Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Sorry it's been awhile...Ok, so when we last left off, Austin's Christmas spirit was underwhelming, but I had a great time. So I was kind of sorry to leave for Dallas, but after a few solid days off, I was antsy to do some more interviews. As I write this, I've done nearly 95 interviews, and I'm still nervous about my first interview after a "long" (more than one day) absence. Ridiculous, I know, but there it is.

I had only one interview on the day I got to Dallas, and that was with Frank Finn, class of '49, with whom I had one of the most hilarious phone exchanges ever:

Me: Hi, may I speak with Frank please?
Frank Finn: No, but you are speaking to Mr. Finn.
Me: Oh...um, hi, this is Katie, I was calling because you had contacted me about being interviewed for the Notre Dame Oral History Project...
FF: Oh, sorry about that, I thought you were some young lawyer. How the heck are you, Katie?

Needless to say, I couldn't wait to meet this guy, and he did not disappoint. He invited me to come with him to the ND Dallas Club's Annual Presidents Luncheon, which is where the current president ushers in the new president in the presence of all the past presidents of the club, and they vote on who will receive the club's big award (I abstained) and give an update on the club's scholarships, service work, and other activities, complete with spreadsheets, projections for next year's market, etc. Basically, it was me and about 30 older gentlemen, plus a couple of younger women, having a very tasty lunch at the top of one of Dallas's tallest skyscrapers and talking Notre Dame.

Sometimes people ask me if I miss spending time with people my own age on this trip. And yes, sometimes I do miss my peers. But I also feel very comfortable kicking it with the older crowd, because as anyone who knows me knows, I practically am a little old man: I get up early, I like to take naps, and I read the obits and do crosswords for fun. And on this particular afternoon, I further cemented my oldmanness after the lunch, when Frank and I wandered around for a good 45 minutes looking for our car. We'd been having a lively conversation (about football—what else?) on the way into the building, and neither of us could remember where we'd parked his car. Turns out there are two parking garages attached to this particular building, and we were in the wrong one. My only concern was for Frank, since he's still recovering from his hip-replacement surgery, but he assured me that his doctor had told him to walk for an hour a day, so this was his PT. Fortunately, Frank and I really hit it off, so it was actually fun to be able to hang out a little longer. I could go on and on about Frank, but I will make you wait to hear his interview.

After our interview, I drove out to my new home for the next 3 days: Twin Oaks Ranch, a real, working Texas cattle ranch north of the city. Tom Wageman, who was my original connection to the class of '56, had invited me to come stay up there. Tom and his wife Letty own the ranch, his son Pete runs it, and their daughter Meghan is a professional chef who worked in some of the best restaurants in SF and Chicago before she started her family. Now she and her husband live with their kids on the ranch, and she is the cook. And she's really good. So I got to stay in my own little cottage for 3 days, with a professional chef and Tom and Letty's good company. Not a bad deal.

The ranch was about an hour from Dallas, and about 10 miles from the nearest town, which was tiny. After being in the city a lot lately, it was refreshing to be a bit isolated. There was virtually no light pollution, so the nights were really dark and you could see so many stars. It reminded me of that moment in Pee Wee's Big Adventure (as you will remember, that's the one where Pee Wee goes to San Antonio to find his bike, which he thinks is in the basement of the Alamo), and he calls one of his friends, and she doesn't believe him that he's in Texas, so he holds up the phone and sings, "The stars at night/Are big and bright," and everyone walking by stops what they're doing and claps together and sings "Deep in the heart of Texas." I'm not doing the scene justice, so I'm sorry if you haven't seen the movie...well, I'm sorry if you haven't seen the movie anyway, because it's awesome, but my point is, that's what I thought of as I gazed up at the stars in the middle of this ranch. Yes, I realize how ridiculous that is, and I promise I laughed out loud at myself. Update: watch the scene on YouTube. Thanks, Kristen!

The only downside of life out at the ranch was the long commute into the city. I was very busy in Dallas with 3 interviews pretty much every day, so I was pretty exhausted by the time I had to leave. I was sad not to have more time at there, but at least it was cool while it lasted.