What's a little phobia among friends? Stories for my grandchildren

Ophidiophobia [N.]

(ō-fid'ē-ō-fō'bē-ă),

Morbid fear of snakes.

[G. ophidion, a small snake, + phobos, fear]

I was reminded of this particular phobia the other night when a local newscaster could not stand to watch a news segment that featured... snakes. Lots of snakes. His partner narrated the news item, and when she was done, there was a pause and she said, "Okay. You can open your eyes now." The poor man was obviously in distress, and I thought "I have seen this reaction before."

Atkins Wright was my high-school Sunday School teacher. He lived a few miles west town on the Albany highway, ranched for a living, had 2 lovely daughters, went by the name "Fatboy," rather than Atkins, and was terrified of snakes.

Everyone knew about Fatboy's fear; he once got a letter addressed simply, "Mr. Ophidiophobia, Breckenridge, Texas." Mind you, he was a rancher in West Texas and encountered snakes regularly. In a controlled situation, he could deal with them, but it was dangerous to be near Fatboy if he was surprised by a snake sighting.

Once he and his brother were out repairing fences and his brother picked up a little grass snake, intending to find an appropriate (and safe) time to frighten Fatboy with the critter. He stuffed it into his shirt pocket - and forgot about it. Later, they were headed back to town, Fatboy driving, and the little snake poked its head out of the pocket. Atkins looked over, saw it and simply opened the door and stepped out of the pickup. It put him in the hospital, wrecked the pickup, and didn't do his brother any good either. I have no idea how the snake fared.

One evening, the story goes, he was unloading a horse from a trailer in the barn behind the house and heard, or perhaps he heard, a snake. He ran over the horse on his way to the back door and pulled the screen door off its hinges in  his haste to get inside. When he came back, armed and ready to face the snake, the horse was still down, trying to catch his breath.

I'm not surprised. I once actually witnessed an incident where someone approached Fatboy with one of those phony, articulated snakes. Sort of like this one.

 Phony snake found by my sister while cleaning closets. No, it's not mine.

Atkins was seated at the time in a straight-back chair, feet on the floor. When he saw the snake, he made a standing vertical leap (remember, there was a reason he was called Fatboy) and had the chair held up in front of him by the time his feet hit the floor!

So the guy on the newscast might not like snakes, but he was still seated when the story was over. No comparison.

Monday Meanderings - 7.25.2016

Woke up the other morning to no Internet. Bummer. Spent about half-an-hour determining the problem was Time Warner (soon to be absorbed by Charter and become Spectrum. Can't wait for that to happen). Spent a bunch of time on the phone with TW with various hard-to-understand technical support people.

Finally got Internet but still no wireless. After more time on the phone with Linksys (with another hard-to-understand support person) we managed a factory defaults reload and rebuilt all my settings. Phew!

Now all I had to do was go into every wireless device we own and re-connect. It is embarrassing how many wireless connections two old people have. Three computers (not to mention 2 others cabled directly to the router), 2 phones, 3 iPads (don't ask), a Kindle, a Roku streaming device, a wireless printer and a range extender.

I thought this stuff was supposed to make your life easier? I'm just glad that we didn't have a thermostat, security camera, house lights and an Alexis unit to deal with!

The other day I received an Amazon order - from Amazon. A big fancy truck with the Amazon swoop logo on the side pulled up and a guy in a uniform with the same logo brought my package to the door. Since Amazon is United Parcel's biggest customer and 2nd largest FedEx client, they might be getting a little nervous. FedEx's biggest customer, you ask? The US Post Office. Since 2001, FedEx has carried most of the USPS Express and Priority Mail on its fleet of more than 600 airplanes.

Got lost the other day driving to San Marcos. Yes, I know, San Marcos is a straight shot down IH-35. And technically, I wasn't lost - I was just not on the way to San Marcos. In Austin, it is always a good thing to avoid trying to go through town on IH-35, so we took the 130 toll road, which bypasses the city proper and joins up with the 145 toll road which joins up with IH-35 a few miles before you get to San Marcos.

