Category: Uncategorized
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OBNOXIOUS CEDAR TREES
As a child I heard occasional comments about a cedar tree in the country cemetery at Necessity, Texas. It was obscuring my grandfather’s tombstone. I began to notice it more and more after my grandmother’s death in 1950. My grandfather had died seventeen years earlier, and the family had placed a double stone at his…
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A TOWN CALLED NECESSITY
Necessity is located in southeastern Stephens County, Texas. It was first called Mountain Valley and later Cotton Plant. It got the present name when the community applied for a post office. The application stated that it was a necessity that the town have a post office. The approval came back for a post office at…
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A GOOD STORY
There is a grave in the middle of a farm road in southeast Stephens County near the community of Necessity. My maternal grandfather, Gus Haskins, owned the farm adjacent to the grave at one time. One day manly years ago, an elderly cousin went to the Necessity cemetery to place some flowers. There were some…
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SAM
Most of our pets have been four-footed. Shortly after we moved to Tucson, the children began asking for a bird. We decided on a half moon parrot and named it Sam. Sam quickly learned his name and repeated it over and over. He could say the usual “pretty bird, Sam.” Much time was spent trying…
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THE TOBACCO SACK QUILT
THE TOBACCO SACK QUILT MADE FOR KENNETH STANDIFER BY HIS GRANDMOTHER, ALLIE STANDIFER COPE ABOUT 1939 OR 1940 When Ken was a boy in Ada, Oklahoma, his Dad worked for the Frisco Railroad. Ken collected Country Gentleman tobacco sacks. His grandmother told him that if he could collect enough sacks, she would make…
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THE REST OF THE STORY: The Small Desk in the Borger News Herald Back Shop
Thanks to Dottie Irwin Melko, Harlingen Texas We all have stories. Here is one from Dottie. THE REST OF THE STORY OF THE SMALL DESK IN THE BORGER NEWS HERALD BACK SHOP I don’t have a photo but you have my desk in the back shop, I was told. This is the rest of the…
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PENNIES BOUGHT A WATCH
Many milk customers paid for their milk daily or weekly by leaving coins inside the empty bottles they were returning. The coins were rolled in a special paper provided by the bank. Rolling the coins became another of my jobs. For my work in the milk house, I received all of the pennies. There were…
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GLASS MILK BOTTLES
GLASS MILK BOTTLES. My parents never gave any negative thought to using child labor. If you were old enough to help, you helped. Life on a dairy farm meant never ending work every day of the week for everyone. Cows were milked twice a day. The milk was strained, cooled and put into 5…
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I GOT PAID FOR THIS
Last week I got a check from Reader’s Digest. Even though it was an itty bitty check, I immediately thought it could be a scam. I wondered if someone could get information they did not need if this check went through my bank account. Customer service at Reader’s Digest kept insisting that I must be…
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Newlywed Boundaries
Newlyweds in the fifties had not heard about setting boundaries in relationships. When we married in 1955, we lived in a garage apartment within walking distance of the university where I was taking summer classes. My husband took a job as a roustabout for an oil company to support us until his teaching job began…