The Roscoe Plowboys play their first home game of the season at Plowboy Field Friday evening when they take on an old foe, the Stamford Bulldogs. Both teams will be licking their wounds after being overrun by two of the best 2A teams in the state last week—the Plowboys by Hawley and the Bulldogs by Hamlin. The final score in that game was 34-0. So, both will be fighting to get back on track Friday with their first win of the year.
Stamford is a 2A-I team in the same district as Hawley, Anson, Forsan, Haskell, and Colorado City, where Texas Football picks them to finish third behind Hawley and Anson. Coach Ronnie Casey’s Bulldogs return 5 offensive and 7 defensive starters from last year’s 6-5 team that went 2-2 in district.
They are led this year on offense by QB Zhawn Holden and on defense by lineman Cato Maclas.
Kickoff is at 7:30pm.
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PLOWBOYS NO MATCH FOR HAWLEY
Before a large home crowd and on a very hot evening with a game-time temperature of 100°, the Bearcats came out firing and by the end of the first quarter had established themselves with a 14-0 lead.
However, the Plowboys responded with a Kolten Hope touchdown and extra-point to get back in the game with the score at 14-7. Unfortunately, that was the high point of the evening for the Plowboys as Hawley owned the rest of the second quarter, scoring four more touchdowns before the half to put the game out of reach. The halftime score was 42-7.
At that point, the rest of the game was academic, but Hawley picked up three more TDs in the second half, two in the third quarter and one in the fourth, to put the game away. The final score was 61-7.
Scoring by quarters:
1 2 3 4 T
Hawley 14 28 13 6 61
Plowboys 0 7 0 0 7
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COVID-19 NUMBERS CONTINUE STEADY DECLINE
As time goes on, Texas’s July peak of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continues to fall, and the general outlook improves. In west Texas, schools have not closed from outbreaks as many feared they might, and in-person classes are currently proceeding without interruption. Let’s hope they can remain that way.
In Texas, the Covid-19 numbers continue to drop from the previous week. The death rate is slowing as 1,105 Texans died of Covid-19 this past week compared to 1,326 the week before, and there were also fewer hospitalizations, 4,144 this week compared to 4,907 a week ago.
The news is similar in the Big Country, where the rate of new cases continues to be about the same along with the number of hospitalizations. Taylor County has 362 active cases (363 last week), and Abilene currently has 25 Covid-19 hospitalizations (22 last week), 18 from in the county and 7 from outside the county. There have been 42 total Covid-19 deaths.
Nolan County currently has 11 active cases (same as last week) out of 154 positives on the year. 141 people have recovered and 2 died. Mitchell County has 12 active cases (14 last week) out of 73 on the year with 60 recovered and 1 death. Fisher County has 12 active cases (21 last week) out of 59 on the year with 46 recovered and 1 death. Scurry County has 40 active cases (47 last week) out of 293 on the year with 252 recovered and 2 deaths.
Here are the Big Country’s county totals for the year as of yesterday (with a week ago in parentheses): Erath, 693 (633); Jones, 598 (604); Scurry, 546 (532); Brown, 480 (447); Howard, 281 (258); Comanche, 216 (206); Runnels, 200 (183); Nolan, 153 (147); Eastland, 114 (106); Stephens, 113 (114); Mitchell, 73 (73); Callahan 70 (57); Knox, 67 (64); Fisher, 59 (52); Haskell, 54 (51); Coleman, 53 (45); Coke, 49 (48); Shackelford, 24 (21); Stonewall, 10 (8); Kent, 7 (7); Throckmorton, 5 (4).
Selected west Texas counties yesterday (with a week ago in parentheses): Lubbock, 7,485 (6,918); Midland, 3,272 (3,094); Ector (Odessa), 2,818 (2,703); Tom Green (San Angelo), 2,041 (1,975); Wichita (Wichita Falls), 1.324 (1,227).
Texas now has had a total of 617,333 cases (586,730 a week ago), 89,791 of them active (108,604 a week ago), and 12,681 total deaths (11,576 a week ago).
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AUGUST FINISHES HOT, SEPTEMBER BRINGS RAIN
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Monday's rainbow. (Photo by Eden Baker)
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Good heavens! What is all that wet stuff in the yard that I woke up to this morning? I’m thinking it’s about an inch of rain. (Kenny Landfried has the official total at 1.14".) But it’s been so long since I’ve seen any, I’m afraid to say for sure. It started falling late last night and kept it up for an hour or so. Anyway, it was enough to close the cracks in the ground in the back yard, so I’m not complaining. My garden this morning looks perkier than it has for some time now.
This past couple of days has been quite a contrast from the weather we’ve been getting since around July. I guess we can attribute it to the change of months. After all, September averages out to be the second wettest month of the year in Roscoe, just behind May, which gets more rain than any other.
The warmup to last night’s action occurred the day before when we got about .3” here in town. Roscoe weatherman Kenny Landfried had an official .25”. In that storm, which was more bark than bite, there was an abundance of thunder and lightning but not much to show for it, although I’m sure some of the folks living closer to Loraine must have got more than we did in town.
