Roby, TX (population 913)`1961 What is there to do in a town of less than a thousand. There is no movie. No swimming pool. Any kind of entertainment is 20 to 50 miles away. Cruising the drag is a great pastime but gas is $ .25 a gallon and cars of that era didn’t get …
I had just finished my Sophomore year at Roby and Crickett had just completed the 7th grade. At the end of that school year we would both agree that we were home. We loved the town, the people, the school. We loved this time in both of our lives. She had a boy she liked …
It was a Monday and we had returned from the Concho River the day before. Wop Smith took several of us boys on a survival weekend each summer and as a result of being in the sun roofing… and the river trip I was very, very dark. I had worn nothing but shorts and cross …
A lot I don’t remember. A lot I probably remember incorrectly. A whole lot best forgotten. Here are the things that stick with me now. We overwhelmed the little ER in Snyder that day. I was awake during the ambulance ride and the first few minutes after our arrival. I remember expressing my concern about …
Old photographs can sometimes take you right back to that time. The people, the place…even tastes and smells. I find that a photograph is a story. Heres one….. So lot of days and nights in the Cogdell Hospital in Snyder and finally got to come home. Now home was a bit tight for me and …
Story #1 It was one of those bright, cool, fall afternoons. I remember the very dry west Texas air allowed for a warm pleasant afternoons followed by a very cool evenings. This afternoon my buddies and I were hanging out in the parking lot of the truck stop. The very large lot allowed us to …
My family moved to Roby, TX in the summer of 61. About to enter my sophomore high school year my sister and I were entering a new school in a town I had never heard of. Moving into a frame house on a dirt road didn’t make the move more welcome. But if nothing else …
My Mom told me she craved watermelons when she was carrying me. I always loved them and they were a regular late summer and fall treat growing up. My favorite aunt, “Aunt Shorty”s dad…Daddy Jack…made regular trips to the valley and sold produce in Haskell. He would look at my 6-7 year old self and …
My Mom was born Mary Edith Phelps in Haskell, TX. Her birth date was December 17, 1927. She died on December 16, 1964. She was one day shy of 37 years old. In those years she had one marriage giving her three children. I was the first and only son with two sisters…Carolyn Eylene Gilleland …
In 1966 shortly after moving to the Dallas area I was rolling across a large parking lot when a car pulled up beside me. In that car was Donnie Rouse who was to become my best friend until his death many years later. He said “do you bowl?”. I just looked at him like he …
There may be quite a gap in the story telling between when I was 19 and when I was 29. I may come back at some point and tell a story or two because believe me there are stories to tell. But for now I will hide in the verse in Ephesians “For it is …
I met my two daughters on June 12, 1976. My 30th birthday. I was living in an apartment in Oak Cliff and working for a boat dealership…Lone Star Sports. I was the sales manager. That meant that in the off season I was the only salesperson and during season I managed between 5 and 10 …