April 21, 2014

RT NEWS April 21, 2014

What a pleasant surprise to see one of Diboll’s former superintendents, Bill Ward, come into the store for a short visit. He was on his way to watch two of his grandsons, Grayson and Graham Ward play T-ball for the Mud Cats. Their dad, Chad Ward, is one of the coaches and their mother, Marissa, teaches at H.G. Temple. Bill’s wife, Neita Fran stayed in Tyler where they have a retirement home on Lake Tyler. At the present time, they are still living in New Mexico but drove to Texas to spend Easter. Neita Fran has a studio in Las Vegas, NM and Bill is completing his 7^th year as superintendent of the Mosquero, NM school district which has K-12. Bill said there are a total of 46 students; 8 teachers and 13 employees and they only go to school 4 days a week. He has no discipline problems and no student in his 7 years has made an “F”. The tax value per student is over two millions dollars! Revenue comes from CO2 wells and that value will increase with the completion of two more plants that are being built.

Mosquero ISD is the richest school district in New Mexico! Under Bill’s leadership the district recently completed a state-of-the-art Media Building for two million; a new track field for $250,000; a new gym for 2.5 million and plans to build an indoor rodeo arena for 1.5 million.  Only 5 or 6 students live in town while the others are children whose parents live and work on the Bell Ranch which has 290,000 acres. Seventy-one year old media billionaire John Malone bought the Bell Ranch in NM in 2010. He now owns 2.2 million acres, surpassing his friend Ted Turner, as the nation’s largest private landowner. Coming soon, Bill Ward will help cook steaks with his school board president who will be catering a meal for John Malone and about 50 other people from around the world at his “fish camp”, a remote camp/resort on one of his ranches.

Bill Ward brought us up to date on his son Skipper who lived in Diboll for a while. Skipper will soon be moving to Magnolia, Arkansas to accept the job of superintendent. He and his wife Misti have four children: 19-year-old Will; 8^th grader, Eli; 5^th grader, Rachel, and Caleb who is in Junior High. Daughter Terri and husband Aaron have 2-1/2 year old Aubrey and expecting another baby. They are moving to San Diego where Terri works with her master’s degree in Finance. Altogether, Bill and Neita Fran have 12 grandchildren.

Ronnie Kilgore came in with his 13-month-old grandson, Kolton Kilgore, who is beginning to walk. JoNell Placker spent the Easter weekend with her daughter Kim and family in Bullard. Darrell is a bank president in Tyler and he and Kim recently purchased a home with acreage for all their animals. Their daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel, have both graduated from Texas A&M but while at home, always had horses that they boarded in Tyler where they lived.

The feed store has some really nice bedding plants and beautiful hanging baskets. Lots of folks have been in buying plants and seeds for their spring gardens including Mike Shivers, Charlie Mann, Sam Coleman, Caroll Dover, Larry Morris and Cleo Mason. Jim and Judy McClain were in and bought plants for their yard. (Later in the week Jim brought their son, Wesley, to visit the RT). Mary Lee Garner and Evelina Zolman drove all the way from Apple Springs for plants. Diboll Garden Club members, Gloria Ogden and Ginger Capps couldn’t resist buying flowering plants. Jane Horn always buys caladium bulbs every year. Thomas Anderson also bought caladium bulbs and made a second trip to buy more for his wife, JoAnn.

Eddie Smith’s son-in-law, William Avendt, came in for a fishing license; Eddie’s son, Willie Smith, had plans to take both of them fishing. Robert Compean bought a new Stihl blower and fertilizer to work in his yard. Barbara and Carroll Nash were also expecting to get a lot of work done when they came in to get a chain sharpened for their chainsaw. John Richards had to deal with getting a flat fixed and Mike Allbritton bought new tires for his trailer.

Charlotte Morris was in getting new keys made. She is the new owner of the former Pumpkin Patch day care center in Burke and plans to rename it. Debbie Tipton was also in getting keys made and announced that her daughter, Jessica, who owns Vanity Hair Salon is happy to have a new hair stylist coming soon.

Clay and Brooke Colwell and son, Lewin, were in buying local honey. Many people believe buying honey that was made by bees locally helps to deal with allergies in the area. Dale Rye, a beekeeper from South Dakota, ships hundreds of his hives to Texas to spend the winter months here and on to California in the spring where they pollinate many orchards and back to South Dakota where they make him lots of honey. People here have told him they think his SD honey has helped combat local allergies. Dale says pure honey is thick and slow. If honey flows easily it’s been watered down with something. If it turns to sugar that only proves it is pure honey. It’s a fact that honey found stored thousands of years ago in clay pots in Egyptian tombs was still good. Anyway, after being a beekeeper for 35 years, Dale is retiring and this is his last trip to Texas. He plans to keep a few bees in his insulated 30×30 room with heated floors and insulated walls but plans to spend most of his time hunting and fishing in the Black Hills and the Rockies while his wife Jill, who is an RN, continues working and studying toward her doctorate in Rehabilitation. We will miss their visits to Diboll and the Round Table.

Some leave and others move in. Ken and Wanda Cheshire, parents of Joel Cheshire and Tammy have moved here from Humble. I think Ken was a brother of Clyde Cheshire who was one of our postmen in Diboll.

Leonard Robison brought us a brochure and is recommending to anyone that loves to hear quartets not to miss hearing “Barbershop Through the Years”, May 10^th at Grace Community High School in Tyler, Texas. The evening performance begins at 7PM and matinee at 2:30. For more information, call 800-233-8219.

The Beulah Congregational Methodist Church Homecoming and Beulah School Reunion will be May 4 at 10AM and Lunch at 12:30 at the Buelah Community Center. The church was founded in 1892 and the school was constructed in 1903 and since been rebuilt three times. The present structure has served as a community center and was approved for a historical marker in 1998. Everyone is welcome to come and bring a covered dish. For more information, contact Gene Squyres 634-7840 or Herman Strauss 829-3584.

If you need to stock your pond, The Fish Truck will be in our parking lot on May 7^th from noon until 1PM.

Come see us…’round the table.