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You remind me that for an embarrassingly long time I also had no idea how to spell that correctly. So many words in Texas are not spelled as they are pronounced

You remind me that for an embarrassingly long time I also had no idea how to spell that correctly. So many words in Texas are not spelled as they are pronounced for a number of reasons. We also scrounged native hard-sells pecans from wherever we could find them. Old trees in city parks were a great source. Nowadays I have several large easy crackers out here and for the first few years that I lived here I wasted time every season conjuring ways to end up with more ripe pecans than the local birds could abscond with. It was definitely a losing proposition on my end as the crows descended before the nuts were ripe and hauled them as they ripened so that I was largely left with the ones they didn't want to mess with. It became such a joke that I finally gave in and today I sit on the porch and wave as the family of crows that live around my place cycle through stealing my nuts. I am currently trying to lure them close enough to the house to become their friends. Wish me luck. Yes. 1980 was a doozie. Very memorable when, like me, you spent all day from just before dawn to slightly after dark working outside just waiting for beer thirty when the boss would roll up with some hang-down, cheese, saltines, and an onion with a carton of milk for everyone. That was the 5:30 (beer thirty) supper break for us. This was the old Hill County Courthouse that burned down in 1993. Willie Nelson did a benefit concert since he was born and raised there in Abbott in Hill County. His annual picnics were the best outdoor events that I ever attended.

dylan604 4y ago
Willie's picnics are legendary. Hill Co, hmm. Spent many a summer jumping off the cliffs at Lake Whitney. Can't say I've ever been downtown though. We got to the lake "the back way". I had North Texas in mind, didn't equate the heart of texas as North. That's like someone from Winterfell being called a southerner by a wildling. It just ain't right! That 80s summer was a bit early for me to be getting off of work, unless I get credit as having a job from being outside all day playing in the woods, creek, and fields doing whatever a young lad in the 80s could get away with since as you've said there was no internet, console gaming, tablet/devices, or anything else other than UHF TV (gag me) and 3 networks (that signed off to the national anthem each night at midnight) to really do. The area I grew up in is steep with history of cowboy vs native american lore. There was a small fort nearby. The creek in the back had ruts hardened into the limestone that I was told were made by wagon wheels. This seemed logical to me as my friends and I found several buried wagon wheels, arrow heads, and lots of fossils in the creek. Edit: nearly forgot to mention the pecans at my grandparents house. they had the lovely giant soft shelled variety. every year, all of the grand kids would get to play the "who can get the most pecans from the yard" game. these would then become the spoils that we'd use for the next year. as the trees got older, they would produce so many nuts that their limbs would bend to the point of breaking. (for those that don't know, you can shout at a pecan tree and the stress from the sound waves will dislodge at least a couple of limbs.) as we got older, we realized we could just shake the limbs and have fresh pecans that the squirrels hadn't had first crack at yet. after the raining of nuts stopped, those low bowing limbs would let out an audible sigh as the weight they had been carrying was suddenly released.
- doodlebugging 4y ago
  The 1979 was awesome. I still have my t-shirt, that's how good it was. Lake Whitney just below the dam was the ranch we were on. The owner was one of those quick-draw McGraw guys who entered six-gun fast draw competitions and was a winner. He might've been a doctor in real life. It's been a while and we only met him in person a couple of times. I definitely remember the 3 channels with Elvis singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic at sign-off and then the poem High Flight before it all went to snow. That line where he slips the surly bonds of earth and touches the face of God was a great turn of phrase for a sign-off. I grew up around the old Fort where Cynthia Ann Parker and her family had their Comanche problems that led to the birth of Quanah Parker in a roundabout kind of way. We worked on the land where the Comanche had camped for generations and where they camped before they hit the fort. The sands were full of arrowheads around there and a drive thru a pasture could yield several after a good rain when the gophers would do their home improvements and shove those points up through the dirt to the surface. Pecans are self-pruning according to an arborist I talked with. They retain as many limbs as they need and in a drought will drop limbs. That is what I use in my smoker. I pick up limbs that the tree drops during the year and keep them around for flavoring briskets or other smoked meats and vegetables.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    >I grew up around the old Fort where Cynthia Ann Parker and her family had their Comanche problems that led to the birth of Quanah Parker in a roundabout kind of way Man as big as Texas is, it seems to be a small world. That's where my mother's family is from too. How many times I've had to correct people on the pronunciation of Mexia. Downtown Groesbeck is somewhere I have spent a bit of time. My mom's dad is related to the Parkers (which by extension means I am as well), but I've never traced it back to confirm.
    - doodlebugging 4y ago
      Mexia. The first time I heard the joke about "how do you say the name of this place?" and the punch line was "Dairy Queen" I was in Mexia. I used to know all those dirt roads and oilfield lease roads. I learned to drive out there around Shiloh power-sliding around those blind curves at night so you could see whether there was any oncoming traffic. Some of my family also had deep connections to Hill and Limestone County. Groesbeck had a great diner near the courthouse where we used to get breakfast every morning on our way out to the Kosse/Marquez area.

