was saved by the new sulphonamide drug, Sulphapyridine, known at the time under the research code M&B 693, discovered and produced by May & Baker Ltd, Dagenham, Essex, a subsidiary of the French group Rhône-Poulenc. In a subsequent radio broadcast, Churchill referred to the new drug as "This admirable M&B."  It is highly probable that the correct information about the sulphonamide did not reach the newspapers because, since the original sulphonamide antibacterial, Prontosil, had been a discovery by the German laboratory Bayer and Britain was at war with Germany at the time, it was thought better to raise British morale by associating Churchill's cure with the British discovery, penicillin."

From:Texas
Email: oatwillie@earthlink.net
Terlingua Moon is the area's weekly newspaper. Click on the Yellow Full Moon to see the latest issue:
Excuse me, are you alright?  You look a little queasy.  How many fingers do you see?  Yes, four is correct.

Perhaps you got a little hot.  Just sit back on that bench, I'll be right back with some ice cold medicine, and we can talk about it. 

I'm Dr. Doug, and I specialize in making people happy. See, you're feeling better already.  Come along then, I'll show you around Terlingua, and I guarantee you will soon be much happier...
© 2009 Douglas Blackmon "Dr. Doug", all rights reserved.
Photo by Kristinna
Dr. Doug presides over another Group Therapy Session on the Porch.  Notice the musical accompaniment and the lively conversation sparked by liberal doses of medicine, Dr. Doug's lively and magnetic personality, and the magic of the Chisos Mountains.

There is not an unhappy face in the crowd.
Photo by Kristinna
This cowboy will be back.

He may have left his rock collection, boots, medicine and smokes, but he would never abandon his dog.
Eagle Webula
Locally Cosmic Connections
Dr. Doug

Borderline Mental Therapist

Salvage Yard Ranch

Fort Cinco Cieto Terra Incognito Terlingua Texas off grid hide out Big Bend Country

http://salvageyardranch.blogspot.com

http://s271.photobucket.com/albums/jj136/freedomkill2003/

http://www.youtube.com/user/CincoCieto

Kristina's Farewell Party

Kristina Blanchard has been miraculously cured of terminal unhappiness and has been released from Dr. Doug's Mental Health Clinic, the world's largest open air mental asylum, to return to her home in upper state New York. 

You'd have to slap her to knock that smile off her face, but Dr. Doug does not advise such action.  Part of her prescribed therapy was to let out her aggressions using a bullwhip. 

In the accompanying video she is seen practicing as Dr. Doug supervises the therapy session.  At the end of the video, do we witness a classical case of Freudian aggression towards the Doctor? His intuitive cane based defensive posture demonstrates strong Kung Fu.

Dr. Doug and all the other patients love her and will miss her very much.  Farewell Kristina.  Dr. Doug is already misty eyed.

This is his great quandry. His miraculous successes return to productive society, his harder cases stay longer and sometimes become locals.  But we survive out here. 

iViva Terlingua!
Terlingua Stingers
Build a Website in 30 minutes. Try Free, Click Here.
Dr. Doug's email is: 
dr.black7@yahoo.com
CURRENT MOON
Click for Terlingua, TX Forecast
Click for Terlingua, TX Forecast

Dr. Doug's Web Log

Stop killing donkeys in the State Park!

 by Dr. Doug on 01/18/12

Protesters rode three burros to the Texas Capitol on Wednesday and delivered a petition with 103,000 signatures asking the governor to end the state's practice of shooting the animals in the wild.

The Wild Burro Protection League's petition seeks to stop Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials from killing wild burros in Big Bend Ranch State Park. The state agency considers the 300 wild donkeys that live in the park to be a destructive invader, arguing that the animals destroy the habitat of bighorn sheep, which were once extinct in the West Texas park.

The burros compete with the sheep, which the agency recently reintroduced to the park, said Kevin Good, the special assistant to the director of Parks and Wildlife.

The agency said there is no effort to actively hunt burros but state park officials are authorized to kill them on sight, like any other animal that wasn't naturally part of the park's habitat.

But the league considers the burros a heritage species because the animals played such an important role in human settlement of the area. The group collected the petition signatures using a website, and organizers say the names represent supporters from all over the world.

