On Lubbock and Life

[Traces]

"When I was a little kid, I would go to my grandmother’s house, between Lubbock and Amarillo, and a lot of times we would be coming back at night. Those cotton fields were so black, and really, there weren’t many lights in Lubbock. I can remember looking at a speck of light and thinking, “That could be my house; that speck could be my whole world.” I would contemplate perspective a lot because everything was so flat, and there was so much sky. I remember when they built the loop around Lubbock, the overpasses. It was a big deal. And when my dad would take me downtown to run errands with him, we would go to the cafe on top of the Great Plains Life Insurance building. I could just stare out that window for hours and hours because, for once, I wasn’t just on flat ground. It was like I was becoming a living figure."

----- Conni Hancock, Guitarist, singer and songwriter, born to country musician Tommy Hancock and Charlene Hancock in Lubbock. Conni remained with the band through the 1970s and 1980s, moving with the group to Austin around 1980. Conni later formed the group Texana Dames with her mother Charlene and sister Traci Lamar.