Cherokeean/Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 149, No. 45, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 31, 1998 Page: 2 of 14
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Page 2—CHEKOKEEAN/HEBALD of Kusk, Texas—Thursday, Decembyr31, 1998
Clferokeeaif/Herald
December 31,1998
Emmett H. Whitehead
publisher
Marie Whitehead
editor
Texas' oldest continuously
published weekly newspaper.
Established as the Cherokee
Sentinel Feb. 27,1850
GRASS ROOTS
by Stan Lynde
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Jim Hogg State Historical
Park, Rusk
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Caddoan Mounds State
Historical Site, Alto
Texas State Railroad State
Historical Park, Rusk
Scene in Passing
Marie Whitehead
editor @ mediactr.com
Hello, Heaven? Would it
be possible for me to
speak to my Mama,
please? Oh, thank you!
! Hi, Mama! How patient you are
to listen to me! But then you,al-
ways were the best listener! Guess
since I was your "first bundle of
joy" you spent more time hearing
tne out...probably because you
were with me longer, since I am
the oldest... and because we lived
so near each other and it wasn't a
long distance call! My, we did
spend a lot of time talking. You
helped me get through the worst
of times and rejoiced with me through the best of
times!
You probably want to know how Christmas went.
Well, your middle child Bonnye spent the holiday
in Ptlugerville with Randy and Brenda. That must
make you very happy. Remember how you used to
have trouble pronouncing Pflugerville and you would
say, "Boogerville" and laugh? And we laughed with
you! Well, they had a great time with Dorothy and
Trooper, too. Shirley and family stayed in
Richardson but it was anything but a dull celebra-
tion! You know the speed of your youngest child's life!
Lots of action with your three grandsons' church
programs and the two greats were involved too. As
you would expect, our eldest child and family finally
caught up with each other in the Valley lor Christ-
mas Day. Three drove, two flew, but the five got
together! Wendee and Anne flew to Pennsylvania
for a glorious, Italian celebration with the Matrones.
They have a newborn in the family now to go with the
two older Grands. Little people make Christmas a
real joy...a symbolic blessing of the season we ob-
serve.JThe Koch mans in Florida hosted some of
their family for the holidays, but not all of them could
be present. It seems that this year found all of your
family about as content as we can be without you.
You will be glad to know that Chloe (Waddell)
got home in time to have Christmas at JoAnne's
house. She is slowly recovering from her surgery but
says she still feels rather weak. We agreed that it is
good to have come this far and now she can look
forward to better days.
Our friend Doug Bradford, brother to our late
Affie Webb, is getting better and better after being
run over by his own truck! No surgery required, but
he is some kind of sore and bruised. Having rehab
ntow, in the best of spirits. But then, he and Nita
always have a bubbly kind of enthusiasm for life.
You will be saddened to hear that your special
friend, Laura Schochler , spent Christmas at home
without Harmon. He is critically ill in ETMC Tyler.
Max and Laura have been so pleased with the care
hie is receiving. You may not remember, but last
Christmas it was Laura who was in the hospital .Max
is a very strong person, though, and he is doing a
great job of caretaking for his Mom and Dad.
A bit of great news from Grady Dupree . After
sürgery for a malignant tumor on his head, he was
released from the hospital after just three days. And
one week later, he was released to travel in their
motorhome to the Valley for Christmas! Deana is
sOch a supportive spouse!
You liked our new pastor, Bro. Noy Pruitt,
remember? Well, his dear Mama, Lavelle, fell at the
nursing home last week, had surgery for a broken hip
and is coming along pretty good at ETMC Jackson-
ville. She has a memory problem. It is difficult to
imagine what she is feeling. The Pruitts had her to
occupy their holiday thoughts while still maintain-
ing pastoral duties and hosting their precious chil-
dren and grandchildren! Some holidays we will re-
member more specifically than others.
