HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
Folks along El Camino Real honored our veterans on Sunday in many of our area churches with patriotic music and words of praise. We are proud of our veterans and we need to take every opportunity we can get to thank them. Alto students honored the veterans on Monday with their annual Veterans Day program. The kids do a great job every year and I think it is something that the veterans look forward to. There has been a good bit happening around here so I best get to giving you your four bits' worth.

I was sorry to hear of the sudden passing of David Cherry late last week. David was raised in Alto but had moved to Lufkin many years ago. He was the son of Mr. Cherry that had Cherry's Grocery Store south of town and was Jeannie Dominy's brother. I didn't even know he had passed until I heard it at church on Sunday. Please keep his family and friends in your prayers as they mourn his passing.

Congratulations to the Alto Yellowjackets on their District Championship win Friday night. The Yellowjackets faced a Cushing Bearkat team that wanted to win badly and secure a place in the playoffs. They played really hard, but Alto came out on top with a 56 to 12 victory. The Yellowjackets have an off week this week and then they will return after Thanksgiving to start the playoffs. Yellowjacket fans need to fill their gas tanks and get ready for some traveling because we are hoping to still be playing football right up til Christmas.

Branson, Mo., was the destination for 48 energetic folks from two churches in Cherokee County.

A very special lady in Alto celebrated a birthday this week. She got lots of Alto kids started in school when she ran a kindergarten. We all know her, or some of her children or grandchildren. I'm talking about Orell "Granny" Grammer who turned 80 years old on Saturday. She was surprised with a birthday party complete with a video of pictures throughout her life. The children and grandchildren all poured in, so as usual the place was full of Grammers. She is a great lady and if you know her, you love her. Happy birthday to Ms. Orell Grammer!

Alto Middle School teacher Rachel Burrows was a very lucky lady last week. Rachel has been a big NASCAR fan for several years. She entered the Full Throttle Fan Contest at Texas Motor Speedway. Out of over 1,000 entries she was one of four finalists. Rachel and some friends went to Texas Motor Speedway the weekend before last for the finals, and she won it all. She got VIP season tickets for four people to all the races at Texas Motor Speedway. They will be brought to the races each time in a helicopter. She will receive free race car driving lessons on the track. She also won a 10-day all expense paid trip to the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. The entire package is worth over $28,000. Way to go, Rachel, we are proud of your big win. Those race folks see how nice Alto people are they might want to build one of those racetracks around here. It would give us something to do when the Yellowjackets aren't playing.

My sister-in-law Dianne West decided that some of the people at A. Frank Smith United Methodist Church and the Cold Springs Methodist ought to go on a bus trip to Branson, Mo. She started planning the Branson trip several months ago and this past week, 48 energetic folks from these two churches along with friends and family from others loaded on a bus and headed north to Branson - 38 women and 10 men wound up making the trip. For three days and two nights they saw lots of shows, enjoyed some great meals, a little shopping and lots and lots of laughs. The groups pulled back into Alto about midnight on Friday tired, but already planning and looking forward to the next trip. The mother-inlaw, the sister-in-law, and my mother were all on the trip. I'll send my wife with them on the next trip and I'll enjoy some real peace and quiet. There is nothing like a good time with lots of friends. We are glad that you all made it home safe.

A sweet little girl is going to be celebrating her sixth birthday on Nov. 16.

Makalya Black is going to be celebrating her birthday with a bubble party. I sure hope they are careful with those bubbles, that child's momma, Pam Black has enough hot air in her to blow a big bubble and lift a child right into the air.

Peggy Green has gotten married and moved off to Houston and the whole Green family is about to starve. The way they all talk Peggy was the only one who cooked in the whole family. She was their very own meals on wheels, and she took her wheels and went to Houston. She had to marry and move off to get free of that stove. I just hope that poor little Makalya gets to eat some of her own birthday cake before the rest of the family lights in on it. Maybe Peggy will come home from Houston and help them out with Thanksgiving. Happy birthday, Makayla!

Everybody knows what a wild hog problem we have in East Texas. This is really evident when you go deer hunting and see all the hogs in the woods. I got a new appreciation of how vicious these wild hogs are last week. I was deer hunting out at my brother's place and I had only been there a little while when a big coyote came up out of the bottom. I've never liked coyotes and I shot it as it came toward the stand. I kept on hunting and the coyote kept on lying dead. In a couple of hours several deer came out and I started watching for a big one. About the time I looked towards the coyote, a big black hog came crashing out of the woods and attacked the dead coyote. The hog threw the dead coyote into the air a good four feet. When the coyote hit the ground the hog tore into it. Dust was filling the air along with growls, grunts and squeals. The hog was attacking the coyote like a mother-in-law on steroids gone mad. Before this encounter, I figured if a hog ran out of the woods after me while I was walking to my stand that I could just shoot and scare it off. The hog that got the coyote would have eaten my legs off before I could have ever pulled the trigger. If I managed to get away from it I wouldn't be able to hunt with my clothes messed up. I've got a new respect for wild hogs after watching that one tear up the coyote and I hope the hogs will have a new respect for me when they see me tearing up those sausages I had her made into.

If you've got something special happening around your place for Thanksgiving that you want everyone to know about, let me know. I'll see ya next week! And remember,

An ungrateful man is like a hog under a tree eating acorns, but never looking up to see where they come from.