Dear Dad 8 2 21 Armadillos
Texas has a state bird, flower, tree, etc. We even have a state dinosaur. The nine-banded armadillo is the state mammal, but I see no reason we should not also recognize it as the state roadkill. A few years ago, when John Hightower ran for the office of Texas governor his slogan was, “There is nothing in the middle of the road except yellow lines and dead armadillos.” I like this speculation figuratively and it could be argued it is literally true. I have been thinking recently of all things armadillo.
I have discovered a great way to start a conversation is by asking unusual questions which require some thought to answer. One of my recent questions was — “What is your favorite song with armadillo in it?” The most frequent answer given with an aha got you to smile is Armadillo by Morning. Of course, the actual song is Amarillo By Morning, and other than the rhyme it has nothing to do with armadillos. The conversation usually continues with the question back to me. Although there are many songs with armadillos, two are favorites of mine. And both are worthy of conversation. The first is a song by Robert Earl Keen, The Armadillo Jackal, about running over armadillos with a car and selling the carcasses. This is the first song I remember my nephew Clint singing as a preschooler. Now he is a Nashville musician; how cool is that?
…The armadillo never sees me
When I hit him with my brights
His life don’t pass before his eyes
He’s blinded by my lights
And so I hit him with my bumper
Doin’ sixty, sixty-five….
The other song I think of was a hit of sorts in the early 1970s by Jerry Jeff Walker, written by Gary P Nunn about being in London and homesick for Austin and the old club there — Armadillo World Headquarters. The list of country, rock, blues and folk artists who performed there is pages long. The song is London Home Blues
….And of the whole damn lot
The only friend I got
Is a smoke and a cheap guitar
My mind keeps roamin’
My heart keeps longin’
To be home in a Texas bar
I wanna go home with the armadillo
Good country music from Amarillo
And Abilene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever seen….
Spent an occasional evening at this old former National Guard Armory before it closed. Perhaps my most memorable evening might have been seeing Doug Kershaw dancing wildly while playing the fiddle on stage playing and singing Louisiana Man. I see he is 85 years old now, this must have been a few years ago.
When I was about 10 my cousin Clint shot and dressed an armadillo which Grandmother McIntire cooked for us. Remember thinking it was pretty good at the time but have never again dined on this delicacy. And, thinking back, grandmother was a mom and wife during the hard times of the great depression. It is highly unlikely this was the first armadillo she ever cooked for her family.
In high school and maybe for a short time afterward, I could run, for a short distance, faster than an armadillo. A few times upon finding one unsuspectingly going about his or her business in an open pasture of rooting up and eating grub worms, insect larva, etc.; I would pursue at my fastest sprint. Upon overtaking the critter, I would roll it over with the side of my foot. While the armadillo was off balance and trying to right itself, I would grab its tail and hoist it into the air. Wonder what the armadillo thought as we looked eye to eye as I held him upside down. He probably had an interesting story to tell his mates when returning to his burrow about the nutty teenage human who bowled him over and suspended him in the air and then just put him back on the ground.
As I think more about the armadillo, maybe it should be only the state roadkill and not the state mammal. Although the nine-banded armadillo has remained unchanged for 50 million years, it is like the Anglos, a recent immigrant to Texas. We both came here in the early 1800s albeit from different directions. Perhaps a better state mammal would be one only occurring here or one driven to extinction by man such as the grey wolf. But I am sticking to my guns about the roadkill designation and will be contacting the state legislature with my recommendation which will be tied to my future votes.