Our dear Margie Wallace closed the car door on
her little finger and had emergency surgery. That
was a week ago now. But she is healing nicely and
siill continues to look after Thelma Smith . She
lives down the street from you, remember? And has
some of your health problems so Margie has a better
understanding! Mrs. Smith's son, Charles, had
back surgery around Thanksgiving, but he, too, is
recuperating very nicely.
Aleta Gates used to be one of your special friends
at the office. Well, she had surgery recently, followed
by phlebitis, off from work of course, but now that son
Casey and wife have presented her with a new
Grandbau, > "proving rapidly!
•It wat; a . junion when everyone gath-
ered for the l->: * Hin hday of Gladys Goodson.
Spme of them saiu chey met kinfolks they had never
met before! That's how big it was! It gave me an
opportunity to meet a couple who have been reading
tUis newspaper since we bought it! Levi and Clarice
Smallwood of Pasadena have probably read every
pfiper we've mailed out and then a lot of issues before
tl)at! It was also good to see Amy Richards and her
ntt>m, Martha, too. Amy was in school with your
gtandboy at Lon Morris, remember?
¡.Just about everybody either had family for Christ-
mas, or they went to family! Dorothy McClure
hpstcid all 37 members of her family for a holiday
observance. Four kids, grandkids, great grandkids
aftd in-laws! Choking hack a sob, you could tell she
wiishod that it had been 38 present. Her late and
bttloved husband, Dr. Jewel McClure, will always
<•< >V .. (Mi P*- V'*\ " "•
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r
be remembered by all who knew
him.
And most folks found themselves
at one or more of the outstanding
church programs. You would not
believe how good they were! Hav-
ing been there and done that, I can
see the hours and hours and hours
of work in preparation! Beautiful
decorations, beautiful music so well
played and sung. It has been a
much noted tribute to the Reason
for the Season. You would have
enjoyed our Christmas Eve candle-
light service with communion.
Many members came and brought
their families, too. Elam and Mary Holcomb had
their two daughters; Lynn and Lois Taggert got
there with two daughters and families with a third
daughter expected that night. Dr. Jim and Kay
Hunter were accompanied by two sons.
Sissy Crysup and her beautiful, girl child, Katie,
sang a duet during the service. Mike and Sissy's son,
David, is also home for the holidays with a special,
very special gift! He received his degree from The
University of Texas earlier this month. Katie is
working on her master's degree now. Well, looking at
all these families re-connecting for the celebration of
a Baby's birth, gives cause for great joy, great hope
for our future.
It was a moving, emotional experience when the
lights were dimmed on a full house. Candles were
lighted from one to the other as we stood in a huge
circle within the sanctuary and sang "Silent Night"
and "Joy to the World." It brought back so many
memories. Thoughts of the way we were. Thoughts of
the way we are. Thoughts of what is yet to be. And
tears of gratitude flowed. How blessed we are that
because He came, the world has never been the same!
As usual, it has been a lot of work, little play for me.
Mama. I felt so badly when Lois Taggart hosted a
beautiful luncheon for my Sunday School Class, the
Earnest Workers, and I didn't get to go! But they
all understood and had a great time without me!
Guess who came
home for Christmas?
Our Joseph
Brooks! Such a holi-
day highlight for us
at the office. He
worked here about
four years, off and on,
and now he's home
from a nine weeks
training course at the
Recruit Training
Command in Great
Lakes, 111. When he
returns to duty with
theSeaBees, a unit
of the U. S. Navy,
he will spend 13
weeks at Port
Wyneme, Calif.
That's near Los An-
geles. Then? Well, E3 Brooks is not súre. He expects
to be reassigned to some foreign country. Time will
tell. That is yet to be. His dear grandmom, Ozell
Ray, was kind of glad to see her young man! All of us
were! He graduated from Rusk High in '96 and
received his degree from TJC this last spring.
Well, you probably want to know that next door
neighbor Joe Bailey is out and about. I've seen him,
driving his pickup. We've waved. The other next door
to you neighbor, Bob Jansen, has a beautiful,
lighted Christmas tree in the living room window.
