High points from El Camino Real

Folks along El Camino Real barely had time to get the Thanksgiving scraps thrown over the fence before it was time to get started on Christmas.
I started making trips up and down out of the attic on Thanksgiving before my lunch got settled. It’s this way every year, so I’m not complaining. Out loud anyway.
The faster you get it up the longer you have to enjoy it, so it doesn’t seem like such a waste when you have to put it all back in the attic on New Year’s Day.
We’ve got lots of things going on in this six bits’ worth of news, so you’ll have to try and keep up if you don’t want to miss anything.

Christmas Cantatas and parades seem to be starting early this year, but maybe I’m just behind schedule.
The A. Frank Smith Methodist Church is having their Christmas Cantata 5 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 8. I don’t know what the title of it is this year, but I’m sure it will be something about Christmas.
First Baptist Church in Alto is having their Christmas Cantata 6:30 p.m., Dec. 15. Both churches do an excellent job every year, so if you need a Christmas Cantata to get you in the Christmas Spirit, this is your chance.
We’ve had the Rusk Christmas parade on Tuesday night, the Jacksonville parade will be 6 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 5; the Gallatin parade is 1 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 7; and the Alto Christmas parade is going to be 6 p.m., Monday, Dec. 9.

The Stella Hill Library is going to be open at 4 p.m. for the Alto parade, if you want to bring your child by for a Christmas goody and to check out a book.
We have the west side of Alto lit up with Christmas lights, but I haven’t been over to the east side to see how they are doing. Fighting through all the traffic in downtown Alto is such a pain.

Actually the dollar stores and the Post Office are on this side, so I don’t have any reason to go further. I hope they are lit up, too.
Our friend, Marjorie Warner, celebrated a birthday on Saturday, Nov. 30 at her new home in Durango, Colo.
She lives about a half a block from her daughter, Martha and her son-in-law Fred, so she is well taken care of.
I talked to her the other night and she is doing well. One good thing about cell phones is that we don’t have to worry about long distance charges and we can call anytime we want to.
I’ll check on her again after the snow starts to get deep. Happy Birthday, Marjorie!
All the kids went back to school this week after being off a whole week for Thanksgiving break.
By the time the teachers get them settled down again, it’ll be time for them to get out for Christmas.

When you are married to a teacher and your kids are in school sometimes you count the days until they go back.
My three boys are grown now and when they all come home for the holidays, they sit in my chair, watch nothing but football games on TV, and eat everything in the house.
It’s hard to believe that a few years ago we were worrying about how we were going to cope with the “empty nest syndrome.”
It’s a miracle, I’m cured. Now if I could just get some water turned into milk, potato chips, and a few cookies, I could get back to normal.

I took another tow sack full of pecans to Snodgrass Pecans in Jacksonville to get cracked. After they crack them, you can have them run through a machine that blows them really hard and cleans them up.

They’ve been cracking pecans since 1962 and they do as fine a job as I’ve seen. I know because, I use to crack pecans with Omie Jones when I worked with her at the Farm Produce.
I can still see her adjusting that old machine with her screwdriver so it would hit the pecans just right.

Then we’d sit there and pick them out and scrape out the hulls with a little paring knife.
I’ve got a couple of more tow sacks full to go before I’m done, but I’m getting there.
Snodgrass Pecans is only open on Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., so you have to time it right.
It’s a busy time of year and sometimes we get so caught up in worrying about what people are going to get for Christmas that we forget the reason for Christmas.
We live in a wonderful giving community that always does its part to help the less fortunate.

Many of the children that are helped will never know what Christmas is all about unless you tell them.
We need to figure out a way to give these kids more than just a toy, we need to give them the most important gift for Christmas.
Wouldn’t it be great to be as excited as a little child at Christmas just one more time?
If you’ve got a program or something that needs telling before the holidays then you better get to calling.
I try to cover all I can but if I don’t know about it, I can’t write about it. I’ll see ya next week!
And remember, Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.