COLD WEATHER, ONDEE, LEON
SCHOOL
02/19/1981
Across
the Fence
By
Arvord Abernethy
What
do you talk about when you have nothing to talk about? You talk about
the weather. What do you write a column about when you have nothing to
write about? You write about the weather.
Well,
here goes. After that rip-snorter roared in here early in the week,
weather is about all you could hear people talking about; some of it
about the present spell and some about the past ones. We have had a mild
winter so far, but this spell made us recall some tough ones of the
past. I think one of the coldest winters I have seen in
Hamilton
County
was that one of 1948-49, if my memory serves me right. The main thing
that I remember about it was that it stayed cold long enough for the
Leon
River
to freeze solid enough for me to walk completely across it.
I wanted to have something to tell my grandchildren when they
started to complain about the cold.
The
coldest winter I have gone through was the one of 1929-30. I was working
in a store in the Texas Panhandle and it had a fifty foot glass front
that faced the north. Moisture from the gas stoves condensed and froze
on the windows in the most beautiful designs of ferns and leaves. For
about two weeks we were unable to get it warm enough to melt the ice off
the windows, even in the daytime. The
water mains, which were about two feet deep, froze and burst, so we were
out of water for over a month. On two different nights about a week
apart, the temperature dropped to about 15 degrees below zero. Now you
tell your story.
Spurlin
Freeman was telling that several years ago Hamilton County had gone
through a drought like we are having and a group of men were standing
around talking of how the country might solve its water problem. One
fellow suggested that we take the salt out of the ocean water and use
it. Then Owen Dogget spoke up, “Yeh, but what are the ships going to
have to run on.” See, there were people concerned about balanced
ecology years ago.
Congratulations
to the Challenge Team of Terri Wilson, Neal Walton, Larry Anglin and
Bobby Lindsey and their sponsor, Beth Abernethy, for their decisive
victory and championship.
I
was in Wilson Electric the other day and Jessie was showing me some
things that had belonged to her sister-in-law, Irene Carter Sims. One
thing was a neat little souvenir card that the teacher, Miss Acie Brown,
had given to each of her pupils. It was a nice, professional looking
card that read: Souvenir-Leon
School-District number 38-Ondee,
Texas-1897-98. Presented by Acie Brown, teacher-Directors, A. L.
Shipman, A. P. White, A. F. Rainwater. On the second card were the names
of the 59 pupils that she had taught in the one room school. Among the
names are those of many that the oldtimers would remember.
The
name of Alva Shipman was there and I knew that he was a brother of Mrs.
Elmer Grant, so I had a nice telephone visit with her. She had attended
the school, but was too young to be going when the card was printed. The
school was located a short distance north of the
Leon
River
, between the old Highway 281 and the new 281. I wonderer why it said
Ondee
,
Texas
and she said there was a post office there for a number of years. It was
located where the Sam Seale house is now. This new Hamilton County
History Book list the Ondee post
office with Mrs. Belle Couch as postmistress at this time. She could
have been the mother of Ted Couch and the six other Couch children
listed. Mrs. Grant and I wondered why it was called
Leon
School
on the card as we had never heard it called that.
Shared by Roy
Ables
ACROSS THE FENCE