Page 68 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2026 - Online Magazine

History of
LUBBOCK
WEST TEXAS

The Best Place to Live

An Outsider Looking In

by Barbara Jensen

he Spring issue of Senior Link magazine contains and became successful at whatever they wanted because
articles by local high school seniors honoring that’s what their parents and grandparents did, and
Tsenior individuals in our community who have that’s what they were raised to do.
had an impact on them. Well, high schoolers are not the
only ones impacted in a wonderful way by the seniors To me, the seniors from this part of the country are
from this part of Texas. pretty unique—the only other group of people I’ve
found who have a similar mindset are people in Alaska.
I was born and raised in north Florida back when it was Both in Alaska and here in rural, small-town Texas,
the “old Florida,” more like rural south Georgia. Over people have had to rely on themselves and each other
my adult years, I’ve lived in various Southeastern states. for survival and success. Their livelihood required them
People in all of those areas were raised with a sort of to be up front and honest, to be willing to ask for help
“Gone with the Wind” mentality, where the ladies had tea when needed and offer it when they saw others in need.
parties and no knowledge of what their husbands were The people from here are more straightforward and
having to deal with, and the men gathered around pot- caring than any other group of people I’ve ever met,
bellied stoves and bragged about what they’d been up anywhere I’ve ever been. Their history, their families
to. Perception was reality for many of them. I recall my and their lifestyles have shaped them into the very best
mother clothes shopping every weekend, and when I people, making this, for me, the very best place to live.
asked her who she thought paid for all of these clothes,
she said, “Why, Mastercard, of course!”

Four years ago, I moved to Lubbock, never having been
here before, to live in a retirement community. My new
home is made up mostly of people from this part of
Texas—I’m never sure if it’s called “the Panhandle” or
“the South Plains” or even “West Texas.” But whatever
it’s called, it seems most of the people are from families
who have lived here for generations on farms or ranches
with their extended family.
Many of the seniors I’ve come to know grew up in
homes with no water or electricity, slept on cots in the
kitchen on cold winter nights, and helped pick cotton
or feed horses. They lived outside of small towns that
maybe had only one stop sign—far enough outside that
neighbors were often a mile or more away. One lady
told me her next-door neighbor was a long distance call
away.
Many of my new friends were what today we’d call
“dirt poor,” but they never knew it, because so was
everybody else in their area. They had extended families
living and working with them. Their church, their
school, and their FFA were central to their lives and
forged their attitudes and outlook. They worked hard

68 Lubbock Senior Link