Just Dreamin', Again...

Above City Hall/garage sale building

Before clean-up event, new windows and new roof

I have a friend who has been seeing lights in a second story window of the, “Our dream home for a Bobby Boatright Museum”, building. She said, “Someone has some Christmas lights plugged in up there. And, after the sun rises they turn from red to white.”

Well, my posse and I went to investigate today. Nope, no lights! We concluded that she must be seeing a reflection. And speaking of that building, most of the Goree residents don’t remember what actually took place there in days of old. It’s been an empty shell during our lifetime. In our rural rescue effort, we need to breathe life back into it, but what, how, who? We have a dream…a museum.

Emptiness also exists in the dying art form of western swing music, made popular by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. We squint into the past to capture a glimmer of what was. And up until two years ago, at least in Goree, it was all smoke and mirrors. Western Swings’ existence was dim; if not, completely flickered out.

As we attempt to revive a town, we have also been privileged to watch the Bobby Boatright Western Swing Music Camp strain and stretch fingers across fiddles and guitars of the now and next generation. These instructors are the reflection of western swing that students are mimicking in order to master the art of swing music. The past is gone, and so is Bob Wills and Bobby Boatright, an original Texas Playboy, but they are not forgotten. Someone out there has the memorabilia of these men…Turkey, Texas boasts of Mr. Wills’ belongings.

Someday we long to peer through that same window and see more than the reflection of street lights. We desire to see Bobby Boatright’s life being played out pictorially to honor his legacy and the music style he lived to perform.