Monday, February 4, 2013
From Sunday school series
This post is for my Sunday school lesson elaboration. As soon as I have time I will get back to this post. Thanks, Emily
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Relationships: Bound by the past, the present, the future
I was so excited when I received an invitation to the wedding of one of my dearest friends. This wedding was special not only because Helen Morphis was a friend but also because she was 70-years old marrying for the first time. We all thought she was a confirmed old maid school teacher and now at 70 she was planning to change her life and marry, not just any man; she was marrying a preacher.
As soon as the wedding invitations were out, the gossip lines were open providing an opportunity for old friends to communicate again after several years of retirement. Of course, we were happy for her and excited that her wedding would give all of us an opportunity to see each other again and catch up on what was going on in everyone's lives.
The day of the event called for a 150-mile drive to Beaumont for me and a 150-mile return trip to Garrison several hours after dark. The logistics did not matter - come rain or shine, I planned to attend Helen's big event and spend time laughing and visiting with my friends. It would be just like old times!
At least 40 teacher friends were present. These were women with whom I had shared all sorts of experiences. We raised our families together and taught each other's kids. We sat in the teachers' lounge five days a week and talked about our successes, our failures, our dreams, our families and told each other our deepest, darkest secrets. We shared everything there was to share for approximately 30 years.
Well, it really was great to see everyone again. They all seemed to be doing well and most everyone looked about like they did when I last saw them.
After the initial "hello, what have you been doing, have you seen so and so lately and what is she doing now," we found that we really didn't have that much to share for some reason.
Our lives had changed. We didn't spend our time at school anymore so school wasn't the common denominator for our relationship. We were all from different backgrounds, different towns, different colleges, different family structures. Without school we were free to go our separate ways, and there was little left to hold us together.
After about an hour, I was ready to go home. I was ready to go back to Garrison, to my husband Stacy, my friends, my church and my life. What used to be is no more and can never be again. Those 30 years associated with school and teaching are now a part of my past. For all practical purposes the door on those 30 years is closed.
But with the closing of one door there is always an opportunity to open another. I have taken that opportunity and am as busy and involved with my life today as I was before. Yes, things are different. I miss my children who live miles away. I miss my deceased husband Roger who died at age 57. But I don't miss the relationship I had with my friends. I really don't, and I realized why at Helen's wedding when I discovered that those relationships are different now because the common denominator of career is gone.
Now my relationships here in Garrison, Texas are based on a common denominator as broad as all of eternity. As I remember all the way back to 1946 when I was 7 years old, many of the very same Garrison friends I have today attended First Methodist Church with me more than one half century ago.
Our relationship transcends common denominators like school, profession, students and teachers. Our relationship is anchored in the spirit of God's Church as we share our blessings here in Garrison, Texas, where we are bound by the past, the present and the future.
As soon as the wedding invitations were out, the gossip lines were open providing an opportunity for old friends to communicate again after several years of retirement. Of course, we were happy for her and excited that her wedding would give all of us an opportunity to see each other again and catch up on what was going on in everyone's lives.
The day of the event called for a 150-mile drive to Beaumont for me and a 150-mile return trip to Garrison several hours after dark. The logistics did not matter - come rain or shine, I planned to attend Helen's big event and spend time laughing and visiting with my friends. It would be just like old times!
At least 40 teacher friends were present. These were women with whom I had shared all sorts of experiences. We raised our families together and taught each other's kids. We sat in the teachers' lounge five days a week and talked about our successes, our failures, our dreams, our families and told each other our deepest, darkest secrets. We shared everything there was to share for approximately 30 years.
Well, it really was great to see everyone again. They all seemed to be doing well and most everyone looked about like they did when I last saw them.
After the initial "hello, what have you been doing, have you seen so and so lately and what is she doing now," we found that we really didn't have that much to share for some reason.
Our lives had changed. We didn't spend our time at school anymore so school wasn't the common denominator for our relationship. We were all from different backgrounds, different towns, different colleges, different family structures. Without school we were free to go our separate ways, and there was little left to hold us together.
After about an hour, I was ready to go home. I was ready to go back to Garrison, to my husband Stacy, my friends, my church and my life. What used to be is no more and can never be again. Those 30 years associated with school and teaching are now a part of my past. For all practical purposes the door on those 30 years is closed.
