RT NEWS April 27, 2014

Herman Strauss stopped by early Monday afternoon after leaving the Salvation Army’s Adult Day Care Center where he and his wife, Wanda, and others have gone every Monday for more than 10 years to provide musical entertainment to the folks there. Joining them that day was Gene Squyres, Bonnie Jumper, Lena Challender, Ann Boles, E. J. Ratliff and Ray Smith. Wanda Strauss always accompanies the group on the piano.

Herman Strauss has a full weekend ahead of him. On Friday evening, May 3^rd, he plans to attend his 64^th Lufkin class reunion at the Henderson retreat off Highway 103 where the group will enjoy a Fish Fry. Others in that class of 1950 were Robert McDonald, James Jones, Bubba Henderson and Jo Ann (Fairchilds) Stewart. The class of 1950 was the first year that the 12^th grade was added. Saturday morning at 9AM the group plans to meet at IHOP for breakfast and more visiting.

Saturday night Herman plans to attend the 1^st Saturday night singing at the Beulah Congregational Methodist Church. He invites the public to come out and hear special guests, The Martin Family, sing at 7PM. Sunday morning, May 4^th, is Homecoming for the Beulah Congregational Methodist Church. Services begin at 10 AM. Chet Strain and Trey Thompson will be the guest speakers. The music will be directed by Reginald Squyres and special music will be presented by the Bear Creek Boys, Tom Squyres and Herman Strauss. After the services, there is a Beulah School Reunion next door to the church in the Beulah Community Center where lunch will be served at 12:30. Everyone is invited to attend and bring a covered dish.

After telling us at the Round Table about those events, I asked Herman about his school days. He was a member of the DE (Distributive Education) class during his junior and senior years at Lufkin (he attended Beulah school through the 7^th grade) and worked a ½ day in the surveying department for Southern Pine Lumber Company with J.D. Winder and Jack Warner. At that time. A young Arthur Temple, Jr. had a vision to make Diboll a better place to live. The survey crew’s project was to locate water and sewer lines and light poles to lay out new streets in Diboll. Herman remembers riding with Bob Musslewhite in his ’49 green Ford convertible “surveying” and then going back to the drafting table. The vision was to tear down the “Red Town” housing that was moved from the Fastrill logging camp and build better housing. Red Town included the area today on the east side of 59 in Diboll between First Bank & Trust and the General Dollar store. Joe “Tody” Denman, a former soda jerk had recently graduated from Texas A&M after serving in the war, was hired as an engineer by Arthur Temple, Jr. According to Herman, Joe Denman’s very first project was to design the “tourist court” located beside the Antler Hotel (the “L” shape concrete slab is still visible inside the school campus behind Brookshire Brothers). His next two projects were to design shopping centers for Pineland and Diboll. Joe Carter Denman, Jr.’s foot prints are still here as the Diboll ISD Administration building is part of the original Village Shopping Center that he designed.

Enough of the past and to the present, or past weekend. I’m not much on fishing but John Ralph and I drove across the long bridge on 147 expecting to see lots of boats as we had heard there was to be 8,000 boats on the lake last Saturday. It was the 30^th Anniversary of the Big Bass Splash “Where It All Began on Lake Sam Rayburn” Fishing Tournament with a 1 Million Dollar Payout. What a disappointment to see only one lonely boat and fisherman when we crossed the bridge. Later as we were driving through some of the housing areas, we recognized someone we knew, Chad Camp, of Diboll. He and his wife, Jackie, had entered the tournament and won $900 with the almost 7 lb. bass they caught. That was exciting that we knew someone that had won a portion of the Million Dollar Payout.

Last Friday night in the restaurant at JR’s Barn was a group of friends and family that had gathered to support and listen to Betsy Plemons as they enjoyed good fried fish, shrimp and crawfish. Betsy is originally from Wyoming and attends SFA and will graduate in August with an Ag Business degree. She is also very musically talented and entertained the crowd with many songs accompanying herself on the guitar. She is also a song writer and sang several of her own songs. Her dad, Mickey Plemons, who still lives in Wyoming was present and later sang several songs with Betsy. I learned from her father that Betsy’s great-grandmother, Billie Burke, played the part of the Good Witch of the North in the original musical, The Wizard of Oz and was married to Florenz Ziegfeld of the famed Ziegfeld Follies. Betsy sang a song, OZ , that she had written in honor of her great grandmother. In the crowd of her admirers was Forest Baker, son of Thomas and Julie Baker who were also present. Forest attends SFA and will graduate in May with a nursing degree. He was excited to learn that day he had been hired by Woodland Heights to work in ICU after graduation.

