A Conservative View

LIFE CYCLE

PART ONE!

I look at things in segments as no one can remember all of the older events that happened. I try to forget things that could or should not have happened but no one I know has never had failures. One thing I always remember is a mother who was a cook, housekeeper, religious director, budget director, teacher, referee, guardian and punishment officer. From birth until I joined the US Navy when I was 17. My dad worked seven days a week until I was 15 and never had time to teach my brother and I about fishing, hunting, girls as he never had time to learn them himself. His biggest fears in life was to be robbed, killed and Moms’ temper. He never owned a home and we lived in rental property his entire life. His first task in every move was to have two or three locks on every window and door.

I actually do remember a few things before we moved from Mineral Wells TX, to Corsicana, TX in 1936. I will try to include events in Corsicana until our move to Grand Prairie after WW!! In late 1945. One of my proudest rewards was when I completed the first grade. My teacher wrote a note in my report card “Your son is quite the ladies man.” This is probably the most memorable event in my 92+ years. After two marriages totaling over 72 years and seven children, you may agree later. 

From 1937 until 1942 I spent the entire summer in Mineral Wells. My Aunt , Ethyln Miller, had raised my mother when her father Wesley Rike died in 1919. She was the best teacher I ever had. Her two daughters Jimmie & Margrett taught me how to drive when I was 11 in a 1936 stick shift Plymouth. 

My granddad, Jeremiah Alfred, was the county Clerk of Palo Pinto county. He would take me to the Courtroom when they were in session many times. He often took me to the Possum Kingdom dam to watch the construction. They used steam and jack hammers to drive the metal pilings, that was quite a memory. Once he took my grandmother Mamie and I to Mineral in the last car he had, a 1925 Chevrolet touring car. You had to have a water bag that hung in front of the radiator. After about 6 miles you had to add the bag of water to the radiator and refill the bag again. My granddad was a Lodge man and attended meetings several times a month. Mamie and I would get to go to the picture show. After the meeting and movie the car would not start. It had to be hand cranked. We walked with him to the local Funeral Home where he knocked and awoke the ambulance driver and told him he had paid on his burial policy for 30 years and needed a ride back to Palp Pinto and the driver dressed and took us home. 

My aunt Alma and her husband Bob owned an office and school supply store in Mineral Wells and they taught me how to make change when I was seven. Alma died shortly after Norma and I got married. 

One event I will always remember was when my grand dad came to Mineral Wells to a political meeting and rally for W. Lee O’Daniel who was running for Governor of Texas. He was a western singer with no previous political exposure that led a group named The Light Crust Doughboys. He won the election.

Later my schoolmate, JoAnn Jester’s dad Buford, ran and won the election for Texas Governor. Corsicana was blessed with a Carnagie library that provided answers to any question I ever faced. God gave me a brain and enough desire, even today, to use it to learn whatever I needed to know. 

The Corsicana school system was far more advanced than Grand Prairie schools when Dad was promoted to a Circulation Manager in October 1945. I am working on part two.

Clyde Brewer 1-4-2023