But with the closing of one door there is always an opportunity to open another. I have taken that opportunity and am as busy and involved with my life today as I was before. Yes, things are different. I miss my children who live miles away. I miss my deceased husband Roger who died at age 57. But I don't miss the relationship I had with my friends. I really don't, and I realized why at Helen's wedding when I discovered that those relationships are different now because the common denominator of career is gone.
Now my relationships here in Garrison, Texas are based on a common denominator as broad as all of eternity. As I remember all the way back to 1946 when I was 7 years old, many of the very same Garrison friends I have today attended First Methodist Church with me more than one half century ago.
Our relationship transcends common denominators like school, profession, students and teachers. Our relationship is anchored in the spirit of God's Church as we share our blessings here in Garrison, Texas, where we are bound by the past, the present and the future.
Stacy Adams Celebrates 75 Big Ones
Stacy Adams is a Garrison, Texas native as were his parents and grandparents dating back to the 1890's when his family settled in the Henning and Caledonia communities. Young Stacy Adams lived not more than a quarter-mile from his Adams grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins and about nine miles from the Caledonia community where his Skelton relatives on his mother's side lived.
Both sides of his family, Adams and Skeltons, produced 18 Uncles and Aunts and approximately 60 - 65 first cousins. More than one century later the Adams/Skelton relatives are disbursed all over the nation and certainly number well into the hundreds.
One of Stacy's earliest relationships, excluding that of his mother Mellie and father Jimmy, was the relationship he had with his only sibling, his sister Jewel Long. Jewel was fourteen years his senior and related more like a loving mother than a sister.
When asked about his sister Jewel, Stacy said, "We always got along and as far as I can remember, we never had an argument or even a cross word between us. She was gentle and loving and treated me much better than I deserved."
Stacy's East Texas heritage and all of those relatives undoubtedly molded his value system instilling a true love for his family and country life. The happy days of the mid-30's, 40's and 50's imprinted his character in such a way that he could never escape the idealistic essence of Garrison, Texas.
The amazing thing about Stacy's life-style today is that he
is still immersed in that perfect hometown essence, viewing present day events through experienced eyes that remember all of the details of the "wonder years" of days gone by.
According to Stacy, "If you have good memories of home as I have, you want to be there with your friends and family. Even the nostalgia associated with the hard times and sorrows of life makes home more meaningful. Growing up in the country is probably somewhat like growing up in Heaven. I remember it to be a kid's world with a whole town to explore and good friends to hang around with. It was then and still is today the best place to be."
But------that was THEN, 1932, and this is NOW, Seventy-five years later - 2007.
Of course the past is what makes all of us who we are today and that includes our guest of honor Stacy Adams who on March 28 will be 75 years old, that's three-quarters of a century, folks. The passage of time has NOT altered Stacy. The person I just described, the one who loves country life and loves his family, is the same Stacy Adams sitting here today.
Today's Stacy is, of course, my husband, Jim's father, Patsy's, Bud's, Annie's and John's beloved Unk. He is also a grandfather, an uncle, a great-uncle, a stepfather a step-grandfather and a step-great grandfather. He is all of the above as well as your good buddy and, as always, the perfect person to ride the country roads and hang out with.
Thank you for being here today to celebrate this
once-in-a-lifetime event: 75 Big Ones
Jeanette Kemp has the Last WORD
Our Aunt Jeanette had the last word on just about everything. Well maybe not everything in the whole world but everything that truly mattered. She was, in fact, the last word on everything that had anything to do with gardening and God's bounty. She was the undisputed expert on how to plant it, pick it, prepare it, can it, freeze it, season it, cook it, serve it and clean it up after everyone had their fill and left the table.
She was most certainly the last word on sharing the bounty of her garden. If you visited the Kemps, you left with a package of peas or a bag of tomatoes, and if you looked particularly needy, she would throw in an Angel Trumpet plant just for good measure. If you were not fortunate enough to visit her at home, she would hunt you down with a cake or pie -- just ask the ladies at the beauty shop, or the folks at the bank or news office or the bridge club.
