As RCISD adjusts to the constraints imposed upon it by the coronavirus pandemic, it is doing its best to turn the proverbial lemon into lemonade by adapting to and improving its online instruction at all levels. Its predicament and progress are summed up in the video above and the message below that Provost Andy Wilson sent on Saturday to the STEM Advisory Committee, which was unable to hold its annual spring meeting here this year.
Dear STEM Advisory Committee,
Our head of Edu-Drone operations, Cade Garrett, along with our head of Edu-Drone curriculum, Dusty White, has prepared a video capturing the essence of continuing public education at a distance. Empty hallways, empty classrooms, and empty playgrounds have become the norm over the past four weeks. However, instruction, planning, and relationships have continued to be the focal point at RCISD.
I can't brag enough on our paraprofessionals who have not missed a day of helping teachers prepare, our teachers who have learned how to instruct at a distance and evaluate student work at all hours of the day and night, our parents who have worked hard to keep their students busy on their assignments (and learn a few new things themselves), our campus administrators who are making home visits to struggling students and their families, and especially on our students who are working hard to become a little smarter with each assignment that they complete.
In addition to instructing at a distance, RCISD has been able to keep all of its interns working in internships. An example of this is the work that Edu-Make-It is doing to produce N-95 masks for neighboring hospitals. They are making about 25 per day but have orders of over 500 to fill.
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KTXS-TV NEWSCAST FEATURES MASK MAKERS
Abilene’s KTXS-TV and Amarillo’s KVII-TV channel 7 featured Roscoe Collegiate’s mask making project in newscasts this past weekend. The segment lasts 1:42 and may be viewed by clicking here.
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CORONAVIRUS UPDATE FOR ROSCOE, BIG COUNTRY
As far as the news goes these days, the elephant in the room once again is the coronavirus, which is disrupting the entire world to the point that we may someday look back on this spring in much the same way as the history books now look at the stock market crash of October 1929. This week the price of oil actually dropped into negative territory for the first time ever because all the storage tanks are full, and unemployment claims are at the highest levels since the great depression. It’s hard to imagine how we are going to return to normalcy with the impact the pandemic has had and will continue to have until we beat the disease once and for all.
Although there are a few places where the deaths and contagion seem to have peaked, at least for the moment, Texas is not one of them. Its number of cases continues to rise, especially in the cities. Abilene is a good example with confirmed cases continuing to roughly double with each passing week. Four weeks ago on Tuesday, March 24, there were none. Three weeks ago, on March 31, there were 14. The following Tuesday, two weeks ago, April 7, it had grown to 38. Then, last Tuesday, April 14, it was up to 74, and yesterday, April 21, it was 164. If it continues at this rate, by next Tuesday it will be over 300.
The good news is that so far there are no confirmed cases in Nolan County, although it’s hard to say whether this may be due more to the lack of testing here or because it just hasn’t started yet and may increase like Abilene and elsewhere when it does. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, stay safe, be careful, lay low when possible, and don’t forget to wash your hands.
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Roscoe in Years Gone By: Some Troop 37 Memories
by Herschel Whittington
by Herschel Whittington
This is an excerpt from the memoir of Herschel Whittington, Smiles and Tears of Boyhood Years. He was the kid brother of Hillman and Ray Whittington who grew up in Roscoe during the depression. Hillman was a war hero killed in the Battle of Midway in 1942, and Ray was a glider pilot in Europe who survived the war. Herschel's memoir is a valuable record of life in Roscoe in the 1930s and early 1940s. As with other Roscoe boys, he was a member of Roscoe's Boy Scout Troop 37 and was 14 years old during the time he writes about below.
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| Roscoe boys pose on the City's new fire truck in 1938. |
One of the new entities was the Bat Patrol, soon to become infamous as the “Bats.” A. T. [Smith] was Patrol Leader, I was Assistant Patrol Leader, Dowl [Wilson] had some sort of leadership role, and most of the members were quality kids, certifiable “Bats.” I wish I could remember all those in the original group. Edward Basham certainly was, and Walter Maloney, LeRoy Pietzsch, Derewood Snyder, Don Massey, and Max "Skin" Smith. I apologize to others for not remembering, because they all contributed to making us the most gung-ho Patrol that Troop 37 ever experienced.
