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Volume 6 Issue 70
National News and Opinions mixed with Local Small Town History and Story Telling. Representing the small-town conservative viewpoint of what makes this country great!
~Mike Norris, Owner & Publisher
Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com
Monthly Issue
April & May , In This Issue:
2013
Earns State Titles at Shooting Event!
Michael Ramirez
Tumbleweed Smith Good Neighbors Treasure Hunters Love Lessons Huddle Up! Breckenridge Wall Distribution Map Word Search Cisco Loboes Territory Welcome to Rising Star This Week In Texas History B.C. The Wizard of ID In Sickness & In Health
COVER ART: Eastland County Residents, Larry Bryant of Kokomo and Danny Norris of Carbon, pose with Sherrie Norris at the April 27th Texas State BPCR Championship held in Mexia, Texas. ~Staff Photo I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All. B:510-152550100200
C:255075150300
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Sherrie Norris,
Texas Conservative
Time Well Spent
vol.6 Issue 70
Daughter of County Line Owners,
Growing Up Small Town
@The Ranger Library
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How often does a father get to brag about one of his children receiving state-wide recognition? And out of those times, how many of the awards have nothing to do with a school-sponsored event? And out of those few, how many would involve an activity that promotes life-long Independence and Freedom with the exercise of our 2nd Amendment Rights? Wow! That list is getting short...but out of what’s left, how often is it that a father is bragging about his daughter in a largely male-dominated activity? Well, you fathers gather up your XBox boys and make ‘em read this....
Our daughter, Sherrie, has fallen in with a “big bang” crowd. I’m not talking about the TV show -- her “Paw” and Uncle Larry have introduced her to the world of competitive black powder cartridge rifle shooting and she appears to like it. Not only does she like hanging out at the shooting range with a bunch of old men, but she also likes to knock down a few more targets than they do as well. It’s her competitive nature being expressed by shooting at stuff! Paw says that if she’s going to keep shooting with them after this year’s nationals then she’s going to have to start loading her own ammo. Paw spends hours tracking loads and casings and collecting sheets and photos of bullet groupings, not to mention the time it takes to actually cast hundreds of lead bullets -- while Sherrie likes to just show up and shoot. Most of that comes from her hectic schedule of being a senior this year at Eastland High School and being a UIL recognized band member and talented jazz musician, plus having an active social life with the occasional night out with the girl friends or date night with boyfriend, Cody. But we couldn’t be prouder of her for actually spending quality time with her grandpaw in a predominantly male-dominated sport and actually holding her own against 65 other shooters at the recent Texas State Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Championships held in Mexia, Texas. At the end of the first day, Sherrie was shooting in the top 50% of the field and was out-shooting at least three of the top-shooters in the Master class, who were obviously having a bad day. Sherrie finished the first day as the top-scoring Junior and had shot a “double-A” score, out-shooting her B Class competitors and putting out a better showing than the A Class as well. There were only two other female competitors so there was no women’s division, but if there had been, Sherrie would have been #2. In the final results, Sherrie finished at the top of her class, taking the B Class High Shooter Award and State Champion as well as taking High Shooter Junior Division State Champion for shooting the highest score of the 20-and-under crowd. Because of her winning score in the Texas State Championship, she automatically advances to the A Class division for the National Championships this summer. Danny “Paw” Norris competes in the AAA Class and “Uncle” Larry Bryant competes in the AA Class. All three will compete in the National Championships in July this year in New Mexico and the family will take a little trip that weekend to show our support. ------
The National Rifle Association conducts national championships in eleven different categories of shooting sports and awards 179 annual trophies and trophy cups to various national-level champions within those eleven categories. In the black powder rifle category, the NRA offers four national trophies -- the Castle Trophy, the Shaffer Trophy, the North-South Trophy and the Arthur Jackson Trophy. The Castle Trophy and the Shaffer Trophy will be awarded again this year at the National Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Championships to be held this summer in Raton, New Mexico. For history and info, just Google “NRA Castle Trophy”
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Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com
3Growing Up Small Town
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, Mike W. Norris
A Touchy Subject...
Islamic Terrorists Live and Walk Among Us by Mike W. Norris
Where to begin? How about I start off by recognizing something that our extremely well-educated, elite leadership in Washington refuses to acknowledge even exists: Islamic Terrorists Live and Walk Among Us! What? That can’t be! Who? Where? Well, I suppose that several well intentioned running enthusaists were asking themselves that same question on the morning of the Boston Marathon -- no wait...I bet that the thought never even crossed their minds that morning. More likely they were concerning themselves with stretching their muscles and getting their game faces on for that iconic event. After all, this is America and we are as far away from third-world terrorism as you can get, right? Yea, that assumption sure did blow up in everybody’s face that afternoon didn’t it? Let me guess, my choice of words is in poor taste? No it isn’t....it’s the truth! The truth literally blew up in all of our faces that day and it is now proof positive that terrorists walk among us and I don’t care if it’s politically incorrect to say it out loud and call it for what it is. It’s still the truth. Now if you can get over your hurt feelings for a moment, I would like to know what our government leadership plans to do about it? Answer: Next question, please? I’m sorry that our president and his entire entourage of like-minded fools are still in denial that we even seem to have a problem. They are much too focused on trying to remove the threat of law-abiding American citizens owning personal firearms that they fail to see the obvious stupidity of their delusions while these two “Muslim Extremist” brothers tried to slaughter hundreds of innocent men, women and children using common kitchen cooking utensils! If it wasn’t so painfully ignorant of reality by our Washington leadership, it would make for a hilarious episode of Southpark on Comedy Central. Unfortunately, the only ones laughing about this are the radical Islamic terrorists themselves....huddled around their latest pornographic movie download and snickering over the complete and utter incompetence of the American “intelligence” community. I can see them
now, one slapping the other on the shoulder and uttering something like “Even the Russians tried to warn them about those two!” For decades, American children got up and went to school every day and practiced their disaster drills -- just in case the Russians actually did push their button before we pushed ours and the whole world came raining down on our heads without so much as 10-minutes warning. Now, American kids can’t even discuss terrorism, guns, explosives or other aspects of “man-made disasters” without risking expulsion from school! Frankly, if I was a teenager in school today, I would want to know which ones of my friends had guns and rifles at home so I would know who to hang out with for my own personal safety! I would want to know whose dad would be coming to the rescue with guns in-hand or whose house we would need to head to first -- then I would want to know who had
the biggest refrigerator or who had access to the most water! These are perilous times, folks! How many of your kids know how to cook on an open fire instead of punching the “pizza” button on the microwave? How many of those kids can even start a fire without using a giant, red-handled clicker and lighter fluid? You better take your kids out camping, hunting and fishing while you still can because if these liberal anti-gun freaks have their way whole generations of future Americans could starve to death waiting for the USPS Food Delivery truck to show up during a postal union workers’ strike. What? You think they will actually let you use your firearms after they win the argument that the 2nd Amendment only says you can own a personal firearm but doesn’t say you can use it for anything? Continued on page 11...
Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com
4Texas Conservative
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, Chuck Norris - The Man
In God We Trust United We Stand
By Chuck Norris
Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook’s “Official Chuck Norris Page.” He blogs at http://chucknorrisnews.blogspot.com.
America’s Founders vs. the IRS
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that agents for the Internal Revenue Service are bypassing warrants and sifting through the email and other electronic communications of American citizens. Those documents disclosed that “agents were told they didn’t need a warrant to root through emails, texts or Facebook pages of people (the IRS) is investigating,” according to Fox News. Despite the fact that IRS email surveillance is a clear affront to privacy and civil liberties, last week, the IRS categorically stated that it has done nothing wrong. The agency denies countrywide accusations that it is violating the Fourth Amendment, which guards citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. According to a 2009 IRS employee handbook, the Fourth Amendment does not protect private emails because Internet users don’t “have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications.” And the American Civil Liberties Union is complaining that the IRS is dropping its guard on protecting citizens’ privacy by not deploying basic Web security, i.e., using “https” encryption. Instead of shielding citizens when they view various sensitive materials on its website, the IRS is offering them as prey to thirdparty e-predators. The ACLU explained: “That ‘s’ after the ‘http’ may seem insignificant, but it means a lot. It signifies that Google is using Secure Sockets Layer encryption, or SSL, to both encrypt and authenticate its communications. When you visit google.com and you see ‘https’ at the beginning of the address, it lets you know that your connection is secure, and that third parties -- such as your internet service provider, employer, or university cannot monitor what you’re doing through the use of network interception technology.” The IRS might retort that other government websites don’t employ “https” encryption to restrict third-party viewing, either, but the fact is that other government sites don’t bear our finances and a host of other private information (such as Social Security numbers) to the world. That is why the IRS should employ encrypting security on its website like any other financial or credit institution. The items above are a few more reasons the taxation system in
our country is broken and can’t be fixed. As I pointed out in last week’s column on how the IRS is robo-auditing your spending, our country desperately needs to abolish the present tax code and enact the FairTax -- a system, I believe, even our Founding Fathers would have been proud of. Best of all, it wouldn’t require a monstrosity the size of the IRS to run it. Remember that the IRS wasn’t started until nearly 100 years after the Revolutionary War, in 1862 as the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Its creation coincided with the creation of the income tax, which it was designed to collect. Both were the work of President Abraham Lincoln and Congress, which saw income taxes as necessary to pay for Civil War expenses. It is interesting to note, however, that the income tax law was revoked 10 years later, revived in 1894 and then ruled by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1895. Yet in 1913, it became law through the 16th Amendment. Ever since then, the income tax has deprived families of their rightful earnings, restricted our liberties and deprived our economy of money that could be invested in productive enterprises. Our founders did not penalize productivity through taxes the
way we do today. They had no IRS. And they believed in minimal taxation. They did not pay export taxes, which were unconstitutional, but they did tax imports. The founders believed in free trade within our own borders and a system of tariffs on imported goods. Most of our founders were opposed to domestic taxes. Though taxes were levied for some goods back then, for roughly the first 150 years of our republic (until the inception of the income tax in 1913), the burden of taxation was laid largely upon foreigners, not American citizens, via tariffs (imports). Thomas Jefferson shared with Gouverneur Morris in 1793, “It must be observed that our revenues are raised almost wholly on imported goods.” But even if some taxes were incurred by America’s citizens, most founders believed that taxes should be temporary rather than perpetual because of the temptation for politicians to abuse that taxation power. Jefferson spoke for many when he wrote, “Taxes should be continued by annual or biennial re-enactments, because a constant hold, by the nation, of the strings of the public purse, is Continued on page 11...
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5Michael Ramirez ■
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, Political Cartoonist
ADVERTISE NOW -- In Print & Online!!!
