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Robert Earl McKinney
BOYHOOD
MEMORIES
IN
SABINAL TEXAS
By Robert Earl McKinney
WE HAD FUN Growing
up in Sabinal, Texas during the '40s and '50s. We didn't have TV
back then but we did have radio programs we listened to. Captain
Midnight, Sky King, Jack Armstrong the all-American boy, Gangbusters
and many others. There were 6 kids in our family: Betty Lou, Curtis
Kay, Peggy Sue, Me, Ellie Latheal and Aaron Edgar. Our house was a
gathering place for all of our friends and there were a lot of fun
activities. We lived a half block from the High School where they had
tennis courts, volley ball, a baseball diamond and plenty of room to
play. During the summer that was our private domain. All of the
neighborhood kids all came to my mother for doctoring. Especially ant
and wasp bites. Mother would daub bites with blueing (Used to whiten
clothes in the wash). You would see kids running around with blue
dots on them from mother's doctoring. The bluing always somehow made
the bites better. I could climb a tree like a monkey when a boy. We
saw a lot of Tarzan movies at the Ross Theater's 10 cent Saturday
matinee (with 5 cent bags of popcorn). The old High School Building
was T-shaped with the middle part 2-story. The front part was an
auditorium and the back upstairs part divided into a study hall and
school library. I had my own summer reading program that I have never
told anyone about. They always had the windows and doors locked but
they never bothered to lock the upstairs library windows that opened
to the one-story wing roof. Next to the west side of the building was
a row of salt cedar trees. I would climb up one of the trees and out
on a limb, then on to the roof. I would enter the library window and
"check out" a book durng the summer. I would take it home,
read it then bring it back and "check out" another one.
This was my summer reading program. Sabinal did not have a city
library back then.
MUDBALL
FIGHT AT THE CITY PARK: I
think this occurred one night around '52 or '53. It had recently
rained and someone threw a mudball. The fight was on. Out of nowhere
everyone showed up at the city park. All of the upper classmen were
defending the home territory of the old dance slab (not the new one).
The girls were making mud balls for the guys and all of the
underclassmen kept assaulting our position. I remember Werner Wiebolt
came through driving his Jeep, loaded with mudball-throwing kids. I
stepped out from a tree and chunked a mudball at them. I felt bad
about cracking his windshield. It was amazing how fast everyone
showed up when something was going on. It was like the old
"Minute Man" thing, only with kids. I don't remember who
won, but my side was woefully outnumbered.. I do remember everyone
was filthy.
Robert:
I enjoyed reading the
stories and seeing the photos on your website. Carolyn Johnson
Kruger reminded me last Labor Day when we had a 1955 graduating class
reunion at my house about Werner Wieboldt’s windshield.
Apparently, I was there and ran back and shouted, “They broke
ole windshield’s glass!” over and over. Carolyn never
let me forget it.
Were you around when some
of the guys put the old model T up on top of the school?
Don’t remember who it was but it took a lot of work to take it
apart and put it together again.
One night Eddie Perkins,
Glenn Pringle and someone else were in my car and we let Eddie out
behind the City Hall. Sillar Atkinson and John Fowler, no
relation to me, would hang out in the little room on the south side
of the building with the window up. Eddie slipped up and put a
lighted cigarette on a cherry bomb beneath the window. We had
driven over and parked on the side street north of where the old pool
hall used to be so we could see what happened. When the cherry
bomb went off, Sillar and John came running outside like they had
been shot!
A lot of good times, most
of which I have forgotten so it was good to read some of your
stories. I told the folks (Ellie was there, too) at our reunion
that we had a pretty amazing class. No one got into trouble,
most ended up going to college and they have all done pretty well for
themselves. We had some very good mommas and daddies and we all
liked each other. When I was out there, couldn’t wait to
get away but now I look back with fond memories a little like John
Boy Walton used to.
David W. Fowler, Ph.D., P.E.
Joe J. King Chair in
Engineering No. 2
Director, International
Center for Aggregates Research
ECJ 5.200
The University of Texas
at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-1076
I do remember when the
Model T was put up on top of the old High school on Halloween night.
They also had put a wagon and an outhouse up there. I was not
involved in those escapades though. It is amazing how a bunch of kids
put all of that stuff up on the rooftop in the dark. I remember a
bunch of grown men took half a day with pulleys and tackle to lower
the stuff down. You can now see that I wasn't always involved in the pranks.
We used to always say
back then that Sabinal was such a dead town. "The only cemetary
with street lights". However, whenever I visited Sabinal years
later I would always comment: "It sure is peaceful here". Perspective.
