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| Junior Martinez carries the baton. (Photo by Ryan Dillon) |
They finished in this order: 1) Roscoe Collegiate 96.5, 2) Brownwood JV 88, 3) Wall 86, 4) Brady JV 58, 5) Graham JV 57.5, 6) Stephenville JV 49, 7) Cherokee 47, 8) Winters 30, 9) Ballinger JV 29, 10) Mineral Wells JV 26.5, 11) Comanche 22, 12) Sweetwater JV 13.5, 13) Bangs 10.
Standouts for the Plowboys included Jaythan Coale who won the 200 meter dash, and the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 400 meter relay teams, all of whom also finished first. Jaythan Coale had a season and personal best by clearing 15 feet in the pole vault, which got him second place in the event, and Brayan Medina broke 56 seconds in the 400 meter dash with a time of 55.95 and a third place finish.
Here are how the top ten finishers in their events fared:
Event Place Athlete Time/Distance
200 meter dash 1 Jaythan Coale 23.69
400 meter dash 3 Brayan Medina 55.95
5 Kolten Hope 58.46
800 meter run 10 Caleb Reed 2:34.39
1600 meter run 6 Caleb Reed 5:36.33
3200 meter run 8 Caleb Reed 12:42.72
110 meter hurdles 5 Tristan Baker 17.33
4 x 100 meter relay 1 Plowboys 46.07
(Antonio Aguayo, Tyler Guelker, Jr. Martinez, Jaythan Coale)
4 x 200 meter relay 1 Plowboys 1:37.37
(T. Guelker, A. Aguayo, Gunner Helm, J. Coale)
4 x 400 meter relay 1 Plowboys 3:49.08
(A. Aguayo, T. Guelker, G. Helm, Brayan Medina)
High Jump 7 Tristan Baker 5’ 4”
Pole Vault 2 Jaythan Coale 15’
Long Jump 3 Brayan Medina 17’ 5”
5 Antonio Aguayo 16’ 7 ½”
Triple Jump 8 Tyler Guelker 35’
10 Ryan Highsmith 33’ 9”
The Plowboys won’t meet again until next Friday, March 20, when they host the Blackland Divide Relays at Plowboy Field.
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CITY COUNCIL HEARS RATE STUDY, AUDIT, SETS DATES
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| City Accountant Ricky Bowman presents the 2019 audit to the Council. |
City Manager Cody Thompson reported that Benny Cornutt is updating the Roscoe City website and announced that the City’s annual Easter Egg Hunt in Old Town Park is scheduled for Saturday, April 11. The booster pump at the Water Treatment Plant went out and had to be replaced, and the Main Lift Station pump has also been replaced with a rebuilt pump. City workers have spent time working on the leak at Ash and 11th Streets. The City has also applied for a permit to use water from a lagoon at the new sewer plant to sell treated water to the proposed I-20 construction project.
Justin Rasor of Raftelis Consultants presented his company’s water and wastewater rate study for the City of Roscoe. Citing its recent loan from the TWDB (Texas Water Development Board) of $2,130,000 for water line improvements, of which $1,800,000 will have to be repaid, he advised that the current consumer rates will not be sufficient revenue to cover the debt payments and that adjustments will be necessary. Also, since the TWDB also strongly prefers that cities’ water and sewer systems pay for themselves, the water and sewer rates need to be increased. The most equitable way to do that is to change from the current system of charging consumers by the number of bathrooms in the residence to a rate structure based on the number of gallons used with changes beginning in 2021. Rasor also presented the recommended revenue adjustments to recover the 2020-2024 cost of service. Such changes will require the City Council to pass an ordinance before the new rate system can be put into effect.
The City Council then heard and accepted the 2019 fiscal year audit report from City Accountant Ricky Bowman.
It also approved this year’s City Spring Cleanup dates of April 2, 3, and 4 (Thursday through Saturday) from 9:00am to 7:00pm.
It also approved an April 1 beginning to the 2020 cemetery maintenance contract with Skeet Kimbrell, who agreed to the same terms he had in last year’s contract.