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7@The Ranger Library
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, Diana McCullough
By Diana McCullough
Late last Thursday afternoon, I was walking from our computer room to the kitchen, when I heard the sounds of skateboards on our library’s front porch. Gingerly, I opened our front door and stepped outside to visit with the “Skateboard Boys”. I reminded them that we had $35 of new, high-quality paint on our guard rails—the rails that separate Pine Street from our front yard—and that I wanted that paint to stay pretty. And the ramp up to the library’s porch was not intended for skateboards. I also repeated my wish to help them build a Skate Park. I asked, “How can we make it happen?” These young men had ideas! They suggested PUBLICITY—making flyers and getting the support of the townspeople. They suggested FUNDRAISERS, like selling something for a profit. The third suggestion was my favorite—they said they could WORK. We visited for a little longer before they rolled away. There’s always a mass exodus when our computers automatically shut down at closing time. I was on hold with a book company, looking at Weatherford’s Skate Park on my computer, when I asked Bob Davis, “Are those boys still out there? Let’s see if we can have a short meeting.” The Skateboard Boys LIKED my pictures of the Skate Park. They know the vocabulary, terms that sound foreign to me, terms like “grind rail” and “half pipe”. I asked if they could get something to me IN WRITING by next Wednesday—the day that I write—“We’re on it!” one of them replied. Tonight, beside me, I have their Internet images of skate park features: a fun box, kicker, launch ramp, half pipe, and a grind rail, and TWO different “maps” of how these items could be arranged. City Commissioner John Casey told me that it couldn’t be done. The 15 year old asked me about a budget. On Monday, after school, the Skateboard Boys researched Skate Parks, made flyers and a “Sign Up” sheet, all on their own accord, with no help from me. They taped the “Sign Up” sheet “for parents” onto our library’s front door. I think the purpose of this sheet is to garner support for their cause. As Bob Davis and I were leaving at closing time, they asked, “Will you sign up? You are grown-ups!” Bob and I and about twenty other adults have signed the page that they created. Our library’s #1 Volunteer gave our new chicken café a GLOWING review, which is better than he gives many of our books! Mr. Bob Davis told me that when he eats out, THREE things are important. 1. Friendly service. 2. CLEANLINESS (If it’s not clean, NOTHING else matters.) And 3. Deliciousness of the food. Our new chicken café, Peckers, located in the Adams’ Grocery Store building in downtown Ranger ranked HIGH in EVERY category. Peckers will officially open to the public on Saturday, April 20th. Yay Ranger! Thank you, Chris Paul, for investing in our town. I missed the Ribbon Cutting at our new Walking Trail, dedicated to our beloved Camilla Adams, but by ALL accounts this was a GREAT event for Ranger and this trail is a community blessing. Good WORK, Ranger Beautification Committee! MY boots were walking in Rising Star and Brownwood this past Saturday, which is ANOTHER nice story… Our Annual Report has now been submitted to the Texas State Library. And the Texas Library Association Conference is only two weeks away! This will be my ninth year to attend, but my FIRST year to attend this huge convention in Fort Worth. I am SO excited!!! One of my emails this week pertained to the value of “partnerships”. Libraries are STRONGER with good partners. Every library needs FRIENDS. I am thankful for many groups of good people and for individuals, too. Our library patrons are thankful for our library books and computers--and I am, too.
CAN Ranger build a Skateboard Park? Of course we can! Pictured are Nick, Noah, Ethan, Keith, and Christian.
Commissioner John Casey doesn’t believe that Ranger can afford a Skate Park. The CITY of Ranger has a difficult budget and lots of expenses. We need NEW partnerships. New resources. New ideas. And willing workers. “A child shall lead them.” And that kid may be riding a skateboard, so hold on!
Thanks to Renew Ranger’s Bill Kendrick and Theodore Roosevelt for the following quote: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Please take care, and as always… ENJOY READING! www.MyCounty-Line.com
Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com
8Time Well Spent ■
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, by Kathy Spencer
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Where Dreams Come True
The Connellee Hotel By Kathy Spencer MyCounty-Line.com Staff Writer
My hand reaches for the brass handle. As the glass door sweeps open, I step onto the parquet of light and dark marble. My eyes are drawn upward, past the columns adorned with the Grecian Urn motif, to the vaulted ceilings. The glow from the hanging glass fixtures emit an ambient light reminiscent of the past. The glossy, black, baby grand piano beckons one to sit and enjoy a tune. Perhaps even for those who are relaxing in the finely appointed settee and chairs opposite the area. A marble staircase of muted-rose color leads upward to a room for one to simply rest or prepare for an evening of gaiety. The comforting smell of coffee and the sound of voices in polite conversation float into the lobby. An attentive clerk across the marbled counter greets you with, “Hello”. “Welcome to the Connellee Hotel.” Although this scene is brought to mind upon entering the room today, it is from a vivid yesteryear. Today the past becomes the present. Debbie Wharton, Executive Director of the Connellee Hotel and Civic Center, graciously became my docent of sorts for the tour of this building that is so steeped in history and full of dreams that became a reality. You can feel her affection and appreciation for the building as Mrs. Wharton relates the colorful stories from former guests. Her research of the hotel has been an apparent labor of love. During the Oil Boom of the early 1900’s Charles Connellee had a dream of building his own hotel. Originally the site of their log home, construction began on the hotel basements and was delayed for a while before completion in 1928. It is located one block away from the Eastland County Courthouse at 209 Main Street. The Connellee dream became a reality when they booked their first guests. He is quoted as saying, “This is the proudest moment of my life. It is my dream come true.” Off of the main lobby is the West Room, the former location of the coffee shop. Free coffee was served there among other menu items up until closing in the early 70’s. Among other occupancies, it has served guests and community as a newspaper stand and as a barber shop. Today, I read from the actual menu used in “The Coffee Shop.” It was in a beautiful glass and wooden display case, acquired from the former jewelry store across the street. The case now holds jewels from The Connellee’s past. Displays of hotel memorabilia can be viewed there. This room offers a caterer’s kitchen. The East Room located off of the right side of the lobby and the West Room, are rental available for events such as showers, receptions, luncheons and other occasions. Returning to the lobby, I see the Eastland Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau located in offices behind the counter. Further on, I become reacquainted with two old wooden phone booths. These were the ones with the wooden seats and rotary dial phones. It is amusing to some of the younger generation that a telephone actually had to be dialed, not punched. “Yes, you have to put your finger in the hole and drag it around the dial, take your finger out, put it back in the correct hole for the digit or letter that you want, drag the dial and repeat until you complete your call as “dialed.” “Oh, so that’s what that means?!” Touring through several areas you will find plaques made of repurposed marble that was an original part of the building. They are engraved with
different poigniant stories about this this artist’s history and works seen hotel and its creation. Also, on the throughout the entire hotel. walls, you will see the eloquent and The hotel not only had an elevator colorful art of Galusha. Viewing with the wrought iron and brass his paintings makes a visit to The Connellee well worth the trip. Continued on page 12... Marble plaques inform visitors of