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| 1934 Chevy sedan. |
We went jack rabbit hunting at night, often firing .22s from the front fenders of that 1934 Chevy. We went on Saturday outings to area points of beauty or interest, and to college football games. Sometimes he simply drove us to Sweetwater for a chocolate malted or a purple cow at the drive-in, or ice-cream sundae at Tom's. That car must have had a million miles on it—all of them loaded with boys.
Perhaps it was because Hillman and Ray lived at home that summer, but I seemed to have more time for fun during the mid-months of 1940 than any other summer of my youth. At the three-day Buffalo Trail Council meeting in July, we competed with Boy Scout troops from communities all over West Texas in such Scouting activities as trail blazing, semaphore signaling, mapping, knot tying, wood burning (designs burnt into wood) and carving, fire building (without matches), bugling, astronomy, archery, and a dozen other competitions. Our main challenge came from our nearest neighbors, the troops from Sweetwater. They talked a good game, but in the end we swamped all competition and brought home nearly every possible award. And the Bat Patrol was responsible for a majority of those wins.
Toward the end of July, George borrowed our school's largest bus and, with Tots Falkenbury driving, took about 40 of us boys on a two-week outing to New Mexico.
We drove west on Highway 80, stopping at Big Spring to see the big spring, at Odessa to see the meteor crater, and at Pecos to see Judge Roy Bean's saloon/courthouse. That first night we camped beside the Carlsbad (New Mexico) power-plant, which straddled the Pecos River. Because I was prone to walk in my sleep, George made me place my pallet (we didn't have sleeping bags, just bed rolls) between two older boys so I wouldn't wander off and fall into the exhaust-rapids below the power plant.
The next morning we walked through Carlsbad Cavern—all 14 miles: 7 in and 7 out. Nothing in my life, to that point, had awed me so thoroughly. In the afternoon, we walked around the town of Carlsbad. I sauntered, hands in pockets, whistling some tune I'd heard on the Silvertone [i.e., the family radio], head high, and happy. At least I was until Hollis Ward suggested my "'Country" ways were embarrassing him: "I don't think people walk down the streets of big cities whistling at the tops of their lungs!" he said. Big city? Carlsbad?
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WEATHER REPORT: WARM AND DRY
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| Warm, sunny skies over Roscoe yesterday. |
The forecast for the rest of the week is for sunny skies with highs in the eighties and lows in the fifties. Today will have a strong west wind and a high this afternoon of 85°. Tomorrow will be similar with a projected high of 86°, but the wind will shift to the north on Friday and cool things a bit with a high of 82° Friday and 76° Saturday. Temperatures will climb back into the 80s on Sunday and Monday and into the 90s on Tuesday.
There is no rain in the forecast for the next seven days.
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† WILBURN G. HUGHES
There will be a family visitation today, April 22, from 6:00 to 8:00 at McCoy Funeral Home.
† EMILY (LEE) McFAUL
Emily was born in Conroe on January 7, 1930. She graduated from Roscoe High School in 1947 and married Willard on November 25, 1948. She was a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, cousin, and friend to many.
She is survived by a son, Wayne McFaul and wife Annette of Gilmer, Texas; daughters Susie Alford and husband Jerry of Roscoe; and Cathi McFaul of Mansfield. She has five grandchildren: Justin McFaul of Longview; Misti DeLoera of Roscoe; Jonathan McFaul of Longview; Jerad Alford of Roscoe, and Chris Alford of Kansas. She has 12 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.
Emily was a member of First Baptist Church, Roscoe, for 81 years. She served as the church secretary for several pastors. She also was the original owner of the Cotton Belles dress shop in the 1970s. She was instrumental in getting the SNAP Meals on Wheels delivery in Roscoe. Her many talents included sewing, cooking, and planning and organizing church events. She played the piano and sang for many years in the ladies’ trio at church.
Pallbearers will be Wayne McFaul, Jerry Alford, Justin McFaul, Jonathan McFaul, Jerad Alford, and Armando DeLoera. Honorary pallbearers: Amri DeLoera, Mason Alford, Amrin Deloera, Amrik DeLoera, and Kennedy Alford.
The family would like to extend special thanks to Emily’s hospice nurse, Valerie Pruitt and caregivers Mary Ham, Connie Hernandez, Patricia Reed, Lupe Gutierrez, and Karron Clark.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Open Door Child Development Center at FUMC, Box 489, Roscoe, Texas, 79545, or to the SNAP Meals on Wheels program, 1701 Elm, Sweetwater, Texas, 79556.
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Bitsy, I'm really thankful for your keeping those memories alive!
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