HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
School's out and the Memorial Day holiday is behind us so folks along El Camino Real are coming to the realization that summertime is here. The kids are at home to stay until the end of August when peace returns to our households. Men like me who married school teachers get the wife and kids home at the same time. Everybody is bored and expect you to entertain them when you get home from work. This is probably the last four bit's worth of news you will get from a sane mind until sometime in September.

Sonia Howell has been patching up scrapes and bruises and looking after sick kids at the Alto school district for a long time. She is giving up her job as school nurse this year and going back to school to further her education as a registered nurse. She has been a wonderful part of our school system and will be missed by the faculty and staff who have worked with her over the years. Sonia will be missed by all children whose spirits she lifted with her healing hands and warm smile. Good luck in nursing school, Sonia!

Old Palestine Church will be celebrating 163 years of continuous ministry with the "Annual Second Sunday in June" reunion and singing, kicking off at 10:30 a.m. on June 10. The Reverend Bob Kinsey, a former pastor, will deliver the morning message at 11:30 a.m. Katy Kinsey and family will be the featured singers. A special invitation is extended to those who have been members of Old Palestine Church, or descendants of parents or grandparents who were members.

Chris Davis' fluffy white cat stands back from her bowl of catfood in order to share with another nursing female, a gray fox.

A covered dish lunch will be served after the service. If you plan on going you need to cook up your best recipe and carry it out there to show off. Old Palestine Church is a beautiful piece of our early East Texas history and these reunions keep that great history alive. If you have ties to this great little church, I hope you'll support them with your presence.

Carlton Jones had some hard luck last week in his tomato patch. Some bulls broke out of their pasture and got in a fight in Carlton's tomato patch. A hundred acres of pasture and they had to fight on top of Carlton's prettiest tomato plants. Carlton didn't seem very upset to me, so I'm figuring he was either lying about the quality of the tomatoes or after farming in East Texas for so long, he is numb to anything that can happen. I started out working for Carlton in high school pulling watermelons. We could eat the ones we dropped and busted, so I was able to have all the watermelon I wanted. Carlton couldn't stop the tomato patch bullfight anymore than he will be able to stop those pea-eating deer in a few weeks. Don't forget the wild hogs. I never saw a boll weevil, but I bet they didn't do as much damage to a crop as deer, hogs and bulls can.

With Memorial Day being over and July 4 just around the corner, I've had some folks asking me if the Boys Scouts still disposed of old flags in a ceremony. I've always heard that there was a ceremony for discarding old tattered flags, but I've never seen it done.

If any of the area Boy Scout Troops will send me some information and let me know who to contact about this, I'll be proud to spread it around and get you a whole bunch of old flags to retire. We all like to get bright shiny new flags for the Fourth of July and we need to know what to do with our old ones.

The grey fox that I told you about a few weeks ago is still making herself at home at our cat food bowl. She normally comes at night, but on Sunday she decided to make a visit for Sunday lunch. She looks like she is nursing some little ones, so I may have to buy more cat food. Some folks say that I ought to be worried about rabies, but the fox doesn't seem mad to me, it actually seems pretty happy.

The mother-in-law was up here on Sunday. She acted like she was mad about something, but I made sure she didn't bite the fox. The mother-in-law snapped at me a few times, but after all these years, I don't' worry too much about it.

I want to say a big congratulations to all our young people who graduated this past weekend. After all those years of school, you must be feeling a little apprehensive about what comes next.

Whatever comes next just enjoy the new experience and do your best. The one thing I have worried about this graduation season is Judy Johnson. With Ben out of school, I just can't imagine what Judy will do with her time. Is she going to make scrapbooks of his college years or maybe she could follow him around on his job and scrapbook that? I think Ben will be just fine now that he is graduated, but I'm worried about his momma.

I'm sure there is someone or something that I have forgotten this week - these early deadline holiday issues always through me off kilter. If you have any news buzzing around your place, be sure and fill me in on it.

I'll see ya next week! And remember, A man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone he can blame.