Bringing the world to West Texas

One of the things I have enjoyed about owning a business here in West Texas is the opportunity to get to know people from all over the world.

You wouldn't think people from all over the world would be here, but they are.

Abilene Christian University brings in a lot of them and for really weird reasons sometimes. Some foreign students simply pick up a guide to American colleges and ACU is one of the first that comes up.

Strange way to pick a school to attend, but they come from all over.

ACU also has a world class track and field program which brings in runners from all over but particularly, Africa. They bring in weight throwers from Eastern Europe mostly.

So, there is a melting pot in the track and field program alone.

Dyess Air Force Base is another producer of outsiders.

Weirdest thing to me is that a lot of them wind up staying here after college or when they get out of the Air Force.

That doesn't seem logical to me, but it happens.

In our business, we have to have people help us with the maintenance and up keep.

Presently, I have help from Kansas City and from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Over the years, we have had employees from all over the place. The farthest employee from home was a rather wild and crazy individual from Russia. He hardly came from Russia with love as he was sort of an angry fellow, but he was extremely interesting and opened a lot of thinking in my mind.

I like, and liked, these guys because they are not like everyone else around here. They bring variety and color to the area.

One of the things I appreciate most about them is the different dialects they bring. I really don't want to talk like a West Texan and these guys help with that.

As long as we are in this business we will probably always have at least one college kid around to help with painting or other maintenance issues. I will always hope the kid is from somewhere far away so I will learn more about their area of the world, but also so they can help prevent me from falling into the rut of being like all my neighbors.

Not that there is anything wrong with them.