In addition to being the last word on gardening, Our Aunt Jeanette also had the last word on family heritage. She may well hold the record on hosting large family reunions at her home with approximately 22 annual events chalked up to her credit, come rain or come shine. She and Delbert arranged their lives around planting, picking and family reunion planning. When you talked to Jeanette in the spring of the year, there was a special excitement in her voice because she was on deadline for another Pruett family reunion always scheduled for the second Saturday in April.
Jeanette was the youngest of ten children and she knew the benefit of a loving family relationship. Because she had a loving family as a child, she wanted that experience to be a part of the lives of her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Her love of family is exemplified in the effort she expended on the annual Pruett Reunion. Remember she didn't host just one or two events. She carried the family torch for twenty-two years. Thanks to Aunt Jeanette, that reunion has now taken on a life of its own with a whole new generation of Pruett descendents still coming together in the spring of the year to celebrate their love of family.
Jeanette truly loved the life she and her beloved Delbert created on their Cedar Bluff Road Farm. They worked together carving their home from raw land and loving every blessing of nature that God sent their way: the morning sun, the evening breezes, the spring rains, the March winds, and winter's cold. Every day was a gift and an opportunity to serve their purpose as stewards of God's beautiful, bountiful earth.
Aunt Jeanette, I still want my cleomy seeds you promised me the other day. I'll plant them and I'll think of you. We'll all attend the Pruett Reunion in the spring of the year knowing that you planted those family heritage seed for our benefit and the benefit of our children and our children's children.
Aunt Jeanette, the last word is yours. We know it to be just one, perfect word and that ONE word is LOVE.
She was most certainly the last word on sharing the bounty of her garden. If you visited the Kemps, you left with a package of peas or a bag of tomatoes, and if you looked particularly needy, she would throw in an Angel Trumpet plant just for good measure. If you were not fortunate enough to visit her at home, she would hunt you down with a cake or pie -- just ask the ladies at the beauty shop, or the folks at the bank or news office or the bridge club.
In addition to being the last word on gardening, Our Aunt Jeanette also had the last word on family heritage. She may well hold the record on hosting large family reunions at her home with approximately 22 annual events chalked up to her credit, come rain or come shine. She and Delbert arranged their lives around planting, picking and family reunion planning. When you talked to Jeanette in the spring of the year, there was a special excitement in her voice because she was on deadline for another Pruett family reunion always scheduled for the second Saturday in April.
Jeanette was the youngest of ten children and she knew the benefit of a loving family relationship. Because she had a loving family as a child, she wanted that experience to be a part of the lives of her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Her love of family is exemplified in the effort she expended on the annual Pruett Reunion. Remember she didn't host just one or two events. She carried the family torch for twenty-two years. Thanks to Aunt Jeanette, that reunion has now taken on a life of its own with a whole new generation of Pruett descendents still coming together in the spring of the year to celebrate their love of family.
Jeanette truly loved the life she and her beloved Delbert created on their Cedar Bluff Road Farm. They worked together carving their home from raw land and loving every blessing of nature that God sent their way: the morning sun, the evening breezes, the spring rains, the March winds, and winter's cold. Every day was a gift and an opportunity to serve their purpose as stewards of God's beautiful, bountiful earth.
Aunt Jeanette, I still want my cleomy seeds you promised me the other day. I'll plant them and I'll think of you. We'll all attend the Pruett Reunion in the spring of the year knowing that you planted those family heritage seed for our benefit and the benefit of our children and our children's children.
Aunt Jeanette, the last word is yours. We know it to be just one, perfect word and that ONE word is LOVE.
The more things CHANGE, the more they remain the same
The more things change
the more they remain the same
Five years ago I would have vehemently disagreed with this title. How can things change and remain the same? The very nature of change implies something new, different, strange and unsettling. If things change, by definition they are different. If they are different how can they possibly remain the same?
Through out the course of our 36 year marriage, my husband Roger Weatherly and I experienced the normal changes all families experience. In the early years before our children were born, we moved several times always in search of a better job and a nicer, larger house. Change was exciting. We were moving up in the world; we were getting ahead. Our family soon included a daughter and a son and our lives were filled with change and we loved it.
As the kids grew, there was baseball, football, band, friends, dates, cookouts, parties and finally college, graduations, weddings, and grandchildren, How does it happen so fast? It seemed that in the blink of an eye the kids were just kids and all of a sudden Roger and I were grandparents.
