Hollis Baker’s Blog

On the west side of the square of my hometown, sandwiched between Butch Riggs barbershop and Bill Hanes boot shop, was S & Z Feed store. Earl Sawyer and Guy Zimmerman ran an emporium designed especially for the farmers and ranchers of the area. They stocked, of course all kinds of feed, as well as supplies and medicines for the farm trade including a place for the men to gather and swap tall tails of daring do. The feed store also bought most all of the produced and raised by the farmers and ranchers.

I was proud to work for these gentlemen. My job was to keep the brass disk embedded in the sidewalk in front of the store polished to a high luster. Among my other duties were, testing cream, counting eggs, weighing hides, stacking hay and shoveling oats and corn into bins. But my main, and most important task was polishing the brass plaque. I polished it the first thing each morning and the last thing at night. On muddy days it often got an extra rubbing during the day. In the center of the round disk was a large engraved “X”. Around the perimeter, in bold capitol letters were the words, CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE. I knew it was the truth. I could stand with both feet planted on the disk, my eyes closed, arms extended and feel the world, the heavens, and all the universe swirl around me. Mr. Zimmerman told me in strict confidence, one could start from that brass plaque and go anywhere in the world or universe. I believed him.

Finally I grew up, left home, went to school, and opened a shop of my own. We didn’t cater to the farmer; I had other clients. But in those years I often felt uneasy. Things didn’t quite fit. I remembered the brass plaque. Perhaps that was it. I was living in an exocentric world. I resurveyed the universe. Sure enough, just as I suspected, the center was a little off from my youth. I found the center to be right in the middle of my shop. I embedded a brass disk of my own, with a “X” and everything.

I did feel better. For a while. But the uneasiness crept back into my tortured soul. I sold the shop and moved to Liberty Hill. I was relieved for a while. But I needed to know exactly where the starting place was. Where was the “X”? With much trepidation I again began surveying of the universe. I used Polaris as one benchmark and Scorpio as the second. For the third point of reference I found a USGS mark out past Llano. With lot of stake driving and chain dragging I worked many long hours. Each day I felt better. Success must surely be just around the corner.

I bet you can guess where I found the CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE. Yep. You are right. Downtown Liberty Hill, Texas. I feel great! And if you get to feeling a little uneasy, nauseous, frustrated, just go downtown, stand on the brass plaque, close your eyes, extend your arms and feel the universe swirl about you. That is guaranteed to make you feel great.