Scrap Book

I’ve always been a fan of metaphor as a literary tool. Most concepts that touch many aspects of my life can be described in simple terms and and in my mind there is no better simplification of terms than an elegant metaphor. In some of the meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous that I regularly attend, the program is described as “the last house on the block.” In the case of those meetings it’s true; the are held in the last house on the block. One is in an old firehouse in Boise’s historic north end, the other in a ramshackle bungalow near the river. It’s also true for many in recovery that by the time we got to recovery that we had only two choices left, either go on living as we had been, doing our level best to blot out consciousness of our unhappy existence, or to ask for help, to seek an answer that could solve the addiction problem from people who had found it. Like many others, I got there with full knowledge that I had run out of answers, exhausted my sources of aid and burnt the bridges that might have provided an escape. I could go on as I had, on a road to “jails, institutions and death” or I could stop at the last house on the block and ask for help; I could stop at ‘the last chance Texaco’ and get some spiritual fuel for the journey home. I could learn to trust the man with the star.

While I do have a license to use the graphic on my banner, other photographs, trademarks and copyrights are used without permission. I would like to acknowledge the contribution they make, however, to the powerful metaphor in which they are used. Texaco is a trademark of Chevron Products Company. The Last Chance Texaco, written and recorded by Rickie Lee Jones for Warner Bros. Records, illuminated the metaphor for me, and perhaps it’s where I originally heard the phrase, but I don’t have specific recollection of that and I never read the lyrics to that song before I began working on this project. Thanks also to the owners of the photos used here, particularly the Marriott Library at the University of Utah who’s collection of historic photos has been outstandingly catalogued and made available for us to see. I thank the owners of the properties named above and those I haven’t mentioned here and I hope they will understand and support the spirit in which they are used.

Chris M. email: out of gas at the last chance texaco dot com