All of a sudden our public school and insurance company careers became long-term - 29 years for me and 35 years for Roger. It happened so fast. We were just kids ourselves and now 35 years later Roger and I were starring retirement in the face.
Retirement was a change that we longed for and we welcomed it. We were ready to move back to the home of our youth, build a new house, reacquaint ourselves with old friends, take long vacations, work in the yard, raise a garden, have family reunions, visit our children and grandchildren, become more involved in the church and do all of those things we never had time for while we were working and raising our family.
We almost made it full circle. We raised a family, completed careers, made it to retirement, but then Roger died bringing about a devastating change. Life as I knew it was gone. The months that followed his August 16, 1995, death were dark and sad. The sadness was so painful that I feared death for myself at times. What could life hold for me? Everything had changed.
Yes, everything had changed, but as the months passed I began to look forward to going to church where I was baptized so many years ago. I continued to reacquaint myself with the friends of my youth. Little by little all of the values I learned in Sunday school and church, all of the character traits instilled by my parents and teachers, all of the decisions in the name of truth, honesty and justice that Roger and I had made throughout our 36-year marriage focused me toward a new life.
I had suffered devastating change in every aspect of my life except what God had given me in the form of Christian values, character traits and integrity. Love, honesty, goodness, family values, caring, work, friends all remained the same. I still possessed all of those intangibles! I learned them as a child, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend and as an employee, and I still had them. The beauty of life and nature were also unchanged and were as vibrant and ever.
My life has continued in spite of devastating change. I remind myself of a gyroscope that falls off a table and bounces and crashes. But if given a little time it will remain true to its properties of design. It will regain its stability and continue spinning without a wobble just as before the fall.
Now I know it's true. Change is life. Change happens to all of us with or without a set of God-given values. As for me, I had much rather walk down this road of life with a good set of Christian values that will ensure the truth of the paradox: The more things change the more they remain the same.
the more they remain the same
Five years ago I would have vehemently disagreed with this title. How can things change and remain the same? The very nature of change implies something new, different, strange and unsettling. If things change, by definition they are different. If they are different how can they possibly remain the same?
Through out the course of our 36 year marriage, my husband Roger Weatherly and I experienced the normal changes all families experience. In the early years before our children were born, we moved several times always in search of a better job and a nicer, larger house. Change was exciting. We were moving up in the world; we were getting ahead. Our family soon included a daughter and a son and our lives were filled with change and we loved it.
As the kids grew, there was baseball, football, band, friends, dates, cookouts, parties and finally college, graduations, weddings, and grandchildren, How does it happen so fast? It seemed that in the blink of an eye the kids were just kids and all of a sudden Roger and I were grandparents.
All of a sudden our public school and insurance company careers became long-term - 29 years for me and 35 years for Roger. It happened so fast. We were just kids ourselves and now 35 years later Roger and I were starring retirement in the face.
Retirement was a change that we longed for and we welcomed it. We were ready to move back to the home of our youth, build a new house, reacquaint ourselves with old friends, take long vacations, work in the yard, raise a garden, have family reunions, visit our children and grandchildren, become more involved in the church and do all of those things we never had time for while we were working and raising our family.
We almost made it full circle. We raised a family, completed careers, made it to retirement, but then Roger died bringing about a devastating change. Life as I knew it was gone. The months that followed his August 16, 1995, death were dark and sad. The sadness was so painful that I feared death for myself at times. What could life hold for me? Everything had changed.
Yes, everything had changed, but as the months passed I began to look forward to going to church where I was baptized so many years ago. I continued to reacquaint myself with the friends of my youth. Little by little all of the values I learned in Sunday school and church, all of the character traits instilled by my parents and teachers, all of the decisions in the name of truth, honesty and justice that Roger and I had made throughout our 36-year marriage focused me toward a new life.
I had suffered devastating change in every aspect of my life except what God had given me in the form of Christian values, character traits and integrity. Love, honesty, goodness, family values, caring, work, friends all remained the same. I still possessed all of those intangibles! I learned them as a child, as a wife, as a mother, as a friend and as an employee, and I still had them. The beauty of life and nature were also unchanged and were as vibrant and ever.
My life has continued in spite of devastating change. I remind myself of a gyroscope that falls off a table and bounces and crashes. But if given a little time it will remain true to its properties of design. It will regain its stability and continue spinning without a wobble just as before the fall.