And your front porch has a couple of silk poinsettia
arrangements! Clearly, it is not the way it used to
look, hut we do remember. What have I heard from
Bill Cobble and Mr. Phillips (Clyde)? Well, they
are doing remarkably well, per Bill, in spite of last
summer's record drought. Yard work for them goes
on. Bill and Linda ware so proud of Brittany as she
marched in front of the band at the Christmas pa-
rade. Linda moves with hand crutches, but she is
getting better.
. We've had freezing weather for this Christmas
week, but it looks like things are going to thaw out
now. You always told me that we need the hard
freezes, to help control bugs next year! We'll wait and
see! At least this year we know that the freeze was
hard enough to call for a hammer to break the ice on
the cows' water tank! About 3/4 to 1 inch thick!
And so, these minutes of talking to you (and our
Readers) has been special, quality time, Mama. Com-
municating with each other is kind of like a vast
network of capillaries, sending blood where it's
needed. With our words we send love and informa-
tion where it's needed, too. You know how long we-
since 1950, have been here. Isn't it a marvelous
testimony to the many we serve that they have so
wonderously loved and supported us for so long? We
appreciate that, too, so very much.
Well, if this were being charged at regular LD
rates, I would get a really big phone bill! But like
another says, "Some things money can't buy." A
phone call to Heaven is one of them!
Happy New Year, dear Readers... each one of
you! Please stay in touch with life's "Scene in
Passing."
Joseph Brooks
'CAN'T STAV OUT TOO LATE TONIGHT,
ROSE..I'VE GOT TO BE IN SHAPE TO
WATCH ALL THOSE GAMES ON TV
TOMORROW!
i.
V
High Points From El Camino Real
Chris Davis
e-mail: elcaminoreal@inu.net
Happy New Year! I
hope everyone survived
the little Christmas ice
storm we had. It was a little
inconvenient, but it sure beats
slapping mosquitos at Christmas
time. I hope I can give you a
quarter's worth of good news
every week in 1999 as we close
out the twentieth century and
head into the year 2000.
My good friend, Doug
Bradford is in rehabilitation at
East Texas Medical Center in Tyler
recovering from a mishap with his
truck a few weeks ago. He got out
of his truck up at Pearman Motor Company and it
was in reverse instead of park. It backed over him
and the tire stopped on his pelvic region. His pelvis
is cracked in two places and he has some damage to
a ligament behind his knee. His wife, Anita said they
were really giving him a workout in rehabilitation
but he was doing pretty good for the shape he was in
I want to wish Doug a speedy recovery. If I ever need
a wheel chock, I know where to find one.
We had a rash of birthdays here in Alto right
around Christmas. Blackie_McCullough turned
76 on December 22. Clayton Scott and Lisa
Hicks both had birthdays on December 23. The
other Chris Davis and his wife Lanita had three
birthdays at their house. Their son Cory turned ten
years old on December 27 and his twin sisters Holly
and Hope turned one on December 29. Lyndon
Crosby was 42 on December 26. I want to wish all
of these people a happy birthday and I hope that their
loved ones didn't pull the old "this present is for
Christmas and your birthday" trick on them.
If you happened to see some familiar faces on
NBC's Today show last week it was Marilyn
Simmons Harris , her daughter, Marissa, and
friend Melissa who went to New York over the
holidays. We were lucky enough to catch them in the
crowd as the cameras did a close up. Marilyn is
originally from Alto so, I guess we can mark this
down as an Altonian in the Big Apple. I hope they
didn't tell any of those Yankees how wonderful it is
down here in East Texas or they will be coming here
in droves.
Our house got pretty wild the day after Christmas
as the boys tried to play with all their new loot. I
guess the Nintendo 64 system was
the biggest hit with the boys. They
got some kind of wrestling game to
play on it and my six year old
Grant wasn't getting much of a
chance to play it because his older
brother Garrett had pretty much
taken charge of the game. Grant
got up early on Saturday morning
to beat his brother to the controls.