That's all well and good, but if one is directionally challenged, one might just end up in Lockhart if one happens to miss the part where 145 goes off to the west. It's possible. Fortunately, Google correctly figured out where San Marcos was and Barb successfully translated their directions into real roads and streets and we arrived within 5 minutes of our original time estimate.

I've found Google to be helpful about 50% of the time. We have a friend who lives in an out-of-the-way place and has a sign in his yard that says "Google is wrong. This road does not go through to the lake."

Stories from the Tree - Postcards from home

I have mentioned before that the letters, postcards and telegrams that my mother and others gathered and stuck in their albums (unfortunately, literally stuck, or glued, or scotch taped) are the source of some of the most interesting stories in the Family Tree. Like this one my aunt Lou Amma wrote in 1907 (at age 7) to her grandparents, John and Cora Hall:

"Grandma & Grandpa, I wish you would come and see little Cora. She is just as sweet with her new cap sock and shoes on that Mama made I want to see you too."

"Little Cora," is of course my mother, less than 4 months old at the time. Some years later, Cora herself wrote to her grandpa. This card was not mailed, so it was probably included in a letter or package.

There are two cards, written on consecutive days, March 18th and 19th, 1909, from my grandfather Lee Bramblett to his mother-in-law, Cora Hall, concerning the health of his wife Maggie, who was 7 months pregnant with my aunt Ina at the time.

"Alvarado Tex, 3/18
We are getting along very well I recon Maggie hasnt had any fever for 2 days, but there is something the matter with one of her legs that is bothering her some today the Dr didnt come yesterday dont guess he will have to come any more with out she gets worse. come to dinner. 
Bye Bye Lee B."

"Alvarado Tex, 3/19/1909
Mr & Mrs Hall. We are still on the mend but not as fast as I would like to see Maggies leg is better this morning but her side hurts her some She is not having any fever now so I guess she is getting along as well as could be expected. The rest is all O.K. Cora is bad and still getting Badder write soon and often to us children Lee B."

Several things catch my attention regarding these two cards. Lee concludes the first card with the invitation, "Come to dinner."  I guess it was just a polite way to close, because the trip from Hammon Oklahoma to Alvarado Texas at the time was five, long, hard days in a horse-drawn wagon. Lee knows this - he made that trip seven years earlier.

And in between Thursday the 18th of March and Friday the 19th, he became rather formal, addressing the card to "Mrs John H. Hall" and adding the salutation, "Mr & Mrs Hall." He dropped the folksy invitation to dinner and the "Bye Bye," closing with a please "write soon and often."

And of course, my mother had reached her "terrible twos."  "Cora is bad and still getting Badder" - and Badder is capitalized! I love it!

And we know that Maggie recovered from her health issues. She delivered a healthy baby girl the following May (and another boy - her 8th child - sixteen years later) and lived for nearly 50 more years.

Monday Meandering - 7.18.2016

Remember when we were getting all that rain here in Texas? You know, back in... how long ago was that again? Plus which, it's HAWT!

A few weeks ago someone cloned my Facebook account - you know, when your already-friends start getting new friend requests from you, but it's not really you. If it hasn't happened to you it probably will sometime in the future.

Brent, one of my friends from church, befriended a bogus request from Not-Me and he told me that it wasn't long before he started getting messages from the "new" Bob Anderson about some product or financial deal or some such. That's when he knew that it wasn't really me, but he decided to play along.

So he messaged back and said "Sounds great. Tell me more," so of course Not-Me immediately put the big sales pitch on him and Brent kept responding with, "Wow! Yes, of course I'm interested! Tell me what to do."

This went on for a number of messages, and finally my friend said, "Bob, this is great! I'm coming over to your house right now so we can wrap this up." And got an urgent message, "Uh, I'm not at home at the moment. Let's do this over the Internet." But Brent said, "Nope. I'm on my way!" And never heard from the dude again.

Meandered up to a new-to-us eating establishment last evening called Mod Pizza. It's a chain out of the Seattle area founded by a bunch of ex-Starbucks folks. The basic premise is that all the fixin's are laid out cafeteria style and you pick and choose what you want, then they run them through the ovens. One price for any and all toppings, and they're really, really tasty. Highly recommend it.

And look what's right next door!

And they are hiring!

