HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS
Folks along El Camino Real are heading into June and the April showers haven't let up yet. This time last year we were wearing the preachers and the good Lord out praying for rain, and now we can't get it to stop. The grass is growing, but you can't bale hay in the rain. The tomatoes are to the point of bursting now and if the rain keeps up they won't have a bit of taste to them. I'm not fussing about the rain, but I do wish that it could be scattered out a little more through July and August. I don't have to worry about putting on any burn bans right now, so that is a good thing. I do have to worry about giving you your four bits' worth of news, so I best get at it.

Norma Jones told me that my friend Minnie Gilcrease fell and broke both her arms. Ms. Minnie was leaning over the culvert by her house to make sure that it wasn't stopped up after a rain and lost her balance. She fell about six feet to the bottom of the ditch. A young girl found her and went for help. At 94 years young, Ms. Minnie needs to leave the culvert inspections to somebody else. She is a great lady and I'm hoping she is up and going before too long. She is down at the nursing home recuperating for now. Get well soon, Ms. Minnie, you are in our prayers.

Creager Davis doesn't care to eat cabbage, but he enjoys growing plants. This monster-sized cabbage was harvested recently from Chris Davis' garden.

I headed out to the Lynches Chapel Homecoming on Sunday to pay my cemetery dues and visit with friends and kin folks that I haven't seen in a while. The sky was getting pretty dark about the time I arrived, but I got a chance to visit the folks who were there before the bottom fell out. I could have visited a few more folks but Olan Black caught me and I wasted some time talking to him. The ones who stayed through the storm got under the pavilion and it blew over pretty quick and everyone ate lunch. Cemetery homecomings can be a lot of fun if the weather works out.

The Alto Thursday Study Club is once again sponsoring the Summer Reading and Story Hour starting June 7 at 10 a.m. at the Stella Hill Memorial Library. This program is open to children in Alto from the ages of 3-12. This years theme is "Sail Away with Books." The children will learn all sorts of things related to the water such as what lives in the water and what type of fun there is to have in the water, as well as who sails the ocean, such as pirates. The reading program starts on June 7 and continues for seven weeks on Thursdays at 10 a.m. Children will read as many books as they can and on July 26, the awards ceremony will take place with prizes for the top readers and certificates signed by Gov. Perry.

Last week I was trying to find out who took care of the flag ceremony that is used to destroy old American flags when they are replaced. I received several responses and I appreciate everyone who dropped me a line. I even heard from my old teacher and friend Ms. Faye Nell Rogers Monzingo up in Tyler. Boy Scout Troop 405 in Rusk will accept American Flags that are ready for retirement. You can contact Harry Vandever in Alto or Bob Goldsberry in Rusk. I asked Kathleen at Bancorp South in Alto and she said that you could drop your old flag by the bank and they would give it to Harry like they do their flags at the bank. Now we don't have any excuses for replacing our old flags with brand new ones on the Fourth of July.

After 11 years as pastor of A. Frank Smith United Methodist Church and seven years as pastor at Cold Springs United Methodist Church, Dr. Randy Fitzgerald preached his last sermon in these two churches on Sunday. Bro. Randy has been reassigned to the Methodist Church in Bullard where he will join his brother as assistant pastor. Bullard isn't very far away, so I am pretty sure that our spiritual paths will be crossing with Bro. Randy quite often. Methodist preachers very rarely stay in one place for 11 years, so the congregation at A. Frank Smith is going to have to try to get another preacher broke in. The new preacher's name is Dick Dobbins, but I'll have to get some more information before I can tell you about him. Best wishes to Bro. Randy Fitzgerald and his wife Karen as they head north to Bullard and a new congregation.

With all our recent graduations around here we sometimes forget some young graduates with ties to Alto. On May 26, Monty and Sybleen Collins attended a graduation party for Gina Clark and Courtney Murphy in Deer Park. The party was hosted by Johnny and Jill White, Marshall Murphy and Charlie and Karen Hinds. John and Eloise White of Alto also traveled down for the party. Approximately 30-40 people composed of friends and family of the two graduates attended the affair with barbecue and all the trimmings, topped off with a beautiful cake decorated with their school colors. Congratulations to Gina and Courtney on their recent graduation from high school.

Even with all the rain I have been able to keep the grass out of my garden and things looking really good. It is times like these that I really miss my late neighbor Virgil Schochler. I've really got something to brag about this year and he isn't around to show it off to. There isn't enough grass in my garden this year to feed two army worms a decent meal. The tomatoes have gotten a touch of the blight on the lower leaves due to all the wet weather, but I am fighting it with fungicide and Miracle Grow, so maybe I'll come out ahead. My youngest son, Creager brought a cabbage plant home from school in early March and it sat on the table and wilted down to nothing. I watered it and a few days later it got moved and died down again. I finally set it outside and it wilted and turned brown, but we watered it and it came back. When the garden was finally broke for planting, Creager stuck the tortured little cabbage plant on the end of one of the rows. We picked it on Sunday and it was so big you could hardly reach around it. Creager was plenty proud of his green thumb, but not enough to make him eat cabbage for lunch.

I've rambled on enough for this issue, if the rain has stopped you probably need to be mowing grass or baling hay. You don't have time to be reading the paper. I'll see ya next week! And remember, Be wary of the man who's "all hat and no cattle."