High Points from El Camino Real

This time last year folks along El Camino Real were loading up anything that would float and heading south to try and rescue the flood victims of Hurricane Harvey. This year we don’t have enough water around here to float a rubber duck. Its hot and its dry and its miserable. I know I’m beating a dead horse, but it seems to be all that anyone is talking about, and I have to try to pull together six bits worth of news out of all of the sweat and dust.
On Saturday it seemed like most of the traffic going up and down El Camino Real was cattle trailers and that isn’t good. With every passing day of no rain hopes diminish of being able to make another hay cutting to get the cows through the winter on.
This would probably be a good year to plant oat patches for the deer, but seeds are going to be high and hungry cows will be looking for those same oat patches. At least the mosquitoes haven’t been bad, so that is one thing to be thankful for. If you haven’t got it on your to do list, please add “Pray for Rain” because we are getting in a mess like we had seven years ago. Cherokee County is still under a burn ban, so you pyromaniacs that are dying to burn trash or limbs are just going to have to wait until we get a good bit of rain.
I’m hoping and praying that in a month or so we can light up the sky like every high school in Texas that is having their homecoming football game on the same week. But for now bonfires aren’t looking good for this year.
Hopefully the football scrimmages are over and our area teams can get on with the real thing this week. The Alto Yellowjackets traveled to Crockett on Thursday night to scrimmage the Bulldogs. Folks said they looked pretty good, but there was a good breeze blowing across my porch, so I just sat there and waved as all the die hard Jacket fans drove by.
This week the Yellowjackets will travel to Westwood to play their first regular game of the season. This means that Little Mexico will be packed with black and gold clad Yellowjacket fans, who will fill up on huge plates of greasy Mexican food and then go sit out in the hundred degree heat to cheer on the Jackets. I got a little nauseous just thinking about it. I’d be glad to sit in the rain and cheer them on when it finally comes.
The first week of school is behind us and so far everything seems to be going smoothly. Of course it always does until something big happens like cheerleader tryouts, or some kid doesn’t get as much playing time as their parents think they deserve.
The big things like too much homework and questions about hair length and dress code usually come later. Getting the kids used to getting up early and getting to school is another big chore that parents have to deal with. When I was in school the first week was spent putting book covers on your books, so you would have something to doodle on during fits of boredom. I don’t even think they use book covers anymore. I hope everything will continue to go well, but you are dealing with kids, parents, teachers, and hormones. There is no way you can mix all of those things and not have at least one explosion.
We have had a little bit to get excited about in downtown Alto. It isn’t anything as exciting as the Dairy Queen opening back up, but it does add a little color to the landscape. Harv’s Hardware has started renting UHaul trailers. He has two or three of the orange and white beauties parked right in front of his hardware store.
So if you get here and decide you want to get out you have a way to haul your stuff. It has sure been nice having that little hardware store here. I was hanging a swing for my grandson on Saturday and I was able to buy everything I needed without leaving town. He doesn’t have everything but he has enough stuff to get just about all the work anybody would want to do in this heat done.
I guess this is about all the news that I can come up with for now. If I forgot something then I’ll try and remember it by the next issue.
E-mail me or give me a call if you have something special going on that you think is news worthy. I’ll do my best to get it spread around.
I’ll see ya next week! And remember, It is better to try to bear the ills we have than to anticipate those which may never come.