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PLOWGIRL DISTANCE RUNNERS SHINE AT ANSON
The Plowgirl distance runners had a good day at the Tiger Relays in Anson on Friday. Itzel Ortega-Solis won the 1600 yard run and was second in the 800 yard run, while Candy Ortega was the runner-up in both the 1600 yard and 3200 yard runs.
As a team, the Plowgirls finished fifth with a total of 40 points. Other teams in the meet were Clyde, Stamford, Anson, Hamlin, and Hawley.
Here are the athletes who finished in the top ten of their event:
Event Place Athlete Time/Distance
100 yard dash 6 Mia Lavalais 14.37
9 Anahi Ortega-Solis 14.65
10 Kaylea Perez 14.78
200 yard dash 10 Anahi Ortega-Solis 31.25
400 yard dash 6 Mia Lavalais 1:10.96
7 Anahi Ortega-Solis 1:11.50
800 yard run 2 Itzel Ortega-Solis 2:39.86
1600 yard run 1 Itzel Ortega-Solis 6:02.00
2 Candy Ortega 6:08.03
3200 yard run 2 Candy Ortega 13:43.05
5 Jaiden Amador 15:23.31
Long Jump 10 Cameron Greenwood 13’ 1”
Triple Jump 8 Cameron Greenwood 27’ 8¾"
Shot Put 5 Shauna McCambridge 28’
The JV Plowboys finished fourth in the JV Boys’ group with a total of 70 points. Jake Madden finished second in the 3200 yard run, and the 100 and 400 yard relay teams also finished second.
The JV Boys finished in this order: Clyde, Anson, Hawley, Roscoe, Stamford, Hamlin.
Event Place Athlete Time/Distance
800 yard run 5 Richard Villa 2:27.87
1600 yard run 5 Reese Kiser 6:02.52
6 Jose Leaños 6:02.84
3200 yard run 2 Jake Madden 14:28.99
4 Camillo Salcedo 17:08.05
4 x 100 yard relay 2 JV Plowboys 45.85
(Jacob Blain, Aidan Hermosillio, Jacob Gonzalez, Sam Meier)
4 x 200 yard relay 4 JV Plowboys 1:36.86
(Jathan Sheridan, Keller Vinson, Ricardo Solis, Jacob Gonzalez)
4 x 400 yard relay 2 JV Plowboys 4:04.43
Pole Vault 5 Jose Leaños 8’
Long Jump 10 Aidan Hermosillio 16’ 1½”
Triple Jump 3 Sam Meier 33’ 9”
Discus Throw 7 Jose Martinez 81’ 9½”
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ROSCOE BACHELOR’S STUDENTS PRESENT AT TASB CAMP
RCISD staff members Morgan Martin, Marina Wilcox, and Andy Wilson outlined the school district's programs, and students responded to questions from Mrs. Martin as well as the school board members and superintendents who attended the presentation.
In addition, the students displayed different demonstration items at a booth on Friday, which caught the attention of many attendees. They discussed the fine details of their educational programs including college course work and internships.
Students who attended were the following:
Amanda Sanchez, BGS-Focus is Psychology, Internship: Nolan County Feeders
Veronica Cuellar, BGS-Education, Internship: EduMake It
Kadee Martinez, BGS-Vet, Internship: EduVet
Iris Gonzales, Tech Teach, BS, Student Teaching
Austin Lara, BGS-Marketing/Film, Internship: EduDrone
Blake Dean, BGS-Sociology, Internship: RCISD Technology Department
Jose Ortega, BGS-Internship: Jason Freeman Trucking
(BGS = Bachelor of General Studies)
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ROSCOE IN YEARS GONE BY: THE ROSCOE BOYS CLUB
Part 1 - Early Years and Trips
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| George and a group of boys on a trip to New Mexico in the 1940s. |
The Roscoe Boys Club, as I have come to learn, was unique, and no other town I ever heard of had anything quite like it. It existed because of one man, George Parks, the editor and publisher of the Roscoe Times, the local weekly newspaper. George (he wouldn't let anyone call him Mr. Parks) was a lifelong bachelor, and besides the newspaper his life's work was in running the Boys Club and providing activities for the boys of the town and surrounding countryside. And this he did constantly from the 1930s to the 1980s. It was his whole life.
