After a sold out debut in 2014 at the       J. Phillip Gibbs Jr., Center for the Performing Arts with great critical reviews, Dust Bowl Motel is scheduled for the historic Crighton Theatre March 18, 19 and 20, 2016.  Dust Bowl Motel is an uplifting and inspirational story of heartbreak and hope, determination and dreams.  It is the story of a personal journey through the examination of the things in life that really matter.

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Dust Bowl Motel is a NON-PROFIT event produced by Prevailing Hope Partners in association with Conroe Live.  Sponsorship opportunities are available and are tax deductible.  Proceeds for this production will go to Make-A-Wish Texas Gulf Coast Chapter, Performing Arts Scholarships and The Crighton Theatre Foundation.  If you are interested in being part of this community event please email: DustBowlMotel@gmail.com for more information.

She always said she was gonna go to California.  She said she was gonna go to California and you’d never see her again.  But it was as if she was as if she was invisible. It was as if nobody believed her or nobody cared.  How could nobody care?  That’s a pretty good question

.....She was different from her situation.  She was different than anybody else knew, especially him.  She knew stuff that he had no idea that she knew.  She read books at night when he drank too much and passed out.  Not just those sleazy romance novels neither.  She read real books.  She read real books by famous people, like John Steinbeck and F. Scott Fitzgerald.  She read “The Great Gatsby” three times and could play back the best parts in her mind like little movies.

On those hot Oklahoma summer afternoons, she’d sit on the porch of the motel office, stare out at the highway, watching those heat waves coming up off the pavement andthe cars passing and play back those little movies in her head.  She was always the girl in the movies that was rich. She was always the girl in the movie that had a big house with trees.  And especially she was always the girl in the movie that was pretty.

She still thought of herself as pretty.  She still thought of herself as pretty even if he didn’t.  At least if he did, he never told her anymore. He never tells her that she’s pretty.  He never tells her that she’s pretty like back in High School.  Like back in high school when he was gonna be a cop and she was gonna move to Tulsa, go to beauty school and learn to do hair.  That was a long time ago.

That was a long time ago before they ended up in a rundown dust bowl motel way off on Highway 64 way off in nowhere western Oklahoma. He never tells her that she’s pretty.  She thought she still was and if he never said it, she didn’t care.  She just wondered.  What the hell did he know anyway?  He just drinks too much and she knew good and well that he had fooled around with that Mexican girl that used to clean rooms.  He just drinks too much.

Maybe it was a good thing that they couldn’t afford help anymore.  Since the economy went south, around here bad just got worse.  Since oil dropped and drilling stopped, not even very many roughnecks need a place to stay.  About all that would stay in a place like this was roughnecks and roustabouts.  Oil company men stay at the Holiday Inn in Dalhart.  Oil Company men don’t stay in places like this.

Besides, with the economy so bad most of the illegals have gone back to Mexico anyway.  She wondered if that Mexican girl had gone back to Mexico.  What she really wondered was, if he knew if that Mexican girl had gone back to Mexico.

She cleans the rooms that the Mexican girl used to clean.  She cleans those rooms now that they can’t afford help anymore.

Look at her.  No really, I want you to look at her and tell me that you don’t think he could tell her she’s pretty. Oh, he thought that Mexican girl was pretty.  But then again he never says much of anything to her at all anymore anyway.  He just drinks and sometimes fixes the little shit that always breaks in an old run down motel.  He just drinks too much.

The sign out front says “CLEAN ROOMS - TV AND AC” -  “AMERICAN OWNED”.   “American Owned”, Who cares!

See the idea was not to tell em’ about the TV problem till after they’d already paid and checked-in and hopefully they would stay anyway.  Most of the air conditioners work pretty good.  They cool pretty good except in July and August when it was so damn hot. They cool pretty good except when it’s so damn hot they just can’t keep up.

Let me tell you what, If one of those Pakistani motel people was to show up and want to buy this wore out old dump, that part of the sign that says “AMERICAN OWNED” well that my friends would be a lie too.  That would be a lie too because she would be in California.  She’d be in California and you’d never see her again.  She wouldn’t care if she was invisible.  She wouldn’t give a rat’s ass if anybody believed her or not.  It would mean nothing to her if one single person cared.  Not one single person.

Because like she’d always said.  Like she had always told them, she'd be in California. 

She’d be in California.