November 2, 2015

By the time you read this, we should have received a shipment of PECANS so get your recipes out and get ready. We would love for you to share your favorite recipe or ways you serve pecans.
Longtime teller at First Bank & Trust Diboll, Linda Miller, shared two of her grandchildren were lucky hunters last weekend. Clayton Wigley, son of Danny and Courtney Wigley, got a nice 12-point buck in Tyler County. Her 9-year-old granddaughter, Ainsley Stuck, came in the store last weekend with her dad, Jason Stuck, to purchase hunting licenses with plans to hunt on family land several hours from home. Ainsley was excited about going and really excited to become a veteran deer hunter.

Enjoyed visiting with Rick Rasbeary when he came in the store. Rick and his wife Sheila live at Westwood Shores in Trinity where he enjoys golfing. In the working world, Rick is a Division Manager at TDCJ, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and is responsible for managing 14 garment factories in Texas. They make all the uniforms for the inmates and staff. Rick has been with TDCJ for 23 years and plans to retire in 3-1/2 years. While he was here, Andrea found an old picture in one of her albums of “Rickey Rasbeary, Grand Champion Steer, Groveton, 1987” Rick Rasbeary brought us up to date on his son and daughter-in-law, Ryan and Torree and 1-1/2 year old Ben. Little Ben’s proud grandparents are Ben and Lena Rasbeary. Ryan, Torree (who has completed her Master’s degree from SFA) and Ben moved from Nacogdoches in August to Lumberton where Ryan is the assistance varsity baseball coach. While living in Nacogdoches Ryan coached football and softball in Cushing where he was proud that the girls’ softball team made it to the quarterfinals.

We met one of our new Diboll policemen, Eli Lenderman, when he came in the store. Of course we had to ask our usual questions. Where are you from? Who are your parents? Where did you grow up?, etc. Well, he grew up in Central and we asked if he remembered Fran McGilvra who taught at Central for many years. His reply was “yes” and “she was a stickler on cursive writing”. Fran’s handwriting is perfect! Did you know, as I understand it, that students in public schools are only taught about 2-3 weeks how to write “cursive”?

Ronnie Coleman stopped by on his way home from visiting with his mother, Shirley Coleman, who is a short term resident of Larkspur. Shirley fell and is taking rehab for a couple of weeks. Her husband, Sam Coleman, spends all day with Shirley and Ronnie goes every day. Ronnie asked everyone to pray for his mother’s recovery.

Kenneth and Ann Ashworth stopped by the roundtable to visit. Kenneth grew up in Diboll and married a sweet Irish girl he met in Brooklyn, NY while in the Navy and eventually they moved to Ireland where they are serving as missionaries. Kenneth and Ann had lunch with the Super Seniors of Diboll First Baptist where he was happy to see and know that Bettye Greer remembered him from DHS. We all still agree that her husband, Bill Greer, a Biology teacher and later principal at DHS, was very respected by his students and had few discipline problems, if any.

Another former DHS student who graduated in1957, Royce Grimes and his lovely wife Kathy, stopped at the round table to visit. Royce’s niece, Vicky Shoemaker from Hudson, was with them. Vicky’s mother, Carolyn (Grimes) Jones, is Royce’s sister who graduated in 1958. Royce is a faithful fan of the Diboll Lumberjacks and Texas Longhorns. The trip from their home in Virginia Beach, VA was planned so they could fly into Houston in time to watch the Lumberjacks play in Shepherd. Royce wouldn’t tell me but the girls did, that he was quarterback of the Diboll Lumberjacks in 1957. His nickname was “Spoke” given to him by his classmates; Claude Edward Welch, Joe Anthony, Jimmy McCall and John Hannah. They always told Royce he wasn’t big enough to be a wheel, he was just a spoke; these are friends?

I learned while visiting with Vicky Shoemaker at the round table that she is married to Delwin who owns A&B Body shop and their two sons work with their dad in the business; Dwayne is married to Lacy who teaches at Hudson and Dustin is married to Mikki who is an accounting professor at SFA. As we were visiting, Vicky’s daughter, Ashley Courtney, came in to meet her mom, Kathy and Royce to go to lunch. She and her husband John Courtney who is the high school principal at Hudson, have purchased the former Pumpkin Patch Daycare in Burke. They plan to change the name to Building Blocks Academy. Oh, I also learned that Gladys Mettlen from Diboll is “aunt” to Vicky and Ashley.

Fran and John McClain have had guests visiting with them from Alabama. Katharine and Gerald Nichols from Hoover and Ann and Joe Pridgen from Monroeville. The guys enjoyed playing golf while the ladies visited and did a little shopping that included stopping at Pouland’s. J. T. and Maudine Frisby from Lufkin came in to buy Colorado pinto beans.

Four good friends, JoNell Placker, Mary Lou Havard, Bess Andrews and Kathreen Chuke, all enjoyed a drive to Wells to eat lunch at DeLeon’s. They were pleasantly surprised when they learned that Bobby Jones paid for their lunch. Arriving in Diboll they stopped at the round table just in time to have a piece of Andrea’s warm pumpkin pie crunch for dessert. Leonard Robison was sitting at the table and hesitantly tried a piece of the pumpkin crunch. He has only eaten pumpkin pie a total of two times but admitted Andrea’s was good.

We have a new cookbook for sale here at Pouland’s. The Livingston FFA Booster Club Cookbook is full of good recipes for $10. Cookbooks are always a nice gift.
Don’t forget to come see us…’round the table.