High Points| from El Camino Real

Folks along El Camino Real are looking forward to summer as we have finally reached the middle of May.

It’s been a long gloomy winter, but it makes a hot Texas summer look better all the time.

We’ve got lots of things happening along our stretch of the King’s Highway and most of them are good. I think good news ought to be worth more than six bits, but I guess it all evens out in the end.
The Alto Yellowjackets were well represented at the State track meet in Austin on Saturday and all the students that participated made us proud. The boys team is coached by Lance Bernard.

Fred Thacker brought home two gold medals, one in the discus and another in the shot put. Two State championship medals in your senior year ought to make Fred’s big smile even bigger. The Yellowjackets came in second in the sprint relay with the team of Marvin Roberts, Jay Pope, Marlon Warren and Clayton Terry.

Isaiah Gaddis got fifth in the 300 yard hurdles. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t imagine myself jumping a hurdle. The LadyJackets coached by Jimmy Irvin had three people competing for state.

Abby Bernard was a pole vaulter. Chesnee Upshaw ran the 300 yard hurdles, and Brianna Green ran the 100 yard hurdles.

So many small schools only dream of going to the State finals in any sport, but it always seems like our kids expect to be there.

We use to have a school holiday set in the calendar for the state track meet. If that isn’t optimism I don’t know what is. Congratulations to all of our Yellowjackets for making us proud again.

It was Mother’s Day on El Camino Real and everybody was busy trying to make their mothers feel like the most special people on Earth.

Our boys were all in this weekend, so even though it wasn’t my day, I still got to reap the benefits of being with all of them.

If we haven’t taught them anything else in life I hope we have taught them the importance of family.

I only had one mother and she was a good one, but I’ve also been blessed to have lots of other ladies in my life that mothered me and helped me along in life. Mother’s Day is for all these wonderful ladies that make our lives richer.

Lots of our young people are graduating from college. Kade Griffith graduated from Navarro College and Logan Cook graduated from Panola College. These are two fine young men. Rachael Burrows Westbrook got her Masters Degree from Texas A&M Commerce and had a beautiful baby boy to tend to all at the same time. Now that is some hard work. I know there are others, but those are the only ones I know about. Wait, I thought of another one. Maddie Turner in Rusk graduated from Texas A&M, so Russell and Christy have all of their kids through college. I wonder if barbecue prices will go down now. Congratulations to all of these graduates and best wishes on your future plans.
The dreaded STAAR test is being administered this week in all of our schools, so be sure and make sure your child gets plenty of rest and a good meal, so the state can find out whether they are meeting the requirements to make it through life. I’m glad I went to school when we just had achievement tests, and our report cards told us how well we did. Good luck to all the students and teachers this week. The end is almost here less than two weeks and it will be summer vacation.
Alto High School graduation will be this Saturday, May 18 at 8 p.m. on the football field. Let’s all pray for good weather and bright futures for the graduates. Congratulations seniors!
The annual Shiloh Cemetery homecoming is this Sunday, May 19. The homecoming celebration will be at the Shiloh Pavilion, two miles west of Alto on FM 752. Please make plans to bring lunch and join your friends and relatives as we honor loved ones. There will be a brief business meeting at 11:30 a.m. with lunch immediately following. This is your last reminder, so if you are supposed to be there, be there.

It looks like we are going to get a few days of sunshine this week and we are certainly due some. I know everyone’s gardens need a little drying out. I feel like I’ve been hoeing mud in my garden ever since I planted it.

The problem is all the roots are going to be really shallow and when the rain does stop everything is going to burn up. If you get too much water after tomatoes start making fruit they won’t have a good taste to them. In most cases too much water can be as bad as not enough.

We just can’t be satisfied, but this week I want more sunshine.

I can’t think of any thing that won’t wait til the next issue. I know things have been kind of topsy-turvy around here since the tornadoes, but life does go on and people need to know what is going on.

Please let me know if you have something that people need to know about so I can get it in the next issue. I’ll see ya next week!
And remember, If you are willing to do more than you are paid to do, eventually you will be paid to do more than you do.