Once I lived in a three bedroom house of four people in
Lubbock, Texas, on teacher's wages, with a bedridden brother. I watched Banacek
on KVUE, one of three channels available. Three years later I drove to my
engineering scholarship at UT Austin in a burnt-orange MG Midget with a
white-top. 27 years later, I've been a chip engineer/executive in Austin since,
live in a fine house, drink good wine, have a study crowded with old texts, play
tennis at the club, have a fine family of two well-educated boys, and a foxy
wife. Banacek was the model: an intelletual man who went ahead and stood out,
took to finery, but was the opposite of the "***" tag on the higher parts of
civilization -- a male sophisticate could be a real man, too, was a strong
message to a boy from Lubbock.
--J.D.
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