In February, my great-uncle, Oran Talmadge Caffey, “Tally,” as most people knew him, passed away. A lifelong bachelor, Tally loved his 13 siblings and greatly mourned the 11 who passed before him. He saw more than one lifetime’s worth of change in his 94 years and loved to reminisce about his family, friends and childhood in Truby. As his body grew tired and failed, the sharpness of his mind did not.
Since his passing, my mother—his niece—and I have sorted through his belongings. It is poignant work that offers a sweet walk down memory lane, despite the ever-present reminder that we are on this walk because one deeply loved generation is no longer here.
Tally loved sports, especially baseball at any level, and followed Hardin-Simmons University Cowboys and Cowgirls athletics with fierce devotion. The contents of his home are only of sentimental and historical value: a treasure trove of old photos and letters, Christmas cards, great-nieces and nephews’ school pictures, athletic accomplishments, a variety of newspaper clippings, biblical readings, and, of course, Hardin-Simmons Cowboys and Cowgirls mementos. The riches of his life were in his memories and in being remembered by others.
A pensive and reflective person, Tally enjoyed writing occasional guest columns for the Abilene Reporter-News. In his belongings we found one such clipping. It’s undated, but the column’s lack of a date is irrelevant because its content is timeless. It seems a fitting tribute to Uncle Tally to share this little gem, because he loved to reflect and reminisce. Whether you know of Truby, Texas, or not, I hope you enjoy this tale of childhood from almost a century ago.
Life Was Simple, Decent and Honest Back in Truby
By Talmadge Caffey
Abilene Reporter-News guest columnist, undated
I grew up in the Truby Community in Jones County. Truby has just about disappeared from the map. If you drive by now, it would be hard to believe that back in the early years of this century [1900s], there were two stores, three churches, a school, a cotton gin and a little hotel in existence.
When we had the school there, in sports we would compete with schools like Union, Pleasant Hill, Hodges and Stith. Noodle had a little bigger school than we did, but every now and then we would go over and let them beat us in basketball or softball.
When we were growing up, my brothers and I and two more boys learned to play the fiddle and strum guitars and sing. We were not as good as the Sons of the Pioneers, but the people around Truby would encourage us to make us feel good. Back then, people would sit out on the porch a lot at night. Sometimes at night we would drive around the country and stop close to a house and play and sing a tune or two, then move on to another house. Maybe in a day or two we would see some of the people down at the store, and they would say, “Well, we heard you boys playing and singing the other night.” I guess you would call that a drive-by sing-along.
We establish many relationships during our lives. Some people pass through our lives just for a short time and they are gone and we may never see them again, but others become friends for life. A true friend is someone you can feel comfortable to be with.
My brothers and I had a special friend. His name was Satch. We spent a lot of time with him when we were young. We knew that time spent with Satch was going to be pleasant. We also had another friend who lived down the road a little way that they called Judge.
We liked to go fishing every now and then. About all we would ever catch were a few channel cat and some pollywogs. I remember one day we decided to go fish for a while. On our way to the river, we stopped at the store to get something for lunch. I don’t remember what all we got except a box of crackers. We went on down to the river, and Judge was carrying the box of crackers as we were walking along the river bank and he stumped over a rock or something and he started tumbling toward the river. Satch saw what was ahead, and he yelled out, “Judge, don’t get those crackers wet!” Just before he hit the water, he threw the crackers back up on the bank. It sure was funny.
The school and the three churches were the life of the community. They were what held it together. We attended the Baptist church. When we became a Christian, we were baptized in the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. It was always impressive to me to see someone baptized in the river. The church would sometimes have Sunday dinner on the ground, and it would be served outside under the shade of a tree on a flatbed trailer.
We young folks always looked at the fun side of everything. I remember one time in church we were sitting on one side away from the older people, and some younger kids were sitting in front of us. One of the boys dozed off asleep, and the preacher raised his voice to a loud tone to express one of the points of his sermon. That kid almost jumped out of his pants. Needless to say, that disrupted things for a bit. I don’t think the older folks or the preacher ever knew what happened.
There has been a lot of water run under the bridge since those long ago days at the sleepy little Jones County village of Truby. Life was simple back then and it was sometimes hard, but it was good and honest.
Life is so different now. We have so much more but don’t enjoy it as much.
Talmadge Caffey of Abilene [was] a retired employee of Calvary Baptist Church.