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10Tumbleweed Smith ■
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, Bob Lewis
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By Bob Lewis FORT CHADBOUORNE: A HISTORICAL TREASURE
Fort Chadbourne is located on highway 277 twelve miles north of Bronte in Coke County. It is a surprising place. I have been in a number of restored military forts, but have never seen such devotion, appreciation and love for a place as I saw at Fort Chadbourne. Eight generations of Garland Richards’ family have lived on the land that Fort Chadbourne occupied. The fort was built in 1852 and was active for fifteen years. Garland’s great great grandfather, Thomas Odom, bought the fort and land adjacent to it in 1877 for $500 in gold and took up residence in the officer’s quarters. He turned a barracks into a barn. This established headquarters for the Chadbourne ranch. I interviewed Garland Richards in 1999 when he was just beginning to do the restoration work on the fort. I felt at the time that he thought it was going to be an impossible task. “We didn’t know how to do all this when we started,” says Garland during a recent visit. “Most of the restoration work was done by a couple of ranch hands, some volunteers and myself. We operated under the ranching theory of operation, which is patch it up and make it last one more year. We applied this to a historical project and now it’ll last another 150 years.” Garland and his helpers worked on the fort a dozen years. Six buildings have now been totally restored and others, including the fort hospital, have been stabilized. One of the buildings is the only fully restored Butterfield Stage Station in Texas. The fort is now a showcase, especially the two million dollar visitors center that includes a stage coach, an Indian teepee, thousands of artifacts and 330 of Garland’s firearms that he has collected since he was in junior high school. One special area has the names of all 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients. Garland heads up the Fort Chadbourne Foundation, established in 1999. His wife Lana is secretary-treasurer. Ann Pate, a lifelong friend of the couple, gives tours of the fort and wrote a book about it. Garland’s ranch theory of making
something last another year certainly could not be applied to some of the outstanding and up to date audiovisual elements found at the fort. In addition to a video documentary that won an Emmy, an antique bar has a lithograph behind it that features a horseback rider that follows you as you walk past. It is created by moving optical glass tiles. Someone from the Smithsonian visited the fort and told Ann he would be very happy to have the folks who worked on the fort join his staff. All the funds for the restoration of the fort were donated. Admission is free. Longhorns and buffalo graze nearby. Although located in a remote area, the fort entrance is easy to find. It has a giant 1850’s Cavalry spur at the front gate. The fort is open Tuesdays thru Saturdays from 8 to 5. A living history event takes place the first weekend in May. The annual fundraiser is the third Saturday in September. THOUSANDS OF IRISES ARE IN BLOOM AT CLARK GARDENS
of loads of topsoil were hauled in to plant the trees and flowers. The place has events year-round, including a Mother’s Day catered luncheon. At Christmastime, 100 trees are lighted. Clark Gardens offers classes in yoga, photography, canning, cooking and aromatherapy. One unique area of Clark gardens is an elaborate display of miniature trains that travel on tracks barely over the heads of tourists. The trains have sounds and steam and pass by bridges, water tanks and a building that has three other sets of miniature trains on different sizes of tracks. A giant white tent covers 6,000 square feet of what was once Billie’s tennis court. “She decided that if she wasn’t going to play tennis any more we ought to make some use out of it,” says Max. Dances, receptions and all kinds of parties take place under the tent. Another large tent is in a separate location. Max made his money by developing a heavy piece of equipment that can cut through rock. It revolutionized rock cutting all over the world. At the height of laying fiber optic cable in Texas, Max was the main man. “It took me from 1969 to 1985 to develop the rocksaw and equipment to use it,” he says. One of his early rocksaws sits by a lake under a shed for the public to see. “I was sitting in my jeep out here with Billie and we were trying to figure out something put in this location. I told her we ought to put the rocksaw out here because it contributed so much to the making of this place. She told me that was a good idea.” Max, now 85, works in the garden every day. He had practically no gardening experience when he started Clark Gardens. “It was mostly trial and error, on the job training,” says Max. He and Billie laid out the place themselves. Nothing was ever written down on paper. Clark Gardens is open 365 days a year. Admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and children ages 5 thru 12.
“If gardening is work to you, don’t ever start it. Gardening should be a pleasure, something you do because you want to do It.” – Max Clark Clark Gardens is just east of Mineral Wells. Max Clark and his wife Billie opened it to visitors in 2000. “Billie and I built this for us, then decided since we had put so much into it, we felt it was selfish just to keep it for ourselves, so we opened it to the public,” says Max. The attractive garden has 35 acres of ponds, lakes, waterfalls, sculptures, a chapel for 60 or so weddings a year, fountains, pavilions, inviting walkways, statues and 3,000 irises in bloom right now. Azaleas, roses and dozens of drought-tolerant plants (that Max calls Texas adaptables) are in full color. “Mid April to mid May is our peak season,” says Carol Clark Montgomery, Max’s daughter, who helps run the place. Visitors can buy cannas, irises and day lilies. Max and Billie bought the land nearly fifty years ago. “It was worn out farmland that wouldn’t even grow www.MyCounty-Line.com mesquites,” says Max. Thousands Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com
11Growing Up Small Town
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■ Texas
, Continued...
Wake up people....these liberal freaks aren’t done yet and while they are busy trying to take over our lives through government mandates, the fabled Islamic Terrorist “boogiemen” are still out there. Lucky for us, the Islamic Terrorists don’t want to run our lives, they just want to end them. Ultimately, that makes them much easier to predict and deal with than the liberals who want to “fundamentally change” our entrie society. Just look at how many liberal cooks came out hoping that the Boston Marathon bombers were anything other than radical Muslims. And after the older brother was killed in an altercation with police, the liberal media began an outpouring of sympathy by openly questioning how scared the younger brother must be to be all alone after his brother’s death. Oh, what must be going through this young man’s mind as he continues to elude police? We can’t help but fear for this kid’s life should he suffer the same fate as his brother. Meanwhile, people in Boston hospitals were waking up from surgery realizing that they would never walk or run again because their legs had been blown off or that they were just lucky they
didn’t bleed to death from all the nails and bb-shot shrapnel that had been imbedded in their bodies! If this sole-surviving, wayward teenager ever hoped to amount to anything other than a sensationalized headline, he gave all that up when he placed his bomb along the side of the street and turned and walked away. And as far as I’m concerned, he gave up his rights to “remain silent” when he went one step beyond being a simple mass murderer and took up the Islamic banner of jihad against his fellow countrymen. He is a terrorist. He is an Islamic Terrorist. He was caught in the act of committing crimes against the citizenry of this country under the banner and direction of foreign influences. He was already a casualty of war and now that we have captured him in the commission of terrorist acts against his fellow citizens, he should be treated as a prisoner of that war. Pretty cut and dry in my opinion.
