Category: Early Days to 1955

  • SAILOR AHEAD

    It was 1945. The war was over. The boys were coming home. They were using whatever means available to get back to their families as quickly as possibly. They were riding buses and trains and hitchhiking. My cousin had driven her mother and mine to Abilene, Texas, for some shopping. The roadway was lined with…

  • GUEST BLOG

    My thanks to my cousin, Dick Williams, for permission to use this story which he wrote on February 26, 2003, after learning of the death of one of our classmates, J.K. Dick’s Memories: In high school days, J. had been the class clown. I was sad to learn of his death. My first thought in…

  • VALENTINE PROPOSAL

    By the time Ken proposed to me in 1954 it was pretty well a given fact among family and friends that we would marry.   I did not know until years later that my mother had talked with him before she died in 1952 and asked him to take good care of me. We met in…

  • DUGOUT a good old horse

      Charlcy and Dugout   Dugout was a good old horse.  I later wondered why anyone would name a horse Dugout, but as a child I never questioned the origin of his name.  I was so thrilled to have a horse that his name was not significant. Dugout was a strawberry roan gelding.  He had…

  • THE FAT STOCK SHOW

      January 29, 2015 It is stock show time in cowtown.  As a child, this was an exciting time of year for me. It meant that my Dad would take a day off and we would go to Fort Worth.  My Dad’s only brother also lived in Breckenridge and had a son my age.  For…

  • Pearl Harbor

    December 7, 2014 was the 73rd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I decided several weeks ago to write about that day.  Big Problem!  I have no specific memories of that day.  I was in first grade and world events were not something I was concerned about.  What to do?  I decided to ask others…

  • Thankful for Spotted Cows

    Gratitude should be constantly expressed and not just on a special day.  If we practice thankfulness, we have less time for complaining.  We will have fewer negative thoughts and will be happier. We will gather this week with family and friends to give thanks to God for our many blessings.  Our family has many things…

  • C. M. Williams, WW11 Veteran

    War clouds were rumbling in Europe before my brother, Carroll Williams, graduated from High school.  Some of his friends were joining the Texas National Guard and wanted him to join also.   He was not old enough to join without parental permission.  My Dad would not grant that permission.  The friends plead, but my Dad would…

  • SOUTH WARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

    I didn’t go to elementary school.  I went to ward school.  Breckenridge had three ward schools: South Ward, North Ward, and East Ward.  In today’s world, if I tell someone that I went to South Ward they wonder if I went to a hospital or a prison.  We also used the term grade school.  Our…

  • 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…