Plowboy Shelton Toliver is All-State Second-Team Selection

Shelton Toliver (10) makes one of his 17 catches against De Leon.

Wide receiver Shelton Toliver, who had 78 receptions for 987 yards and 17 touchdowns for the year, has been selected to the Associated Press Sports Editors Class 1A All-State second team.  Toliver’s catches and open field runs for TDs were a familiar sight for Plowboy fans this year. 

The only other player from Roscoe’s district to make first or second team was Javier Rocha, a tackle from Albany, who also made second team.  On the honorable mention list were six players from Albany and one from Hamlin.

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ROSCOE FFA STOCK SHOW ON SATURDAY

The annual Roscoe FFA Stock Show will be bigger and better than ever this year with a large number of animals in competition for honors and awards.  The show will begin at 10:00am, this Saturday, December 21, at the RCHS FFA ag barn west of town, just off the I-20 West service road. 
 
First to be judged will be the steers and heifers, followed by sheep and goats.  Then, after a lunch break in which the Roscoe FFA will be serving meals for $5 or $6 dollars, the show will resume with judging of the various breeds of swine.  This year’s judge is Phillip Allen from Gordon.
 
For more information, contact RCHS ag instructor and FFA director, J. J. Caswell, at 325-766-3327 during school hours.

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ROSCOE CHRISTMAS PARADE THIS SATURDAY

The annual Roscoe Christmas Parade will be this Saturday, December 21, starting at 2:00pm.  It will begin on east Broadway and end at the Community Center.  Line-up is at 1:30pm at the 300 block of East Broadway.

Entries are encouraged, and no prior notification is necessary.  Just show up at the line-up and join in.

Santa Claus will be on hand at the Community Center, and there will be free cookies and drinks.  For more information, call Felix Pantoja at 325-514-8384.

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SWEETWATER COMES FROM BEHIND TO DEFEAT PLOWGIRLS, 43-33

The Sweetwater varsity girls came to Roscoe on Friday for a game not originally scheduled and managed to come away with the win by overtaking the Plowgirls with a strong fourth quarter surge to win 43-33. 
 
The Lady Mustangs took the early lead and were ahead 12-9 at the end of the first quarter.  However, by halftime the Plowgirls led by four, 21-17.  They maintained their lead through the third quarter, and at the end of three, the score was Roscoe 31, Sweetwater 28.  However, the Lady Mustangs pulled away in the fourth, winning by ten, 43-33.

High scorer for Roscoe was Eva Aguayo with 15.  Sunshine Saddler had 6 points and Selena Perez 4, while Whitney Williams, Mia Herrera, Sam Ortega, and Shelby Brown all had 2.
 
The Plowgirls are now off for the holidays and will resume with the Eula Tournament on December 27-28.

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PLOWBOYS LOSE THREE, WIN ONE

The Plowboys lost two games in the Blackland Divide Invitational Tournament this past weekend before getting their first victory of the year over Rotan, 46-34.  They then fell to Haskell last night, 44-38.

The Plowboys came close on Thursday in the opening game of the Blackland Divide Invitational Tournament, but were unable to come away with the victory and fell to Anson, 43-42.

The Plowboys jumped out to a 12-9 lead in the first quarter and were ahead at the half 26-21.  But Anson pulled to within two, 37-35 by the end of the third quarter, and finally overtook Roscoe in the fourth to win 43-42.
 
High scorer for the Plowboys was Jesus Leanos with 15 points, followed by Javier Leanos with 9.  Anthony Ortega had 7 points, Cutter Davila 4, Chase Cathey 3, Kevin Lavalais 3, and Shelton Toliver 1.

Their next game against Hawley was also a loss, 52-45.  In that game Jesus Leanos had 14 points, Javier Leanos had 13, Lavalais 11, Davila 3, and Luis Villa, Ortega, and Cathey all had 1.

Then on Saturday they beat Rotan 46-34 for their first win.  In that game, Jesus Leanos had 24, Javier Leanos 10, Lavalais 4, Davila 4, and Ortega 2.

Then last night the Plowboys fell to Haskell 44-38.  Jesus Leanos had 20, Javier had 8, Villa 6, and Lavalais 4.
 
The Plowboys are now 1-7 on the year.  They will next play in the Eula Tournament on December 27-28.

