Remembering Veterans
It was good to read about the programs across Texas remembering veterans [Circle of Life, November 2018].
People’s attitudes have changed since the late 1960s and early ’70s. Being a Vietnam veteran, I remember being called baby killer, cursed at and spat upon. It’s good to see the changes.
Dave Swallow | San Marcos
Pedernales EC
Beauty of a Song
Pretty Paper [November 2018] brought tears to my eyes.
My folks took me to downtown Texarkana each Saturday, and there was a man with no legs selling pencils. He sat on a “car dolly” with wheels.
Later on, I learned he took his three children to school each day as they walked, pushing his dolly with two wooden blocks.
Marie Freeman | Simms
Bowie-Cass EC
I remember the man Willie Nelson wrote this song about. I saw him many, many times in front of Leonard Brothers, along with the blind couple who sang hymns close by him. We shopped regularly at Leonard Brothers, and some of my most cherished memories are of time spent there with Mother and Daddy.
Melissa Pegram | Via Facebook
I love this song. Never knew who wrote it. Thanks for this lovely story.
Karen Lombardo | Via Facebook
I love hearing “behind the song” stories. What a story of perseverance!
Suzanne Morgan Loudamy | Via Facebook
Such a beautiful story. I do so wish the man would have known the song was written about him. I shopped at Leonard’s all my life, and I never saw him.
Pat Fletcher Garcia | Via Facebook
In the song, he was portrayed as a poor outcast because of his weak legs. I love the fact he was a strong, resourceful man able to provide for his family with pride and dignity.
Paula Owens | Via Facebook
Texas and World War I
I was delighted to read Gene Fowler’s article World War I at the Doorstep of Texas [November 2018]. Far too few native and new Texans are aware of these and other important events in our history.
Marian Liles | Kingsland
Pedernales EC
Pleasant Memory
I was pleasantly surprised to see the picture of Bob’s Oil Well [Abandoned Buildings, Focus on Texas, November 2018]. As a youngster growing up in Plainview in the 1940s, when we were traveling through Matador, we would always stop so we could see all the rattlesnakes Bob had in the station. I still go through Matador from time to time and remember those days.
Carl Bonds | Whitney
HILCO EC
Mammoth Discovery
I found a vertebral bone in 1958 when squirrel hunting on a creek east of Clifton. It was about 10 inches long and 5 inches wide. A big chunk of white bone. I was going to Baylor University at the time and brought it to the Strecker Museum. They studied it and told me it was a mammoth vertebral body, probably a young mammoth. I read Martha Deeringer’s Waco’s Mysterious Mammoths [November 2018] with interest.
Ronald T. Stanley | Lindale
Wood County EC
