There has been little change in the local weather around our parts this past week, and we’re still waiting on the next rain. Everyone has been enjoying the cooler mornings now that Fall has officially arrived in our fair valley of the Pecan. The 55-60 degree mornings have been extremely enjoyable, but the 93 degree afternoon is a bit warm for Fall. However, if it happened to be a bit more wet, it would go over a lot better with most folks around the County. It’s a sure bet that we have to be getting some rain in the near future. We’re not sure as to how many hurricanes might be headed our way, but at least one of them could dump some moisture on this dry County.

Speaking of hurricanes, ol’ Brady boy, Ross McSwain, penned a good article with his “Out Yonder” column in the Angelo Std. Times a few days back, remembering some of the storms of past years that left a lot of water over the Hill Country. A lot of us were not around yet during the hurricanes that dumped all the rain on the Colorado & San Saba watershed back during ’36 & ’38 floods.

Daddy can still vividly recall the ’38 flood as he & Momma lived in a lil’ house on the west side of the Baxter Place just across the River from Harkeyville, close to the mouth of Richland Creek.

They said the water level was up above the windows & nearly up to the eaves of the ol’ Baxter House, where the Mayor & Connie live now. Daddy related guiding a guy in a Mississippi River rescue boat up the Sloan Rd. looking for stranded folks. They were able to stay in the road by boating between the tops of the fence posts sticking out of the flood waters.

We were living down in Kerrville during the flood of ’78 when that storm dumped 34” on the Guadalupe & Medina in a little over a 24 hour period. I seem to recall that 23 folks of Kerr, Bandera, & Kendall Counties perished during that flood.

The County Extension office helped staff the Disaster Emergency Relief Center along with several other agencies and there were quite a number of displaced families that came into the shelter with tragic stories.

The same cell traveled on up to Albany and dumped 31” of rain on that normally arid area of Shackelford County, resulting in a lot of flood damage as well. It’s difficult to imagine the force of flood waters and the havoc it can wreak until you’ve experienced the fact first-hand.

Jimmy Don showed me some photos that he & Kathy took on a trip out around Presidio this past week and the usually dry draws and the Rio Grande were really on a tear out in that desert country.

The Gulf Coastal Bend country is usually accustomed to receiving large amounts of rain, but it is somewhat unusual for the Big Bend Country to have a 26’ rise on the Rio Bravo.

There was some mention of a few friends’ recent birthdays in last week’s “Highlights”. Not having a Band calendar on the kitchen wall anymore, I inadvertently skipped Dorothy Gage.

We heard that the “Golden Girls” had a nice gathering around the coffee table for her celebration of the occasion. A number of boys our age should be grateful to Dorothy for taking the time & effort to try & teach a bunch of clumsy kids how to dance back during our Grammar School days. She & Joyce were fairly stern structured tutors, as well.

If you read all the “News” in this week’s edition, one should be able to find a recipe for Dove birds. The Editress has been waiting ‘til the middle of bird season to publish the recipe. I think about the same recipe came out in the “Paper” a few years back and Shaw related that he planned on trying the recipe for several years, but as it called for 8 to 10 Dove breasts, hunting was so slow that he’d never gotten to try it. Maybe he has had some more lucrative hunts this season somewhere out around——————Harkeyville!!!!!!