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Conservative, Continued...
a salutary restraint from which an honest government ought not to wish, nor a corrupt one to be permitted to be free.” That is why I say that if the Founding Fathers were alive today, I truly believe they would support the FairTax as a way forward and out of our taxation chaos and tyranny. As James Madison said, “taxes on consumption are always least burdensome because they are least felt and are borne, too, by those who are both willing and able to pay them; that of all taxes on consumption, those on foreign commerce are most compatible with the genius and policy of free states.” The FairTax would do away with all taxes and put in their place a single consumption tax. It would be equitable because we all would pay the same percentage. No one, whether poor or wealthy, could dodge his fair share. That is why I say that everyone in Washington needs to answer the question Jefferson asked at the dawn of our republic: “Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass the money through so many new hands?” If you answer that question in
the affirmative, call or write your representatives, and then contact the White House at 202-4561111 or http://www.whitehouse. gov/contact/submit-questionsand-comments to share your sentiments about abolishing the IRS and enacting the FairTax. (You can educate yourself and others about the FairTax by going to FairTax.org.) Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook’s “Official Chuck Norris Page.” He blogs at http:// chucknorrisnews.blogspot.com. To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www. creators.com.
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12Time Well Spent ■
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, Continued...
cage, it also had the accoutrement of a personal bathroom in each of its rooms. Quite an extravagant touch for 1928 accommodations! Upon arrival at the 7th floor, Mrs. Wharton guides me through the new and finely appointed Dispute Resolution Center. Floors 2 thru 6 are still in renovation stages. It seems there is a lasting impression on some guests that compels them to recreate the ambience and memories experienced within these walls. In keeping with this effect, once again, a dream became reality. In 1953, Mable Grimes Bradley attended her Senior Prom in the 8th Floor Ballroom. It was her great desire to hold their 50th Class Reunion in the same setting at the Connellee Hotel. The Eastland Foundation was formed and so began the restoration of the Connellee Hotel and Civic Center with the adjacent Grimes Memorial Garden. Restoration efforts
finished just under the wire for Mrs. Bradley’s class reunion. Some renovations are still needed and will be overseen by the foundation, which holds a 50 year lease on the building. Although The Connellee does not book overnight guests, The Eastland Foundation offers these facilities on the 7th floor to lawyers needing a meeting with their clients for interviews or depositions. Artwork from Galusha, and tasteful furnishings, create an impressive atmosphere of executive seating, to a smaller, more private or intimate meeting area. These rooms also lend an excellent view of The City of Eastland. Taking the modern elevator up to the 8th floor, I arrive at the Rooftop Garden. The door opens to a panoramic view of Eastland through multi-paned windows. Easily
■ Good
envisioned with beautiful place settings, flowers and entertaining music the Rooftop Garden will continue to make memories of a lifetime. Weddings, Proms and Reunions are a few of these occasions. Fittingly, looking out to the south, the original two storied, Connellee Estate can be seen from behind these windows. Today, the Texas Flag atop a roof across the way, wavers in an early spring mist. The charming cupola, pronounced (koo-pole-ah), is also visible from the east side. It was built to enclose the hotel water tanks. Outside of the rooftop ballroom is a promenade that surrounds a part of the Rooftop Garden. It isn’t hard to envision the guests strolling along in their finery, watching the lights twinkle below them at night. Seemingly, you can imagine the tinkling sounds of crystal, toasting to a bright future for a bride and
groom or strains of music floating across the air, entering the rooms below through an open window of yesteryear. It has felt a bit like being introduced to the past here at The Connellee. Eastland must be so proud. What a wonderful opportunity to be able to acquire the services offered for your special occasions in such a historical setting. It is a place of the past and the present, where future dreams become reality.
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Neighbors, Clint Coffee CLU ChFC State Farm Insurance® Agent
How Can I Save Money On Renters Insurance? With renters insurance, cutting costs doesn’t several insurance needs, be sure to talk to your have to mean cutting back. Here are a few easy agent about multiple line discounts. ways to save money on your renters insurance Choose The Right Deductible without skimping on coverage. A deductible is the amount of a covered loss Reduce Your Risk, Reduce Your Rates or liability that you pay out of your own pocket. Where you live will play an important role In other words, it is the amount “deducted” from in determining your renters insurance rates. In any payout by your insurer. For example, if a general terms, prices will vary based on your fire causes $1,500 in insured damage to your state, city, and neighborhood. Safer locations personal property and your deductible is $500, mean lower rates, so renting in a low-crime area then your insurer will pay you $1,000. near a fire station may save you money. Your renters insurance premiums will reflect Your rates will also reflect the safety of the the deductibles that you agree to pay. Lower rental property itself. For example, an older, deductibles mean higher premiums; higher unrenovated building has a higher risk of deductibles mean lower premiums. Keep in electrical and plumbing issues, and that means mind that an insurer will not reimburse you for higher rates. Fortunately, steps as simple as a loss amount that is lower than the deductible. installing smoke detectors and fire extinguishers This means if your deductible is $2,000 and you in your apartment can mean real savings, even suffer $1,750 in losses, then you are entirely if you do rent an older property. Ask your agent responsible for those costs, even if the cause of about available safety discounts for your renters the loss is covered by your policy. insurance. When choosing a deductible, think carefully about the out-of-pocket costs that you are willing Bundle And Save – and able – to pay. A disciplined saver may be Many insurers offer significant discounts if able to offset the greater risk of a high deductible you buy more than one policy with the company. with cash reserves. Others, however, will have to For renters, this usually means bundling auto balance the benefit of a higher deductible against insurance with a renters policy, but life, business, www.MyCounty-Line.com and other plans may also qualify. If you have Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com
13Treasure Hunters ■
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, Jerry Eckhart
By Jerry Eckhart To see more of Jerry’s treasure finds, search Facebook for “Jerry Eckhart” Random Thoughts on Treasure Hunting
wrong. If he cannot prove it wrong,
Think outside the box. That is
person has personal memories that might not be completely accurate, but because of their memory, it is accurate to them. Consider every story from several different aspects. Respect other people’s permission. Just as you should never go onto a property without the owner’s permission, you should never go onto a property without the person who obtained permission. Just because you were invited to search a certain place by a friend, you should respect that friend and avoid searching that property without them along. That is the same as if you were taken to a special fishing spot by a friend then went back without them. It is rude and discourteous. It will often ruin a good friendship. Never borrow a person’s books or research material unless they offer it. Don’t even ask and you won’t be told no. Go buy your own. Over the course of 50 years, I have lost many useful and irreplaceable books and items of research because someone borrowed them and never returned them. It took me a long time to learn this lesson and I have paid the price many times over.
