Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
All Credit for this article
goes to Mike Brown
and the
Rockdale Reporter
goes to Mike Brown
and the
Rockdale Reporter
Fate Wrote This Column And I’m Not Kidding
by Mike Brown - Editor's Corner
Rockdale Reporter - May 14, 2014
Fate Arnwine is a 1957 graduate of Aycock High School and was a member of the 1955 state champion football team and 1956 state champ basketball squad.
He now lives in Middleburgh, New York, and remains an avid reader of The Reporter, especially its editorial pages.
He contacted us recently with some reminiscences of growing up in Rockdale. I loved them. Here are a few. I especially like the swimming hole one.
Friday Night Fights
My dad loved the Friday night fights.
We never owned a TV. He would sit by the radio at 9 p.m. every Friday, pencil and paper in hand, scoring the fight.
He claimed he fought some in his earlier days. His scoring would always almost mirror the scoring at the end of the fight. Rockdale had a merchant who would leave a TV going in his showcase window on Friday nights and it was always tuned to the fights.
Not many people had TVs in those days and there was always a kaleidoscope of men on the sidewalk rooting for their fighters.
The reason we never had a TV was because my mother had other things on her mind, like natural gas for heat instead of a pot-bellied stove in the living room.
I loved to bring in fuel for that thing - NOT!
We could have had a bunch of TVs instead of the gas range, refrigerator, telephone and, oh yeah, indoor plumbing.
The only thing I got from not having a TV was some fairly decent grades and a lot of exercise.
Swimming Hole Memory
Almost to Thorndale there was a large manmade body of water. Some said gravel was taken out of it in the late 20s to serve as base for the highway.
One day, several of us were riding around and found ourselves in that area and decided we would go for a swim.
Trouble was, only our driver had a swim suit. There were other people fishing in the lake.
We devised a plan. We would go in one at a time (using the suit) then throw it back to someone else until we were all in.
Using this system, we were all able to go in. Once in the water we formed a circle and began playing a game.
Suddenly a big water snake appeared right in the middle of us!
The old ladies fishing must have gotten a shock seeing all those bare bottoms scampering out of the water.
It Takes a (Ouch) Village
Henry (Bud) Bacy and his wife Jenny had a large family.
We were little kids and my brother Joe had been cooped up in the house for the better part of three weeks with the flu and bugging my mom something fierce.
After putting up with his whining as long as she could, she reluctantly agreed to let him go outside where he headed for the first mud puddle he could find. (It had rained the previous day.)
Along comes Mr. Bacy.
He saw Joe in the mud. Thinking he was one of his children, Mr. Bacy picked him up, gave him a spanking and told him to go home.
A witness informed Mr. Bacy he had spanked someone else’s child. Thinking he was in trouble, Mr. Bacy went and apologized to my mother, thinking he would at least get yelled at.
Instead she thanked him!
(Great stories, Fate)
mike@rockdalereporter.com
.
by Mike Brown - Editor's Corner
Rockdale Reporter - May 14, 2014
Fate Arnwine is a 1957 graduate of Aycock High School and was a member of the 1955 state champion football team and 1956 state champ basketball squad.
He now lives in Middleburgh, New York, and remains an avid reader of The Reporter, especially its editorial pages.
He contacted us recently with some reminiscences of growing up in Rockdale. I loved them. Here are a few. I especially like the swimming hole one.
Friday Night Fights
My dad loved the Friday night fights.
We never owned a TV. He would sit by the radio at 9 p.m. every Friday, pencil and paper in hand, scoring the fight.
He claimed he fought some in his earlier days. His scoring would always almost mirror the scoring at the end of the fight. Rockdale had a merchant who would leave a TV going in his showcase window on Friday nights and it was always tuned to the fights.
Not many people had TVs in those days and there was always a kaleidoscope of men on the sidewalk rooting for their fighters.
The reason we never had a TV was because my mother had other things on her mind, like natural gas for heat instead of a pot-bellied stove in the living room.
I loved to bring in fuel for that thing - NOT!
We could have had a bunch of TVs instead of the gas range, refrigerator, telephone and, oh yeah, indoor plumbing.
The only thing I got from not having a TV was some fairly decent grades and a lot of exercise.
Swimming Hole Memory
Almost to Thorndale there was a large manmade body of water. Some said gravel was taken out of it in the late 20s to serve as base for the highway.
One day, several of us were riding around and found ourselves in that area and decided we would go for a swim.
Trouble was, only our driver had a swim suit. There were other people fishing in the lake.
We devised a plan. We would go in one at a time (using the suit) then throw it back to someone else until we were all in.
Using this system, we were all able to go in. Once in the water we formed a circle and began playing a game.
Suddenly a big water snake appeared right in the middle of us!
The old ladies fishing must have gotten a shock seeing all those bare bottoms scampering out of the water.
It Takes a (Ouch) Village
Henry (Bud) Bacy and his wife Jenny had a large family.
We were little kids and my brother Joe had been cooped up in the house for the better part of three weeks with the flu and bugging my mom something fierce.
After putting up with his whining as long as she could, she reluctantly agreed to let him go outside where he headed for the first mud puddle he could find. (It had rained the previous day.)
Along comes Mr. Bacy.
He saw Joe in the mud. Thinking he was one of his children, Mr. Bacy picked him up, gave him a spanking and told him to go home.
A witness informed Mr. Bacy he had spanked someone else’s child. Thinking he was in trouble, Mr. Bacy went and apologized to my mother, thinking he would at least get yelled at.
Instead she thanked him!
(Great stories, Fate)
mike@rockdalereporter.com
.