Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb: Back in 1974, Randall 'Tex' Cobb, later to become the 'Big White Heavyweight Hope' and movie star, lived with me at 6333 Weiland Way in El Paso as he was at that time a karate star but needing a lot of cash and seeking a boxing career. He had signed with promoter Paul Clinite and I was to teach him just a few basics before he would be sent to Joe Frazier's in Philadelphia .
Our routine finished around eight every evening and then Randy would make the bar scene and chase the girlies. Boy, could he ever do the country dances...and barefooted at that. I was told to run him nearly every day as he needed to lose some thirty pounds. I could only do that late at night or early in the morning. It worked out pretty well. Well, except the fact that at the end of our run (about five miles), there was an all night truck stop restaurant at 6666 Gateway East. They had these small plastic table menu signs with specials for Catfish or Fried Chicken, "All you can eat for $1.99."Randy was always hungry whether he was working out or not. And he just loved fried chicken. So every night after our run, he would scarf down five or six chickens. One night he even ate eight chickens; maybe it was eleven, I'm not sure. It was one hell of a lot of chicken, I guarantee.
After a couple of weeks of this heavy eating and with our favorite waitress, Tillie, always so happy to see us and just glow at watching Randy wolf down all that chicken, things changed. Yep, one night we came in and our favorite gal had a long, gloomy face. We thought she was having a problem of her own and urged her to tell us her troubles. She then smiled just a teeny bit and then picked up the plastic menu special card on the countertop in front of us and as Randy and I read it we couldn't help but break out laughing. The little menu sign said, "All the catfish or chicken you can eat except Randall 'Tex' Cobb, limit three."
Thomas W. McKay
www.convictedartist.com
