High Points| from El Camino Real

Folks along El Camino Real are glad to see another election behind them, but not as much as the people who run for office. It’s certainly a nerve wracking experience, especially for first time candidates. Please give everybody a week or so to get their signs up and get our beautiful East Texas area cleaned up in time for Thanksgiving.
Deer season, duck season, an election, and high school football all coming at the same time makes for easy pickings when you are looking for six bits worth of news.
Virginia Ward called me the other night and told me she had been in a bad wreck on Highway 84 In Anderson County. She is sore and her car is totaled, but with a few prayers and lots of pain killers she should be up and going in a few weeks. There is so much traffic now its getting scary around here. Please keep Virginia in your prayers for a quick recovery.
Trick or Treating on Halloween would have been a complete washout if it hadn’t of been for some organized activities at First Baptist Church and A. Frank Smith Methodist Church. The Alto Yellowjacket football team even pitched in to help give out candy at the Methodist Church which was pretty exciting for some of our youngest Yellowjacket fans. We certainly appreciate the football boys stepping up and taking part in our community. A big rain can sure screw up some trick or treating. I didn’t even get one piece of Halloween candy.
Our veterans will be honored at the Alto High School Gymnasium on Friday, Nov. 9 at 9:30 a.m. with the annual Veterans program that the students put on each year. The only difference is this year they are doing it on Friday instead of on Monday.
I can’t even remember how many years I’ve been attending this event and it is so special to watch the children honor our Veterans with songs, poems, and readings. I read the names of all the Veterans, so if you are attending be sure and sign in so you can be recognized. We owe everything to our Veterans and I hope you will take the opportunity to attend a Veteran’s Day event or find some other way to say thank you to our Vets this Veteran’s Day.
The cafes and grocery stores were filled with camouflaged hunters over the weekend as people poured in from everywhere in search of that big buck. From the looks of things up and down our highways over the past week, it looks like more big bucks were killed with Buicks than with bullets.
I was all ready to hunt this weekend but my son Grant came in and convinced me that I should let him hunt in my stand this weekend. I gave in and hunted from the picnic table in my back yard. I guess I had the music turned up too loud because I never saw a deer. I did mange to catch one gopher, so the weekend wasn’t a complete bust.
The first weekend of deer season is a special time and one that invokes lots of wonderful memories of people we loved gathered around campfires telling stories of the ones that got away and the ones that didn’t. Some of my fondest memories are from our old camp that looked over the Coonpond and down the old railroad tram. I hope everyone has a safe and memorable hunting season.
Harvey Parker and his wife have finally opened up Ne Ne’s Table in the old Dairy Queen building this weekend. I stopped by and got a hamburger late Saturday afternoon and checked things out. They’ve given the building a real cleaning and face lift and even filled in the big potholes in the parking lot.

We are always glad when we get a new place in Alto, especially one that sells soft serve ice cream. I’ll give y’all an update next week on what their hours are going to be and what they are going to be serving.
Somebody please tell Marion Lindsey that barbecue is not on the menu before he has a wreck driving by looking for smoke. Good luck to the Parkers on their new business.
The renovations on the Sunday School wing at the A. Frank Methodist Church were dedicated on Sunday to Alfred and Madeline Danheim. I guess they were two of the best people I have ever had the honor of knowing. They were both teachers and when they retired and moved back to Alto they jumped into church work and helping out where they could with both feet.
Madeline played the piano at church and Alfred always kept a pocket full of peppermints for the kids. You can’t think of this couple without getting a smile on your face even though they have been gone for several years now.
I don’t think anything much had been done to those Sunday school rooms since I was in kindergarten there. It was the first kindergarten class in Alto and I was in it. It must have been around 1965. I’ll say we were due a renovation.
Its not even nine o’clock and I feel like I’m writing this column in the middle of the night. I hate time changes, I think the only reason they were invented was to mess up a perfectly good nights sleep. We will all get to work early and go to bed as soon as we get home.
If you have dogs or something else to feed, then you better make sure you’ve got some batteries for your flashlight. I’ll see ya next week!
And remember, People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.