Now I know it's true. Change is life. Change happens to all of us with or without a set of God-given values. As for me, I had much rather walk down this road of life with a good set of Christian values that will ensure the truth of the paradox: The more things change the more they remain the same.
A Wave of Memories to Eternity
I was born a first child to Carson and Marie Nail October,22 1938, in Houston, Texas. My parents were originally form Mississippi and Louisiana. According to my daddy, he moved to Houston to escape cotton picking season and for an opportunity to work for the Southern Pacific Railroad. My mother who was a Louisiana school teacher with three years of college education was anxious to leave the one-room school house with its wood-burning stove, outdoor privy, and eight grade levels all in the same classroom. Ida Marie Mills married Carson Nail, packed her bags, left her family, moved to Texas and never returned to Louisiana or taught school again.
If I have any memory of those early days most likely it comes from what I've been told and what I've seen in old photographs. I know that in Houston we lived in a little house that was built by my daddy and some of his railroad buddies, and I know that we had a goat named Ally Oop. I also remember our neighbors, the Masons who lived across the street in a somewhat finer house than ours. The Masons had four daughters, Sister, Anna Marie, Deedles and Pam. The Mason family holds my earliest memories of family friendship. The two families kept in touch through the years and eventually, because of pleasant memories of each other, became neighbors again some 50 years later in Cleveland, Texas.
When I was two or three years old, Southern Pacific transferred my dad to Galveston to continue his signal work with the railroad. We lived in two different Galveston houses with the last one being located on Avenue P 1/2 not two blocks from the Gulf of Mexico sea wall. My memories are of a huge, two-story frame house with five gigantic palm trees in front lined adjacent to the sidewalk that bordered our Ave. P 1/2 block. Actually, the house was only a row house built to fit a 25 ft. city lot with most residents being renters. At three or four years of age, I thought it was a large and grand house, and we were as rich or richer than any neighbor on the block and, in fact, we were.
Galveston impressed me with its sea breezes, palm trees, wooden houses, mosquito nets, davenports, tropical decor, and easy life-style. The life-style certainly seemed easy to me: I was a kid with permission to play outside most of the day. I have vivid memories of the Gulf of Mexico and all of the fishing and commercial tourists piers along the sea wall. On special occasions, maybe only one occasion, our family dined out at the now famous Hills Restaurant. The restaurant was located on a street directly across from the sea wall. Of course, I remember it as a grand and fine place with little fish tiles built into the facade near the entrance. While on Vacation years later I found the old restaurant which had long since moved to another location. On that old original building, I found the little fish tiles under layers of dirt and grime, but my memory of that grand place with its exotic aroma has not dimmed. I can still smell it and see the white table cloths and snappy waiters and our family dining out in style.
After his work I often rode behind my dad as he peddled his bicycle to the sea wall. The salty breezes and the brightly clad people walking along the beach are forever implanted into my memory. I played in the gulf sand, attended kindergarten, made leis form Oleander blooms, ran up and down the sidewalk that bordered our block, and generally soaked up an understanding and a love for tropical life that remains to this day.
What are memories? They certainly aren't facts in which one can place any confidence. My memories are more like feelings or impressions that invade my mind on an every day basis. Why do I feel nostalgic every fall and at the same time feel exhilaration when the lights are turned on for the first football game of the season. I am happy when we go to the beach because I loved going there with my dad when I was a child in Galveston, Texas. Happy memories bring happy present day experiences. Sad memories may be conjured up from a past sad experience. It seems that those very first experiences with sound, sight, smell, and touch imprint us forever.
I am sobered by nostalgia and introspection, and I am exhilarated and excited by almost everything else. Thank you, Carson and Marie Nail, for balancing my memories which have in turn balanced my life, My memories, thanks to you two, have carried me far and I plan to ride this wave right through to eternity.
If I have any memory of those early days most likely it comes from what I've been told and what I've seen in old photographs. I know that in Houston we lived in a little house that was built by my daddy and some of his railroad buddies, and I know that we had a goat named Ally Oop. I also remember our neighbors, the Masons who lived across the street in a somewhat finer house than ours. The Masons had four daughters, Sister, Anna Marie, Deedles and Pam. The Mason family holds my earliest memories of family friendship. The two families kept in touch through the years and eventually, because of pleasant memories of each other, became neighbors again some 50 years later in Cleveland, Texas.
