The 200th Blog Post
As I write this blog it is 104 out here, strange because of the low humidity the "feel like" temperature is only 96. I am getting used to being in low humidity, for over 32 years, I lived in the humidity. When you live like that, I personally didn't put on lotion. Why? Because it would just sweat off. I must remind myself to put it on out here.
The first Saturday of June in Iraan is called Alley Oop Days. Hubby and I went and had a nice time. They had food trucks, venders, a lot of water activity and bubbles for the children. We saw Kirsten and her family there. Back in the spring of 1964, West Texans towns like Iraan were in something of an existential crisis. Agriculture and petroleum, the lifeblood’s of their economy, were on the wane. Iraan, situated about 80 miles south of Odessa, would have to get creative and cash in on one of the top industries in America’s economy.
“But just because you don’t have a Six Flags or a state park, don’t you think for a minute Iraan doesn’t have something to offer visitors,” Jordon continued. “Dream big.”
It just so happened the community was hard at work on something that would set it apart. On May 8, 1964, the city held its first Alley Oop Day, a celebration of the wildly popular comic strip about a time-traveling caveman created by Vincent Trout (V.T.) Hamlin. The slate of events included a barbecue, beauty pageant, and live music.
Born in Perry, Iowa, in 1900, Hamlin fought in World War I before finishing high school, attending college, and then years of restless travel and a succession of jobs as everything from a sign painter to a semi-pro boxer to various roles at various newspapers. At the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in 1923, he was a writer, photographer, and finally, a cartoonist. Fun fact: the job came to an end inside of a year when he and a co-worker were caught printing fake labels for bootleg whiskey bottles on the paper’s engraving equipment.
Hamlin headed southwest to the oil patches, where he applied his artistic talents toward drawing topographical maps and field layouts. While in the Iraan area, a geologist explained to him the processes that created modern Iraan: how the seas that once covered much of Texas retreated, how those craggy mountains came to be, the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, and the cave-dwelling lives of our most distant human ancestors.
Hamlin took it all in, and the first sketches of Alley Oop took shape as a lantern-jawed, loincloth-clad caveman who was never without his giant cudgel. Alley ventured through the land of Moo with pet dinosaur Dinny and his woman Oola. (Her name comes from the French “ooh-la-la,” the name of the comic from “Allez-hop!” Alley Oop most likely came from allez-hop, a cry French acrobats would holler before each of their most daring feats.)
Five years later, Hamlin felt that Alley, Dinny, and Oola had “overgrazed the pastures” in the Land of Moo. He’d run out of “Bone Age” (his equivalent to the Stone Age) shenanigans for his characters.
Dorothy Stapleton, his former high school sweetheart-turned-wife and model for Oola, suggested introducing a time machine, which Hamlin did through the character of genius scientist Dr. Wonmug. The time machine propelled Alley Oop to new heights of popularity, including spawning a No. 1 hit song by the Hollywood Argyles in 1960 and entering into the lexicon of sports. More importantly, it energized Hamlin to keep making the strip until his retirement in 1972.
Today, the term “alley oop” is most notable as a term for plays in basketball and football. Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle, of Marshall, is credited with creating the football alley oop in 1957, and college basketball players started using the term when a player standing far from the basket lobs a long pass in the vicinity of the hoop and the ball is snatched out of the air and slam-dunked by a teammate.
Iraan’s decision to theme their town’s tourism on Alley Oop 32 years after the strip was born was not as crazy as it might seem today. Nor is the decision to restore the park and museum to its former glory. Judging by the energy from the project’s Facebook page, if nothing else, it has energized many of the town’s young leaders to dream big.
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