HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
Folks along El Camino Real shivered through a wet, cold weekend following a beautiful Thanksgiving. It was certainly great weather to wrap up in a blanket and watch some football, but with Christmas decorations to be gotten out of the attic and kids to watch while the ladies shopped, there wasn't much time for laying around. I'm lucky that I was able to catch up on my honey do's long enough to get together your four bits' worth of news.

Susan Liles and Rodger Looney were married aboard a cruise ship in Galveston on Nov. 18. Susan is the daughter of Sue Liles and the late Howard Liles. Rodger is the son of Burdine and the late Mildred Looney. Susan and Rodger have been gone from Alto for a longtime, but it is sure nice to see old friends get together after so many years. Congratulations to Rodger and Susan on their new life together.

Everyone I talked to around town had a very nice and uneventful Thanksgiving. Many folks started out the day by going hunting for ducks or deer before the big noon meal. I think going hunting on Thanksgiving morning is something we got from the pilgrims and just never shook the custom. We didn't have extra Indians to feed around our place, so I decided to sleep in. All the family got together at my Aunt Joan Felder's house and ate enough food to feed a small third world country for a week. We had to take the mother-in-law with us because Aunt Joan invited her while my sister-in-law Diane went on a vacation to Hawaii. I went deer hunting in West Texas one Thanksgiving and I was labeled as the sorriest human being that ever lived for leaving my family. It was fine for Diane to leave her family and stick me with the mother-in-law for the holidays. I can't even live up to the double standards that they put on me.

I didn't get enough turkey this Thanksgiving and I'll have to make up for it at Christmas. There is more meat on a pigeon than I had on my plate. Nobody made a sweet potato pie and I was hungry for one. The ladies try to show out in front of each other and cook a bunch of fancy stuff instead of sticking to the basics. I've gone to a few functions lately where the ladies have drifted from the norm on their cooking. I'm thinking about writing a book of rules on East Texas holiday cooking with a list of things that must be on the table. The ladies can cook the fancy stuff only after they have made sure that all the staples have been covered. I can't right all the wrongs in the world, but I can offer guidance to those ladies who will listen.

The Alto Yellowjackets played their arch rival, the Groveton Indians, on Saturday night at the Abe Martin Stadium in Lufkin. My wife started watching the weather reports on Wednesday and nearly worried herself into a frenzy over the cold rain that was forecast for game time. I wasn't particularly looking forward to sitting out in the cold rain, but I wasn't going to let the thought of it take over my life. She hates to get wet. I've often wondered if she was kin to that witch on the Wizard of Oz that melted after having a bucket of water thrown on her. If you know my mother-in-law you'll understand why this thought has come to my mind. By Saturday at noon as the cold rain continued to pour down, I succumbed to her constant whining and drove to Jacksonville to buy her a rain suit and over shoes. When we waded into the stadium Saturday evening, the Yellowjacket school colors changed from black and gold to raincoat yellow and camouflage. Alto fans were dressed every way you could imagine to stay warm and dry, but all the rain and cold didn't dampen their team spirits one bit. The Yellowjackets came out and scored twice really fast in the first half. With all the rain and slippery conditions the boys played some real conservative football. The Groveton Indains were fighting back hard in the second half, but our boys just kept doing what they could without making mistakes and turning over the ball. It wound up being a pretty close game, but the Yellowjackets came out on top with a score of 21-13. We won and that is the main thing, so the Indians are going to play basketball and we are heading to the playoffs. This week the Alto Yellowjackets will take on the Joaquin Rams. I'm hoping for drier weather for that game. Congratulations to the Alto Yellowjackets on another great victory. A special thanks to all the fans who came out to support the Yellowjackets in that cold wet weather.

I need to give myself a little pat on the back for my behavior over the weekend after Thanksgiving. This is usually a very stressful time around our house as we start making room for way too many Christmas decorations and instantly all of my things become junk in the way and all of her things become keepsakes and family heirlooms. Any opinion that I might offer is considered a personal attack on Christmas and our children. Dragging all the stuff out of the attic year after year while being scolded and warned like a 10-year-old about breaking an item or holding a box the wrong way is enough to drive someone mad. This year I dutifully hauled all the items down without the least bit of a fuss. I even went out and dragged all the mother-inlaws stuff out of her attic.

I figured my back would be in a heck of a shape after all that lifting and going up and down those attic stairs, but I was surprised to find that it didn't hurt at all. I figure that doing all those things that I hate without a fuss caused my backbone to shrivel up and blow away. The shopping is even worse and we haven't even started that yet.

We are going to be mighty busy between now and Christmas, so if you want something told in this part of the paper you better write it down and send it to me. I'll se ya next week! And remember, It is the soul, and not the strongbox, which should be filled.