The Gym, Perico

Timing can make or break a place. The Great Depression hit America hard, but it was particularly hard on Texas’ panhandle. 

The Dust Bowl in the 1930’s caused an exodus that set rural tenant farming and ranching back decades. The timing of these events meant that, beginning in 1924, this little town had approximately 5 years of prosperity. That was followed by 5 years of decline, and then in 1934, Perico was at the epicenter of one of the greatest ecological disasters in American history. Over the course of three droughts the Great Plains dried up and blew away. Between 1924 and 1947 Perico’s population went from an estimated 400 to 30. 

This little gymnasium is symbolic of something greater than the caving roof and rotten floors that now sit on the prairie. The community never had enough boys to make up a basketball team, but they built one of the nicest gymnasiums in the panhandle. Why? They never graduated more than two students, why waste the funding on an unnecessary building? It didn't make sense.

It was symbolic of hope. During the depression, it represented what the people hoped their community would become, like expensive shoes bought too big, allowing a child to grow into them.

No team ever played a game in this gymnasium. No cheers ever went up as the crowd watched the senior captain score the game winner at the last second. There was never a local rivalry. They thought they would have one someday. They just never did.