when searching. Is something out of place? Where would the most likely place for lost items to be? Often, when you take the time to look at things from a different aspect you will find the clues. Not all items are underground. Keep your eyes open to what lies atop the soil as you swing your metal detector. Since I have started using a metal detector, I have found many more arrowheads than when I searched for them alone. The detector does not find stone artifacts, but because your eyes are concentrated on the ground directly ahead of you instead of roaming all over the place, you will be more likely to spot them. You will also sight marbles and other stuff just lying in plain view. As the title of this little article states, these are just some of the random thoughts on treasure hunting I have from time to time. Maybe they will help you in your quest.
Editor’s Note: Jerry recently underwent knee replacement surgery and was unable he will probably find something kind of a trite expression. Everyone to provide a new article for this issue. We have reprinted his previous article in this good. When talking with another uses it and it is overused, but it is still month’s space and look forward to a new Treasure Hunter article for next time. person, remember that the other true. Look for the odd and unusual
Treasure hunting is an interesting and diverse hobby that often becomes sort of an obsession. It encompasses many different aspects, but the one thing in common is that you must have an interest in history if you are going to succeed. No one gets lucky and finds a lot. Sure, you may occasionally stumble on to a nice find, but if you are going to do it consistently, you must be interested enough in history to get out there and research areas. Old houses out in the country, although picturesque and interesting do not produce as many nice coins as do those in urban areas. There was less human traffic around them. About one in ten will produce a nice find. The beauty of rural homes is that many interesting relics turn up. It is those old artifacts that give us a sense of what took place in years gone by. We all like for others to tell us about what they are finding and where it is found. That is one of the reasons that treasure hunting clubs are so popular. Folks like to feed off that information. The important thing about treasure hunting clubs is that we also learn from them. We learn how to hunt from the club meetings. We learn about various aspects of treasure hunting from the programs, and we have the companionship of others with like interests. Museums can be treasure troves of information about where you live. The displays in museums show us what artifacts look like. Those same displays may tell you where a particular item came from, thus giving us a nudge in the right direction. Museums often feature dioramas as to how people lived in the past which helps us when we go out to a place where there are only minute clues. Don’t pass up the multitude of letters and written material on display in the museum. It often holds information to locating old places not found anywhere else. Treasure hunt when you can. Conditions will not always be perfect so whenever you can. If you are not out there searching, you cannot find anything. Often the best finds are made under the worst of conditions. The secret of a successful treasure hunter is that he is out there searching whenever he can. A treasure hunter must be skeptical. He must always try to prove something
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14Love Lessons Learned So Far
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, Vicki Stiefer
By Vicki Stiefer Many Ways Men Say “No!!”
Have you ever put something before your man only to be told something like, “We’ll see” or “Let me look in to it”? News flash unsuspecting ladies, your one and only is telling you NO! Sometimes men will do anything to avoid conflict. Not again he thinks, we’ve already had words once today. Women are tough and a little scrapping only makes things more lively but men get hurt easier than you think. They run the country and make tough decisions every day, but tell a man to put down the donuts and you’ve cracked his soft heart. At work we normally get the job done in small groups and I noticed a guy in the group had put on a few pounds. He is by no means Jabba The Hut, but he’s not happy. He came to work wearing a turtle neck. I whispered in jest that when you try to hide what you don’t like about your body, most of the time that is the first thing people look at. Never mind the fact that it was 80 degrees outside! He was convinced no one would say anything about the turtleneck so I told him, be proud of your turkey neck! My comments didn’t go over so well. I spent most of the day apologizing and staring at a turkey neck. Other men in the group that I work with really enjoy getting out of work as much as possible. So they say no in a variety of ways. Jeff always says, “I’ll put it on my to-do list but I’m not making any promises.” He then sneaks out for the daily coffee and apple fritter run, which is starting to show. One of my favorites is Samuel who really thinks he is the toughest among us always drops the very subtle, “Vicki, let me do what I do.” And then he never does it. Samuel is by far the boldest. Most women I know just snicker and are not impressed when he struts down the hallway high fiving his buddies thinking he has just pulled one over on somebody. At home, being told NO is even less subtle than being told NO at work. The love of my life’s favorite deflector is, “I’ll do it the next commercial.” And then when I am out of the room he fast forwards the DVR. Yep, that’s the man I married. Ladies, they look handsome standing up there in their tux, but once the tux shop returns your deposit all bets are off! That’s why my Mom said it’s very important to know a man in all seasons. One last NO to get you thinking. You are driving in the car and you are telling your hubby about something you would like to do. Now you know he would never do what you are describing. He smiles very pleasantly and looks in your direction with loving eyes and says, “Whatever you want.” Translation...N-O!