I could see the wheels turning in Barb's head - "He could work part time and be out of my hair, plus we would get an employee discount." You know, that might not be a bad idea, at that. Do they hire greeters at In-N-Out?

Stories from the Tree - Aunts, Uncles and John Homer

My mother had a passel of brothers and sisters, therefore I had a passel of  aunts and uncles. Largely due to geographic distance, I was more acquainted with some than others. I've already written extensively about my Aunt Ina, and as a boy I frequently visited the homes of  Aunt Elna (Polly, the family often called her) and Uncle Marvin, and Aunt Lou Amma and Uncle Benny.

The uncles were a different matter. Only two stand out in my mind; Uncle Carl, the dairyman, and Uncle Erwin, who had but one arm after an auto accident. The other two, John Homer – the oldest uncle, and Tommie are but vague memories. But I have the family albums that contain stories and highlights, and they add missing dimension to their lives.

For example, Uncle Homer (John H. to the rest of the world) was featured in a newsletter written for residents of Normandy Terrace – a retirement village in San Antonio. Here are some excerpts:

JOHN HOMER BRAMBLETT was born on September 4, 1894 in Johnson County, Texas.   His parents were Lee Bramblett and Maggie Hall Bramblett. Lee Bramblett was a farmer and later became a merchant.   When asked if he had any brothers and sisters, John replied, "Oh, about 8 or 10." Actually, John has four brothers and four sisters and he was the number one child.
   
John said, "I grew upon on the farm, but never farmed a day in my life."   John described himself as a common everyday boy, doing common everyday boy tricks.   John's father was running a cotton gin out in the country.   One day John wanted something to do.   So John requisitioned some of the dye used to mark the cotton bales. The next door neighbor, Mr. Searcy, had some cows.   John requisitioned a cow.   Now the dye was cast and the cow was green.   All Mr. Searcy could say was, "They dyed my cow green!"

Another time, there was a new preacher in town visiting all the homes in the community. John and his brothers took it upon themselves to tell the preacher that his father was a little deaf and the necessity of talking loudly to him. However, his father was not deaf.   Then John and company told his father that the new preacher was a little deaf and he needed to talk loudly to the preacher.   The preacher was not deaf. The boys were on hand when the preacher showed up and were heartily laughing as the watched or rather listened to the shouting match between their father and the preacher.  

After he finished high school, John went to work in a flour mill for his first job working there until after WWI.   John said he had been classified 1A, but because the flour mill had a government contract, he was never drafted.   Each year the flour mill closed for one month.   During that month, John went to work for his landlord, a building contractor.   John had always had a talent for working with tools of any kind.   One year, John quit the flour mill and went to work with the contractor.    The original contractor quit and John continued with his contracting, first as a building contractor and then a general contractor.  

John Homer apparently was very successful as a contractor. Another article – this from the San Antonio Express – featured an event at the nearly-completed home he built in 1950 for Dorthy Kirsten, an opera singer of some note.

           KIRSTEN FETES WORKERS
    It's an ancient Spanish custom in the Southwest for a new homeowner to invite workmen and laborers to a tree planting ceremony after the house is completed. A keg is usually broached, and the new householder gets acquainted with the, men that actually constructed the house.
    But Mrs. Eugene R. Chapman, better known as Dorothy Kirsten, operatic soprano, recently varied the tradition slightly and invited both workmen and their wives to an informal housewarming and supper while the house was still in the final stages of construction.
    Some 85 workmen and their wives gathered at the almost finished $100,000 home, 727 Olmos Drive, and ate barbecue beneath strings of recently installed overhead working lights. Mrs. Chapman threw open the entire house, finished except for painting and decorating, to her guests. She and Dr. Chapman personally served the supper.

The reference to the house intrigued me. I looked the address up on Zillow, and here's the description – and the current value!

"Exquisite gated entrance estate home in the heart of Olmos Park. This truly amazing home was built for a famous opera singer in the classic style of a one story French Chateau. Gorgeous gathering spaces for family and friends. Extensive use of lovely wood floors throughout all living areas. Tree studded .97 acre lot. Stunning oversized master w fireplace and large dual master baths, plus two huge walk-in closets. Lovely brick patio with fountain. Plenty of room for a pool.  $1.5 million"

Monday Meanderings - 7.11.2016

The morning of the 4th, Barb and I went out in search of some breakfast. You may recall that our favorite breakfast place, Fran's, sort of went down hill and then closed altogether. For a while there we were bereft, breakfast-wise, but we found a place not too far away on Lamar - Ross' Old Austin Cafe - that meets our needs (they serve decent biscuits and gravy), so all is well again.