When I was two or three years old, Southern Pacific transferred my dad to Galveston to continue his signal work with the railroad. We lived in two different Galveston houses with the last one being located on Avenue P 1/2 not two blocks from the Gulf of Mexico sea wall. My memories are of a huge, two-story frame house with five gigantic palm trees in front lined adjacent to the sidewalk that bordered our Ave. P 1/2 block. Actually, the house was only a row house built to fit a 25 ft. city lot with most residents being renters. At three or four years of age, I thought it was a large and grand house, and we were as rich or richer than any neighbor on the block and, in fact, we were.
Galveston impressed me with its sea breezes, palm trees, wooden houses, mosquito nets, davenports, tropical decor, and easy life-style. The life-style certainly seemed easy to me: I was a kid with permission to play outside most of the day. I have vivid memories of the Gulf of Mexico and all of the fishing and commercial tourists piers along the sea wall. On special occasions, maybe only one occasion, our family dined out at the now famous Hills Restaurant. The restaurant was located on a street directly across from the sea wall. Of course, I remember it as a grand and fine place with little fish tiles built into the facade near the entrance. While on Vacation years later I found the old restaurant which had long since moved to another location. On that old original building, I found the little fish tiles under layers of dirt and grime, but my memory of that grand place with its exotic aroma has not dimmed. I can still smell it and see the white table cloths and snappy waiters and our family dining out in style.
After his work I often rode behind my dad as he peddled his bicycle to the sea wall. The salty breezes and the brightly clad people walking along the beach are forever implanted into my memory. I played in the gulf sand, attended kindergarten, made leis form Oleander blooms, ran up and down the sidewalk that bordered our block, and generally soaked up an understanding and a love for tropical life that remains to this day.
What are memories? They certainly aren't facts in which one can place any confidence. My memories are more like feelings or impressions that invade my mind on an every day basis. Why do I feel nostalgic every fall and at the same time feel exhilaration when the lights are turned on for the first football game of the season. I am happy when we go to the beach because I loved going there with my dad when I was a child in Galveston, Texas. Happy memories bring happy present day experiences. Sad memories may be conjured up from a past sad experience. It seems that those very first experiences with sound, sight, smell, and touch imprint us forever.
I am sobered by nostalgia and introspection, and I am exhilarated and excited by almost everything else. Thank you, Carson and Marie Nail, for balancing my memories which have in turn balanced my life, My memories, thanks to you two, have carried me far and I plan to ride this wave right through to eternity.
Country Folks: Sylvia & J.P. Dobbs
The old saying that you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy perfectly applies to our hometown, country boy J. P. Dobbs. Notice: This description does not apply to his wife, Sylvia, because she was born in the city, raised in the city and has Dallas, Texas city-blood running through her veins.
The question here is how can two people with totally opposite backgrounds come together in marriage and make it for one-half century living ONLY in the country, and I do mean COUNTRY.
Have you been down Linn Flat Road lately? The two (Linn Flat Road and Country) are synonymous. It's where the pavement ends.
J.P. is the product of a long line of Garrison heritage. His mother lovingly called Curly DeLoney was born and raised on-farther-back-up Linn Flat Road where her parents and grandparents made their homes. Upon becoming a young woman, Curly married Preston Dobbs. The couple joined Garrison Methodist Church, sent their kids to Garrison Public Schools and thus began J.P.'s indoctrination into the wonders and beauty of East Texas country life. His was a life filled with fishing, gardening, tractor riding, swimming in the creek, horseback riding, camping and going deer hunting.
Sylvia, on the other hand, spent her formative years in several cities including Marshall, Longview, Houston and Dallas. Although she admits to being a city girl who loved all of the advantages of city life, she also admits that managing the changes associated with moving from one place to another was somewhat unsettling for her and pretty much of big deal when you get right down to it. Even before she met J. P. she solemnly vowed, " When I marry I am going to move to one place and STAY THERE."
