HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS
Folks along El Camino Real are starting to think about the end of summer and the folks with kids heading back to school are thinking about all the new clothes and school supplies that are going to have to be bought in the next few weeks. I still can't get use to these teenagers buying new blue jeans with holes all in them and a dirty looking color that makes them look like the previous owner lived in a dumpster. I can't see somebody paying $30-40 dollars for a pair of those jeans, no matter what is in style. The little kids are going to be wanting that special back pack and lunch kit to start out their new school year, and you can't let them down. If you have an older one going off to college, then you are really in trouble and with the high cost of college you probably won't even have the four bits needed to keep up with all of the goings on along our little stretch of the King's Highway.

A great big blessing fell on one Alto family this weekend and with the blessing came the answer to many prayers. Jason and Amanda Collie's little two year old daughter, Hannah, has been seriously ill for several months with a heart ailment she was born with. Her prognosis had not been looking very good and our community has been praying for her health. The doctors said that she would need to have a heart transplant to survive. She was placed on the waiting list for a heart and the family was told that it could take months to find one. On Saturday they were told that a heart had been found and that she would undergo the transplant surgery on Saturday afternoon. She had only been on the list for four days. The good news spread through our town in a matter of minutes as folks passed on the news and offered up prayers for the surgery. As of Sunday evening Hannah had come through the surgery just fine and she already had a rosy color back in her cheeks and her oxygen level was good. She will have to stay in the Children's Hospital in Dallas for three to five months to recover. Hannah will be celebrating her third birthday on Aug. 30. We need to keep Hannah and her family in our prayers as her little body heals. We also need to keep the family of the heart donor in our prayers as they deal with the loss of their child and give thanks for their generosity in their terrible sorrow. Organ donors are very special people and I wish that more of us could follow their example.

A new Alto Yellowjackets' t-shirt proclaims the team's desire to capture a back-toback state championship.

This week my thoughts have been returning to my childhood and my older brother, Larry Joe Davis. He has always been my older brother, but I remember when he was just a little kid. It is hard for me to imagine that on Aug. 10 he is going to be 50 years old. It seems like only yesterday that we were fighting all over the house or in the backseat of the family car when one of us crossed the line into the other one's space. The time between BB guns and bifocals passes way too fast. He has been in the woods hunting for most of those 50 years. I never saw anyone that loves to hunt better than him. A big happy birthday to my big brother Larry Joe!

The Alto Yellowjacket football team is returning to the practice field this week to start getting ready for the upcoming football season. The excitement of last year's state championship season is still in the air and hopes are high for a repeat of that winning season. Some of the boys have been wearing Tshirts to workout this summer that have "The Reload" on the back. I can't think of a better logo as the Yel- lowjackets reload and take aim at another state championship. The fans here at home are looking forward to watching some really great kids giving it their best this season. Summer practices are hot and tough, but the boys know that championships don't come easy and hard work now makes for some great December football. Good luck and best wishes to the Yellowjacket players and coaches on a great football season.

David Chan gave me one of his mystery melons last week when I went by the donut shop. I couldn't wait to get home and cut into it and see what it looked like. It had a really sweet smell like a good cantaloupe and it had my whole refrigerator smelling good before I cut it open. It was green on the inside like some of the honey dew melons I have seen. The thing smelled better than it tasted. It tasted like a cantaloupe that wasn't sweet. I put sugar on it like David told me to and it was a lot better. I wouldn't trade a good East Texas cantaloupe for one of these Cambodian melons, but I saved the seeds and will try to grow some next year. A friend told me that he looked the melon up on the Internet and it is called a winter melon. I think I'll just call them "David's Cambodian Cucumber Melons."

I hate to cut you a little short this week, but I'm still recuperating from a family vacation in New Braunfels. I spent a day at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark with my boys and I must say that my middle aged, overweight body and water slides don't mix. When we finished at the park, I felt like I had been run over by a bus. I hurt everywhere at once and then I had to carry my wife to the outlet mall for several hours. I think next year for a vacation I'll just stay at home and have someone give me a good old-fashioned flogging. I'm hoping the local news will be easier to gather after the regular routine of the school year gets underway. I'll see ya next week! And remember, Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.