Keep This In Mind When You Listen

I grew up in Odessa and graduated from Permian High School. I was a freshman in 1988 and knew several of the guys who played on the ’88 team and other people portrayed in the book. I read the book, as a high school kid when it came out and, like so many from Odessa, was furious at the way my town was portrayed. I just listened to the book, 30 years later, to see if my perspective on it and that time had evolved with the passage of time. I’ve discussed my second reading with people close to me who grew up in Odessa at the same time, to ask them how they remember those days. It seems to me that Buzz Bissinger deliberately points out and emphasizes particular facts that fit his narrative, while leaving out other facts that would diminish his thesis. A very easy example would be his opening description of down town Odessa being devoid of pedestrians and the old down town Scott movie theater being shut down with the words “The End” on the marque. That was a true and accurate description of downtown and Buzz uses it to generate a particular vision of Odessa as an empty, dusty, dying, place. However, he fails to mention entirely that there were 2 malls in north east Odessa that both had movie theaters or the Grandview Theater. West Texas is not a culture of walkers, as you might see in large cities with limited parking and public transportation. There is ample parking everywhere and so everyone drives, thus no pedestrians. I mention the above as a very tiny example of how stating certain facts in a particular way moves his narrative forward but doesn’t give, from my perspective, an accurate portrayal of Odessa, Texas or its people. Buzz portrays the maniacal fandom that surrounds high school football in West Texas, without fully contextualizing it. Odessa and Midland are 4 hours from El Paso, 4.5 hours from Dallas, and 2.5 hours from Lubbock. This distance means that there are no other, more “acceptable”, sporting events to attend. There are no college or pro teams, of any kind, near enough to visit. This leaves high school football on those glorious fall evenings in West Texas as the primary, live, family entertainment in the area. I don’t feel Buzz understood this or else he chose not to communicated its importance. There were certainly Odessans who, emotionally, lived and died by how the Panthers performed, however it hardly felt like it was anywhere close to a majority of Odessans. By quoting the most die-hard fans, Buzz, again is crafting a particular narrative that makes for a best-selling book, but doesn’t accurately reflect the reality I grew up with. Finally, I don’t remember Odessa being systemically racist in the way that Buzz Bissinger portrays it to be. Granted, since graduating high school I’ve only been back to visit friends and family, so perhaps I never fully understood how the town really worked from an adult perspective. All this being said, there are elements of the town, its people, and those kids that he captures beautifully. I just finished listening to it, and I’m left conflicted and melancholy. My hometown was not perfect, but the people I grew up with were tough, kind, and generous. I’ll always think of Odessa and those people fondly. Keep that in mind as you listen.