CHAPTER NINE

BELOW THE CAPROCK AGAIN

In the summer of 1945, as he worked the crop at Lorenzo, Kay kept thinking about something to buy in the Rolling Low Plains to escape the sand storms and dust of the High Plains. He and Marie weren't sure what to look for as they had never pursued any occupations of consequence other than farming and working with livestock. They eventually learned that John and Ilene Dunaway (Marie's sister) had a small grocery store and filling station at Jayton, Texas that they wanted to sell.

Early Kent County⁽¹⁾

Kent County was created in 1876 and organized in 1892 from Young and Bexar Territories. It was named after Andrew Kent who died at the Alamo in 1836. The first county seat was Clairemont, and in 1894 a courthouse and jail were constructed of red sandstone quarried out of a hill near that settlement. The cost was $18,000.

The District Judge came from Snyder once every six months to hold court. Judges lives were in constant danger in those days. District Judge Cullen Higgins was killed while sitting in the lobby of the hotel in Clairemont. (Judge Higgins was the son of J. P. "Pink" Higgins, a colorful shootist in Dickens County, circa 1899.)⁽²⁾ Later, a District Attorney was waylaid and killed on his way from Kent County to Anson, in the cedar brakes along the Double Mountain River.

The two sandstone structures remain today as monuments to the durability of the early settlers. "Also, twelve and one-half miles southwest of Clairemont there are dugout ruins which stir old west memories. These ruins contain several rock chimneys. Some of the dugouts are still walled with rock. It is believed that this was on the old mail hack run from Colorado City to Estacado--the Quaker Colony on the Plains, via stops at Red Mud, Dockum's Store (Dickens Co.), Hank Smith's place (Crosby Co.), and onto the Plains."⁽³⁾

Several men were running cattle on open range south and east of the Spur Ranch. One of these was "Old Man Jay." Mr. Jay, Sr., whose brand was J, was the first mail rider in this part of Texas. He used to ride to Sweetwater and back twice a week, weather permitting, without pay, for about three years, just so that he and his neighbors might get their mail. His dugout was the post office. S. W. Lomax, of the Spur Ranch, was instrumental in getting the Star Mail Route established from Colorado City to Estacado sometime after 1885. Mr. Jay was appointed postmaster and his post office was named Jayton. When the railroad from Stamford to Spur came through in 1909, the post office was moved to the railroad and the town named Jayton.⁽⁴⁾

The famous Mackenzie Trail that originated at Fort Griffin in Shackelford County went through the middle of Stonewall County (probably through Rath, the great buffalo hide depot) and northwest across Kent County (probably in the vicinity of Jayton, across Dockum Flat in Dickens County, and on as far as Fort Sumner in New Mexico. The township of Jayton was dedicated in 1907, but the arrival of the railroad in 1909 provided the impetus for development of the town. The city of Jayton was incorporated at an election held on February 11, 1910. It carried by a vote of 21 for, and 6 against.⁽⁵⁾

In August, 1907, a wave of smallpox hit the county and strict quarantines were necessary. In 1917 and 1918 the drought that hit all of West Texas was also severe in Kent County. Under the Drought Relief Act, the Commissioners Court administered funds for planting seed and feed for livestock. Residents were not immune from the influenza siege during the winter of 1918.

South Side Grocery

Kay and Marie purchased the South Side Grocery in August, 1945 for $1500.00. It included the store building and stock, a small three-room house beside the store on the south that John and Ilene lived in, and a two-room house behind the store that John's parents lived in. The elder Dunaways were moving to Spur to retire. The store was actually a combination grocery and "filling" station, complete with a rest room--storage room addition on the side, and two gas pumps that belonged to the Phillips 66 Petroleum Company. Kerosene was kept in a large square barrel that had a hand pump. A free Irish potato was furnished the customer if they needed a new stopper for their kerosene container--usually a gallon-size glass vinegar jug.

Kay eventually bought the remaining vacant lots between the store and the city water tower on the south end of the block. This was actually a half-block, split by Highway 70. There were five other grocery stores in Jayton at the time; Earl Hall's, Jack Patton's Red and White, Gardner Brothers', Wright's, and Robinson's.