He was born in Scranton, near Cisco in Eastland County, in 1905 and moved with his family to Roscoe in 1920 when his father, Rev. George Parks, Sr., became the preacher of the Baptist Church. He graduated from Roscoe High in 1924 and went to Simmons College (now Hardin-Simmons University) and majored in journalism. After graduation, he worked as a reporter before taking over as editor and publisher of the Roscoe Times in 1932, a position he held until shortly before his death in 1983.
He replaced Russell Haney as head scoutmaster in 1932 and for several years ran a thriving Boy Scout troop. For that reason, many of the later Boys Club activities were originally scouting activities that were simply carried over when Scout Troop 37 became the Roscoe Boys Club in the late 1940s. These included weekly meetings, overnight hikes, hunting and fishing trips in the Roscoe area, archery, swimming, and other scouting activities. The Roscoe troop, unlike troops in other communities, also went on overnight trips to area places of interest, such as trips to the mountains in Ruidoso, Carlsbad Caverns, the white sands of Alamogordo, the Capitol in Austin, and the State Fair in Dallas.
The number and scope of these activities grew as new ones became traditions and other new ones were tried and expanded. This was especially true of the extended overnight trips, which first began not long after George Parks became assistant scoutmaster in 1932.
An interviewer asked George in 1972 about the first trip he ever took any boys on, and George said it was a trip in a borrowed truck to an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. An Indian friend of his was explaining customs his tribe still practiced, and George said he wished the Roscoe boys could see them. So, his friend invited George to bring them to the reservation. A group of the local scouts made the trip and were welcomed by the tribe. That night they first watched traditional dances around the fire, and then the Indian dancers each took boys and taught them the steps—and when the night was done, the Roscoe boys could do the coyote and rabbit dances.
The trip was a great success, and before the year was out George and two other men had planned and taken a group of 39 boys on a 3-day trip to Carlsbad Caverns in two borrowed trucks. Each boy was required to bring 75ȼ for food, and all the meals on the trip were cooked by the boys. In Carlsbad, the boys slept in the high school gymnasium on bedrolls they brought with them, and this practice became a standard feature of subsequent trips taken over the years because it was the easiest and most economical way to take care of lodging for large numbers of boys.
An annual trip to what was known as summer scout camp also began during the depression and went on in various locales in years afterwards for the next forty years. In a Sweetwater Reporter article about the one taken in 1937, it was a ten-day trip to Camp Louis Farr on Spring Creek about 30 miles west of San Angelo. The article explained that earlier camps had lasted up to two weeks and as far away as Oklahoma, with several at Camp Fawcett on the Nueces River near Barksdale.
The camps featured training in swimming and lifesaving, as well as sanitation practices and other scouting skills. Meals of “wholesome food cooked by Tots Faulkenberry,” were served regularly, and in previous camps some boys had reportedly gained as much as ten pounds. (Of course, during the depression, this was seen as a good outcome.) On Sunday mornings, Sunday school and services were held, and that evening a softball game matched the Roscoe boys against a team from a town near camp.
Trips such as these also became a regular feature of the Boys Club once the group was no longer the Boy Scouts. The change in affiliation came in the late 1940s when George got into an irresolvable dispute with the Area Council. Rather than accept its ruling, George bolted and turned the troop into the Roscoe Boys Club, an official member of the Boys Clubs of America. Boys Clubs, then as now, were confined mainly to kids in poor urban areas. In Texas, Roscoe was the only club in such a small town with boys of all economic backgrounds, but its members thrived in a way that the kids in the big city clubs never did.
For one thing, George continued the scouting activities and added the new ones typical of the Boys Clubs, particularly the state tournaments in various games and sports. And the trips to summer camp and places like Carlsbad Caverns were a regular feature of the Boys Club just as they had been for the scouts.
By the time I was old enough to go on them in the mid-1950s, there were occasional trips of one kind or another to all the cities in Texas—Fort Worth, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, and others.
