“Raise your kids in Midland; raise hell in Odessa”

Midland and Odessa are two West Texas cities with different identities. “Raise your kids in Midland—raise hell in Odessa” is a local saying that dates in print to at least 1982.
 
   
Wikipedia: Midland, Texas
Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, located on the Southern Plains of the western area of the U.S. state of Texas. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. The population was 94,996 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Midland County. The metropolitan area is also a component of the larger Midland–Odessa, Texas Combined Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 255,978 as of July 1, 2007. People in Midland are called Midlanders.
 
Midland was originally founded as the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso on the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1881. The city has received national recognition as the hometown of former First Lady Laura Bush and the childhood home of former President George W. Bush.
   
Wikipedia: Odessa, Texas
Odessa is a city in Ector and Midland counties in the U.S. state in Texas. It is located primarily in Ector County, of which it is the county seat. Odessa’s population was 90,943 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Ector County. The metropolitan area is also a component of the larger Midland–Odessa, Texas Combined Statistical Area, which had a population 255,978 as of the July 1, 2007 estimate. The city was named after the city of Odessa in Ukraine.
 
1 March 1982, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, “Building on Oil: New Boom, Old Rivaries Keep Two West Texas Cities Apart” by Donald Kimelman, pg. A2: 
“Raise your kids in Midland - raise hell in Odessa” is a local saying that ...
   
21 October 1984, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Midland-Odessa: A Shaky Truce” by Kent Biffle:
Folk advice (from Midland folk) is, “Raise kids in Midland and raise hell in Odessa.”
 
28 February 1988, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “The Anguished Journey of Jerry Stone” by Kevin Sherrington:
“You raise your kids in Midland,’ one Midland offical said, citing a local standard, “and you raise hell in Odessa.”
     
Google Books
A West Texas Soapbox
(West Texas A&M University Series, No. 2)
By Jim Sanderson
College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press
1998
Pg. 8:
Midlanders say that you raise kids in Midland and raise hell in Odessa. Bush probably never drove to Odessa.
   
CNN.com - Transcripts
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
Texas Prostitution Scandal
Aired May 24, 2005 - 19:00   ET
(...)
Raise a family in Midland, the saying goes, raise hell in Odessa.
   
Houston (TX) Press
Lonesome Onry and Mean: Hoyle Nix and Big Spring’s Stampede Club
By William Michael Smith
Monday, Jun. 8 2009 @ 12:30PM
There’s an old saying in West Texas about Midland and Odessa, two oil towns only 20 miles apart in the middle of nowhere: raise your kids in Midland, raise hell in Odessa. True enough, Midland has all the soul of a loaf of Rainbow bread - come on, George W. Bush was raised there. Odessa, with its rows of bars up and down Highway 80 and the Andrews Highway, has always been thought of as a den of iniquity.