It was a good time to make the transition. The crop was laid-by at Lorenzo, and the atomic bombing of the Japanese island of Nagasaki on August 9 signaled the inevitable end of the war. On the night of August 14 John, Ilene, Kay, Marie, and two men from the wholesale grocery in Spur inventoried the stock. Everyone kept their radios on during the war and the stations began announcing that there would be some good news that night at eight o'clock. A radio was plugged in at the store. At eight they all stopped work and heard the expected official announcement that the war was over. Everyone shouted, bells rang, and folks began driving around town honking and hollering. The official signing of the surrender occurred the next day. People knew, however, that it would be a while before the servicemen would be home.⁽⁶⁾

Kay and Marie operated South Side Grocery (phone number 18) under their ownership on August 15. In 1947 they changed the name to Brantner Grocery.

Rationing and shortages would continue, particularly gas and anything containing sugar or sweeteners. The first day that gas was released men would drive up and say "fill 'er up!" It had been a long time since they had been able to say that.

There were essentially no candies, cookies, cakes, etc. until 1946. Marie recalled the first small order of cookies that came in with her cracker order. "I sold every package as soon as I got them priced, but allowed only one package per family." Wes Tex Syrup was made in Abilene and Marie would buy it directly from the plant and also check on availability at a several candy wholesalers. Sometimes she would have to wait for the syrup to cook off and it would still be warm when they loaded it into her car. Wes Tex blue label was cane syrup; red label maple was the slight favorite. The candy was usually taffy.

Cotton gloves were also scarce that fall and the cotton pullers would come in to the store every night to check on gloves. Marie decided to go to Abilene and go to every store. When she told the variety stores the pullers needed the gloves and that her country store allotment was small, they sold her several boxes. She called on all the wholesalers along the railroad tracks for gloves and candy and finally had all she could carry in the car. She got home about the same time as the pullers came in and could have sold all the gloves, but rationed them. Some of the pullers were working with fingers about as sore as they could stand.⁽⁷⁾

One small refrigerator constituted their total refrigeration and was used to keep "sticks" of bologna, pickled pimento loaf, and "goose liver," plus some milk for the few town folks that did not have a milk cow. The lunch meat was sliced with a butcher knife, and one of the first improvements was a hand-cranked meat slicer. Longhorn-style "rat cheese" was popular, and did not have to be refrigerated. It usually sold quick enough so that very little mold developed and had to be trimmed off. Customers would bring their selections to the checkout counter as they made them. The items were itemized on a little counter pad that had an attached carbon for a copy. These were mentally added to subtotals on each page. The ranchers that came in once a month would spend Saturday afternoon shopping and taking care of business around town and save the grocery buying for last. There was always a big crowd parked around the town square, visiting until late evening, at least until the last feature was over at the "movies." The grocery stores would not close until everyone was accommodated, usually around 10 or 11 p.m. It was a major task itemizing all their goods on those little pads, but this was the only way to provide customers a record of what they paid for. A once-a-month shopper would spend about $50.00, which was a very big bill of groceries. All cardboard boxes were saved and used, as the paper bags were somewhat flimsy.

"Can I put a few things on the bill 'til Sattidy?"

Selling "on the credit" was essential. Salaried people enjoyed 30-day accounts. Farmers and ranchers usually paid up in the fall or when they sold a big load of calves. Thus, the fortune of the grocer (and most other businesses) followed the vagaries of weather, along with the farmers and ranchers. During drouths, the farmer had to "ride" the grocer, who in turn, sometimes had to ride his wholesalers. And yes, a "cash only" customer was sometimes permitted to "charge it until they got paid on Saturday." And while credit was a necessary evil, Kay and Marie made it a matter of good business to be rather liberal in their policy. For example, if they wanted the fall business of a big crew of cotton pullers, it was necessary to advance them groceries, gloves, cotton sacks, etc. when they arrived (broke) in the county to work. Needless to say, they lost some money, to the town regulars and the farmers, as well as to the itinerants.

A hand-cranked adding machine with a paper tape was soon obtained, which speeded the accounting process. Each person with credit had a counter pad with their name written on the end. These were filed on end in a wooden box kept beneath the cash register and carried to the house each night along with the money. With the adding machine tape, it was only necessary to add the current bill to the previous balance. The customer was given the tape and a carbon copy of the new balance. Monthly statements were sent only to those who got behind in paying and started trading somewhere else in town.

