Wildflower Trails Festival Part 2

By Roy Bale
I know I know. I changed my rotten mind. I was gonna wait till next year to share more tales of old past Wildflowers Trails folks. On second thinking, I may not be around next year, could be up in Glory Land by then. And at some of your ages, you might beat me there.
First off, I want to play like a country reporter and share this good news with you. Years ago, after retiring from Dallas Power and Light Co. (now TXU) I was driving a school bus for L.K. One day Gary, one of my best kids on the bus, came on board the bus with his little brother, John Baxter. John was about this high. It was John’s first day of first grade. Gary introduced us, we shook hands. Yesterday I shook hands with Reverend John Baxter, newly ordained Baptist minister, and recently called to pastor Bear Creek Baptist Church. Congratulations, John, the community is very proud of you. As I am. Wish there were a few more million around like you.
There never was a nicer guy than Joe Lovelace, of Lovelace and Dowd, premier law firm in Lin¬den, Texas. At the Trails festivities on Saturday, I was talking to Joe B. Lovelace, Joe’s son. Joe B. lived in Linden and worked with his father at one time. Joe was a pilot in World War Two, and he left us a couple years ago. One of my favorite stories about Joe included his wife Margaret. She was country girl through and through. She was country when country wasn’t cool, Barbara Mandrel
Someone was trying to influence Joe to run for Congress. Someone else, who knew Margaret well enough to know she wouldn’t like Washington or any other big city life, made this observation to Joe. “I can just visualize Margaret walking barefooted down 5th Avenue, carrying her tennies in her hands, looking for a Greyhound bus to take her home.” Wisely, Joe took that friends sound advice, and kept his country girl in Linden. And folks, Linden is about as country as you can get. They’re together once more, and I betcha Margaret is walking around Up There barefooted.
I need to get this off my pot bellied chest. Its about the Wildflowers Trails, and the Linden folks that work so hard to put it on each year. Very few of us slackers realize just how much hard work and planning it takes to do the annual Linden Wildflowers Trails event, and of course the rodeo. Thousands of hours of hard work and planning. And its about like most churches, five percent of the people do ninety five percent of the work. Saturday I heard an old whiner complaining about the Trails festivities, about how “It hasn’t grown over the years.” You know why, old whiner? Because suckers like you and me that do nothing but attend and enjoy, just taking, never giving. Say, that sounds like the church crowd. If everybody would pitch in and help, it would probably be better. Lets roll up our sleeves and try it next year.
Next year I would like to see a huge float with only WW2 veterans on it. I’m going to personally work toward that goal. The WW2 vets crowd is shrinking fast, You would be surprised at how many Cass County men and women served in the Great War. And very few are left. Lets honor them next year’s Wildflower Trails. Vets, you will hear more about this.
T.J. Prewitt served in the South Pacific, as an army medical corpsman in the Great War. At wars end, he was coming home on a huge troop ship. The ship was headed to San Francisco, and the soldiers were to be discharged on arrival. T.J. hated the extra duty such as KP and the paint details. He thought, no one on this ship knows me. So he decided to not answer the work details when posted. After a few days, everyone on ship was looking for T.J. Prewitt. People thought he had fallen overboard. He was the talk of the troopship. Then they docked, and to get off ship, you had to answer roll call and sign off. “T.J. Prewitt,” shouted the officer. :”Here,” shouted T.J. “Where you been,” shouted the angry officer, “We’ve been looking for you all the way across the ocean. I should court martial you.” “Go ahead,” said T.J, “ Tomorrow I’m getting my discharge.” Case closed.
========
My neighbor Durham sez you can’t live a positive life with a negative mind.
roybalemail@yahoo.com

Rate this article: 
No votes yet