Dusty Henson is an El Paso legend. Dusty, for those of you living in a cave, is the owner and proprietor of the El Paso Saddleblanket Company. I met Dusty a couple of years ago, but I knew of him since I was a child when I would spend my weekends working in my dad’s office at Chico Arts -- Dusty’s competition. He is warm, generous person, an exceptional businessman and an all around colorful character. I had the chance to sit down with Dusty and chat about the El Paso of yesteryear, business, and Downtown.

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“I used to live Downtown. On Stanton Street it was a nice kind of apartment house there. Kind of about where the old Jaxon’s … it’s the Briar Patch now, a bar. Mack’s Delicatessen used to be on the corner where the Big Bun is. There was a great little menudo place down there. Across the street used to be a little place called La Viejita or something a little village thing. It was a lot of fun.

"I sold real estate for Paul Barry in Northeast El Paso. I had an office at Hercules and Dyer. Yeah, Downtown was fun.

"I came out here from Abilene, Texas. Abilene’s the real Bible Belt. They say Abilene’s the buckle on the Bible Belt … so I come out here from Abilene, man, they had got horse racing, drinkin’, bars, and girlie dancin’ places and I knew was never goin’ back to Abilene. I wasn’t sure where I was goin’, but it was great. I loved El Paso and I loved that about it…

“Well first of all I never had a salary job except the Army and 10 days I worked at Gibson’s Department Store, Gibson Discount Store. I’ve always been selling and trading -- well, I had a real estate commission job, but I started selling saddle blankets for the horses. We had six weavers in Juarez, and we had a horse trailer and a pick-up truck, and I’d travel around, just to the western stores and stables, and we’d sell saddle blankets -- the things that go under the saddles -- hand-woven Mexican saddle blankets. And I went to Arizona, and they said, “Well, can you make a Navajo rug design?” Hell, I didn’t know. We didn’t have Navajos or anything. We started taking these saddle blankets and I learned that if you put a little design in them and give them an Indian name you could get about twice as much money for them. So we started selling rugs in addition to the regular saddle blankets for the equestrian trade. Decorative. Then we started selling some big rugs, and then you kinda to listen to your business and it talks to you, and then people’d ask, “Well, what about placemats? How about runners? Tablecloths?” Yeah, we’ll try it. Then after that a guy’d come and he’d say, “I make saddles.” Well, I’ll go try it.

"So one thing led to another, it’s been about 38 years now, and now we do a little bit of everything. Still, pretty heavy textiles, sure.

"…The first [store] was on Alameda Street -- 5000 Alameda Street -- it was across from where the new medical center is. Back then it was kind of a rough neighborhood. We had a methadone clinic next door. Across the street was a halfway house. It was a funky neighborhood. I was there for about four years. We worked night and day. I don’t have kids or family or anything, and Bonnie (his wife) always worked with me all the time.

"We went Downtown for 18 years … about 1987 'till two years ago, 'till ’05 … I leased that building from Gil Malooly for 18 years, and then the bowling alley (Freeway Lanes), I bought this one. Downtown, the last five years, we were just wholesale only to the trade. We were closed to the general public and then we got this, we had more room -- you know things change, Jenni. We’ve got a better location, more parking. In 18 years Downtown we watched three major hotels close, Downtown got a little more vacant and a little less desirable, maybe. It was fine for wholesale, we just had a warehouse. But over here we’ve got 40 billboard signs, and we advertise on the highway, and in Texas Monthly, and in New Mexico Magazine, and Cowboys and Indians so we get people from all over the country. And then our internet business is growing and as is the wholesale business has pretty much leveled off -- there’s less stores then there used to be, Wal-Mart and things. There’s a lot of these small stores that’ve closed, and that’s who I used to sell to a lot, we still have a substantial number but it’s not in the growth trend …

“[Doyle Hardin, owner of Chico Arts, Dusty’s competition] and Bob Herndon were my heroes when I came here like 30 years ago, I used to buy a lot of stuff from Doyle, and you know ol’ crazy Herndon -- I still buy from Herndon … [Doyle’s] always on the edge doin’ inventions, he’s an interesting guy -- an entertaining guy -- I’ll always have a lot of admiration for Doyle.

“I never did do a whole lot with Department Stores. I don’t like the way they do business, I don’t like the way they kind of bully you. I’ll sell to them but on my terms. We sell to a lot of the people who work craft shows, and of course small stores, gypsies and road warriors of every kind … crooks and just some real colorful, cool people. I’ve met some interesting people in my day, as you did when you worked with Doyle. El Paso is just full of some very colorful people. I like that about here. It’s a very apathetic city. I don’t think we’re so tolerant. I think we just don’t give a damn. I about figured that out. And you don’t have all this redneck stuff I was raised with. All the hang ups and prejudice. Prejudice of any kind is unacceptable to me. I love the Hispanic culture and the Hispanic people. I love dealing with Jews, Arabs and other people.

“The opportunity came up [to buy Freeway Lanes]. It worked out very well. The setup was good. The good thing about bowling alleys -- er, bowling centers -- is traditionally, they have pretty good air conditioning because people get warm, and they have pretty good roofs because they have to protect those good wood lanes … and so it didn’t have any columns -- it was wide open -- that was very appealing. And, I don’t know; the timing was good. Most of the time things just kind of happen, and you just go with the flow, rather than a bunch of planning.