But Ross' was closed for the 4th! So we made the drive to the nearest Dan's (ex husband of Fran, who opened competing restaurants after the divorce), which happily was open. While we were, eating a couple that we used to see regularly at Fran's stopped by the table, and the gentleman commented that they were having a terrible time finding a decent breakfast place. "Once," he said, "there were good cafes on every corner. Now all you can find are taco stands." So we told him about Ross' and thereby did our patriotic duty on the 4th of July, with justice and biscuits and gravy for all.

Sunday was the last of a wonderful run of top-rate soccer games on TV, first the Copa America, then the European championship. With the exception of one more friendly with the Women's National team, there's nothing until the Olympics beginning August 3. I think they call this period the doldrums.

However, time will pass quickly. At least if you believe what you see in Walmart.

Stories from the Tree - A letter to 'Pap' and Mollie

Among the more interesting items in my genealogy files are the letters and photo copies of family correspondence. The most interesting and poignant correspondence I have is that of Chilton Layfayette Doss giving explicit instructions to his wife and family back in Kentucky regarding their train trip to Texas to reunite the family. If you are new to this blog, or missed those posts, you really need to read them, first here, and then here.

I have another letter featuring the same set of characters. As explained in the Texas Tragedy series linked above, Chilton and his daughter Mollie are already in Texas, saving up money for his wife Elizabeth and daughters Sophie and Alice to join him. This letter was written to "Pap" (Chilton) and Mollie by Cora Doss Hall, Chilton's oldest daughter, married to John, the carpenter mentioned in the letter.

As letters go, this one is pretty ordinary. There’s news about a wedding in the family; "Binie," a sister of Cora's husband married a local boy, John Cotton. A photograph of Mollie was passed around and Cora tells what Lizzie and Maggie, her daughters, aged 5 and 3 respectively, had to say about it.

There was a quilting bee at the neighbors and some gossip about Mollie’s boy friend (though she didn't marry until 8 years later). And in addition to the plans to get Chilton's wife and daughters to Texas, the letter points out that most of the extended family are thinking about coming to Texas, as well. As always, I find the little “back stories” in these documents interesting. Well, at least they are to me.

This is not the whole letter, but what is included is almost exactly how it was written and punctuated.

Sunday, Jan. the 27th 1878

Pap and Mollie,

We rec'd Mollie's letter dated Dec. the 24th a few days ago. We are totally well. The children are having the sore eyes; some are getting well; some are are just taking it. Binie and John Cotton were married last Wednesday (the 23rd). Binie was a beautiful bride; she wore a black alpacca, black gloves, and white ribbon in her hair and on her neck. Had no wedding supper. Bill Adams and Susie Beville attendants. Ma and all of them went to the wedding.

Well Mollie your picture was rec'd and duly inspected and we decided that it was Mollie. I showed it to Lizzie first and she said directly that it was “Aunt Mollie.” Came on in the house and showed it to Maggie and she said it was “Parmie;”  I then told Maggie it was Aunt Mollie and she seemed to recognize it then. She said “Aunt Moddie got pitty libbin round her neck.”

We were well pleased with our “new neighbors” so much so that I and Fanny and all the children spent the day and helped the old lady quilt. We got the quilt out. The old lady said her daughter in Texas pieced it. The quilt brought up several reminiscences some of them not very pleasant. I suggested that we put your picture on the opposite side of the quilt facing us and make out like “you were helping.” Sophie said she did not guess that Mollie would ever sleep under that quilt.

It is hardly fair to write about a sprucy young man and not particularize. Do tell his name and all about him. I think times must be getting rather thick, are they not pap?