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REMEMBERING RAY PRICE

Ray Price at the Lumberyard in October 2012.

Local folks were saddened to learn of the death this week of country music legend Ray Price. Price, who played at the Lumberyard last year, was the consummate southern gentleman.  After putting on a great show, he hung around afterwards to sign autographs, pose for photos, and talk with everyone who wanted to meet him.

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DOWN MEMORY LANE: ROSCOE’S TRADES DAY DRAWINGS

(This originally appeared in the December 22, 2010, posting of the Hard Times.)

The approach of Christmas takes me back to an earlier time in my life and reminds me of the Christmas Trades Day Drawing that used to be the Grand Finale of the year for the Roscoe Trades Day Association. 

Anyone living in or around Roscoe in the 1950s will remember the weekly Trades Day drawings that were held in the open area where the Roscoe State Bank now stands.  Every time you bought something from a participating Roscoe merchant—and that was practically all of them—you got a yellow ticket for every dollar you spent. So, if you bought something for $5.25, the merchant was supposed to give you five yellow tickets, but they would always round up and give you six. Each ticket had a number on it with a detachable stub.

Then on Friday afternoons at four o’clock, William Haney and one of his “soda jerks” from the drug store would set up a table just outside the south wall of the Boys Club hall and put on top of it a big turning “squirrel cage” type barrel made of wood and chicken wire.  They also hooked up a mike and speakers for Mr. Haney to do the announcing.  While this was going on, a huge crowd of Roscoe and country folks would gather with tickets in hand, filling the lawn area where the bank and its parking lot now stands.  Someone then put all the ticket stubs accumulated from sales all over town that week into the barrel, which was turned over and over. 

Then a kid randomly selected from the crowd opened the little door, reached in, and drew out a stub.   Mr. Haney would announce the amount of the prize and then call out the numbers on the stub, and all assembled would carefully check through their tickets.  The lucky winner would yell, “I’ve got it!” and go up to the table to collect the prize.  On normal weeks there were three—first $10, then $15, and then to top off the day, a $25 prize. Of course, this was in the ‘50s, so $10 was a substantial amount of money, enough to make anyone who won it feel like it was their lucky week. The prize money wasn’t cash but trades day script redeemable in any participating store, but since practically all the Roscoe businesses participated and since people did most of their shopping in Roscoe, the coupons were as good as cash. 

When the weekly drawing was over, people didn’t throw their yellow tickets away because you could trade in fifty yellow tickets for one red ticket, and the red tickets were used for the Grand Finale drawing of the year that took place the week before Christmas. The Roscoe Times office handled all the tickets, so when merchants ran out of yellow ones, they came around to the Times Office to get more. Also, as Christmas approached, people came to the Times Office and “cashed in” all their yellow tickets to get the red ones.

The biggest prize ever given away at one of the Trades Day drawings was a brand spanking new Chevrolet. This would have been around 1955 or 1956.  Back then, Bill Pollard had his Chevrolet dealership on the northwest corner of Main and Broadway, just east of the Coffee Bar and across the street from Kirby Smith’s filling station. He did a thriving business, not just in Roscoe, but for the whole area. In fact, he was so successful that his dealership outgrew Roscoe, and he moved to Big Spring and was successful out there for many years.

Anyway, I don’t remember who won the new car, but it was the Grand Prize at the red-ticket Christmas drawing that year, and I believe the winner was some farmer from south of town, maybe Champion. Whoever it was, I remember folks saying that it went to a deserving person, someone that everybody liked and who didn’t have a lot of money.

The drawings went on for several years after that, but there was never again any prize as big as that one. I think in later years, the grand prize at the Christmas drawing was something like $100, but again, that was a lot of money for those days.

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† DARRELL THOMASON

Darrell Dewayne Thomason, 63, passed away at his home on Monday, December 16. He was a resident of Roscoe.

His body will be cremated and no services are planned at this time.

Mr. Thomason was born on January 9, 1950, in Brownfield. He is survived by his daughter, Brandi Egger and her husband, James, of Roscoe and his brother, Tommy Thomason, of Rowlett, Texas. Darrell was preceded in death by his wife, Vickie Wells Thomason.

Online condolences may be expressed at www.mccoyfh.com.

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