It was a long time before good marking pens and self-inking stamping machines replaced the old "grease" pencils. The cellophane bags which were used to bag dried fruit, dried peas and beans, nuts, etc. would grow brittle and spill. It took a while for good polyethylene bags to supersede the cellophane, and for prepackaging by suppliers to replace the grocer's task of buying in bulk and doing their own packaging. Kay and Marie would continually modernize through the years. They were dually motivated to serve the people's needs as well as to make money.⁽⁸⁾

For the 1945 fall school term, Joyce enrolled as a sophomore in the tenth grade (11 boys, 4 girls); Ulysses S. (Useless) Herman was the high school superintendent. Ronnie enrolled in Zephie Brown's fourth grade class (10 boys, 5 girls); Mrs. Check Jay was the grade school principal. Doris was still attending Texas Tech, and Ralph was still in the navy.

The family lived in both of the little houses, eating and "living" in the larger, and sleeping in the two-room. Neither house had a bathroom. Behind the larger house was a privy, and also a shower room. John had also built a storage shed by some war shortage innovation. He used empty quart oil cans and concrete for the walls; the outside was stuccoed, with the ends of the cans showing on the inside. John (or the elder Dunaway) also had a pigeon roost, and Ronnie inherited a nice pigeon collection, but the older boys soon traded him out of his valuable white birds. It can safely be assumed that Marie persuaded Kay to see to it that the family went out of the pigeon business, as the birds and roost soon disappeared.

In early spring of 1946 Kay decided to build on to the three-room house. Lumber was still scarce so he bought the house on the Brantner home place at Red Mud for its lumber. This was the same house that Ambrose built in 1906 by hauling the lumber from Colorado City. The lumber was still good, probably superior to the lumber of the day, and the house had some excellent tongue-and-groove hardwood flooring that could be salvaged. Kay hired a man to tear it down and haul it to Jayton. The little two-room house behind the store was eventually sold and moved.

Ray and Jean Hoover had moved to Jayton from New Home that spring and were fixing up a house that had belonged to Jean's mother. Ray still had his truck so he hauled sheetrock from Sweetwater for both houses. The Sweetwater plant was the only one making sheetrock at that time.⁽⁹⁾

Kay also hired a carpenter to build three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small screened porch onto the existing three rooms. They could not locate a tub, so a shower stall was built in the bathroom. The interior walls were papered; the exterior was stuccoed. The latter was done by covering the rough lumber siding with tar paper and tacking on mesh wire to hold the wet stucco in place, and also to serve as reinforcement after the stucco cured. A small cess pool was dug outside the kitchen for sink water, and the bottom of an old cistern near the small house was knocked out so that it could be used for the bathroom cesspool. After Kay had busted the concrete bottom loose, he let Ronnie ride down the windlass rope and fill up a bucket with the chunks, which Kay cranked out with the windlass.

It was late at night in April when Ralph climbed off the train in Abilene, following his discharge from the Navy. He was carrying a Japanese rifle that each man had been given as a souvenir, and his pillow, which contained a leather service jacket that he had failed to turn in. His duffel bag was in the baggage car. He brought Ronnie some Japanese coins and paper invasion money, and a Navy service knife.

The house addition was only roughed-in at that time. Ralph helped in the store and with the house carpentry work. The store was expanded some by opening up the adjoining storage rooms. Kay began carrying chicken feed, stock salt, and planting seed, as there was no feed or seed store in town. They also had to buy chickens and eggs to accommodate their customers. Marie once had 27 young roosters in the pen overnight and every woman in town spoke to Marie about the "additional" early-morning crowing.

Jack Patton, who owned the Red and White Grocery next to the bank building also operated an ice house just north of South Side Grocery, which he closed. There were still quite a few families who depended on ice boxes for refrigeration, and Kay was persuaded to build an ice storage and concrete dock onto the front of the store. Presumably, he used some of the lumber not needed for the house addition. For insulation, he filled the wall cavities with cottonseed hulls. The outside was stuccoed. A truck-load of ice would be delivered to Jayton as needed by Leon Ice Company, from their plant at Matador, Texas. The 300-pound blocks of ice would be slid down a ramp into the icehouse. In later years, Kay added large refrigeration coils in the ceiling in order to hold the ice longer.

The ice blocks were shaped like a domino sitting on end. Each block was scored vertically up the center of each side, and horizontally across the sides. The scoring thus marked off two 50-pound blocks on the bottom and four 25-pound blocks above. A 25-pound block had a natural scoring from side to center and could easily be split into oblong halves that would just fit into a standard metal water can by chipping away the corners a little. Ice sold for a cent a pound, except the 12.5-pound block was fifteen cents. The top two 25-pound blocks were always somewhat small and never were frozen as crystal-hard as the bottom blocks. These were chipped off and used in the coke box so that the customer would not be cheated (nor have hot drinking water late in the day).