Our affairs, as you are aware, are in a very unsettled condition. The land cannot be sold before about June and the money will not become due until for six months after, which will throw it near Christmas before the boys can get their money (over $450 apiece). John is determined at the present time to try Texas but we don’t say anything about it much. It is owing to how and when the estate winds up. My private opinion is that the land will not bring near its real worth and the boys may be compelled almost to buy it. John Cotton and John and Billy all three may have to buy it. Cotton’s aim has been for Texas all the time. He is anxious for us to go for Binies sake mostly. We have thought that mammy Hall could be induced to go.

If we come, we ought to come early in the fall ought we not? What is the price of lumber? What can carpenters do out there? John intended writing some but did not have time. He is doing the carpenters work on Rob Dishman’s house and has to work early and late.

Mollie, John said tell you that if you were going to marry to let him know, and the “Devil’s a Dutchman” if he did not come out there and see you off. Well, I am about to run out. Write soon.                                                                                             

Cora Hall

The rest of the story –

John Hall, husband of Cora and brother to Billy mentioned in the letter, is the first-born son of William Warner and Louisa Dickerson Hall - the "mammy" Hall in the letter. William passed away only 3 months prior to this letter, leaving Louisa a widow with 4 children age 12 and under. However, John and Billie are in their mid-twenties, and along with the new son-in-law John Cotton, they all have plans of selling out and heading to Texas (and taking mammy Hall and the younger children with them).

And that’s the “unsettled condition” of the affairs. Selling the property so as to be able to afford the move to Texas. Digging deeper into the files, there is an entry in the Barren County records, dated June, 1879, that states that:

“Louisa Hall, widow of Willam W Hall, and her children and their spouses (John Hall, William Hall, Dilly Ann Basham, Harvey Basham, Jane Basham, Buford Basham, Mike Hall, Biney Cotton, Palmer Hall, America Hall, Emma Hall and John Cotton) sold 146 acres of land to Hezekiah Berry for $2,736.”

I don’t know if that is near its “real worth” or not, or how the money was divided. Hezikiah Berry was, by the way, a half-brother to William.

And did they all make it to Texas? Yes, including Louisa, the “little grandmother” of the Hall family. In the 1880 census, she is living with daughter Dillie in Johnson County, and then with her youngest son, Robert in Scurry County, where she died in 1911 at the age of 82.

And what of Mollie's "sprucy young man?" The record shows that Mollie did not marry until 1886 - some 8 years later, so in all likelihood it was to someone other than the beau referred to in this letter. 

Monday Meanderings - 7.4.2016

Happy 4th of July. I hope your shade is refreshing, your beverages cold, your BBQ delicious and your fireworks spectacular.

It is hot in Central Texas and a great many folks are trying to cool off at the lake, so a number of people witnessed an incident involving a small biplane that took an unexpected dip into the water on Saturday. 

Fortunately there were no serious injuries, but a lot of photo opportunities. Like this one. It looks a little like the Loch Ness monster, but you can make out the tail section and the wings, just out of the water.

I am reminded of another 4th of July, long, long ago. This was in Abilene when I was working for a local radio and television station. It was a good-sized station and we actually had a news department; guys that stripped the teletype, wrote up stories of local interest, and hung it all appropriately on the news room wall. Those of us announcing simply picked up our material, rehearsed it (in theory), and read it at the proper time.

One weekend I had a local story about an air show, to be held on the 4th out at nearby Phantom Hill Lake. The story described the show in detail, how it was sponsored by the local Jaycees, admission was blah, blah, blah. And the conclusion of the story, and to the airshow, was a paragraph about how the stunt pilots were going to put a plane into a spiral, parachute out and let the plane crash into the lake!

The airshow was legitimate; the part about crashing a plane into the lake was pure fabrication, and on Monday I got a call to come in early because the station owner wanted to see me before I went on the air. IF I went on the air.

I'm not sure Mr. Ackers ever believed me when I vociferously protested that I had not made up the crash part and inserted it as a lark. The copy of the story that was retrieved from the "Read News" basket did not have the plane crash paragraph, and it was my word against the senior news guy's, but thankfully Mr. Ackers didn't fire me.

Larry Fitzgerald, the senior news guy (and the perpetrator of this gag - though he never admitted it), went on to have a notable career in broadcasting in Abilene. During my less-illustrious career, I made sure that I never promoted another airshow.