--Robert
FIRE PRACTICE:
Bob Nunley and I were members of the Fire Department our senior year.
In the summer time on Tuesday nights the Volunteer Fire Department
had fire practice. We had two fire trucks and it always seems that we
would end up playing "Chase 'Em" all over town and then we
would pull out the hoses and have a water fight. Everyone always came
home soaked from practice. Mrs. Haby was in charge of our Senior Play
in '53. Bobby Nunley and I had major parts in the play. We were
practicing the play one evening with Mrs. Haby standing in front of
the stage directing us. The fire siren went off and Bobby and I
exchanged looks. We leaped off the stage and saw Mrs. Haby throw up
her hands as we raced by, responding to the call to firefighting duty.
DRIVE BY SHOOTINGS: Everyone
would gather after school at the Corner Drug Store. I was riding
around with some of my friends. I don't remember who started it but I
do remember that I had a green water pistol in my possession. A group
of kids were standing in front of the drug store and was squirted as
we drove by. Within minutes every kid in town was armed with a loaded
water pistol. Olson's Variety store had a run on the water pistols.
Cars would pull up along each other with streams of water flying.
When we drove by the Corner Drug again we were met by a hail of
water. It was fun for a while but we kept running out of water.
LIGHTS
ON THE WATER TOWER: One
of the traditions of a senior class was to paint "Seniors
1953" or whatever year it was on the water tower. There was
hardly any room left due to the past senior's signs. The city had the
tower painted a bright and shiny silver the year we were due to paint
our Senior sign on the tower. They put slatted rat-catchers on each
leg with a padlocked trapdoor on the one with the ladder to the top.
There was a $200 fine for climbing on the tower or defacing it. I
remember Billy Joe and John Benton were legends because they had
raced each other to the top prior to this. The padlock was cut off by
someone. We seniors were stymied though. We could not paint Seniors
1953 on the tower. I don't know why but I seemed to always be
involved whenever mischief was afoot. Someone swiped a flare off a
road construction site. You younger folks aren't familiar with these.
Instead of the battery operated blinking lights of today they had
round black metal flare pots with a wick. These were filled with coal
oil and placed at construction sites. We filled the flare pot with
coal oil from the coal oil barrel behind my house. I forget who put
the flare on top of the tower the first time. I climbed up to the
first level, looked down and said: "To heck with this". The
flare was lit each night. We had to take it down, fill it up with
coal oil and take it back up again. One night we dropped off Darwin
Sanders and R-- H----. (I decided not to use his name here in order
to protect the guilty). We drove around a few blocks and were going
to come back by to pick them up. As we drove by we saw City employee
Pete Warden's pickup there and the light was on in the small building
near the tower. The door was open and we could see him working
inside. We could also see by the light of the headlights Darwin
draped around one of the legs half way up. Above him laying on the
ladder going over to the big pipe was "Ra-". We passed on
by and continued cruising until Pete left in about 45 minutes. He had
driven up while they were on the way up and they were almost caught.
When he finally left they lit the flare and skinned on down. They
jumped into the car on the run when we picked them up. We kept that
flare going for quite awhile before we finally lost interest. It was
the talk of the town for some time though.
I remember one time I
poured a can of Casite into my car carbuerator (It was used to clean
a carberator out but it would create a tremendous amount of exhaust
smoke). I drove down main street and it filled up the whole street to
the top of the buildings with Casite smoke. You could not see your
hand in front of your face. I can't believe I was so ornery back then.
A TRIBUTE
TO JAMES HARVEY:
I was saddened to hear of James Harvey passing away. I heard by
e-mail that he had a stroke. The word was that he was recovering from
that but then had a massive heart attack. I would like to share a few
memories that I have of James. He was a good friend and I liked him a lot.
James had a job cleaning
the Sabinal Bank after hours when we were kids. This was the old red
brick bank that's where the Nunleys Bros. are now. Anyway, I was
shining shoes at the Buckhorn Barber Shop at the time. Harvey was
going on vacation with his parents and talked me into cleaning the
bank for him while he was gone. He trained me how to clean according
to their requirements. After he returned he still had me clean for
him quite often. After I found out how much they were paying him, I
knew Harvey would go far in the business world. He was only paying me
half that. I had no hard feelings though. I was glad to get the money
that I was getting.
Farrel Herring bought a
truck and started a hay-hauling business the summer prior to my
sophomore year (1950). He hired me and Harvey and paid us a penny a
bale. We could make around seven loads a day of 100 bales. I made $7
a day and glad to get it. Harvey got me interested in his hobby. He
collected bird eggs. He would prick the eggs with a pin and stick the
pin and break the yolk. He would then blow on one hole and clean out
the insides. He had them in neat labeled nests of confetti that was
in a cardboard box that was divided into compartments. It was a very
neat collection. Harvey would spy a nest while we were out and we had
to stop while he climbed a tree to add a new species to his extensive display.