The burros have "been here from the 1600s living just fine without any intervention," said Gayle-Suzanne Barron, who owns an animal rescue center near Austin. "There's only about 300 or so, and they migrate back and forth between Mexico and Texas, and to kill off all of what they call invasive species is beyond comprehension."

Barron said there were numerous animal rescue groups interested in capturing the animals and removing them from the park.

Good, the Parks and Wildlife official, said that although past attempts to trap the animals failed, the agency would consider proposals to capture the animals from any organization that had the skill and funding to remove them.

"The goal of state park management is to eliminate all non-native plant and animals occurring on park lands as staff time and department resources permit, in order to conserve the indigenous species occurring on these properties," Good said.

 

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

 


Comments (0)     

Big Bend Mountain Biking Festival Slated for February

 by Dr. Doug on 01/12/12

A mountain biking festival will take place in Big Bend next month.

The “Chihuahuan Desert Dirt Fest” will take place February 16th through the 18th in the Terlingua/Lajitas area of West Texas.

The featured route of the Dirt Fest is the 54-mile Epic Ride located in Big Bend Ranch State Park on February 18th. The three-day event will offer riding opportunities for all levels of mountain bikers, ranging from the mostly flat ranch roads to the Dome Trail and Rincon Loops, or the Epic Ride, which goes up Fresno Canyon to Sauceda.

Water aid stations will be set up along the routes. If the 54-mile Epic Ride is too much for riders to do in one day, it can be done in two days.

“This is truly an epic event with plenty of adventure, breathtaking views, spirit and soul rejuvenation, and healthy fun in the sun,” said Barrett Durst, superintendent of Big Bend Ranch State Park.

Reservations can be made through the Big Bend Ranch State Park by calling Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Customer Service Center at 512-389-8919. The Bunkhouse costs $35 per bunk nightly, or reserve one of only three rooms in the ranch residence for $100 per night.

For more information, visit http://www.desertsportstx.com/mountain-bike-event/.

Comments (0)     

My friend, Kinky Friedman says:

 by Dr. Doug on 12/13/11

"It's so bad in Texas these days that blondes & Aggies are telling Rick Perry jokes."
- Richard "Kinky" Friedman

Comments (0)     

OUT YONDER: Cook-offs deliver spice and hot times for chili fans

 by Dr. Doug on 10/31/11

By Ross McSwain

Saturday, October 29, 2011

In a few days, traffic into the Big Bend region of far West Texas will increase fivefold as all kinds of vehicles and camping rigs head for ghost town Terlingua and immediate vicinity for one of the world championship chili cook-offs that have taken place in the desert since 1967.

The cook-offs will be held Thursday through Saturday at two locations.

Some call the gathering the biggest beer bust in the state. The tailgate parties at the weekly football contests will hold that honor, but the chili cooking goes better when suds are flowing.

Tailgating around the cooking areas will be used in a different manner in the desert. The pickup truck beds around camp areas will be used for bedrolls and a reasonably safe place to sleep. The tailgate will serve as a place for cook stoves and chopping onions and peppers.

In the mid-1980s, the once famous Original Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert-Wick Fowler Championship Chili Cookoff split over what many believe was a dispute over profits from T-shirt sales and cooking rules. As a result, a second cook-off, sanctioned by the Chili Appreciation Society International, was started right down the road a few miles from the original site. Both are now held on the first weekend in November. Each will have 100 or more contestants seeking trophies and praise from their fellow cohorts, who call themselves "chiliheads."

The Tolbert-Fowler gathering will be behind the Arturo White Store at Terlingua and the CASI gathering will be at its Rancho CASI de los Chisos located on Ranch Road 170, some 11 miles west of Study Butte or about halfway between Terlingua and Lajitas.

Before retiring as Standard-Times regional editor, I made many of the cook-offs doing feature stories and taking photos of winners and of the wrecked vehicles that crashed into gullies, creek beds and small canyons.

I was at the first one held in 1967 when writers Wick Fowler and H. Allen Smith squared off over bubbling chili pots cooking in front of the old Terlingua Mining Co. store.

