HIGH POINTS from El Camino Real
CHRIS DAVIS elcaminoreal@consolidated.net

Folks along El Camino Real have been enjoying some warm days and cool nights for the past several days. Cool nights make for some really good sleeping, but they don't do much to help the garden grow. At this rate I'll be lucky to have ripe tomatoes by July and all of my peas are going to wind up looking like possum ears sticking out of the ground. My late neighbor, Virgil Schochler, always worried about getting possumeared peas. Surely some rain and warmer nights will be here before long. There has been a lot going on around our neck of the woods, so I better get to hammering out your four bits' worth of news.

My Uncle Thomas Kellum was knocking at death's door last week when I wrote my column. He is in Lufkin recovering from heart surgery. I guess all the prayers that were said for him were well received because when we went to see him on Saturday he was sitting in a chair eating a hamburger. Maybelle and Thomas and all our family certainly appreciate all the prayers and concern you have shown during this time of illness. I had promised Thomas that I'd feed him out of my garden this year since he was too sick to raise one. I'm glad I didn't sell his part to someone else last week when he was going down. Please keep Thomas and Maybelle in your prayers until they are all well and at home.

From left, l Vernita Patton Kelley West and Sandy Holcomb paid off a debt to students at Alto Elementary School by participating as targets in a pie-throwing contest. Students worked hard and tested well on the TAKS exam last week.

The Alto LadyJackets softball team defeated the Lovelady Lions by a score of 7-1 for the Area Championship on Friday night. The Ladyjackets will play the Mt. Enterprise girls in Rusk before this paper hits the stands. The girls are doing a great job and we need to do all we can to cheer them on to another state championship. Congratulations to the Alto Ladyjackets on a winning season.

The Alto Yellowjacket baseball team is one week behind the girls in the playoff schedule, if I understand all of this right. They are playing some really good ball this year and we are hopeful that they will be moving right on up behind the girls in the playoffs. We've got kids going to track in state also, so things could get really busy around here in a few weeks if our luck stays with us.

Thank goodness, the dreaded TAKS test is finally over for our area schools and students and teachers are beginning to breathe a little easier. When the first round of tests were over and the results were in for the Alto Middle School. Principal Kelley West, Sandy Holcomb, Bobbie Cox and Vernita Patton took pies in the face to pay off a deal to the sixth grade students for doing so well on their tests. There is nothing like a good pie in the face to relieve lots of tension, especially if you're not on the receiving end of the pie. Let's all hope and pray that the kids did as well on these last tests as they did on the first ones. The rest of the school year ought to go by pretty fast with graduation just around the corner.

The Central High Community Homecoming drew a good crowd of folks on Sunday for the visiting and eating. The beautiful quilt that the ladies made was raffled off and as usual I didn't win. Marie Yancey of Beaumont was the lucky winner. She lives in Beaumont but she has roots here. The Central High Home Demonstration Club celebrated its 75th anniversary this year and got an award for that achievement. Central High is a great little community and I'm glad their folks work so hard to keep its memories alive.

The Second Annual Alto Buyers Group Team Roping will be held May 10 at Jonathan Davis' Roping Arena on the Sandflat Road in Alto. Proceeds from the event benefit our youth with their agriculture projects at the county show. The Alto Buyers Group will be selling hamburgers, sausages on a stick and a host of other items for you to snack on while you watch some great roping. The roping starts at

9 a.m. and will go on into the night. FFA and Junior FFA members and their parents will be helping put the event on, so we ought to be covered up with some great kids. I hope you get a chance to stop by and see a little of the roping and eat some great hamburgers.

Melvin Mumphrey has been trying to redeem himself after running off when the lady found a snake in her car at the Alto Elementary School a couple of weeks ago. Melvin is still trying to deny leaving the scene of the first snake incident. I still think that when you are heading in the opposite direction of the snake at a high rate of speed, that is running away from the snake. Last week Melvin killed a big (at least he said it was a big) snake on the sidewalk on the elementary campus. He made sure everyone knew about it and told them all to call me, so that I could put it in the paper. It seems like with so many people involved, someone would have snapped a picture. I guess I'll just have to take Melvin's word for it. In an unrelated story, Ms. Witt, the elementary school principal, is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever cut the end off of the water hose behind her office.

On May 7, Jay Anna and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. We dated eight years before we got married, so we've spent the biggest part of our lives together. I even took her to get her first driver's license. We've got three fine boys and a lifetime of memories to show for our efforts. We've had a lot of fun growing up together and I'm hoping we'll have just as much fun growing old together. Happy anniversary, to the best wife a fellow could have.

I guess I better wind this up, and get busy gathering next week's four bits' worth of news. If I don't know something's happened then I can't write about it, so it is very important that you keep me posted on things that are important to you and the rest of the readers. I'll see ya next week! And remember, You don't stop laughing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop laughing.