Harvey would stack the
hay while Farrel and I would toss the hay up to him. The truck would
be running in granny without a driver. We would often have to race
and hit the brake before we ran into the fence. We had a lot of good
times that summer. They are some of my most cherished boyhood
memories. Some of the best milk I ever had was when Gene Burris told
us to help ourselves to the ice cold milk when we were stacking hay
in his hot dairy barn. I lost my baby fat and my muscles hardened
that summer. That was good for us because football training would
start soon. Homer White and Chester Earl Neely also worked with us
for awhile. Chester made a swipe at a bale but the hook tore through
the loose hay and gouged a place in his tummy. Could have been bad.
I played across from
Harvey when practicing football. We had a time. He was a good player.
The team was close-knit unit.
I also worked with Harvey
at Ike Arnim's Motor Inn gas station. He was a lot of fun and had a
good sense of humor. I had a candle bug fly in my ear one day. It was
awful. It sounded like a B-29 in there. I tried flushing it out with
water but to no avail. Harvey was always one to give comfort and
encouragement. That rascal began telling me a story about a guy that
had an ant crawl into his ear. It always kept itching and bothering
him. The side of his face had swollen up and the itching became so
bad that it drove the guy crazy. He began clawing at his face. It
peeled away and there was a colony of ants there and they kept
falling out as he clawed the rotten flesh. He told me this story with
a straight face as I was about to go nuts with that thing buzzing in
my ear. I finally went to Central Pharmacy and Martin Brazzell put
some sticky stuff on a swab and pulled out the bug. At least I
didn't have to worry about a bunch of bugs multiplying in my ear.
After Harvey came back
from the Navy he told me this story: Harvey had Jimmy Bailey drive
out and drop him off on the highway at the Kennedy Ranch. There was a
lot of deer there. He climbed over the fence with his rifle, planning
on getting himself a deer. The car was a green 1950 Ford that Bailey
was driving. He told Jimmy to come back to that same spot at three
o'clock to pick him up. James started hunting but found that there
was a watchman patrolling on horseback. Poor James spent the whole
day dodging that man and finally made his way back to the area where
Jimmy was to pick him up. It was near the pickup time when he spotted
a green Ford coming. It slowed down and pulled off the highway and
stopped.. James leaped over the fence and ran to the car, yanked open
the door and jumped in with his rifle in hand. He looked at the
driver who had his mouth wide open and a look of surprised terror on
his face. He was a complete stranger. James said: "Excuse
me," opened the door, ran back and leaped over the fence and
disappeared back into the brush. Harvey said he heard the car
screeching out of there. The odds of a car of the same color and make
showing up and stopping there are really incredible. Jimmy Bailey
said when he finally got there he had to holler a long time before
James would come out of hiding.
James Harvey will always
be in my memories.
I haven't seen James
Harvey in many years but he will always be in my heart and memories
as I know that he will be in yours. Pray for his family during this
time of mourning.
Robert Earl McKinney
Ditto, very nice tribute
to James Harvey. I also worked with James at the Humble Station
and had many fond memories of him like you. I will share those
at another time as I don't have much right now. James wasn't an
overly aggressive worker at Ike's but neither was I. I remember
every time a car would come in with a pretty girl in the front seat
we would scramble for the windshield cleaning job. Not many
people got gas when we were working even though they wanted it.
One other memory I vividly remember was when James and a good friend
of his were going to Garner Park missed a real sharp curve and rolled
over several times and his frend died in his arms. I grieved
with and for James for a time. He had a hard time dealing with
it. I remember that curve well, it was almost 90 degrees.
I was going to Garner with Ray Davenport and Hood Madely one night
and Hood was driving. He was lighting a cig. and looked up
going into the curve at 90 mph and hit his brakes sliding from side
to side and backward for about 300 ft. I guess the heavy
Pontiac kept us from flipping and some good driving. I
thought that was it that night. There was one more with
us, I believe Gerald Brown.
One thing I always
admired about James was he was an underclassmen's friend. Maybe
six years separated us but I always felt like I was his peer. A
friend indeed, I will miss him and pray for him and his family.
--Eddie McKinney
Oscar Richarz Jr.
HOW
OSCAR RICHARZ GOT HIS NICKNAME: When
Oscar Edward Richarz Jr. started school in 1941 he could not
pronounce the word CHICKEN. He pronounced it "CHICKER"
so he became Chicker Richarz from then on. Chicker was of German
extraction and he would turn his words around similar to 'The gate I
shut" instead of "I shut the gate". It took him a
little while to talk Texas country like the rest of us kids.