Over the years, these trips developed certain features that all the boys who went on them became familiar with. Excluding the summer camp trip, which was different, the trips to cities almost always began at the Roscoe Times office with leaving time set at five in the morning. George was an early riser and insisted on an early start, and woe to the boy who arrived ten minutes late because by then George would already be gone. This idiosyncrasy was well known to all the mothers in and around Roscoe, and usually by ten to five, everybody was there and ready to go.
Boys who went on these trips were responsible for buying their own food and souvenirs, but the troop or club handled the expenses for lodging, which on the larger trips were high school gymnasiums that George had obtained permission for the boys to stay in. Repeat stays were common because he always made sure the place was as clean or cleaner than it had been when they got there and everything was back in place just as it had been.
Before the trip started, boys either brought their money and gave it to George, who wrote the amount down in a small spiral notebook he carried in his shirt pocket, or they checked it out of their account in the Boy Scout (or Boys Club) bank that he kept at all times for boys who wanted to save their money, which he encouraged. He kept the accounts in a ledger at the Times Office, and boys could “check out” their money when they needed it. George always made sure they were checking it out for what he considered a valid reason, and buying candy, soft drinks, ice cream or the like were not valid reasons. On the other hand, buying .22 or shotgun shells for hunting trips, bait for fishing trips, or daily expenses on the extended trips were, and boys who had these accounts would tell George how much they wanted to take for the trip, and he would record it. Later, when it was time to go to a café or restaurant in a city, George would give each boy the amount needed and record it in his little notebook.
If the trip included Sunday, which most did, the boys attended church in the city where they happened to be. George would have notified the church’s minister beforehand so when 25 or 30 boys came marching in, there would already be a seating area set aside for them. The church’s denomination changed from trip to trip, but in all of them the group was recognized by the minister during the announcements.
On all these trips, the local people were always surprised and pleased at the boys’ behavior, wondering how George could keep such a large group of energetic kids from running wild. This he did by assigning spats to miscreants. On trips, these were administered by whipping boys across the rear with the thong of the coach’s whistle George wore around his neck. The knotted thong, made of colored plastic strands that someone had woven together in a crafts class, produced a sharp pain. George would tell the culprit to “bend it,” which meant to face away from George and bend over with the hands on the knees. Then he would dish out the number of assigned spats, usually five, but for serious offenses, sometimes ten. These punishments were assigned in public but administered later back in the gymnasium, and the other boys generally enjoyed the spectacle—although laughing and taunting were strictly off-limits. And, although it might seem harsh by today’s standards, this practice was very effective in keeping even large groups of exuberant boys in line.
When boys ate in cafes and restaurants, George encouraged them to read the menus and order proper meals as many boys had never been in situations where they made their own choices about what they ate. Burgers and fries were normally out as meals and so were ice cream or pie and cake. Once, when on the first morning the group went to eat, the waitress asked one boy what he wanted for breakfast, and he said he’d like a bowl of chili and a glass of milk. George asked him why he ordered that, and he replied that it was the only thing he knew how to order.
There were different kinds of trips. Some were shorter trips that could be covered in a weekend during the school year. Examples of these were the trips to Fort Worth, the State Fair in Dallas, or to Carlsbad Caverns. These trips were generally taken by smaller groups, i.e., between eight and ten boys, in George’s own vehicle. In the mid-fifties, it was a green 50’s Chevrolet van, known (behind his back) as the Moose Wagon. Moose had been a disparaging nickname for George for longer than any boy could remember, and he allowed no one to refer to him as that, but when he was out of earshot, everybody did. The van could seat five or six in the back, two in the middle, and two more in the front with George, but, when necessary, there was also a small wooden bench that could be placed in an open space in back that would seat two more. Boys’ bags were put behind the back seat, next to the double back doors. Later, George had other similar vehicles, one being an International Harvester called a carryall, which was slightly larger.
On these smaller trips, the group stayed in downtown hotels instead of gymnasiums. In Fort Worth, it was the Hilton Hotel, in Dallas the Adolphus, and in Houston the Rice. George would get two or three rooms, depending on the number of boys on the trips, and there would be several boys in each room. The smaller boys usually wanted to stay in the room with George, feeling safer that way, but the older boys wanted the opposite, as just staying in a room with no adults was more fun.