Kay made some ice deliveries in the trunk of the family automobile, but this was not convenient, and the car trunk began rusting. So he bought an old Model A Ford roadster, took out the jump seat in back, and built a bed using leftover hardwood--making it a small pickup truck of sorts. The bed had a canvas cover and could haul about 200 pounds of ice. They hired a high school boy each summer to work on the icehouse dock and run a delivery route each morning after all the workers' cans had been filled. People still placed a special cardboard sign in a window to indicate to the iceman how much ice they needed. With regular delivery, most people bought 25 pounds at a time, although most iceboxes would hold 50 pounds. Ronnie would accompany the driver on the ice runs, and later he would sit in the old Model A and practice setting the spark and throttle, starting, and shifting the gears. Finally, he was permitted to solo deliver 25 pounds of ice two blocks away to the Fred Jones' home.

Wilson Norman Lemley had been in the Army for four years and was one of the first to be discharged. He had returned to his hometown of Lubbock and had met Irene there. On July 4, 1946 (Ralph's birthday) they celebrated a wedding in her parent's home. Norman later went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a refrigeration school. He then purchased a refrigeration service shop in Sweetwater, Texas.

Ralph met Beulah Arylene Branch soon after coming home and they were married on August 15 in her parents home in Jayton. They honeymooned in his dad's car, spending their first night in Lubbock, Texas. Ralph continued to work in the store until the fall; then they moved out on George Branch's ranch (Arylene's father) to punch cows. The ranch was northeast of Jayton, across the Croton creek.

It had not taken Willys Jeep long to get into commercial production after the war. George Branch bought one, which was probably the first four-wheel-drive vehicle seen in the area. George enjoyed showing how it would climb the sand banks in Croton Creek, and Ralph and Arylene enjoyed having it available to drive.⁽¹⁰⁾

J. S. Hinds was the new school superintendent for the 1946 fall school term as Joyce entered her Junior year. Reginald Cooper was hired as the principal and basketball coach. Ronnie was in Margaret Hall's fifth-grade class. Kay was named to the school board that fall and served four years, eventually resigning for business reasons.

Jayton organized a Lions Club and Kay felt obligated, as a businessman, to join. He was not a "joiner," however, and did not participate much, as he thought organizations such as the Lions were primarily fraternal, and he didn't have much time additional to his church obligations and his long work hours. He was quietly opposed to the Masonic code as being in conflict with the church. Kay was also not a "coffee shop loafer" but had always enjoyed contact with farmers at the blacksmith shop. The Lions Club didn't last long.

On March 7, 1947, Kay and Marie became grandparents. Rebecca Brantner was also George and Ruby Branch's first grandchild. Becky was born in Sweetwater, as Ralph was now working at the sheetrock plant.

That spring Ronnie won first place in District boys declamation with his recitation of the poem The Touch of the Master's Hand, by Myra Brooks Welch. Zephie Brown and Margaret Hall had devoted hours of their personal time after school coaching him how to stand, speak, etc. The scholastic meet was held in Dickens, Texas. Later, Marie accompanied him to Lubbock where he won the second place ribbon in the Region 1 Interscholastic League, Group B, held at Texas Tech. He and Marie were somewhat disappointed, as a first-place win would have permitted him to compete in the state meet in Austin.

Ronnie sold garden seed door-to-door (in competition with the store) and chose a Daisy Red Ryder, his first BB gun, as his prize. Copper BBs were still scarce and all boys "knew" that the lead BBs currently available would mess up the guns. Ronnie learned that Sears Roebuck had obtained some copper BBs, though they were not catalogued, and he ordered a case (probably 500 of the small tubes of BBs). He displayed them in the store so that parents or kids could buy them. When the case had sold, he collected his money from the store. This led to other entrepreneurial exploits associated with the store, including a BB shooting range behind the store.

In the fall of 1947 Kay bought a new 1948 Chevrolet sedan--a no-nonsense four-door.

