What's in the Water in Midland, Texas?

by Bekki Maier Welch

I can remember back in the day when we moved to Midland. Well.. I don’t really remember because I was only four. There wasn’t any housing available in Midland, so we lived in Terminal, which is the airport, but at the time it was also an Army and Air Force base during the war. It was a great place to live. It was like a tiny town. We had a grocery store, fire dept., police dept.,school, library and on Saturdays they would show cartoons and Abbott and Costello for the kids. I went to school there through the third grade, then we were bused into town. Eventually businesses started moving into Terminal. We were called the Terminal Termites. Well I could go on and on about Terminal, but on to other things.

In reference to the name of the book (What’s in the Water in Midland, Texas) the water in Midland was terrible, and still is but not as bad as it used to be! People would come to visit and nearly throw up. We didn’t have bottled water back then so if you lived here you drank it. We were used to it and  would laugh at people that came to see us.

Now about our west Texas sand storms (or haboob as they are calling them now), they were so bad you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Literally! Of course the barracks we lived in(remember it was an old Army and Air Force base) were not insulated, and the windows seals and doors had cracks in them. We used to have to put wet towels in front of the doors and window seals to keep the sand out.

Oh yeah..I also remember me, Jackie Reed, my sister, Barbara and some other girls were taking ballet lessons. Johnny ( that’s what we called him back then) and Bruce’s (McElligott) mom made them take lessons with us. Sorry John, had to put that one in there. They hated it. I think they might have threatened us if we told anyone, but we probably did anyway.!