What can a small town like Garrison, Texas offer a young couple starting their life together? Well, it has provided job opportunity. J.P. has spent many years in the banking business in Garrison and Nacogdoches. To his credit he has chalked up a 30-year career and has survived three banking takeovers. He presently serves on the Deep East Texas Electric Coop Board of Directors holding most if not all of the Board's official positions. Through the years his Garrison Methodist Church affiliation has utilized his talents including everything from plumbing cleanup to Finance Chairman. He is a lifelong member of the Garrison Lions Club and this year was aptly elected Garrison Citizen of the Year 2005.
Job opportunity for Sylvia has always been and continues to be the responsibility of her loving family. She and J. P. have two children, Kim and Jim who now each have two children of their own providing their parents with a total of four grandchildren. Mostly to Sylvia's credit, the Dobbs home is filled with treasures of tradition including everything from handmade Christmas ornaments to family photos and all sorts of family heirlooms. Sylvia is an avid collector displaying her treasures to promote her family heritage and her children's interests. She is also an accomplished writer with a decade of experience with the Garrison News. Her talents are too numerous to name but at the top of the list are her writing ability, church associated activities and friendships, jewelry collection, general love of all things antique, interior design and her handyman's pursuit of House Beautiful. She collects and displays beautiful things but is not above the painting and scraping drudgery of bottom-line home improvement.
So, maybe our city girl lucked-out when she met our hometown country boy at Stephen F. Austin State University so many years ago where they were both in pursuit of higher education. But what matters most to us is that they found each other, settled in Garrison, joined Garrison Methodist Church, built their home, raised their family and are right now in the process of living together happily ever after in the country.
The question here is how can two people with totally opposite backgrounds come together in marriage and make it for one-half century living ONLY in the country, and I do mean COUNTRY.
Have you been down Linn Flat Road lately? The two (Linn Flat Road and Country) are synonymous. It's where the pavement ends.
J.P. is the product of a long line of Garrison heritage. His mother lovingly called Curly DeLoney was born and raised on-farther-back-up Linn Flat Road where her parents and grandparents made their homes. Upon becoming a young woman, Curly married Preston Dobbs. The couple joined Garrison Methodist Church, sent their kids to Garrison Public Schools and thus began J.P.'s indoctrination into the wonders and beauty of East Texas country life. His was a life filled with fishing, gardening, tractor riding, swimming in the creek, horseback riding, camping and going deer hunting.
Sylvia, on the other hand, spent her formative years in several cities including Marshall, Longview, Houston and Dallas. Although she admits to being a city girl who loved all of the advantages of city life, she also admits that managing the changes associated with moving from one place to another was somewhat unsettling for her and pretty much of big deal when you get right down to it. Even before she met J. P. she solemnly vowed, " When I marry I am going to move to one place and STAY THERE."
What can a small town like Garrison, Texas offer a young couple starting their life together? Well, it has provided job opportunity. J.P. has spent many years in the banking business in Garrison and Nacogdoches. To his credit he has chalked up a 30-year career and has survived three banking takeovers. He presently serves on the Deep East Texas Electric Coop Board of Directors holding most if not all of the Board's official positions. Through the years his Garrison Methodist Church affiliation has utilized his talents including everything from plumbing cleanup to Finance Chairman. He is a lifelong member of the Garrison Lions Club and this year was aptly elected Garrison Citizen of the Year 2005.
Job opportunity for Sylvia has always been and continues to be the responsibility of her loving family. She and J. P. have two children, Kim and Jim who now each have two children of their own providing their parents with a total of four grandchildren. Mostly to Sylvia's credit, the Dobbs home is filled with treasures of tradition including everything from handmade Christmas ornaments to family photos and all sorts of family heirlooms. Sylvia is an avid collector displaying her treasures to promote her family heritage and her children's interests. She is also an accomplished writer with a decade of experience with the Garrison News. Her talents are too numerous to name but at the top of the list are her writing ability, church associated activities and friendships, jewelry collection, general love of all things antique, interior design and her handyman's pursuit of House Beautiful. She collects and displays beautiful things but is not above the painting and scraping drudgery of bottom-line home improvement.
So, maybe our city girl lucked-out when she met our hometown country boy at Stephen F. Austin State University so many years ago where they were both in pursuit of higher education. But what matters most to us is that they found each other, settled in Garrison, joined Garrison Methodist Church, built their home, raised their family and are right now in the process of living together happily ever after in the country.
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