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because I had never experienced some of the things that kids experience with their fathers—learning to nail a curveball or how to catch a football—I couldn’t really say that I felt I missed out on that kind of fatherly input, because you can’t miss what you never had. All I do remember is that it seemed that people in the neighborhood took pity on me in an “Oh, poor kid. He lost his dad early” type of bullshit way, but I just carried on doing what kids do, playing in the street, riding around town on my bike, and the whole bit. Life’s got to go on…
CHERYL PONDER

Mother had the beginnings of a condition that’s related to muscular dystrophy, triggered—in many cases—by trauma. She’d had polio as a child but had never had any lingering effects of that, but after Daddy died she started falling for no reason. At that time she could pick herself up and do whatever she needed to do but as time went on, her condition got worse and she ended up having to go into a wheelchair.
     
    After two and a half more years in De Leon, mother made the decision to move us to Arlington in June of 1974. It made sense of course. We were only ever in De Leon because of Dad’s job, so with him gone, there was no reason to stay because we had no other attachment to the place whatsoever. Apparently Mom briefly considered moving back to Graham, but it would have been hard without Dad and—perhaps more significantly—the city seemed a better move so that we could all be closer to my sister Cheryl and her husband Buddy.
    Sometime after we left, my young life radically changed. While listening to music in my bedroom one night, I remember hearing the most fucking amazing sound emerging from my radio, and don’t forget, it was still only AM radio in those days. The name of the song was “Tush” and the band was ZZ Top, and when I heard this song, it immediately altered my outlook on everything. I held onto that feeling for dear life. Even as a young boy, I knew exactly what the blues was. I heard it being played all the time and in lots of different forms. I’d heard the Rolling Stones, who definitely had blues roots, and I’d also been exposed to the Beatles, who, while still having vague hints of blues hidden in the background, seemed to my ears much more like innovators within pop culture. But this was in a completely different and new style. ZZ Top was a new type of boogie, a new stomp, and I really dug it.
    “Dallas, Texas, Hollywooooo–ood…” You know how it goes and that to me was fucking telling. My first thought was, “Screw this; I want an electric guitar now. This is what I’ve got to do. Got to do.” Until this point, I hadn’t been the kind of kid that had posters of bands on my wall—I was much more into sports and shit like that—but that was all going to change. I was probably only eight years old at the time.
    So, after we moved to the city and when I showed up for my first day at my new school, I was faced with total culture shock. Hell, I was used to having eight kids in my class—maybe ten—and now all of a sudden I’m in a 5th grade classroom with fifty kids, split over three partitions. It took a while to adjust, and as a result of feeling lost in the crowd, I started acting like the class clown to get attention while hopefully making some new friends.
CHERYL PONDER

The main reason for mother and Rex moving into the city was to be near my husband and I. I wanted to help mother with Rex, and the opportunities were better for Rex in Arlington.
     
    Even at this age I would take anyone on. I was a scrappy little dude for sure. I had no fear whatsoever and because I didn’t, the bigger kids soon became my friends, but usually only after I’d tried to smash their skull in a fight. I had no problem tackling someone who was a foot taller than me, and lots of kids were in those days. I used to whoop some ass back then, as that was only way I could guarantee respect, and if things went wrong, I