A Little Nostalgia and Fond Texas Memories

When we 1st took on this blog I planned on doing mostly articles and not a whole lot of personal postings, if any. Well, things change and I'm feeling the need to do that very thing occasionally, if for no other reason than to memorialize myself...lol I hope some find it interesting enough to read. If not, just scroll on past. As always, feel free to leave a comment if you'd like.

This a collection of but a few of the many nostalgic memories of a pre-teenage boy’s times spent with his grandparents in the Texas Panhandle. This was all taking place in and around Lefors, Texas, which is a small ranching and oil and gas town built where the North Fork of the Red River and State Highway 273 intersect.

My paternal grandparents lived about 9 or 10 miles east of Lefors. A mile or so out of town, where the McLean highway turns southerly, you would go straight east on a county black top road that after a ways turned to dirt. This would be on the north side of the river. After taking the county road you would pass the old Coltexo gasoline plant. 5 or so more miles you would turn left on a dirt road for 3 or 4 miles. Their place was on the Davis ranch.

My paternal granddad (Papaw) worked as a pumper for The Texas Company, which would become Texaco in later years. My grandmother’s (Mamma) job was keeping the house, sewing, cooking, taking care of a big garden and canning the fruit and vegetables, and feeding the chickens and turkeys, just to name a few things. Oh yes, she also spent a good deal of time keeping up with me!

In the late 40's and 50's Lefors was bustling oil and ranch town of about 1600 or more residents. On summer Saturday evenings there were softball games at the square under the lights and a lot of town and country folk there. Two drug stores, a couple of grocery stores, a dry goods store, a theater, two beer joints, a pool hall, 2 or 3 gas stations and a great, cold well water, swimming pool! The Texas Company and Magnolia Oil Co. had yards there. A pure Norman Rockwell type of place for a kid to spend a lot of his youth. Sadly, the town as I remember it, is no more. The oil companies moved out and most of the town went with them.

My maternal grandmother (Lefors, a shortened version of Lefors Mama) lived about a 1/2 block off the square in a small house across from Trout’s Drug Store. Great hand packed ice cream and a big selection of comic books! She had raised 5 kids, by herself, during the great depression and up until World War 2. She didn’t accomplish this by being on welfare or social security either. She took in washing and ironing. I remember many nights laying in my little fold down bed listening to her tell me stories while she ironed; rotating hot, heavy, solid irons from the kitchen stove. No spray starch or sizing here!

When I stayed with my beloved Lefors I explored the old town, went swimming in the summertime, and snuck in the picture show with my friends. On occasion I would even be allowed to stay in the pool hall, drinking cokes and watching the old men play snooker, 42, or Moon dominos!

When on the ranch, after going with PawPaw to start his wells and gauge the tank batteries, I usually roamed the sand hills and river bottoms with my single shot 22 rifle, riding old Dude, and dreaming of cowboys, outlaws, and Indians that had ridden these very hills and pastures. When I wasn’t on old Dude, I was sometimes learning to drive Papaw’s 40’s something black Ford pickup, with him holding on for dear life! The 10 mile hole was a great swimming and gathering place for me and my friends on lazy summer days. All in all, not a bad place for a boy to be in the early to mid 1950's!