dylan604 4y ago

Willie's picnics are legendary. Hill Co, hmm. Spent many a summer jumping off the cliffs at Lake Whitney. Can't say I've ever been downtown though. We got to the lake "the back way". I had North Texas in mind, didn't equate the heart of texas as North. That's like someone from Winterfell being called a southerner by a wildling. It just ain't right! That 80s summer was a bit early for me to be getting off of work, unless I get credit as having a job from being outside all day playing in the woods, creek, and fields doing whatever a young lad in the 80s could get away with since as you've said there was no internet, console gaming, tablet/devices, or anything else other than UHF TV (gag me) and 3 networks (that signed off to the national anthem each night at midnight) to really do. The area I grew up in is steep with history of cowboy vs native american lore. There was a small fort nearby. The creek in the back had ruts hardened into the limestone that I was told were made by wagon wheels. This seemed logical to me as my friends and I found several buried wagon wheels, arrow heads, and lots of fossils in the creek. Edit: nearly forgot to mention the pecans at my grandparents house. they had the lovely giant soft shelled variety. every year, all of the grand kids would get to play the "who can get the most pecans from the yard" game. these would then become the spoils that we'd use for the next year. as the trees got older, they would produce so many nuts that their limbs would bend to the point of breaking. (for those that don't know, you can shout at a pecan tree and the stress from the sound waves will dislodge at least a couple of limbs.) as we got older, we realized we could just shake the limbs and have fresh pecans that the squirrels hadn't had first crack at yet. after the raining of nuts stopped, those low bowing limbs would let out an audible sigh as the weight they had been carrying was suddenly released.

doodlebugging 4y ago
The 1979 was awesome. I still have my t-shirt, that's how good it was. Lake Whitney just below the dam was the ranch we were on. The owner was one of those quick-draw McGraw guys who entered six-gun fast draw competitions and was a winner. He might've been a doctor in real life. It's been a while and we only met him in person a couple of times. I definitely remember the 3 channels with Elvis singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic at sign-off and then the poem High Flight before it all went to snow. That line where he slips the surly bonds of earth and touches the face of God was a great turn of phrase for a sign-off. I grew up around the old Fort where Cynthia Ann Parker and her family had their Comanche problems that led to the birth of Quanah Parker in a roundabout kind of way. We worked on the land where the Comanche had camped for generations and where they camped before they hit the fort. The sands were full of arrowheads around there and a drive thru a pasture could yield several after a good rain when the gophers would do their home improvements and shove those points up through the dirt to the surface. Pecans are self-pruning according to an arborist I talked with. They retain as many limbs as they need and in a drought will drop limbs. That is what I use in my smoker. I pick up limbs that the tree drops during the year and keep them around for flavoring briskets or other smoked meats and vegetables.
- dylan604 4y ago
  >I grew up around the old Fort where Cynthia Ann Parker and her family had their Comanche problems that led to the birth of Quanah Parker in a roundabout kind of way Man as big as Texas is, it seems to be a small world. That's where my mother's family is from too. How many times I've had to correct people on the pronunciation of Mexia. Downtown Groesbeck is somewhere I have spent a bit of time. My mom's dad is related to the Parkers (which by extension means I am as well), but I've never traced it back to confirm.
  - doodlebugging 4y ago
    Mexia. The first time I heard the joke about "how do you say the name of this place?" and the punch line was "Dairy Queen" I was in Mexia. I used to know all those dirt roads and oilfield lease roads. I learned to drive out there around Shiloh power-sliding around those blind curves at night so you could see whether there was any oncoming traffic. Some of my family also had deep connections to Hill and Limestone County. Groesbeck had a great diner near the courthouse where we used to get breakfast every morning on our way out to the Kosse/Marquez area.