The first crowd was mostly of media types seeking something different to write about. Frank X. Tolbert, a longtime columnist for The Dallas Morning News, used the venue to peddle copies of his book, "A Bowl of Red," which over the years has become the bible of chilidom.

The late Bud McDonald, longtime outdoors editor at the Standard-Times, and I traveled together when the chili cook-off split occurred. We had been working some stories during the early part of the week and did not know of the split until we happened upon a cooking contestant fixing his pot of chili alongside the highway and giving it away to passers-by.

He told us he had friends in both cooking camps and chose to give his chili away in protest of the split. Bud and I had lots of admiration for the man who held true to his friends.

One of the most enjoyable events I attended during those developing years was held at Villa de la Mina, once the old Watters Ranch, which promoter Glenn Pepper bought to be used as chili cook-off headquarters. Among the vendors attending was Carter M. "Buck" Newsome, then the only surviving U.S. Border Patrol officer to ride horseback over the thousands of square miles of unpopulated vastness.

"Ain't this something," he declared. "I never thought I would see this many people acting this crazy out here in the middle of nowhere."

The canyon where the dancers were moving with the string band had once been V-shaped but had been filled in and smoothed over to accommodate the gathering.

Buck was selling his book, "Shod With Iron," to those interested in Big Bend history.

I suspect that the graybeards now outnumber the younger folks attending these two events. Maybe it's because they have more money to spend on gasoline and diesel fuel.

Chili is one of my favorite foods, but that's too far for me to go now for a bowl of red. If you go, drive careful and leave your gadgets behind. The entertainment should be great at both places.

Thought for the week: War does not determine who is right — only who is left.

I'll be seeing you Out Yonder.

Ross McSwain can be contacted at yonder11@sudden link.net, or check his website www.rossmcswain.com.

Comments (0)     

CASI sanctioned First Annual High Sierra Bar & Grill Chili Cookoff

 by Dr. Doug on 10/25/11

High Sierra Bar & Grill is sponsoring a Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI) sanctioned charitable Chili Cookoff at the El Dorado Hotel in the Terlingua Ghostown on January 27 - 28, 2012.  The $20 per cook entry fee will be donated to Terlingua charitable organizations.  Cooks party starts at 7:00PM on Friday the 27th.  Turn in time is 2PM on Saturday the 28th.  Special Hotel rates for cooks, judges and groupies.  For Room Reservations call (432) 371-2111.

In case of inclement weather a covered/indoor area will be provided.  Chili grind meat only according to CASI rules.  First Place "Bronze  Indian Warrior Chief" Trophy will be awarded.

Live music will be performed by our talented local musicians Friday and Saturday.  For more information, contact Deanna Castillo, HC70 Box 204, C/O El Dorado Hotel, Terlingua, TX  79852.  Email is deannacastillo22@yahoo.com Website is www.highsierra.homestead.com/events.html

Come on out and party with Dr. Doug, Hermann & Deanna, and a great bunch of Terlingua locals in the Ghostown.

 

 

Comments (0)     

Main | Older Entries »
When in Marfa, Dr. Doug gets his medicine here:
When in Alpine, Dr. Doug gets his medicine here:
Dave Safrit rowing down the highway
Terry Anderson
Terlingua Weather
"It is better to know nothing and KNOW you know nothing than to think you know something and don't." 
Socrates wrote that in Greek 23 centuries ago.  Funny how it still applies...
"I call my home "Ice Station Zebra".  It's cold as hell in the winter, and hot as hell in the summer,  but we survive down here..."

Dr. Doug is one of the characters in the Award Winning Video "Ghostown: 24 Hours"
Awards

* Emmy Award - Outstanding Achievement in Documentary
* Emmy Nomination - Oustanding Achivement in Editing

* Winner, Best Documentary - Chicago Int'l Reel Shorts Film Festival
* Winner, Best Documentary - Dam Short Film Festival
* Winner, Best Documentary - Thin Line Film Festival
* Winner, Best Documentary - Seguin Film Festival
* World Premeire - DC Independent Film Festival
* Terlingua Premiere - La Kiva, Terlingua, Texas
* Austin Film Society Showcase - SXSW Film Festival
If you find you are the one, come see me for an open-air group therapy session on the Porch.  I guarantee you will feel better after therapy.
                                                Dr. Doug