Before that, the month of August remained hot to the end with every day of last week reaching over 95°F and three going over 100°. The hottest day was Friday, when the high was 104°.
Despite the August heat and dryness, my jujube tree had another bumper crop, and it was nice to be out picking them off the tree yesterday afternoon while listening to the locusts (a.k.a. cicadas) make their familiar buzzing sound, which to me is a happy noise that typifies the lazy days of late summer in Roscoe.
The forecast for the coming week is a welcome change from the August heat. Today’s high is in the 80s for the first time in about a month, 86° to be exact. And there’s a 20% chance of rain. Those chances will diminish to 10% tomorrow and return to 20% for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
And the forecast high temperatures for the rest of this week are 92° tomorrow, 89° Friday, and 88° Saturday. So, welcome September, I like you already!
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ROSCOE IN YEARS GONE BY: EARLY DAY MEDICINE SHOWS
Editor’s note: Since news is a bit slow this week, I’m running a memoir from the January 22, 2014, posting of the Hard Times. It is from a short booklet by John Beryl Witherspoon, who grew up in Roscoe in the 1920s. Since there were no televisions or smartphones back then, entertainment was naturally quite different, and medicine shows traveling from town to town —remember the Wizard of Oz?—entertained the locals and sold them their “snake oil” cures.
MEDICINE SHOWS
by John Beryl Witherspoon
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An early day medicine show. (Photo from internet)
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Other shows came to our town, but the ones that were the most popular were the “Medicine Shows” because they were free. We were dirt poor but didn’t know it because we had no standard to compare ourselves with. Most everybody borrowed money from the bank to live on until the next crop was out. Everybody was reluctant to spend the “Bank’s Money” on entertainment, so everybody came to the medicine shows because they didn’t cost anything. When the fall of the year came, there was a deluge of them. The crops were out and all the merchants who had extended credit to all of us during the year were paid, and we had money jangling in our pockets. But they avoided us like the plague in the spring when we were “strapped.” But, when fall came, it was payday for everybody.
Many medicine shows came our way, but the most prominent one was “Doctor Tate’s Medicine Show,” which came out of Corpus Christi every year. He always made our town once a year.
Medicine shows were unique because it took only one truck and two men to run them. The truck was designed so that one side would “let down,” thus making a stage. Then, there was a side door into the truck, and it could be used to store the “medicine” and for sleeping quarters.
The man in charge of medicine shows was always a Doctor! His credentials were questionable, but who cared as long as we were being entertained?
His assistant was usually a young man of some accomplishments who could play an instrument and sing and dance, and he was the stooge who went through the onlookers and delivered the medicine. I say onlookers because there were no seats; we all stood on our feet.
If the “Doctor” addressed his assistant, he always called him Mr Moe. They were very formal in their conversations, which went on throughout the show. When the show opened, the “Doctor” might come on the stage and bring a bottle of his medicine. He would hold it up so everybody could see it and describe all the ailments that it would “positively” cure. He would go on to explain that it was a very rare and private formula which had been given to him by Chief Tonna-wa-hoo, whose life he had saved in a raging prairie fire in Oklahoma. And, that the Chief swore that he had not given it to a living soul before then.
Anyway, it was intriguing.
Mr. Moe would come out on the stage and entertain us with some songs and dances. He always had make-up on. Sometimes he would be a country bumpkin and at others he would be a black-face.
He would come out among the onlookers with his arms loaded with medicine and “Snake Oil” that was guaranteed to cure the pains of all aching joints and muscles.
The Doctor carried on continuing conversation while he was out there. He might say, “Mr. Moe, do you know how to make ice water?”
“I don’t think I do know how to make ice water. How do you make ice water?”
“Peel an onion. That’ll make your eyes water!”
Then, Mr. Moe would scream, “Sold out! Give me some more medicine, Doctor!” Everybody would have a big hearty laugh and wait to see what happened next and buy more medicine.
Then maybe Doctor Tate would say, “Mr. Moe, which hand do you stir your coffee with?”
Mr. Moe would say, “Let’s see, I think I stir it with my left hand.”
Then, Doctor Tate would say, “That’s funny. I use a spoon.” Everybody would laugh again and buy more medicine.
Later, I asked my grandfather why everybody was so anxious to buy Doctor Tate’s medicines and elixirs, and he said, “It’s laced with alcohol and two tablespoons full of it will make anybody feel better!”
I suppose that was so as evidenced by all the empty medicine bottles piled up behind the billboards after the show left town.
That was our town and we loved it. Others have their memories, maybe at a different time, but just the same, it was “Our Home Town.”
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A THAI MEDICINE SHOW
Editor’s Note: The above memoir of old Roscoe reminds me of my own medicine-show days. As many of you know, in my younger years I traveled the world and worked at many jobs, and one was as a salesman in a medicine show. In 1969, my traveling companion and I arrived in Bangkok from India, both of us almost broke and without any prospects in sight. I immediately began letting everyone know I was looking for any kind of work available.
I was drinking tea at the café of a cheap hotel frequented by low-budget travelers when I was approached by a pudgy, middle-aged Thai man who introduced himself as Banjo. He asked me in broken English if I’d be willing to work with him and his Chinese partner in a traveling medicine show. He said he’d pay me 110 baht* a day plus free meals and drinks. I was down to $7.00, so I was happy to accept.