I saw Cindy and Wayne Clark Saturday morning as they were leaving for Galveston to board a cruise ship; she promised to let me know details when they return. Jessica (Tipton) and Doug Dunn boarded a cruise ship on Sunday; hopefully, we will hear about their trip later. Returning from a cruise aboard Carnival’s Triumph is Ricky and Misty Morris with children, Lexy and Hunter, and her dad, “Smitty” Smith. Smitty said he liked it but it was a little too much walking for him on the ship and in Cozumel although he did put his bare feet in the beautiful blue water.

Late Friday afternoon at closing time, Louis Landers and JR were hashing about “the good ole days” when to our pleasant surprise, Congressman Louie Gohmert stopped by to visit at the RT.  Congressman Gohmert was introduced to Louis Landers. Louis, who works at The History Center, immediately told us that the Gohmert family has connections to Diboll through Louie’s dad who was the architect that designed the Katherine Sage Temple Day Care Center and 90 units of federal housing. After a nice visit and “thank you for standing up for us”, we gave him jars of his favorite, mayhaw jelly, made by Billie Jean Capps.

Enjoy the season and come see us…’round the table

RT NEWS April 21, 2014

What a pleasant surprise to see one of Diboll’s former superintendents, Bill Ward, come into the store for a short visit. He was on his way to watch two of his grandsons, Grayson and Graham Ward play T-ball for the Mud Cats. Their dad, Chad Ward, is one of the coaches and their mother, Marissa, teaches at H.G. Temple. Bill’s wife, Neita Fran stayed in Tyler where they have a retirement home on Lake Tyler. At the present time, they are still living in New Mexico but drove to Texas to spend Easter. Neita Fran has a studio in Las Vegas, NM and Bill is completing his 7^th year as superintendent of the Mosquero, NM school district which has K-12. Bill said there are a total of 46 students; 8 teachers and 13 employees and they only go to school 4 days a week. He has no discipline problems and no student in his 7 years has made an “F”. The tax value per student is over two millions dollars! Revenue comes from CO2 wells and that value will increase with the completion of two more plants that are being built.

Mosquero ISD is the richest school district in New Mexico! Under Bill’s leadership the district recently completed a state-of-the-art Media Building for two million; a new track field for $250,000; a new gym for 2.5 million and plans to build an indoor rodeo arena for 1.5 million.  Only 5 or 6 students live in town while the others are children whose parents live and work on the Bell Ranch which has 290,000 acres. Seventy-one year old media billionaire John Malone bought the Bell Ranch in NM in 2010. He now owns 2.2 million acres, surpassing his friend Ted Turner, as the nation’s largest private landowner. Coming soon, Bill Ward will help cook steaks with his school board president who will be catering a meal for John Malone and about 50 other people from around the world at his “fish camp”, a remote camp/resort on one of his ranches.

Bill Ward brought us up to date on his son Skipper who lived in Diboll for a while. Skipper will soon be moving to Magnolia, Arkansas to accept the job of superintendent. He and his wife Misti have four children: 19-year-old Will; 8^th grader, Eli; 5^th grader, Rachel, and Caleb who is in Junior High. Daughter Terri and husband Aaron have 2-1/2 year old Aubrey and expecting another baby. They are moving to San Diego where Terri works with her master’s degree in Finance. Altogether, Bill and Neita Fran have 12 grandchildren.

Ronnie Kilgore came in with his 13-month-old grandson, Kolton Kilgore, who is beginning to walk. JoNell Placker spent the Easter weekend with her daughter Kim and family in Bullard. Darrell is a bank president in Tyler and he and Kim recently purchased a home with acreage for all their animals. Their daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel, have both graduated from Texas A&M but while at home, always had horses that they boarded in Tyler where they lived.

The feed store has some really nice bedding plants and beautiful hanging baskets. Lots of folks have been in buying plants and seeds for their spring gardens including Mike Shivers, Charlie Mann, Sam Coleman, Caroll Dover, Larry Morris and Cleo Mason. Jim and Judy McClain were in and bought plants for their yard. (Later in the week Jim brought their son, Wesley, to visit the RT). Mary Lee Garner and Evelina Zolman drove all the way from Apple Springs for plants. Diboll Garden Club members, Gloria Ogden and Ginger Capps couldn’t resist buying flowering plants. Jane Horn always buys caladium bulbs every year. Thomas Anderson also bought caladium bulbs and made a second trip to buy more for his wife, JoAnn.