I started the 1st grade
with Chicker and and we graduated together in 1953. He was a great
life-long friend. I still mourned his passing away. It was just like
losing a brother. These memories of Chicker are treasured and are as
I recall them.
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CHICKER
ON BILLY GOAT HILL: (Around
'51 or '52) A few of us were riding around one night. I think it was
Gerry Shudde's pickup truck (though it might have been Jimmy Ray
Ware). Pretty sure it was Ray Henry, myself and Gerry Shudde. Might
have been someone else with us too though. Anyway, we drove up to
Billy Goat Hill which was the local lover's lane. It was a moonlight
night and as we drove by a parked car, we recognized it as Chicker
Richarz's green Ford. It was around '49 or 50 model. Chicker and
Marilyn Mills were going steady and were backed into a little area
surrounded by mesquite bushes. As we drove away I had the bright idea
of going out to Dee Williams' firework stand and buy some Roman
Candles and bombard Chicker with fireballs. We bought a couple and
returned to Billy Goat Hill. Gerry parked down the road so Chicker
wouldn't see us. Ray and I lit cigarettes and cupped them so Chicker
couldn't see the glow. We sneaked back down the road toward the
parked vehicle until we could see the reflected headlights in the
moonlight. We lit the Roman Candles and started bouncing the
whooshing fireballs off of his windshield. The door opened and a
strange voice shouted: "This is no firecracker". BAM! BAM!
Two pistol shots rang out. We dropped those Roman Candles very
quickly with them still spitting out those balls. Ray was gone in a
flash. I got all tangled up in a catclaw bush and liked to have never
got loose. When I finally ripped loose and raced down the gravel road
I think my feet was kicking up gravel ten feet behind me. I am not a
fast runner but I was breaking records that night. The pickup
was already moving. They weren't waiting on me. I leaped and hung on
to the wooden side boards for dear life. There was a rumor that I
beat them back to town on foot, but that's not true. Chicker and
Marilyn had left after we drove by the first time and another car had
pulled into the very same spot. Boy, were we ever surprised. I told
this story at Chicker's house on our Class' 35th reunion. Joan
Roberts was there and she said that she and her boyfriend from Uvalde
were in the car that we bombarded that night. He had grabbed a pistol
out of the glove compartment and shot a couple of times in the air.
Joan said they had just divorced the year before. That was the
first time I learned who it was. For some reason we never told the
story around back then.
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CHICKER'S
TORN JACKET: On
one of my trips back to Sabinal after we had been out of school
awhile I was talking to Chicker. We were across the street from the
Corner Drug. We were squatting, sitting on the heels of our boots as
is the custom when there is nothing to sit on. It was just general
conversation until I noticed the badly ripped lining of his jacket. I
asked him what happened to his coat. He told me he he had shot a buck
and when he straddled the deer's neck and lifted his head to cut his
throat he got a big surprise. The deer got to his feet, tangling his
antlers in Chicker's coat. Chicker said he couldn't get loose and the
deer gave him quite a ride. Every time the deer would jump it would
lift him off of his feet. I don't remember if he subdued the deer or
just got loose. Chicker told me he wasn't sure for a while who was
going to win. It gave him quite a ride.
HOT ROD: In
1951 Chicker had a hot rod. I think it was a stripped down Model A
without a roof and no fenders. It was a green car and was usually
loaded with kids. Chicker would always tell how someone in the back
seat took a kitchen match and held it to the tire while
running, to light it for a smoke.
CHICKER
HAD STYLE: Braswell
trucks that came through Sabinal were green trucks with a steel
grill for a bumper. They had a yellow B welded into the middle of the
grill. Chicker had bought a new Ford pickup. It was a sort of cream
green color. Chicker welded a steel grill with a capital R in the
middle. It was real cool. I think Chicker's ranch brand was a
"Rocking R". I remember when a driver was pulling onto the
highway and asked the right hand passenger if anything was coming one
of the flip responses was: "Only a Braswell Diesel". One
day Chicker was pulling onto the Highway out of Callicoat's Texaco
and asked Frank Carol Neeley if anything was coming. "Only A
Braswell Diesel!". It really was one though and that diesel
locked brakes and ran up on the sidewalk and Corky Fowler's front
yard to avoid hitting Chicker when he pulled out right in front of him.
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Adventures on The Sabinal River
RUNNING
THROW LINES ON THE SABINAL RIVER: The
camp site was on a wide table of land that sloped down to the
Sabinal River. It backed up to a high bluff and the strip of land ran
a goodly way but getting narrower until it ran completely out and the
bluff ran down to the water. On another fishing trip later on it was
late at night when I was going up that same strip of land fishing.