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15Huddle Up! ■
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www.MyCounty-Line.com ~ April & May 2013 v6.70 ~ www.Facebook.com/mycountyline , Matt Swinney
By Matt Swinney
The month of April is here, and weather is getting warmer, and that means one thing, Baseball is here. For this month’s article, I thought I would preview the Major League Baseball season, and preview the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. First off, let’s preview the Texas Rangers. The Rangers, under head coach Ron Washington, finished the 2012 baseball season with 93-69 and finished second in the American League West. The Rangers clinched a wild card berth, but lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League wild card round. The Rangers, during the off season, had to deal with if they were going to re-sign Josh Hamilton or not. Josh decided to sign elsewhere as he signed a 5 year, $125 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Angels. The Rangers did sign former Astro Lance Berkman, but, other than that, decided to stand pat. The pitching staff also got hit hard as three key components of their bullpen, Mike Adams, Mark Lowe and Koji Uehara, to free agency. They will also start the season with Neftali Feliz, Colby Lewis, Martin Perez, and Joakim Soria on the disabled list, and that means Washington will have to mine his bullpen to round out his rotation. Be looking for the Rangers to battle for a playoff spot and win 90 games, but it will be tough as the American League West will be tough as three to four teams will be battling for two playoff spots, Angels, Seattle, Oakland, and the Rangers. Now, let’s preview the Houston Astros. The Astros, in their last year in the National League, finished last in the National League Central with a 55-107 record. With the Astros moving into the American League, they have a new head coach, Bo Porter, new uniforms, new coaching staff, and a new mascot. They also will have a low payroll with young
players. From opening day 2012 to opening day 2013, only second baseman, Jose Altuve, and Catcher, Jason Castro, were the only two players in the opening day starting lineup holdovers. The pitching rotation will consist of: Bud Norris, Lucas Harrell, Phillip Humber, Brad Peacock, and Erik Bedard. The new closer for the Astros this year will be Jose Veras. Veras will replace Wilton Lopez, who went elsewhere in the off season. The biggest addition in the off season for the Astros was Designated Hitter/First Baseman Carlos Pena, who comes to Houston from the Tampa Bay Rays. Expect the Astros to play their heart out, but it won’t be enough as this young team will take their lumps as in their inaugural American League season, they will finish in last place in the American League West. In my opinion, the Oakland
Athletics will once again win the AL West, followed by the Rangers, Angels, Mariners, and then the Astros. In the American League, my playoff teams will be: Toronto in the AL East, Detroit in the Central, Oakland in the West, and the wild card teams will be the Yankees and the Rangers. For the National League, the playoff teams, according to me, will be: Washington in the NL East, Cincinnati in the Central, San Francisco in the West and the NL wild card teams will be the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers. That’s how I see it. Take Care and Happy Reading!!!!
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Independent Reps New Medical Clinic to Open in Cisco Hendrick Health System is pleased to announce, through joint efforts with Eastland Memorial Hospital, the opening of a family medical clinic in Cisco. Larry Maples, DO, a Family Practice physician in Eastland, will run the clinic and continue to serve on Eastland Memorial Hospital’s medical staff. He will begin seeing patients April 15. Several months ago, Eastland Memorial Hospital approached Hendrick Health System with the idea of establishing a clinic in Cisco. The hospital was concerned that a neighboring community did not have access to local healthcare. To alleviate this problem, Eastland Memorial Hospital collaborated with Hendrick by approaching Dr. Maples with the concept of opening a practice in Cisco. Dr. Maples agreed to do so, and the plans for a clinic were in motion. The building is located at 1619 W. Hwy 206 and is owned by Hendrick Medical Center. Renovation is currently underway. Dr. Maples received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and completed his Family Practice residency at the University of Texas Health Center in Tyler. He is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.
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18The County Line
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■ , Mike W. Norris The County Line Distribution Area
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County Line Word Search
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Find the hidden words and decipher the secret message!
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Visit www.MyCounty-Line.com Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com
20This Week In Texas History
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, by Bartee Haile
By Bartee Haile CHEROKEES SEND “SAVIOR” TO HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS
With a death sentence hanging over his head, John Dunn Hunter spent another sleepless night on May 7, 1827 praying for a last-minute reprieve that would spare his life. More often than not, the blame for the clumsy attempt to seize East Texas from Mexico is pinned on the brother empressarios, Haden and Benjamin Edwards. But in truth the brains behind the sloppy scheme was none other than a former Cherokee captive, whose dream of a tribal homeland wound up costing him his life. With the 1824 publication of his best seller Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America, John Dunn Hunter caught the public fancy on both English-speaking sides of the Atlantic. Claiming he was kidnapped in childhood by the Cherokees, Hunter described in gripping detail his years among the exotic aborigines. Thousands of readers in the United States and Great Britain read the spellbinding saga from cover to cover. At the peak of his popularity, Hunter suddenly stepped out of the limelight in order to save his former keepers from savagery, or so he said. He soon disappeared on his mysterious mission of mercy. For Richard Fields, the half-breed chief who led the tribe to Texas in 1820, the white messiah could not have come at a better time. Maybe the famous author could convince hard-headed Mexican officials to recognize the Indians’ right to a chunk of Texas. Hunter spent most of 1826 on the Mexico City merry-go-round pleading the Cherokee case before an endless series of bored bureaucrats. By revealing his personal plan for the relocation of several transient tribes to the northernmost province, he inadvertently painted himself into a political corner. The last thing the apprehensive authorities wanted was another wave of homeless warriors. The discouraging report from Hunter was the last straw for Fields and his restless braves. Buying much needed time to solicit support, he persuaded his red brethren to postpone going on the warpath for two more weeks. As expected, Hunter found the Edwards brothers extremely receptive to his harebrained proposal. From their point of view, an armed uprising offered a sure-fire way to prevent their eviction from Texas and to establish a private empire. Promising the Edwardses the backup of a horde of Indian allies, Hunter encouraged them to strike hard and fast. Benjamin Edwards and 30 followers took Nacogdoches by storm on Dec. 16, 1826 and defiantly declared the Republic of Fredonia. Four days later, Hunter showed up with Fields and an assortment of lesser chiefs, and a pact was signed which formalized the united front. But the revolt never got off the ground. Under the firm leadership of Stephen F. Austin, Anglo-American colonists condemned the reckless rebellion. The press in nearby Louisiana took the same critical line and effectively dammed the flood of volunteers counted on by the Edwardses. Throughout East Texas, the brothers’ high-handed conduct in past disputes came back to haunt them as their neighbors wished them only the worst. Hunter fared no better with the Cherokees, who had come under the influence of the ambitious chiefs Bowles and Big Mush. Mustering a mere 30 braves, Hunter hurried back to Nacogdoches, where half went
The Fredonian Rebellion, between December 21, 1826 – January 23, 1827, was the first attempt by Anglo settlers in Texas to secede from Mexico. ~Wikipedia
home in disgust after finding the drunken Fredonians fighting among themselves. Working overtime to avoid needless bloodshed, Austin and the U.S.-born Mexican agent, Peter Ellis Bean, coaxed the central government into granting amnesty to the conspirators. Bean wrote to the rebels, “It is not too late. We have it in our power to forget past errors.” Displaying more bravado than good sense, the doomed insurgents spurned the peace offering. The cagey Bean knew better than to put all his diplomatic eggs in one basket and secretly slipped into the Cherokee camp behind the backs of Hunter and Fields. A private talk with Bowles and Big Mush set the stage for a slick double-cross. Returning for a final frantic appeal for reinforcements, Hunter and Fields were taken prisoner. With their Indian comrades out of the picture, the handful of Fredonians fled across the Sabine River. The rebellion was done for.
