12.26.2008

From My Email Bag

I found your Google blog while looking for something that would answer my question. Since you live in Wise County and seem to be in the loop, I thought I’d ask you.

Maybe you can help me figure out something, if you’re so inclined. Today I got a Christmas card from an old buddy who was a highway patrolman in Gainesville back in the mid sixties. He made Sergeant and moved to Mexia where he retired and lives today. I seldom hear from him and he won’t answer his phone. The Christmas card is a first. It had a single sentence that I suppose he thought I should know about. It says, “I hear the phantom driver has moved into Wise County.” --[Name Redacted]

Back when I was a kid and rode around with him, he used to talk about the “Phantom driver from Jack County.” It was claimed by more than a few drunk drivers that they were run off the road by an oncoming big black car with one big headlight right in the middle. Many of the embellishments were suggested to the drunks by the investigating officers, I think.

The only thing I could find is a story about a guy on a crotch rocket who killed himself and a telephone pole a day or so back. Is there any story going around your area that more or less sounds like the “Phantom driver from Jack County?”

Jim Hubbell

Whitesboro, TX

http://jimhubbell.blogspot.com/

(Reprinted with permission.)