HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
June is drawing to an end along El Camino Real and everything is just as green and growing as if it were April. All this rain and green grass ought to make the Fourth of July fireworks a lot bigger and brighter than they were last year during the big drought. People were scared to even smoke outside much less shoot off a sky rocket.

Hilltop Baptist Church will be having their vacation Bible school 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, June 30. This year's Bible school is going to have a western theme, and the children will help round up Bible heroes. The recreation rodeo will have a moonwalk, superslide, obstacle course and lots of games. The Bible school is for four-year-olds through the sixth grade. If you want to attend and need more information call (936) 858-3002 or (936) 858-3604. The Methodists had their Bible school last Saturday, so while they are resting the Baptists can have a go with all these summer kids looking for something fun to do.

The Alto Chamber of Commerce is having a garage sale, Saturday, July 7 in the old Southwestern Electric Building in downtown Alto. That is the building between the Dollar General and Bonnie Magruder and Sue Jones' gift shop, for those of you who don't remember when we had an electric office in town. If you have items you would like to donate for the sale or have any questions you can call Bonnie Magruder at (936) 858-4921 or (936) 858-3637. Proceeds from the sale will be used for the Alto Herald Museum.

J.C. l Dover is dwarfed by his field of corn. Some stalks are 15 feet tall, and one stalk has produced four ears of corn.

There will be a blood drive at the Alto Dairy Queen 2-5 p.m. Friday, June 29. Please drop by and give blood if you can. If you are able you need to give the gift of life and donate some blood. I hope those folks are careful who they give our Alto blood to. Alto blood is mighty rich and it could run somebody from another town crazy if they didn't know what they were getting. Show your red, white and blue this Fourth of July by giving some good red blood.

I'll have to admit I have been doing some bragging about my garden this year and have planned on bragging some more. I stopped by J.C. Dover's house in Cold Springs the other afternoon and J.C. had some bragging to do, too. J. C. has some of the finest corn that I've ever seen in East Texas. He has a few stalks that are almost 15 feet tall. He and I walked out into the corn patch and I do believe that you'd need a step ladder to pull some of those ears that are growing a good seven or eight feet off the ground. J. C. was proud of the tall corn, but he was even prouder of one particular corn stalk in the patch. We had to look around a good bit before we found it, but it was worth the hunt. This stalk of corn had four ears growing on it. Now, I've pulled some corn , but I've never seen one stalk with four ears of corn on it. J. C. had some beautiful stuff growing out at his place and I don't blame him for bragging.

I plan to keep bragging too. I headed down the Cold Spring Road to see if Jerry Knott was doing any good with his garden. I found out that he had experienced a run of bad luck on his corn crop. Just as the corn stalks reached 14 feet tall a big old buck came up out of the creek bottom and bit the top out of every stalk he had. And if that wasn't bad enough he ran his tiller off in one of those deer tracks the next day and they had to get the tractor to pull it out of the hole. The good Lord has made us all look like farmers this year with the great rains and mild temperatures.

As I glance down at my fingers typing away on your four bits' worth of news I notice the purple stains on my thumb and index fingers. You'll find this stain on the hands of people who like to eat good food this time of year. Shelling purple hull peas has been a part of my summers for as long as I can remember. We used to gather up in a circle of lawn chairs between my grandmother and Aunt Alma's house and shell peas under the shade of the big elm trees. Pea shelling just gave you something to do while you visited and told stories. When the automatic peas shellers came out with the two rollers that would mash the peas out of the hulls, I never was too impressed. Later on Omie Jones started using a big pea sheller at the Farm Produce that had fingers on it that beat the peas out of the hulls. It worked well and it didn't mash the peas, so lots of people buy their peas already shelled now days. I still like to sit in my chair and watch TV and shell peas. My youngest son Creager likes to help me shell peas.

These women now days are all getting manicures and they aren't about to risk breaking a nail or having a purple stain mess up their hands. If I was a young single man today, I might notice a little butterfly tattoo carefully placed on a young lady, but if I was looking for one to marry I'd go for the one with purple stains on her fingers in the summertime. Pea shelling isn't just about getting the peas out of the hulls. Its about family values, socializing and not settling for something less just because its easier.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth of July. I hope all of your watermelons are sweet and your barbecue is tender. I'll see ya next week!

And remember, Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have, or sleep all you want.