August 21, 2017

 

Brigette Tobias, a frequent customer, practically grew up on the back of a horse being coached in barrel racing by her dad, Ronnie Casburn. She has passed the tradition on to her 14-year-old daughter, Lucchesse, who has won several barrel racing championships. The most recent being this month in Waco at the 2017 Texas National Barrel Horse Association State Championship where her winnings included: 1D Youth Champion and 1D Open Reserve Champion (competing with all ages). She also won Open 1D 1st Go and ran the fastest time during the whole competition. That’s quite an accomplishment for a ten year old! Her proud parents are Jason and Brigette Tobias and her maternal grandparents are Deborah (Bourrous) and the late Ronnie Casburn. Keep up the good work!

It was a real pleasure to meet 13-year-old Hannah Hagle who came in with her dad. She is the daughter of Brandon and Heather Hagle of Chireno. Hannah has been in training for Junior International Elite Gymnastics since she was six years old. It began when she broke her arm, was sent to rehab and got seriously interested in gymnastics. She is presently coached by Martin and Stacy Parsley in Tyler. Hannah and her parents are dedicated to this rigid training program which means she had to move to Tyler to live with her grandfather, Harold Hagle. Hannah begins her day in the gym from 7:30 to 10AM. She attends school from 10-2 with 7 others who are also in training and then back to the gym from 2 until 5:30. During the fall she will come home on weekends but during the summer she goes home every other day. In Chireno her parents have chicken houses and cattle and she loves following her 16-year-old brother Wyatt as he competes in showing steers across Texas. In her quest to be a future Olympian, Hannah is looking forward to October when she attends the National Developmental Team Training in Huntsville where she has met several members of the US Olympic Team including 2008 member Nastia Luikin and Gabby Douglas who was a member in 2012 and again in 2016. Good luck to you Hannah!

One of the fun things about working in a feed store is that we get to see people’s pets when they come to us for help. DHS sophomore Jessica Castor came in with her mom, Debora. Jessica found three baby rabbits in their yard and her dad, Fernando, said, “Go to Pouland’s they will know what to do”.

It was good to visit with Joe Flowers (senior) who recently retired in June. Joe has been driving trucks most of his life. He owned and operated his own truck for 25 years and for the last 15 years he drove for Lyons Propane. The first couple of months was difficult adjusting to being retired, Joe said, “you can only mow the grass so many times”. It’s better now that he is driving again, part time, for Johnson Excavating. Joe and his wife Connie just recently returned from a trip to Colorado to visit with her family in Lamar where Connie grew up. Connie now works at Albeldts after working 15 years at Timberland Pharmacy.

Rachael Chapman, daughter of Kim (Placker) and Darrell Chapman, is an independent young lady who earned a degree from Texas A&M and presently lives in Houston’s Rice Village and works in Spring. She proudly negotiated on her own to buy a beautiful new Cadillac SUV. She drove it to Diboll to show her “Granny Jo” JoNell Placker, and parked it under her wooden carport. Rachael told JoNell there would be “no eating”, “no drinking” and certainly “no pets” inside her new car. Rachael took her Granny Jo on a test drive the next day. They were enjoying a beautiful day until Rachel decided to demonstrate the open sun roof, immediately they both were covered in a ton of sawdust from the carpenter bees that must have worked all night in the wood of the carport where she had parked. Returning home they both worked for hours cleaning the new car!

Billie Jean (Walker) Jones took the time to drive from the Humble area to pick up former DHS classmates, Barbara (Vaughn) Spradley and JoNell (Vaught) Placker, to celebrate Barbara’s August birthday at the Olive Garden. Charlene “Polly” Leavell celebrated her August birthday with longtime friends and lunch at the Angelina County Airport. Those enjoying were Betty Hendrick; JoAnn Rainwater; Ginger Capps; Nita Hurley, Billie Jean Capps and of course, Polly; sorry I had to miss. It seems the conversation has switched through the years to discussing doctors’ visits.

Monthly flea pills for pets is a new item for us and seems to be very popular. In a month or so, we can ask Louise Ellison, Ronnie Kilgore and G. B. Treadway, “How did it work?” R. W. Oaks comes to Diboll quite frequently to his childhood home place where he loves to garden. He came in to buy pea seed for his fall garden and came back later with his great-granddaughter, Mattie Neiman, to get local honey and watermelon seed. Max Purgahn is a serious farmer; he plans to sell his crop and came in to buy enough cream pea seeds to plant on seven acres! Billie Jean Capps was in buying birdseed, sunflower seeds and reported, as always, busy making her famous jellies; mayhaw being the most popular. Glenda Tobias frequently comes in to buy chick feed. She’s learned from my experience how chickens love “Happy Chickens Mealy Worms”. These delicious treats make your chickens love you. Joel and Tammy Cheshire enjoyed visiting and looking around while waiting to get a lawnmower tire repaired. Earl Hutson was angry at all the wasps and ants around his house and had plans to get rid of them. DEMON XP is hard to keep in stock because it is such a good product to keep the unwanted pests away. Our thanks to Roy Lee Lyles for the fresh okra.

I appreciate friends who feel they can use this column to ask for prayers from its readers. A longtime friend, Janet Kilgore, called to share with me the devastating news her youngest son Johnnie has been diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). Janet is home after being in Oregon for a month with Johnnie and his wife, Teresa and children; 14-year-old Gracie and 9-year-old Wesley. Janet grew up in Diboll and retired from Memorial hospital after 33-1/2 years. She worked as a surgical nurse so you may not have seen her. Janet is a strong woman and has battled with cancer for a few years but she is surrounded with love from her five sons: Lonnie, Ronnie, Donnie, Tommie and Johnnie. Please remember this special family in your prayers.

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