The larger trips were the ones taken in school buses, and they were the ones in which the boys stayed in school gyms. In later years, i.e., the 1960s and ‘70s, however, there were even grander trips in which the Boys Club would charter a Greyhound bus and fill it with somewhere around forty boys. These were extended trips to faraway places such as the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, Yellowstone Park, and Washington, DC. They were made possible by the Boys Club and Roscoe gins’ green boll program, which will take a separate article to describe.
Also, what boys did and saw on the various trips—the Easter trip, the State Fair, the Games Room tournaments, the State Boys Club baseball and basketball tournaments, Ruidoso, Galveston, and others will require a separate article, as this one has just about reached its limit.
In closing, let it be said that the boys who took advantage of these trips went to more places and did more things than would have ever been possible for most, if not all, of them had it not been for George Parks’ unceasing efforts to provide them over the years. By the time the boys were grown, they had been to more places, seen more, and had more experiences than almost any of the kids from other towns and cities.
References
“Roscoe Scouts Visit Caverns,” Sweetwater Reporter, July 10, 1932.
Unfortunately, three of the boys listed in the article as scouts who made this trip—Bobby Anthony, Weldon Norris, and Willie Pietzsch—would later give their lives for their country in World War II. All were killed in 1945. Anthony’s plane was shot down over Tokyo just days after the Hiroshima bomb, Norris was killed in the Battle of the Bulge, and Pietzsch was killed in the Battle of Luzon in the Philippines.
“34 Boys Scouts in Annual Summer Encampment,” Sweetwater Reporter, August 10, 1937.
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WEATHER REPORT: MORE RAIN, SPRINGLIKE WEATHER
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| Stormy skies and high winds on Sunday. |
Since we switched over to daylight saving time on Sunday, the weather has been very springlike. Monday had a 75°F high, and yesterday climbed to 79° and really felt like spring—and, if the temperature rises to 81° today as predicted, it will be the first time the thermometer has hit 80° since before Thanksgiving, the 82° reading of November 4 to be exact. Tomorrow should be similar with a high of 82° before a norther blows in on Friday, dropping the high down to 58° and bringing a 60% chance for another rain.
Saturday’s high will be back up to 73° with rain chances dropping to 30%, but the next seven days after that all have at least a 40% chance. If the weathermen are right, it appears that more precipitation is on the way, so if you haven’t mowed your lawn yet, you’d better make plans to do so the first chance you get.
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† KIM L. GILLESPIE
Kim, the eldest of William and Beulah Gillespie, was born on July 16, 1951, in Oakley, KS. He shared his birth date with his father and his maternal grandfather, Joe Maddox.
Kim attended school in Grainfield, KS, and graduated in 1969 from Wheatland High School, the first class to graduate from the newly built consolidated school. He graduated from Electronics Institute in Kansas City, MO in 1971.
Kim married the former Gloria Herdt on September 5, 1971. They lived in the Kansas City area for 20 years. Two sons, Kevin and Corey, were born to this union.
Kim worked for Lone Star Industries for 35 years. He began working at the Bonner Springs, KS plant as an electrician. Through the years, as his interest in computers grew, he was promoted to Computer Control Manager and the company moved him and his family to Oklahoma, and then to Texas to automate the plants in Pryor and Maryneal. He retired in 2011.
He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Gloria Gillespie of Roscoe; sons, Kevin and Melissa Gillespie of Roscoe and Corey and Alicia Gillespie of Odessa; his three grandsons, Parker and Maxx Gillespie of Roscoe and Canaan Gillespie of Odessa; His mother, Beulah Gillespie of Quinter, KS; his brother Mark Gillespie of Maynardville, TN; and his sister-in-law, Anita Swenson of Oakley, KS.
Kim was preceded in death by his father, William Gillespie; his brothers, Kyle, Lyle, Gail, and Terry Gillespie; his sister, Diane Gillespie; his paternal grandparents, Marion Abner and Ocie Gillespie; his maternal grandparents, Joe and Myrtle Maddox; and his in-laws, Lester and June Herdt.
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