Joyce graduated from high school May 20, 1948, and Ronnie completed the sixth grade under Zephie Brown. The family took a nice vacation most summers. That year Kay and Marie, Joyce and Ronnie, and Joyce's friend Olive Engledow, toured the Southwest. It was on one of these trips that, as they were coming up through the mountains southeast of Flagstaff, the timing gear went out. An old man in a battered pickup pulled them into Flagstaff for an exorbitant fee. The Chevrolet dealer told Kay that the old man made his living that way, as car breakdowns and overheating were common. While the car was being fixed, Marie and Ronnie enjoyed strolling through the town and seeing the Navajos sitting around the streets in their native garb.

Doris graduated from Texas Tech in Lubbock on June 7, 1948, and began teaching high school business classes in Littlefield, Texas that fall. She would still spend her summers at Jayton.

After some time in Sweetwater, Ralph and Arylene moved to Oil Center, New Mexico where he worked for an oil pipeline company. On July 26, 1948, the Brantners and Branches were presented with their second grandchild--Charylene, born in nearby Hobbs. Ronnie went with the Branches for a visit soon after the baby was born. All the way out, Jean Francis, Arylene's youngest sister, kept singing the 1947 hit, "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now." On the return trip, George let Ronnie drive their Cadillac, but cautioned him to hold the speed under 70 so that the four-barrel carburetor would not kick in the second two. The speed limit was 75 and Ronnie, at 12, was unlicensed, but competent to drive. Jean Frances, although a year older, was too short to see "through" the steering wheel.

After a summer of indecision, Joyce entered Draughons Business College in Abilene in the fall. She roomed with Olive Engledow, who had been her close friend and classmate ever since Joyce had moved to Jayton.

For the fall school term, Marie was elected vice president of the Parent Teachers Association. Kay was still on the Board of Education, and Ronnie was enjoying a variety of classrooms and teachers as a seventh-grader.

During the years that Ralph was in the Navy, Ronnie had assumed responsibility for keeping Ralph's .22 rifle cleaned and oiled, along with Kay's old J. Stephens 12 gauge pump shotgun. When Ralph returned from the service, he brought in a souvenir Japanese rifle, which Ronnie gladly stored for him. When Kay was living next to the store, he always kept his old Model 1914 Mauser .32 semi-automatic handy for the times he was called out at night to sell a stranded motorist some gas. By now this pistol was in Ronnie's care also. Kay was not interested in hunting, and, while he enjoyed fishing, he did very little until late in life. So it was Norman Lemley, who came visiting from Sweetwater during dove season, who taught Ronnie to shoot the old 12 gauge.

Coincidentally, on Irene and Joyce's birthday, December 23, 1948, former premier Hideki Tojo and six others were executed in Tokyo for their war crimes. It was, figuratively perhaps, a birthday present to the whole nation, especially to those mothers who lost a son or daughter at Pearl Harbor.

The Caldwell Place

Kay's asthma was better and he was getting the itch to walk among his own cows once again. He began searching for some grassland to buy so he could run a few cows. In the fall of 1948 they bought the Newt Caldwell place in Stonewall County from Clinna B. and H. F. Grinstaff of Rotan, Texas. The farm was about eight miles east of Jayton and contained 332.7 acres of sandy loam; about one-half was in cultivation and one-half was mesquite pasture. Kay paid about $33 per acre.

Newt's place was part of the big Caldwell Ranch estate that had been divided among heirs, which, in addition to Newt, included Jack Caldwell, Fannie Caldwell Daugherty and husband Jack, Alice Daniels, Bill Daniels, and perhaps others. Newt had sold his part to Mrs. Grinstaff. Newt's place contained the original ranch house and grounds. There remained a fairly large house, a two-room storage shed and shop, a big concrete cellar (half-dugout style), a cow barn and pen, a mesquite-pole corral, a good windmill, and a large metal water trough that overflowed into a small dirt stock tank. The windmill water was plentiful and good for the stock, but gypsum-hard (and very medicinal to Kay). Photos of the farm's improvements were included with the mortgage papers and carried a date of November 26--probably the appraisal date. The deed was dated January 1, 1949.

Kay got some fencing done in early 1949 so that he could put some cattle on the grass. In the spring he hired the plowing and planting done. He bought his first pickup--an old worn-out Chevy. The floorboard was rusted through in places and had to be covered so that water and mud would not splash in. John Brantner made Kay a good deal on a paint cow pony that was getting too old to chase the wild cattle John had in the Croton brakes. "Joe" was his name, and he helped Kay maneuver in and out of the canyons and mesquite where the old pickup wouldn't go, and he gave Kay an excuse to buy the first spurs and hand-made boots that he had owned since the thirties. He also traded for a second-hand saddle. Joe had good cow sense, but was bridle brittle--but could never resist a bucket full of the oats that Kay began growing each year. He was gentle enough, and lived long enough to help several grandkids enjoy their country visits.