*110 baht was $5.50 in American money, but it wemt a long way in Bangkok back then, when a cheap hotel with shower and AC was 30 baht a night, and a meal of Thai fried rice 3 baht.
The next morning, he and his partner met me at the café, bought my breakfast, and away we went in his Volkswagen van loaded with boxes of an herbal medicine called Tahng Kwe Ee, a Chinese remedy made from a root something like ginseng. It was said to cure backaches, arthritis, rheumatism, and most other maladies and pains. It was sold as pills in bottles, where the directions said it should be taken before bedtime with Mekhong, an inexpensive Thai liquor of about 70 proof.
My job was to attract a crowd. In those days before Thailand had supermarkets, most daily needs came from public markets, where we’d set up with a small stage, speakers and microphone. If we were in a Thai market, Banjo would open the show, making some welcoming remarks in Thai and introducing me as an American medical doctor, who wanted to speak to them about this amazing medicine we were selling.
I always began my speech with “Ladies and gentlemen, good morning (or afternoon)!” in English, which almost all of them understood, even if their English was minimal. Then, as Banjo told me to do, I’d hold up a bottle of medicine and say anything that came to my mind because they wouldn’t understand what it was, anyway. They still crowded around because having an American in their neighborhood market was unusual. Then Banjo made his pitch in Thai while the Chinese guy handled the sales.
When we were in a Chinese neighborhood, my job was the same, but the Chinese guy made the introductions and pitch, while Banjo made the sales.*
*Almost 1/3 of the population of Bangkok back then was ethnic Chinese.
We sold lots of Tahng Kwe Ee. I was told that many old people liked to buy it, even if they weren’t convinced of its healing powers, because it gave them an excuse to have a nip of Mekhong every evening.
I worked with Banjo and the Chinese guy, whose name I forget, for a couple of weeks, and in that time I think we hit every neighborhood market in Bangkok along with several others in nearby towns. We met for breakfast at six o’clock and went until five or six in the afternoons seven days a week. After a couple of weeks, I’d saved enough money to buy some nice new clothes and still have some money in my pocket, so I quit and moved on to other endeavors.
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† IONE MADELL WILLIS
Madell was born December 30, 1935, at Sanco, Texas to the late Clarence and Zelma (Smith) Benningfield. She married Maynard Roy Willis July 28, 1954, in Clairmont, Texas. Maynard passed away November 21, 2017. She lived in Roscoe and Sweetwater for 60 plus years. She graduated from Alpena High School in Alpena, Arkansas, worked for Snead’s Drug Store in Roscoe, worked as a telephone operator with Southwestern Bell from 1956-1976, and had worked as a sales clerk for Sears and Cox Jewelers.
She is survived by her daughters, Toby Hirt and Rex of Roscoe; Melanie Burnett and Brent of Sweetwater; granddaughters, Latimer Burnett of Sweetwater and Timorie Wilke and Shawn of Sweetwater; great-grandchildren, Taygan, Taytan, and Taylan Wilke of Sweetwater; brother, Don Benningfield and Doty of Clairmont, Texas; niece, Diane Otwell of Denton; nephew, Anthony Huff and Mary Kay of Potosi; and two great nieces, Melinda and LaTonne of Denton.
Madell is also preceded in death by a brother, S.C. Benningfield, Jr.; sisters, Rose Davis, Lois Huff and Joann Cape and a great nephew, Casey Leo Huff.
Pallbearers will be Rex Hirt, Brent Burnett, Shawn Wilke and Brian Sehon.
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† ROBERT Z. “ROB” DRAKE
Rob was born on February 13, 1955, in Sweetwater, the middle son to Bob and Lanelle Drake. He graduated from Roscoe High School and then served in the United States Marine Corps. Rob worked as a millwright in the construction industry for most of his life, many of which were spent with the Fluor Corporation. This work took him all over the country for different projects. Rob loved hunting arrowheads and all things Native American history. An immeasurable number of hours were devoted to hunting for his next ‘rock.’ Rob also enjoyed cooking, hunting, fishing, and watching sports, especially football.
He is survived by his wife Rosa Drake of San Angelo; his children, Bobby Drake and wife Ambra of Waxahachie, Rebecca Drake & Kris of Houston, Candy Batres and husband Rafa of Lerdo Durango, Mexico, Jesus Villarreal of Eden; his grandchildren Makenna, Carlos, Aubrey, Saul, Mya, Kenley, and Nolan. He is also survived by his mother, Lanelle Drake of Roscoe, two brothers, John Drake & wife Janet of Canyon, and David Drake & wife Connie of Lake Whitney, and nephews Jay, Dustin, Josh, and Daniel.
He is preceded in death by his father, Bob Drake.
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The coronavirus continues to be active in Texas and the Big Country with new cases popping up every day. With that said, however, some counties are more active than others. Counties with universities and prisons are naturally hit harder, but some counties also have more community spread. In this area, Scurry County is having more problems than most with an increase of 50 active cases over the past two weeks and three additional deaths.
