The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 106, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 8, 1996 Page: 5 of 24
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7ife ^mMiiwRECORD
THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY 1996
by gordon baxter
These Are The Good Old Days
Too often I hear some old gaffer about my age crying and whining
about the “good ol’ days.” About when you could buy a new pickup for
about $900, and you could buy a nice small house for about the cost of a
new car today. On and on, what they never mention is how little they
were paid for a full days’ work back then. It always came out about even,
no matter what I earned per month that’s about what it cost us to live.
But I was thinking back over Super Bowl Sunday and what a great
time we had with much of the family over at son Roney’s house. Back in
those good ol’ days we didn’t owm a color TV and Son Roney was mortar
shell bait over in Danang. This year all the first eight are grown,
married, have kids of their own and they invited me to come over and
watch the Cowboys and the kids who are now middle aged saved me the
best chair and treated me like the “grand ol’ man.” I never dreamed
back then it would ever turn out to be this good. Beautiful daughters
pick up my cup on the way to the kitchen and ask if I’m ready for a re-fill
yet? And the kitchen fuli of fried chicken and taters and sweet snacks
they baked for the get together.
We were scared a few times as the 4th quarter began, then we were
all up hollering and dancing and high fiving each other. Roney has a TV
about the size of half a pool table and a sound system that’s smarter than
him so he asked his teen-age son Andrew to come set the sound for us.
Don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a ball game so much in my whole life.
My wife Diane and daughter Jenny weekended with her mamma in
Dallas. Diane has enjoyed a fairyland fascination with ice-skating for
long as I can remember. At our house you can get trampled if you get
between Di and the telly when ice skating comes on. Well a wdfe could
have worse pleasures than the ballet-like, serene beauty of ice skaters.
She does not run rabbits nor bark at the moon, but for all her love of it
she had never seen all these famed skaters live and she knows the name
of each one of them.
We blew ourselves to Diane attending this great show “Stars on Ice
last weekend in Dallas. She stayed with her momma, got safely home
Sunday and I wish you could have seen the stars in her big eyes as she
told me about it and showed me her souvenir color program. She sat
right down and wrote a priority mail letter getting reservations for the
next one.
I’m so glad she did. She has long tolerated my fascination with gun
shows, does not attend, but cuts me all the slack I need. Neither a hunter
nor a shooter, the ethical restoration of old guns is my hobby. Di is a
working wife. This her only extravagance which she richly deserves.
Paid her own way too.
As I drove home from Roney and Vicki’s that Sunday night Diane
had gotten safely home about half-time and my heart was brimming over
with all the fun we had and knowing Di and Jenny were already home
waiting. So don’t tell me about the “good ol’ days , for us it can t get any
better than this and I’m thankful.
to Abraham Trading Company
for buying for buying my pig.
Also thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Brothers,
Ed & Julie Culver,
Mr. & Mrs. Nusz & Annie,
Billy & Sue Schafer,
Dawn Webb, Kenny Wicker (Vigortone)
for my add-on money.
Special Thanks to Buddy Dickinson,
Mr. Nusz & My Dad for the hard work
& advice.
^ 'fcu&ty 'IfaW ^
State’Capital
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
HIGHLIGHTS
Doubling the state sales tax to
replace the $9 billion Texas gener-
ates in local school property taxes
is not an option, Gov. George Bush
said last w'eek.
That unsavory idea w-as one of
three studied by a special commit-
tee w'hose job it wTas to study ways
to reduce the tax burden on prop-
erty owners. Committee members
w'ere desginees of Lt. Gov. Bob
Bullock, state Comptroller John
Sharp and House Speaker Pete
Laney and members of Bush’s
budget staff.
Besides raising the sales tax
from 6.25 percent — possibly ex-
panding it to cover goods and
services presently exempted —
the other two ideas considered by
the panel w'ere:
•A 1 percent tax on gross re-
ceipts, levied on revenue gener-
ated in-state by businesses; and
•A 2.5 percent value-added
tax, applied to the value at each
step as a product advances from
raw material to finished product.
The committee’s draft report
said, “None of the alternatives
presented by the staff work group
are without w'arts of one kind or
another.”
