OSCAR LEWIS BALZEN
The Hamilton
Herald-News
Hamilton County, Texas
21 December, 1989
Editor's Note- The following column by
popular columnist Jon McConal appeared in a recent edition of the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram. We are reprinting it here with Mr. McConal's
permission.
Hamilton - Chances are good that if you pull
onto the courthouse square here, you'll see Oscar Balzen sitting on a
bench.
He'll be chewing tobacco and firing off
verbal exchanges with the other men. And not far will be Balzen's
Farmall A tractor. The grille is dented and some oil and grease spill
onto the engine. Attached to it is a two wheel trailer. Spin the crank
one turn and the engine comes to life, purring quietly.
"That's my saddle horse," said
Balzen. He exploded into laughter and pounded his knee. "I haul
groceries and everything on it. Goes about eight miles an hour in road
gear, It's a powerful little old rig."
It's his transportation. His way of dealing
without having a driver's license. He's legally blind.
About 35 years ago, this woman told me,
"Oscar, get you a little one-row tractor. That's considered a horse
and wagon and the law can't get you." So I by gosh bought this
tractor. Paid $190 for it. I wouldn't take $2000 for it. It's a classic,
son. A classic."
We sat under the towering trees near the
courthouse. Leaves spiraled down in a kaleidoscope of autumn colors. The
tractor sat a few feet away.
Balzen's short and wiry. He wears glasses
with plastic frames. His blue eyes dance as he talks. He's 80, has no
teeth and the smell of his chewing tobacco is strong.
He told me how he lost his eyesight during
World War ll. He was doing welding on tanks at Fort Hood. They didn't
give him goggles.
"Burned my eyes up." he said.
Then he and his wife Mary moved here. They
had eight children. He was 99 percent disabled. He was offered a
$30-a-month pension.
"I said, I got a wife and eight kids. I
can't make a living off that. And I can't sit around on my thumbs."
he said.
He didn't. he learned rock masonry. And
bought an acre of ground near town.
"I asked Mary if she minded living in a
tent while I built us a house," said Balzen. "I did it at
night. Eddie, my boy, held the kerosene lantern while I laid those
rocks. I would feel of them to make sure they were straight."
Then we drove out to the house. Balzen led
the way on his tractor. Down gravel roads with huge trees hanging limbs
over them. To a hill filled with post oaks. There is the Balzen rock
home. Neat-looking with pink trim.
Mary walked up and offered a firm handshake.
She's got a quick grin.
"I want to show you my pump
house," she said.
She led the way to the well. Over the pump
is a new, wooden pump house. She cut every board and nailed every nail
in it.
"I wanted to show that a person wasn't
dead at 75," she said. She smiled.
"She did all the carpentry on the
house. She's the carpenter in the family. Hell, I'm the mason."
said Balzen.
Mary told about living in the tent two years
while Oscar built the house. It wasn't too bad.
"It was warm," she said. "And
we had spider webs in the ceiling. When it got cold, they would get ice
in them and you would look up at them at night and they were so
pretty."
And, yes, she loves her rock house.
"I like it for several reasons. It's
home and when we were growing up, we lived in houses where you could
throw a dog through the holes in the walls," she said.
Then Balzen talked about his tractor again.
He said he used it to haul his tools and gear to job sites before he
retired.
"Drove it all the way to Lanham (about
15 miles) one time. Had a fencing job out there, " he said.
And he's never had a wreck on it.
He drives it daily.
"When it's cold, I put on a heavy coat
and a pair of insulated gloves." said Balzen. "And away I go
to town."
