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Phase I - Part II
A Year, 1903, in Texas


  • Our Dad got the "Texas fever," it culminated late in 1902 when sold at auction the farm equipment and most of the household goods and moved to a farm about 5 miles from Mt. Pleasant in Eastern Texas.

  • My mother prepared enough fried chicken, country ham, jellies, cookies, etc., to feed the family of 6 the entire three day train ride to Texas.  As we were crossing the Mississippi River at Memphis I recall looking out the window and saying to mother, "look at that big field of plowed ground."  I was train sick.

  • Dad shooting opossums that had raided our chicken house, provided excitement many nights.  Another exciting occasion he shot an eagle, only wounding it.  I'll never forget the effort it made to reach us, with a determined fierce expression on its face, and in its eyes.  The eagle had to be shot again.  Carlos and I held the tip of each wing, which showed a wing spread of six feet.

  • While living in Texas our father opened a small savings account for Carlos and me in a Mt. Pleasant bank.  On one occasion the banker opened the vault door so we could see "our" money.  We thought it was the same money we deposited.

  • The creek that flowed through the swampy bottoms near our home usually had a skim of oil on the surface.  Oil wells are now thick there -- oh for foresight.

  • Some of our cattle strayed into the swampy bottom land during a wet period and sunk up to their bellies and could not be extricated -- they perished.

  • Carlos, age 10, and I, age 8, went to a neighboring farm about 1-1/2 miles from our home for two big watermelons.  They filled both ends of a large burlap sack.  To carry them we straddled the sack on a strong pole, then placed each end on our shoulders.  The return trip was without incident until we came to a high rail fence -- about twice our height.  The melons were too heavy for us to lift over the fence.  Finally the problem was solved by Carlos raising gradually his end of the pole, while I raised the other end and resting it on each successively higher rail.  At the top one end of the sack was rolled over and across the rail, then the melons were lowered inversely from the raising.  This bit of "strategy" has remained vivid in my memory.

  • Our first and only experience of growing cotton was in Texas.  At age 8 I was a fast cotton picker and with fewer bleeding fingers - than others - pierced by sharp hard burr prongs surrounding the cotton boll.  Before the cotton is ready to be picked it goes through three different color stages of blooming.

  • Most people in Texas didn't bother to kill snakes.  My father killed over 80 the year we were there.  While gathering some fruit one Sunday afternoon, I suddenly discovered 8 or 10 big snakes all about me -- some coiled.  By keeping cool I got away without being bitten, by backing slowly through an opening.

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