Monday, March 10, 2008

My Town Monday -- The Road Does Not End

If ever there was a day I couldn't afford to lose an hour it was this one.

I curse you Daylight Savings Time!

Within the first ten minutes this morning I'd stubbed both of my pinky toes. I blame the unbalance created by the shift in time.

I double curse you Daylight Savings Time!

Next week is spring break and I plan to make a break south with my family, so there will be no My Town Monday from me, but feel free to carry on in my absence and if someone wished to take up my slack and post links to all participants let me know and I'll pass that info along in a post later this week.
Now for My Town Monday part II of about Amarillo's eccentric millionaire, Stanley March 3. Part one is here.





Stanley refers to his residence as Toad HALL and this is a shot of the sign near his gate.






This sign is posted along the western ridge line of his residence. Why he felt compelled to erect this is anyone's guess. The letters are probably fifteen or twenty foot high.







Last week I posted a picture of some strange looking legs. These concrete legs now have an addition to them - SOCKS. Here is a pic I took only this week.


Yes, this is another of Stanley's creations, though it often spawns confusion since he went as far as to include a historical marker that mirrors the appearance of those used by the state of Texas. Here is a shot of the plaque, but I'm not sure if y'all will be able to read it.


The gist is that this is the remains of a great statue called OZYMANDIAS. The plaque claims that Mary Wollstone (the author of Frankenstein) and her husband Percy Shelly discovered the statue in 1819. The small print at the bottom goes on to say the top of the statue was destroyed by kids from Lubbock, Texas after losing to an Amarillo team in a sports competition.

But the legs only appeared in the last ten or so years.

Another recent activity of Stanley's is a project he calls, The Dynamite Museum. Basically the Dynamite museum is a bunch of crazy works of art and saying that resemble road signs. Like the one I showed last week that said ROAD DOES NOT END. Here are a few more.



















Like I said, last week , Stanly also has his share of critics and he has had a few scrapes with the law. He once interrupted a weather channel live broadcast about an ice storm that blew through the area. Stanly dressed up as an old mountain man complete with a coyote carcass draped across his head and he did some kind of Native American snow dance behind the weather channel reporter. They asked him to leave several times but eventually the police had to be summonsed. Stanley was also was once charged with kidnapping after supposedly locking a teenager up in a chicken coup on his property. the boy came from another well-to-do Amarillo family and the case was settle out of court.

I would not say I know Stanley but her did come into the feedstore where I once worked, and while a bit different he was always entertaining and courteous. He also owned the local ABC affiliate for a while. Along with his wife, Wendy, who comes across much more straight-laced Mr. Marsh has donated to a variety of causes. Land for a Catholic Church and for a Private School and the Marsh's established an endowment at the Texas Tech School of Health.

Should you want to know more about Stanley Marsh 3 there is an award winning documentary titled, The Road Does Not End. Click here to visit that website.

Some hate him, others tolerate him, but either way you have to admit, Stanley Marsh is a true American original. In my opinion the world needs more people willing, or crazy enough, to break out of the pack and howl at the moon, or the sun, or simply the sky. Otherwise we'd all get bored.


As usual, leave me a comment if you post about your town and I'll link you below.

My Fellow -- My Town Monday -- Marauders

Tiggysmum70 -- Gets fancy with a video about Louisville, Ohio.

Word Vixen -- Blogs about a writer's conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Lana Gramlich -- Paints a picture of Abita Springs, Louisiana's art scene.

Barrie Summy -- Take the plunge on San Diego, California's Big Dipper.

Debbie Lou -- Offers up a hot little number on Bishops Stortford, England.

Josephine Damian -- Shares the Paine of New Rochelle, New York. Thomas Paine that is.

Carleen Brice -- Spreads some love for her fellow Denver, Colorado area writers.

Britta Coleman -- Is making Al Gore proud in Fort Worth, Texas.

Patti Abbott -- Is away from Detroit and rubbing our noses with a a bit of Florida sand.

The Anti-Wife -- Looks at her idealistic childhood in Anna, Illinois.

Lyzzydee -- Drink in the water at Wellwyn Garden City, England.

Alex Keto -- Our resident globetrotter reminisces about his days as a foreign journalist in Amsterdam.