As for Richard Fields, his fate was sealed. Only over his dead body could the rival chieftains climb to the top of the tribal pecking order. Hunter, however, posed a unique problem because the Cherokees were understandably hesitant to execute a white man. All doubt was dispelled, when the Mexicans insisted justice had to be color blind under the unusual circumstances. Hunter was hauled before a Cherokee court, convicted of a convenient charge and condemned to death. On May 8, 1827, the Indians handed their self-appointed savior a one-way ticket to the happy hunting grounds, and the muddleheaded mastermind of the Fredonian Rebellion was put to death by his fickle friends. Bartee Haile welcomes your comments, questions and suggestions at P.O. Box 152, Friendswood, TX 77549 or haile@pdq.net www.MyCounty-Line.com
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23The Wizard of ID ■
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Another New Surprise
Well I kind of dragged my feet this last month.... in case you haven’t noticed, this issue of The County Line is coming out a couple weeks late. There’s a pretty good reason for this -- Ruthie developed a complication. We were just getting Ruthie settled back into a routine...we had taken her down to Dr. Deluca’s to let Charla check her out and get all of her medications on file and she had her first visit with a neurologist this past month. Things were clicking along pretty good when Ruthie got unexpectedly sick. She was just getting over that when we took her for a weekend get-a-way for her birthday. We drove down to Mexia, Texas and watched Sherrie compete in the Texas State Black Powder Shooting Match! It was supposed to be a camping trip, but after Ruthie got sick it turned into a roadside motel overnighter...which was still a nice change of pace and Ruthie got to feeling much better and she had a great weekend. The Monday after, Sherrie was home for her offperiod from school and Ruthie was in the living room with her watching TV. I went to the back bathroom to get cleaned up and ready for Ruthie’s afternoon dialysis in Abilene. Suddenly, Sherrie started yelling for me and I could hear her asking her mother what was wrong, “Mom! What’s wrong, mom?!” There was a gut-wrenching sound to Sherrie’s voice and I knew something had gone really, really wrong....so I didn’t know what to expect as I came running through the kitchen and around the corner....... Ruthie had just had a seizure and she had fallen almost completely out of her wheelchair -- the only thing that kept her from falling on the floor was the fact that she fell head-first over the gas heater! Sherrie was scared that she had burned herself on the heater, but she had just turned it on for her mother and I reassured her that it wasn’t hot enough yet to burn anything. Of course I confirmed that when I helped Ruthy sit back up in her chair....no burns, thank God! But that was just the beginning.....Ruthie’s eyes were closed, tears were literally flowing from her clinched eyes, her nose was running like a faucet from both nostrils and there was a tremendous amount of bubbly drool all over her mouth and chin. She was breathing, but she looked like she was drowning in her own mucus...it was terrible and it only took me an instant to start barking orders at Sherrie... “Bring me the paper towels! Grab my phone!
Bring it to me! You did the right thing, Sherrie... you did good, honey!” Sherrie was pacing...she wanted to run but she wanted to help....she was walking in circles and grabbing the things I was telling her to and running back and forth to me. I grabbed the paper towels and just threw the roll to the floor while holding on to the end.... the unspooling towels tore about half-way to the floor and I started whiping Ruthie’s face -- all the way from her eyes down to her chin....she was on the verge of consciousness...just there enough to hold her head up as I was calling her name, “Ruth, Ruth...talk to me, Ruthie...are you OK? Ruth?” Once I got her face dried off and she was able to blink her eyes and focus on me when I called her name, I asked Sherrie to hand me the phone. I called mom, “Mom...I think Ruthie had a seizure, something’s wrong, I need you here...” Mom tried to calm me down and she tried to run me through the normal problem solving routine we seem to go through....what’s her sugar, what’s her blood pressure, etc. I cut her off, “Mom I need you here,” and I hung up. I went back to Ruthie and Sherrie and I moved her over to the recliner. She looked like she was having a deep insulin reaction -- super low blood sugar, I forget the technical term for it but we’ve seen it before. I had Sherrie bring me some juice and I propped Ruthie back in her wheelchair. I started getting Ruthie to sip on the juice from a straw but she was just barely able to follow my instructions. This was bad. At that point, I called 9-1-1. I had to walk to the kitchen in order to keep control of my voice...and I calmly requested paramedics and an ambulance, stating my wife appeared to be suffering from low blood sugar and possibly a seizure. The call was short and sweet, all info relayed correctly and it was only a few minutes before the EFD first responders arrived. Shortly after we went over Ruthie’s vitals, mom and dad showed up and the ambulance arrived. Ruthie was transported to Eastland Memorial and while she was there she suffered a second seizure. They stabilized her and under consultation with her neurologist, they released her to our care and we took her to Abilene for her dialysis session. ---Can you imagine how significant an advantage the local dialysis center will be once it is fully operational????---
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Ruth Norris Benefit Fund
930 East Main Eastland, TX 76448 (254) 629-3282 Credit Card donations can be made online at:
www.PeachyTurtle.org That was a couple weeks ago. Since then, I am attuned to Ruthie’s every hiccup, every groan or sigh....every waking moment has been half absorbed with work on the newspaper and half listening out for any sign of Ruthie suffering another seizure -- but so far she has not expereinced any other problems and I am starting to get back to a more relaxed mental state. That’s been the most notable events of our last few weeks. Maybe the next few weeks will be more relaxed and not so “exciting”. Please continue your prayers for Ruthie and for our family. They are very much appreciated!
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Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 www.facebook.com/mycountyline ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.mycounty-line.com www.facebook.com/sherriesmom