Kay and Ronnie improved the pens and eventually built a dirt-filled rock loading chute. There were a lot of nice-sized limestone rocks on the place that the Caldwell's had used for foundations for various outbuildings, including hog pens. Kay poured a concrete cattle guard at the county road entrance and some of the rocks were used to make stone posts at each end. Kay put his initials on top of one post and his "76" brand on the other.

Sheet metal was used as a form inside the rusted metal stock trough and a six-inch concrete wall was poured, as well as a concrete bottom. This trough was about 30 inches deep and about 15 feet in diameter and "made do" as a swimming pool for Ronnie. Kay put some of the largest flat limestone rocks inside the trough so that a calf could easily get out if it fell in.

Kay had registered his "76" brand in Aspermont soon after buying the place. Ronnie, already aware of the history and romance of cattle brands in Texas, asked his dad why he picked such an insignificant brand. Kay's simple reply was that all the good "K" brands were taken so he just picked something that no one was using. This was one more example of where Kay did, or did not put his emphasis and importance.

A second-hand 1949 Model B John Deere tractor and equipment was bought, along with a disc plow. The tractor was technically a four-row but Kay farmed most of his row crops as three-row, and the tractor horsepower was more suited to that. The cotton was planted in what was called a two-and-one pattern, meaning two rows of cotton and one row idle (or skipped).

Agricultural production after the war quickly rebounded from shortages to surplus production. Federal government programs were revised to prop up falling grain prices by subsidizing grain storage, and to bolster cotton prices by reducing production through acreage restrictions. The program of cotton allotments was such that most farmers had more land than allotment (and rainfall). The skipped row did not count in the crop allotment. Thus, farmers planted some pattern that would match their total acreage, equipment, and other crop options, which were few. Some farmers planted two-and-two, two-and-four, or some other creative combination.

Kay usually had about thirty mother cows and one breeding bull. He tried to pick gentle, mixed-breed mothers and he liked to see some Jersey in the mix. He always had a registered Hereford bull so that he could put some good bone and blood in the calf, while maximizing hybrid vigor. His first cows were every color and marking one might imagine. In later years Kay saw that uniformly-marked calves would sell as a lot (pen full) at auction and bring a market premium, so he switched to Angus cows, which he bred to a Hereford bull. This gave him a solid black calf with a white face--some uniformity coupled with hybrid vigor. He confessed that while money was his motive, he did enjoy looking at "purtier" cows, especially on wheat pasture. Kay always milked a cow when they lived on the farm. It would have been easy for them to bring pasteurized milk from the store, so one might assume that Kay just liked the routine, and both he and Marie enjoyed having milk they had produced themselves.

Ronnie saved $35.00 from his "enterprises" and bought a heifer from his daddy. Later, he joined the 4-H Club and needed a steer for a club project. Kirby Clayton, the County Extension agent, took him to a large ranch between Clairemont and Rotan to see some purebred Hereford calves that cost about $125.00. Kay thought this was extravagant and said that he had a mixed-breed calf with good Hereford markings that he would trade for the heifer. A pen was added to the old oil-can shed behind the house. Kay always named all his cows so that he could talk to them one-on-one. For some reason, he named this calf "Boy," and Ronnie never got around to improving on that name. Every time his uncle John Brantner and Preston Blackwell stopped by for gas and cokes while on a cattle-trading trip, Ronnie made John check out Boy's progress, knowing that John would brag on his "fellow cowman."

That fall the school had to put eighth-graders in the vocational agriculture program, the Future Farmers of America, in order to have enough boys for a chapter. Thus, Ronnie's calf became an FFA project. It aggravated the county agent when Ronnie's calf won the monthly weight gain contest, a record 96 pounds, besting the gain of the more expensive purebred calves. Ronnie did not yet know about "hybrid vigor," something that mixed-breed stockmen like Kay depended upon. Also, his calf, being lighter, would naturally gain at a faster rate.

That fall the school sponsored trips to the Panhandle South Plains Fair at Lubbock, Texas and to the State Fair at Dallas.