Suddenly there was a blood-chilling scream of a panther that I had
cornered in that triangle strip. I quickly retreated and let him out.
That was also the end of the fishing trip that night. I still have
not been back there fishing till this day. Anyway back to this story:
Tom, Orville and I were fishing with throw lines set out all up and
down the river. We camped on the table and had a campfire there with
boiled cowboy coffee going. We ran the lines around 1 a.m. and caught
a number of bass and catfish. The river bottom was real still and
sultry with no breeze at all. It was real quiet and spooky there.
Have you ever had a covey of quail jump up and take flight in front
of you? It will almost give you a heart attack. The sudden whirring
of wings will make your heart jump in your throat at the very least.
Well you can imagine how I felt when a whole flock of turkeys
roosting in the trees overhead took flight. I like to have died. It
was spooky down there anyway and when we and our flashlights
disturbed those birds their flight like to have done me in. I
remembered that there was a lot of Chile Pequin bushes near there
that turkeys like to feed on. I enjoy wild turkey meat that has the
pepper flavor to the meat. I believe the Chile pequins are the
hottest pepper there is. My grandfather (PawPaw) James Robert Love
used to entice us kids to eat the pepper and it would set us on fire.
Some people called them Mexican peanuts. After I got my heart and
feet back under control we made our way back to camp. I was pretty
sleepy and laid down shirtless and with only jeans on. My blanket was
near the fire even though it was a warm night. I lay on my back
looking into the leaves of the large oak tree overhead watching the
reflected firelight flickering. I thought of the time we had strung a
trammel net across the river and as I was walking up the trail
Orville hollered at me. As I turned and looked back I saw a water
moccasin hanging from a limb directly over the trail which I had just
walked under. It was just a foot above my head and could have reached
down and bitten me on the face. I thought about snakes climbing trees
as I gazed up in the branches this night and uneasily realized they
sometimes dropped out of the trees. I dozed for a while and was
wakened by Tom wanting me to go with him and Orville to run the
lines. I sleepily told them to go ahead I was goig to get some
shuteye. It was around 3 a.m.
I came awake with a
terrified start a little while later when something long and slimy
dropped wiggling onto my stomach. I jumped up with a holler thinking
a snake had dropped out of the trees onto my belly. Tom and Orville
were laughing and Tom was slapping his knee. Tom had caught an eel on
a throw line and the sight of me sleeping and my bare belly was too
much of a temptation for him.
I didn't think it was all
that funny.
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RATTLESNAKES
ON THE RIVER: Homer
White invited me to go fishing with him on his Uncle Can Turner's
place. He showed me where they had cut the limestone blocks that were
used for building the Sabinal City Hall in 1941. I had been sick with
a cold and was not quite over it. I was taking 4-Way Cold Tablets
that I had in my windbreaker pouch pocket. I was following Homer as
we made our way along the trail and jumping from rock to rock in the
shallow water. Homer stopped short and held up his hand. "Freeze!
... I thought I heard a Rattlesnake".
I froze and looked all
around the vicinity, the same as Homer was doing, but didn't see anything.
He started ahead again
and after a little ways he hollered "Freeze" again. He
thought he had heard a rattlesnake again. I heard the rattle this
time but what I heard was the Cold Pills rattling around in my
windbreaker pouch pocket.
As we started up again I
eased the bottle of pills out of my pocket and holding them right
behind Homer, I would give them a shake every now and then. He would
stop and holler "Freeze!" every time.
After a few times he
turned around suddenly and caught me shaking the bottle.
I thought he was going to
slug me.
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RIDING SYCAMORES: One
of the reckless and dangerous things I did as a child was riding
sycamore saplings down on the Sabinal River. There was a goodly
amount of these saplings at the Leakey bridge crossing. I would climb
the up the saplings and near the top I would then lean out, bending
it over. My weight would bend the sapling and I could ride it all the
way to the ground. It would swish back up when released. One time I
picked one too large and my weight was not enough to bend it all the
way to the ground. I ended up hanging on to the bent over sapling
about 8 feet above the ground. I could not go up or down and
eventually had to let go. I landed on my rear a few feet way from a
sharp stob about 3 feet high. Close call. I could imagine what that
would feel like stuck up my rear. I was about 12 or 13 then. As a
senior in H.S. I would climb a large sycamore tree and leap out in
space grabbing branches as I went down. The branches would bend down
and I would grab the next branches and let them bend. By the time I
reached bottom I would gently step to the ground.
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