Debra -- Introduces us to Village of Peninsula nestled in Ohio's Cuyahoga Valley.




27 comments:

Melanie Miday-Stern said...

Mine is up and ready for viewing. I wish we has some popular/ eccentric person from my town... oh wait we do!! It's DG!!! ROFL. Sorry sis, I had to do it!

Thanks for the continuing saga of your well known millionaire!

M-

Michele said...

The addition of the socks crack me up!

Love the stories about your town and Stanley.

WordVixen said...

I love the "Actual Size". It's the kind of thing I'd do.

Here's my entry for the week: http://questtowrite.blogspot.com/2008/03/lancaster-pennsylvania-writers.html

Lana Gramlich said...

My MTM post (which reminds me of yours, actually,) is up at http://lucidflora.blogspot.com/
As for daylight savings time, I concur. I vote this coming Autumn we all fall back a HALF hour & leave the clock there for the rest of eternity. It wouldn't make for a drastic difference & everyone could maintain their regular schedules. But noooOOOooo...that makes too much sense. *snort* ;)

Chris Eldin said...

I love Stanley! Thanks for the link!

The bit about him behind the weatherman is really funny! I think people just need to liven up. If that weatherman played along, the ratings could have soared (I think) I mean, stay tuned for Stanley's weather forecast, could pop in at any moment!

I love the Town series as well. I haven't read all of them yet (could you put a special link for these on your sidebar?)

Have a fun break!

Barrie said...

The sock picture is priceless!

My post about San Diego's the Big Dipper is up and running. :)

Sam said...

How interesting!!
The statue of the legs was particularly disturbing, for some reason.

Patti said...

DST sucks more than it usually does this year.

loved this my town. and the signs...the "actual size" the legs with socks! all delicious...

ssas said...

My hubbin just saw a mini cooper with a bumper sticker: Actual Size.

I forgot about My Town Monday today. I wrote about art instead. Stoopid art...

Debbielou said...

Every town deserves a "Stanley !"

Just posted my Town post.

Have a great holiday with your family!

Terrie Farley Moran said...

Travis,

I love this series!

I also love Stanley and think every town should have a guy or gal like him. Nothing from me this week, but maybe one of the other women of mystery will come through.

Terrie

Josephine Damian said...

Can't decide if the scuba pig sign is my favorite or the one that I relate to cause I'm a night owl:
"loose at night."

Good thing that Stanley guy has dough or they'd have carted him of to the funny farm a long time ago. Loved the story about the weather report and the coyote prop.

Today I'm writing about my town's controversial political pot stirrer, Thomas Paine:
http://josephinedamian.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-town-monday-paine-to-royals.html

Carleen Brice said...

Thank God for Stanley!

My post is up.

Melissa Amateis said...

RE: Daylight Savings Time...Is it just me or did yesterday go by really REALLY fast?

Charles Gramlich said...

I don't mind daylight savings time. I like that it's still light when I get home and I can get out and walk. As for the true original, yeah, gotta admit he's done some intersting stuff.

Britta Coleman said...

Love the Stanley Marsh bits. Makes me miss Amarillo.

My Town Monday is up.

Kern also hates daylight savings time--will have to tip him to your blog.

Terrie Farley Moran said...

Travis,

Patti Abbott is on vacation but has a MyTown blog up on http://pattinase.blogspot.com/

Terrie

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

Drats, I forgot. Let me go mosey something up.

The Anti-Wife said...

Travis,
My entry is posted. Loved yours this week.

Lyzzydee said...

Mine is up, just snuck into Monday here in England. I really need to find some funny tales and get away from all the factual stuff!!!

Therese Fowler said...

Vivid fellow, that Stanley! I absolutely love people who live on the edge like that.

(oh, Mary W. would have you know that she's Mary Wollstonecraft, for the record. :) )

alex keto said...

I'm in, I'm in

alex keto said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
debra said...

Great post,Travis. And finally, I remembered to post about my town.

Phats said...

Pictures of the legs were awesome haha those were great.

here in Indiana we didn't observe DST for the longest time but we do now. It's weird I have to remind myself to reset my clocks

Jess said...

I love it!

Wonderful story. Dear old Stanley is indeed a dear.

Unknown said...

I would LOVE to meet this guy. He sounds great, and he would be so much to be around, for a little while!

Great story.