Eddie Smith’s son-in-law, William Avendt, came in for a fishing license; Eddie’s son, Willie Smith, had plans to take both of them fishing. Robert Compean bought a new Stihl blower and fertilizer to work in his yard. Barbara and Carroll Nash were also expecting to get a lot of work done when they came in to get a chain sharpened for their chainsaw. John Richards had to deal with getting a flat fixed and Mike Allbritton bought new tires for his trailer.

Charlotte Morris was in getting new keys made. She is the new owner of the former Pumpkin Patch day care center in Burke and plans to rename it. Debbie Tipton was also in getting keys made and announced that her daughter, Jessica, who owns Vanity Hair Salon is happy to have a new hair stylist coming soon.

Clay and Brooke Colwell and son, Lewin, were in buying local honey. Many people believe buying honey that was made by bees locally helps to deal with allergies in the area. Dale Rye, a beekeeper from South Dakota, ships hundreds of his hives to Texas to spend the winter months here and on to California in the spring where they pollinate many orchards and back to South Dakota where they make him lots of honey. People here have told him they think his SD honey has helped combat local allergies. Dale says pure honey is thick and slow. If honey flows easily it’s been watered down with something. If it turns to sugar that only proves it is pure honey. It’s a fact that honey found stored thousands of years ago in clay pots in Egyptian tombs was still good. Anyway, after being a beekeeper for 35 years, Dale is retiring and this is his last trip to Texas. He plans to keep a few bees in his insulated 30×30 room with heated floors and insulated walls but plans to spend most of his time hunting and fishing in the Black Hills and the Rockies while his wife Jill, who is an RN, continues working and studying toward her doctorate in Rehabilitation. We will miss their visits to Diboll and the Round Table.

Some leave and others move in. Ken and Wanda Cheshire, parents of Joel Cheshire and Tammy have moved here from Humble. I think Ken was a brother of Clyde Cheshire who was one of our postmen in Diboll.

Leonard Robison brought us a brochure and is recommending to anyone that loves to hear quartets not to miss hearing “Barbershop Through the Years”, May 10^th at Grace Community High School in Tyler, Texas. The evening performance begins at 7PM and matinee at 2:30. For more information, call 800-233-8219.

The Beulah Congregational Methodist Church Homecoming and Beulah School Reunion will be May 4 at 10AM and Lunch at 12:30 at the Buelah Community Center. The church was founded in 1892 and the school was constructed in 1903 and since been rebuilt three times. The present structure has served as a community center and was approved for a historical marker in 1998. Everyone is welcome to come and bring a covered dish. For more information, contact Gene Squyres 634-7840 or Herman Strauss 829-3584.

If you need to stock your pond, The Fish Truck will be in our parking lot on May 7^th from noon until 1PM.

Come see us…’round the table.

GOOD NEWS!! Diboll is getting TWO more new businesses! Tammy Holder came in to get keys made and we learned that she has already opened Salon 829  and plans to also open in June, Tree House Academy, a day care center. Salon 829 is open for business for haircuts, etc. for both men and women. It’s also a boutique with clothes and jewelry and located at 101 Thompson in Diboll. For us older folks, that’s where Dr. Eddins and Dr. Hoot had their doctor’s offices. Recently, the WIC office was located there. Behind that building where Temple’s “Personnel/sales” offices were located will be the new day care. The owner, Tammy Holder, is taking applications for teachers, cooks, etc. You can call her at 936-414-2215. Tammy is married to Anthony Holder who has been the pastor of New Life Church on 103W for 17 years. Tammy and Anthony also have plans for an Outreach ministry in Diboll. Welcome them to Diboll!

Laurel Hendrick celebrated her birthday with family last Saturday night at J.R’s Barn. They reported the food was great and her guests enjoyed live music and playing washers.  Her guests were: Don and Sandy Hendrick; Jennifer Hendrick; Lindsey, Earl and Aiden Morris and daughter Jayla Finley; J.R. and Alaryca Youngblood and daughter Brynn Maxwell; Pat and Janie McCann; Allison Amason; Mike and Dianne Gibson; Judy and Stephanie Cook; Josh Yarbrough and Sam Hester.  Jordan Eldridge and her date Stephen Baird, Katie Dubose and her date Hank Carbrow stopped by to say “happy birthday” to Laurel on their way to the Diboll Prom.  The girls looked beautiful in their full length dresses. Sandy took lots of pictures of her family then lost her camera.  If anyone finds it please call her at 829 4377 or 936 465 7414.