Bullock, who has been hospi-
talized with pneumonia, said each
of the three property tax-relief al-
ternatives would hit a large sec-
tion of the Texas economy, and
that it would be a tough fight for
Bush to win approval of any such
major tax change.
Bush has ruled nothing out at
this point. “Obviously, we need to
look at a combination. I’ve got an
idea where I’m headed on it,”
Bush told the Austin American-
Statesman.
Moses Defends TAAS
Texas Education Commis-
sioner Mike Moses rebutted a for-
mal complaint lodged by the
Texas NAACP last fall that a dis-
proportionate number of black
students w'ho failed the state’s
high school graduation test were
denied diplomas.
Texas NAACT President Gary
Bledsoe said the “unconstitu-
tional” nature and application of
the TAAS test “violates the civil
rights of many Texans as a result
of their race, ethnicity, wealth and
national origin,” The Dallas
Morning News reported.
Dr. Moses commented two
days after the U.S. Department of
Education confirmed that it w'as
investigating the test because of
the complaint. “The figures
show...that a vast majority of our
high school seniors, including our
minority students, are able to pass
the exit-level test before their sen-
ior year is complete,” Moses said.
Figures from the 1995 Texas
Assessment of Academic Skills
test showed 9.6 percent of Afri-
can-American seniors and 9.1 per-
cent of Hispanic seniors failed the
exam, while w’hite students failed
at the rate of 1.4 percent.
Bledsoe said many minority
students who failed the test “are
not exposed to all the material cov-
ered by the exam nor are they
provided access to the necessary
preparatory courses to prepare
them to take the exam.”
Navy to Stay in Corpus
Christi
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill
hailed the announcement last
week that the Navy will retain its
Naval Air Training Command and
pilot training at Corpus Christi
Naval Air Station instead of mov-
ing the missions to Florida.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-
Texas, said, “This is a great vic-
tory for the city of Corpus Christi.
“Not only did the Dallas Cow-
boys win the Super Bowl, but Cor-
pus Christi won the Super Bowl,”
said U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-
Corpus Christi.
The Navy had been contem-
plating stripping Corpus Christi
of its primary and maritime pilot
training, moving the complement
of 700 personnel and 128 planes to
Pensacola, Florida. The Navy also
considered moving the 106-person
Naval Air Training Command
from Texas to Florida.
Ortiz said the Navy’s decision
reflects the fact that South Texas
has much more uncluttered air
space than Pensacola, and pro-
vide" more flying days because of
better visibility.
UT-Ford Partnership
The University of Texas and
Ford Motor Corp. announced a
partnership to increase the qual-
ity of the university’s manage-
ment and services, and to produce
more graduates who are ready for
corporate roles.
The partnership is part of a
national program that includes
more than 20 corporations and 40
universities.
“What this is all about is an
effort to make certain we are
thinking seriously about how well
we are serving the people w*e
serve,” said UT President Robert
Berdahl.
In May, UT will send 135 ad-
ministrators and faculty members
to a four-day conference at Ford
headquarters in Dearborn, Michi-
gan.
Under the partnership, stu-
dents will be able to apply for in-
ternships at Ford plants in Texas
and Mexico.
Other Capitol Highlights
•A memorial sendee for Bar-
bara Jordan was held January 28
at the University of Texas. More
than 1,500 people flocked to the
Frank Erwin Center to pay final
respects to the former congress-
woman, state legislator, UT fac-
ulty member and champion of
open government and constitu-
tional rights. Jordan died of pneu-
monia on January 17.
I would like to thank
High Plains Federal Land Bank
for buying my Grand Champion Steer
at the livestock show.
I would also like to thank
Hemphill county Farm Bureau
for donating the belt buckle.
A special thanks to:
Beaver City 8tockyards, West Texas Gas
Stribs Feed Sr Supply, Jimmy Sr Karen Floyd,
Stan Sr Cara Dawn Macias
Sr the First National Bank
for the add-on money.
Thanks also to LeeAnn Julian
Sr Dan Cornett
for helping get mu steer ready
for the snow.
Sincerely,
Lori Risley
i
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 106, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 8, 1996, newspaper, February 8, 1996; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth737693/m1/5/: accessed June 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.