And the grandchildren kept coming in a steady row. Gary Lemley, Kay and Marie's third, was born December 16, 1949 in Sweetwater, Texas. As the first grandson, Gary was given special attention by all the aunts and uncles, as well as the grandparents.

The county livestock show was held Saturday, March 11, 1950. Ronnie's steer placed third in the light-weight class, giving him a $10.00 prize. Eldon Smith and Denver Jones received $17.50 and $12.00 respectively for their first and second place finishes. Eldon won an additional $15.00 for the Grand Champion ribbon and Don Jay's heavyweight steer took the Reserve ribbon. On a cold, early Sunday morning Ronnie led the calf that he had fed, groomed, and petted to the downtown area where the truck was loading several show animals. On Monday the 700-pound calf sold at the livestock auction for 27 cents per pound: $189.00 total, less $2.12 yardage and $2.89 hauling for a net of $183.99. Ronnie's first-year FFA record shows a total income of $208.99, including prize money. Labor at 40 cents per hour was worth $24.00, and other expenses were $121.26. Thus, the net income for the eight-month project was $87.73.

After finishing school at Draughons in Abilene in 1949, Joyce did secretarial work for Merchants Fast Motors Company in Lubbock, Texas. Through a mutual friend from Jayton, Junior Harrison, she met Gordon Morin, who grew up in Soper, Oklahoma, and was working in a Lubbock furniture store at the time. They were married March 17, 1950. Robert K. "Bob" Harrison Jr. would later join Gordon in a grocery-store partnership.

On March 23 Ronnie again won first place in boys declamation at the District Scholastic meet in Dickens with the poem The Cowboy, which was about a cowboy and his horse in the Big Bend country. Later, on a Saturday, Marie took time away from the store to drive him to Texas Tech in Lubbock where he won first place in the Region 1 Interscholastic League, B Group. Disappointment was again in order, as state-level competition had been discontinued for grade-school winners, and a trip to Austin was missed once again. This was typical, however, of how Kay and Marie would sacrifice time and money to support their children's school activities.

May 17 was grade school graduation day for Ronnie. He gave the "Class Will." Since there was no such thing as middle school, this step into high school was a major milestone.

During Doris' summer stays in Jayton, Ronnie would beg her to accompany him as he "drove around the 'Y'," where Texas highway 70 intersects with US 380, about one mile out and back. He thus mastered the straight shift under the steering wheel of the '48 Chevy. That spring, after turning 14, he went to Clairemont and got his drivers license. This was made possible by obtaining written permission from the County Judge, stating necessity, which most kids could get without a problem because they learned to drive early in age and it was a rural community.

Doris needed a car of her own, so she bought a 1950 Chevrolet Bel Air hardtop, the first of its kind. This forerunner of the Impala was charcoal over yellow and a real eye-catcher. The selling price was about $200 more than a regular car, which her daddy had a "fit" about. But it was her money.⁽¹¹⁾

The Oil Boom

It was during this period that the discovery of oil brought permanent change to Kent and most of its Countians. The Cogdell oil field in Scurry and Kent Counties was discovered in 1949; the Salt Creek pool in Kent in 1950. Marie remembers it this way: "We had a big oil boom in close to Jayton and the surrounding territory. The oil company brought in an oil well on Dick Sampson's place in Clairemont and they had just brought in a flowing well at the edge of Snyder.⁽¹²⁾

The oil men were going wild leasing land and buying royalties if they could. People were building every thing from houses to filling stations in Snyder, trying to take care of the people who were coming in. Every one that would rent (out) a room got a good price for it. Wells were drilled all around Snyder and they got oil. Clairemont was like a three-ring circus. One week, hundreds of people came in trying to lease land and all the town lots. Each man offered a little more than the other. The people didn't know what to do. There was one little store, one little café, one filling station, and about ten dwelling houses in Clairemont . The store and café sold every bite of food the first day, then called their wholesale companies to bring them extra supplies as special deliveries. The wholesalers did (make extra deliveries), for everyone in the surrounding area knew of the congestion."

12. The reader is reminded that Norma Sampson was Toby Smith's daughter, and thus a cousin to Kay Brantner.

13. Marie Brantner, "Family History."

14. Unnamed newspaper (presumably either the Lubbock Avalanche Journal or the Fort Worth Star Telegram, "Couple Celebrate 50th Anniversary at Spur Reception, SPUR, Dec. 17 (Spl). The article says "recently," probably Sunday December 14.