The music that guests heard at JR’s Barn last week end was the talented Brandon Lee, originally from Bowlegs, OK but now lives here in Diboll with his wife and 3 daughters. His wife, Resy is the Property Manager for the Diboll Mobile Home Park; 19-year-old Alie works for Subway in Diboll; 16-year-old Celestia is a student at DHS and 14-year-old Katelyn is in Junior High.

Brandon Lee is the stage name for Brandon Pipkin who has been singing since the age of 12. At 14 he picked up his first guitar and wrote his first 3-chord song. Soon after that he played at the Creek County Jamboree when the Skinner Brothers’, Garth Brooks’ first band, took him under their wings and he began making money doing what he loved. He has been a member of bands that opened shows for Tammy Cochran, Joe Nichols, Keith Urban and Neil McCoy at the Country Fever; playing at one time in front of 30,000. His last band, Lariat, had a great five years until the untimely death of their lead guitar player, Neil Hartman. After that, the group was devastated and unable to go on and each member went in different directions. Last Friday night Brandon was re-united with the drummer of Lariet when John Carr drove from Dallas to surprise him. The drummer didn’t have a set of drums but made rhythm using makeshift wooden boxes and a single cymbal. The two were incredible together. Brandon Lee will be singing on regular bases at JR’s Barn, the new restaurant serving catfish, shrimp and crawfish every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Give them a call for more information, 829-4141.

Jessica Skipper, 2013 DHS graduate attending Texas A&M, has a passion to become a medical doctor.  She says, “I have been on a search to find some kind of mission trip for future doctors that would allow me to really get a lot of “hands on” experience. I found an organization that takes Aggies to Kenya for a summer medical mission trip. They basically give us the chance to job shadow a doctor in Kenya and work alongside him or her. We will be able to perform minor surgeries, assist in delivering babies, give vaccines and do really anything that the doctor would do. After a lot of prayer, I jumped in wholeheartedly and booked my airline ticket.”

Jessica will be going to the village of Wagusu in the Bondo district.  The people there are so poverty stricken. They have so little medical supplies and so many people that need medical attention. Jessica was very active in her church, school and community and wants to ask people in Diboll and the surrounding area to help gather plenty of medical supplies to take with her to the people of Kenya. She has been in touch with Operation Africa, which is the organization in Kenya that makes all the arrangements for this medical-mission trip. They have sent her a list of things that are so desperately needed.  Justin Barkley at the Temple Library has the list and has offered to collect any donations at the Library in Diboll, while Jessica is at Texas A&M. She is really hoping that the community will respond to this and help out in a big way. Jessica is also trying to raise money to fund her trip to Africa and has set up a web page; it is gofundme.com. just type in “An Aggie’s Dream” to find her page.

Diboll PTSA will host a candidate forum on Monday, April 21 at 6:30 p.m. in the cafetorium of the H. G. Temple Schools.  Both candidates for the run-off election for county commissioner have been invited.  All four candidates for Diboll School Board have been invited to attend. Each candidate will be speaking and there will be a “Question and Answer” time provided.  Invite your friends to come out for this event.    It’s getting closer to the date for Operation Clean Sweep on April 26^th  Fran McClain needs more helpers and volunteers to have everything in place for the big day.  If anyone can help in the following areas, please leave her a FB message, call 829-2779 or email — fr****@**********ed.net  1) Power wash one house prior to the 26^th.  2) Help tape poly over windows of one house on the 24th. 3) Help remove roof shingles on the 26th  4) Help with sign-in, ( a sit down job) at the Diboll Housing Authority on the 26^th but will need to be there by 7:30 AM. Please share this with others and “Thank you” to those of you that have already volunteered your time or made a donation!!!!

Patsy Colbert’s grandfather “Daddy Dutch” said, “If it thunders in February there will be a cold spell in April within 3 to 4 days of that date. It thundered February 11^th. Patsy wrote it on her calendar as she does year after year and it hasn’t failed yet to be true. Surely, this is our last cold spell! I’m ready for spring and warmer weather.

Come see us…’round the table.