HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
Many folks along El Camino Real have reported seeing animals coming out of the river bottoms walking two by two. I haven't noticed anybody with a long white beard building a big boat around here, but if the water keeps coming we may have to go over to Louisiana and hijack one of those big casino boats that folks from Texas have been making payments on for so long. The mosquitoes are breeding faster than our blood supplies can keep up.

The Holcomb family gathered for their 110th

Holcomb Family Reunion on Saturday evening and Sunday morning in the Cold Springs community. The crowd was a little light this year with only about 100 people attending. This was far short of the 200-300 that used to gather. It always makes me feel proud to be a part of a tradition that has lasted for so many years. Just about the time I start thinking positively about the reunion, the mother-inlaw starts barking orders about loading and unloading her car and telling me what I need to be doing. When she lets up, the wife starts in and by Sunday afternoon, I'm wondering if anyone will ever sign an emancipation proclamation for me. My mother-in-law, Juanita Holcomb, has been cooking food for that reunion for over 70 years. She married into the Holcomb family and this is a requirement of that marriage. She thought she would get some kind of reprieve on her sentence after she reached 90, but it never came. Tom Henry Holcomb of Ingram was the oldest family member in attendance at 96 years old. It's worth going to the reunion just to visit with him.

On a trip to his uncle's house, Creagor Davis surveys high water that covers fence posts at Charles Dean Davis' backyard.

Ray Penn had his brothers and their families over at his house this weekend for a Penn family reunion. Ray made one of his brothers help mow his yard as soon as he got there and I don't know what other work he had lined out for his family. I heard they had some good food down there but I can't confirm it, because I wasn't invited. Ray and Cathy just live two houses down and it wouldn't have been any trouble at all for me to go down there and eat a bite. As soon as Ray's family left on Sunday, Ray and Cathy had to load up and head out to the Holcomb Reunion to see Cathy's family.

The summer reading program is still going on at the Stella Hill Memorial Library. The program started on June 7 and the group has read several books since then. The readers are gearing up for some special visitors July 19 at 10 a.m. "Simply His Clowns" from Cedar Creek Lake will be in town for about an hour and during that time they will be doing a skit, painting faces on the readers and showing off some great balloon art. Even if you haven't attended the summer reading program this year, you are still welcome to come by and enjoy the fun. This year's reading program theme is "Sail Away with Books." The sailboat painted on the library windows should have given you a hint. A big thanks to the Alto Thursday Study Club for all their hard work in keeping our library in tip top shape.

On Saturday after the big rains came, daddy called me and told me to come out and see how far White Oak Creek had risen. The boys and I headed out to Lynches Chapel to check it out and we had to go in by the cemetery because everything else was underwater. We drove up on Freddy and Sandy Wallace at their White Oak Creek Ranch. The corrals, the horse troughs and the cattle trailers were all partially or fully submerged. Muddy red water was making rapids through the roping pen. My heart went out to them in their time of need. I wanted to say some comforting words, but the devil took over my tongue and made me say, "I didn't know y'all had a catfish farm." After warming their hearts I drove on down to my Uncle Charles Dean and Aunt Sheryl's house. The water had filled their whole bottom and was completely over a barbed wire fence that ran by their house. I lived through several floods out there and I don't ever remember it being that high. When I got back to town the phone rang and it was Gladys Faye Anderson calling to invite me to the Felix Ross Family Reunion in Weeping Mary on Sunday. I told her that I had to go to the Holcomb Reunion and probably wouldn't be able to make it this year. The Felix Ross Reunion is usually the weekend after the Holcomb Reunion, but this year things got messed up and knocked me out of some good groceries. Anyway, I told Gladys Faye that I figured Weeping Mary was flooded because I had just left out there and White Oak Creek was going from hill to hill. She hadn't been out there and didn't know about all the water. I called Sunday evening and they told me that the water had gone down and a big crowd showed up for the family gathering. I'm glad the water didn't mess up the reunion, but I sure hate I couldn't be in two places at one time. If the water gets any higher in the bottoms, we are liable to have wild hogs looking for higher ground in town. I know those river bottoms need a good flushing out ever once in a while, but it sure does ruin lots of deer camps and deer stands. Highway 294 was closed last week and I can't remember the last time that has happened. The ground is completely saturated and if we get any kind of wind anytime soon we are going to have trees down everywhere. Lets pray for calm winds.

Well I've dipped out just about all the news I can for this week. If I stir any more, I'll just be muddying up the water. I'll see ya next week! And remember, Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.