After a while Grant came into the
den and said that he had given the
controls to Garrett because he
twisted his arm and threw him
down. Jay Anna charged into the
bedroom to confront Garrett about
this sibling abuse. Poor Garrett hadn't laid a hand on
his brother. He had only taken the controls because
Grant ásked him to because his wrestler was being
beaten on jthe game. I'm glad it was only a wrestling
game and not one of those shooting games. I shudder
to think what might have happened if he would have
said I gave him the controls because I got shot twice.
Confusion continues to reign at our house and the
inside looks like a herd of water buffaloes were
turned loose inside a toy store with a lion chasing
them. — —dOT
Virgil didn't get out much during the icy weather. M
Walking sticks don't hold to good on ice. The one tiríié
he did get out to take the trash down to the road, he
stuck a nail in the end of his walking stick so he could
get some traction. A pick up load of good ole boys
drove by and seeing the stick with the nail and the
sack, thought Virgil was picking up beer cans. Feel-
ing the Christmas spiri,t they tossed out nearly a case
of cans for Virgil to pick up. I love it when people get
what they deBerve at Christmas time.
is time to start making those New Year's reso-
lutions and I expect to see everybody about twenty
pounds lighter by Easter. I put losing weight on the
top of the* list every year and nothing happens. I see
a lot of people up at the jail on New Year's Day who
say they are never going to drink again, but they do.
I guess the one promise I can keep is that I'll do my
very best to keep you posted on all the goings on in
and around El Camino Real for the coming year. I
hope you and your family have a safe and prosperous
New Year. I'll see ya next year! And remember, Set
goals, you'll never get anywhere if you don't
know where your going!
God has been good to us
fWe have no way of knowing for sure what is in store for 1999'
I've heard one person describe 1998 as "A year
straight from We have all faced challenges
during 1998 that most of us haven't seen in our entire
lives. Yet, with all the adversity we have survived,
and most of us are making plans
for a better 1999.
This year reminds me of the
story you have heard me tell be-
fore about the farmer/rancher
who was walking across his place,
thinking about how good God
had been to him during the year.
Looking back, he noticed a big
cat (cougar) trailing along be-
hind him. Being a prudent man,
he decided it might be in his best
interest to pick-up the pace some,
and head on back toward the
house. When he noticed the cat also picked-up its
pace, he decided he had better hurry. In his excite-
ment, he took a wrong turn and ended up on a ledge
that was too deep to jump into and too wide to jump
across. Looking back he saw the cat grin with the
expression that "Dinner is served." The man noticed
a vine growing over the edge of the cliff that appeared
to be big enough for him to climb down; so he decided
that was probably a better option than facing the cat.
Hugh Soape
Extension Agent
As he climbed down the vine, he noticed a big snake
climbing up the same vine with an angry look on its
face. The man looked up and saw the cat with a
knowing look on its face; then he looked back down at
the snake coming at him; then he looked to the left
and found nothing that would help him. When he
looked to the right, the man saw a berry patch filled
with ripe berries. What did the man do ? And why?
Answer: The man took the time to eat the berries.
Why: Because we should never let the failures of
yesterday (the big cat), nor the uncertainty of tomor-
row (the snake) interfere with enjoying what God has
provided us at the moment.
We have had a year full of big cats: the drought,
grasshoppers, excess rain at times (when it did start),
armyworms, and a few other things like terrible
cattle, hog and horse prices. We have no way of
knowing for sure what is in store for 1999, but God
has given us a beautiful fall filled with plenty of color,
good growing temperatures for winter pastures, and
even predictions of improved cattle prices in the not
too distant future.
For now, let's just take time to be thankful for how
God has blessed each one of us. After all, He allows us
to have new challenges to prepare us for something
special He has planned in the future. Happy holi-
days!
anq
in
CIjerokceaij/Herald
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Whitehead, Marie. Cherokeean/Herald (Rusk, Tex.), Vol. 149, No. 45, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 31, 1998, newspaper, December 31, 1998; Rusk, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152405/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Singletary Memorial Library.