Littlefield seemed a little strange to us because of the odd pockets of desperate poverty, the ramshackle houses scattered about, so near to neighborhoods of obvious affluence. In Lubbock we have a codes enforcement department and a health department, even though they aren't adequately funded. Littlefield seems to have nothing of the kind. Residential streets are not even paved, in some cases, within the city limits! Mosquitoes were a major problem. I doubt that they do any spraying. We got the impression that in Littlefield it is every man for himself.
The rain comes in just the right amounts and just the right intervals to keep things nice and green. It is a very welcome change!
A few weekends ago my wife and I visited Littlefield. We were not prepared for the dire poverty we found in some neighborhoods. Littlefield must not have building codes or any kind of condemnation procedures. We saw structures that were not much larger than chicken coops, surrounded by rank weeds, wrecked cars, and piles of garbage, with someone apparently trying to live in them. These extreme poverty zones were within a few blocks of very nice affluent neighborhoods. What a crazy mix! Downtown Littlefield is chock full of ruins, too. I didn't even scratch the surface. We didn't see many signs of OIL BOOM prosperity. Littlefield's civic leaders must be fans of Ayn Rand. So I'll begin a little Littlefield photo series. Some of the ruins I could not photograph because they were inhabited!
The day before we took these pics, Wolfforth got clobbered by large hail and 90+ mph winds. Clouds were gathering for another round of storms.
Note the football stadium. This is for a HIGH SCHOOL! Big deal in this area.
We took these in a semi-industrial area, off of what used to be Avenue H. I miss Avenue H.
These pics speak for themselves. We found some low-riders and I took pics of the cars. This was after a fairly heavy rain and the mosquitoes were BAD!! You can also see a lot of debris in the little creek.
This water tower is for the Canyon Lakes System.
The miracle of running water!
Masses of crud.
More crud.
Plenty of crud to go around.
Sharp cars!