“[I leased from Malooly] 18 years! But I had a good price on rent. I didn’t care. I don’t particularly care about real estate anyway. I like merchandise. I like things. I don’t like stocks or bonds or CDs … I just like things. The same thing with stocks. This whole paper stuff … No, I like rugs and antiques and cars and tangible things that you can see and you can trade and you can buy and you sell. And so I used to be in the skull business, used to sell those (gestures to an antique book case full of skulls) to museums. Guys would go and dig up old pioneer graves, and things … That was a long time ago. I’m not even sure if that’s legal, so … I have machine guns and skulls and a lot of interesting things. I have monkey skulls … Through the years you have a chance to acquire things. I’ve owned a lot of really neat things that I regret that I ever sold or got rid of -- weavings of the pope, guns, antiques, different kinds of cars. I’m not really a collector, I’m more of a trader. I enjoy the buying and the selling of it. There’s a few things I kind of like. You know real collectors are not particularly good merchants and traders because they’re in it for their collection. You know these guys are almost like junkies. They are. They’ll do anything to increase their collection. I never was that way. I was always a little more mercenary. Just buy and sell. I’ve enjoyed owning some great things … I still have those freeze-dried piranhas. I think that’s kind of interesting. And I have bully bags made from cow scrotums … all kinds of … I’ve had a lot of good Navajo weavings, Native American artifacts, beadwork, moccasins, some really nice pieces, pottery baskets.

"Although fine antiques was my specialty, I’m was always more of a Ford, Chevrolet, type merchandise guy. Though the 30 years, I’ve owned some old automobiles … I’ve had a lot of old cars, once I had 16 Cadillacs, they were all in the '50s. I had every year from 1949 to 1961, and duplicates of a couple of them…that was the problem. I didn’t know a damn thing about cars or to do to fix them and I was the biggest sucker in the world, in fact a general statement is, ‘A salesman is the biggest sucker on the planet to buy something from another salesman.’ I love to find a salesman because he always wants to buy, sell or trade. I kept a bunch of these repair shops in business because hell, I wouldn’t know, and then they’d say, “Oh, it’s a radiator.” Okay, fix it. I didn’t know. That’s part of it. You make good deals and bad deals and you don’t worry about it. The main thing is to have fun. You meet a lot of interesting people. And I feel sorry for people who don’t enjoy what they do for a living. That’s all I really care about. I don’t play golf, not into much socializing, we don’t do a lot. I like dogs, and we have a ranch, and I like animals, business and trading. I enjoy watching our employees do well. We have lots of people who’ve been here 15, 18, 20 and 22 years …

“Corporate America sometimes abuses people. Big business also helps people. I support a lot of the local big business because they do great things for our economy and create jobs. For instance Meyer Marcus is a real nice guy, super guy to do business with … he buys something, you can tell because of the improvements, he has a certain touch. Meyer’s a stand up guy. I was in the Army Reserve with Bill Sanders, back here near Ascarate Park. I didn’t know him well at the time, but boy, let me tell you, he was a pretty intense young man when we were in our 20s. I’d sell FHA repos to soldiers on Fort Bliss, humpin’ around, making a living. He was already buying apartment houses, I thought he was really cool. Kind of a workaholic. Very intense young man. He’s a nice guy. Don’t know him very well. Knew him then. I see him once and a while ..."

Regarding progress and change?

“There’s two ways on that. I don’t want to change El Paso. I think it's kind of an old wild bordertown, and I love everything about it. The other side of the coin is -- you’ve got a lot of poor people, and it would be nice if they could live a little better, maybe have a little better job, and I don’t know how to go about it. I’m not for this ASARCO thing … I’m a middle of the road guy in politics -- always have been -- I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. But I don’t like seein’ people abused, or taking their property away. And some of that, there’s probably a positive side that they can fix up some things. And I’m not informed enough to really have a strong opinion either way … You have winners and you have losers in almost every situation. I just hate to see the whole Wal-Marting of America. And on the other hand Sam Walton was a smart guy, worked very hard, treated people right, treated his employees pretty good, did a lot of good selling, and I have some admiration for him as a business man, but yet I also see it as a big cancer eating up the small businesses -- you know, where do you stop, and what’s right? Walton was friendly service, and could give people what they wanted. People save money going to Wal-Mart, but, I don’t shop at Wal-Mart, just out of principle. We don’t eat at a lot of chain restaurants. We prefer local. I’m kind of a home-grown guy. I don’t fault anybody else. But I’ve never owned a foreign car in my life even though American cars are full of foreign parts, and that’s the argument -- that’s cool -- it’s the same thing.

"I love El Paso. I like the people here.”

Dusty has some projects in the works. Every Saturday, El Paso Saddleblanket hosts an artists showcase. Dusty doesn’t charge commissions on artwork sold. He told me this was in response to one of his employees being charged 60 percent of her artwork’s price by a gallerist. Each showcase features a wide range of styles from painting, to handicrafts, sculpture and writing. If you are interested in exhibiting, contact El Paso Saddleblanket at (915) 544-1000. Last year, El Paso Saddleblanket and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo hosted the Indian and Traders Market. Tigua handicrafts, food, and jewelry were featured along with traditional dancing and food. Dusty has plans for another such market this year. They will again host the Dog Lover’s Fair in October. For more information about events and products, visit www.elpasosaddleblanket.com.