Covid-19 Closes Roscoe Collegiate Classes

Yesterday, an outbreak of Covid-19 forced Roscoe Collegiate to cancel its in-person instruction in all divisions—Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary. 

All classes shifted to remote instruction starting this morning and will continue on all scheduled school days until at least Monday, November 30, the first school day after Thanksgiving Break. At that time, regular classes will resume or not, depending on an assessment of the situation.  

Six staff members and one student have tested positive in the Early Childhood Center, necessitating the quarantining of 46 students. Elementary has one positive student and two positive staff members with 11 students and 2 staff quarantined. Secondary has 11 positive students and 2 positive staff members with 74 students and no staff quarantined.

Parents of students were informed of the situation by a letter posted on the school website yesterday afternoon. Next week a parent-response survey will be posted to help determine if the situation has eased enough to re-open regular classes at school after Thanksgiving.

For more information, the letter to parents is available here.

The Covid-19 numbers at the school are available here.

The RCISD Mitigation Plan Summary is available here.

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The Roscoe Lions Club posted on Facebook yesterday this photo of member Jerry Roberts as it lamented his passing on Sunday from complications of Covid-19 after a “very tough, nearly 5 week battle.”

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QUANAH ENDS PLOWBOYS’ FOOTBALL SEASON

The Quanah Indians defeated the Plowboys 51-22 in a bi-district battle played last Thursday in Abernathy. They jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter and led all the way from that point on. The halftime score was 30-6.

Quanah now moves on to the next round and will play Muenster tomorrow evening while the Plowboys move on to basketball.

Quanah 51 - Plowboys 22

Scoring by quarters:
                          1            2          3          4         T
Quanah            8          22        14          7        51
Plowboys         0            6          0        16        22

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PLOWGIRLS FALL TO BLACKWELL, IRA GAME CANCELED

On Saturday, Blackwell defeated the Plowgirls 47-39 at a game played in Blackwell. 

Carson Greenwood led the Plowgirls in scoring with 27 of the Plowgirls’ 39 points while Shauna McCambridge pulled down 11 rebounds.

Individual scoring: Carson Greenwood 27, Cameron Greenwood 4, Jacey Rodriquez 3, Kirsten Welch 3, Shauna McCambridge 2.

Rebounds: McCambridge 11, Car. Greenwood 9, Rodriquez 4, Mia Lavalais 1, Cam. Greenwood 1.

Scoring by quarters:
                             1          2         3          4         T
Blackwell           3        13        11        20        47
Plowgirls          14          6          6        13        39      

The home game with Ira last night was canceled due to the Covid-19 outbreak at school. The upcoming games with Eula here on Friday and Post there on Monday are currently tentative depending on the Covid-19 situation and those schools' willingness to play the games.

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COVID-19 CONTINUES TO SPREAD

In the United States, case numbers are surging in most states, leading to warnings about full hospitals and exhausted health care workers.  Chicago and St. Louis have put strict limits on gatherings, and Oregon and New Mexico are ordering residents to stay at home. The northern midwestern and northwestern states continue to be the hardest hit. Their numbers of new deaths are also increasing.

In Texas, health experts are worried that family gatherings at Thanksgiving could compound the problem as hospitalizations continue to rise statewide. Airlines are reporting that the upcoming holiday will be the busiest time since March. Health officials are also up against a public tired of following precautions and wanting to return to normal life.

In the Big Country, Abilene’s number of active Covid-19 cases continues to grow. The month of October in Taylor County began with 4 active cases. By November 1 that number was 1,499, and as of yesterday had grown to 2,249. The number of hospitalizations has also grown to around 83, up from 50 last week. The 22-county Big Country region ICU beds are full, and the hospitals are requesting staffing help from the state. Abilene hospitals have now had 89 total Covid-19 deaths, up from 84 last week.

Locally, Nolan County now has 94 active cases, almost doubling the 48 of last week. The little chart for Nolan County in the Hard Times’ right-hand column is still showing a high infection rate. Mitchell County has 31 active cases, the same as last week, and Fisher County has 12 active cases, down from 18 last week. In Scurry County, the numbers have gone up again. It now has 161 active cases compared to 107 last week. Scurry County has now had 19 Covid-19 deaths with 3 this past week.

Here are the Big Country’s county totals for the year as of yesterday (with last week in parentheses): Jones, 1,578 (855); Howard, 1,516 (1,265); Scurry, 1,397 (1,239); Erath, 1,217 (1,124); Brown, 837 (740); Nolan, 580 (479); Comanche, 408 (391); Runnels, 325 (313); Eastland, 316 (285); Mitchell, 263 (233); Stephens, 216 (173); Callahan 180 (153); Coleman, 169 (105); Coke, 153 (136); Fisher, 140 (128); Knox, 116 (114); Haskell, 93 (90); Shackelford, 46 (42); Stonewall, 24 (21); Throckmorton, 22 (20); Kent, 19 (12).
 
Selected west Texas counties yesterday (with last week in parentheses): Lubbock, 26,145 (22,634); Midland, 6,576 (5,843); Wichita (Wichita Falls), 5,558 (4,644); Ector (Odessa), 4,864 (4,360); Tom Green (San Angelo), 3,057 (2,824).

On Monday, Texas had a total of 1,039,513 cases (963,019 last week), 139,048 of them active (126,412 last week), and 19,579 total deaths (18,769 last week).

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WEATHER REPORT: NICE FALL WEATHER

Clear skies at yesterday's sunrise.

This past week has been just about as uneventful as it ever gets in west Texas as far as the weather is concerned. The only exception was on Saturday when the high reached 82°F with dusty skies and strong southwest winds with gusts up to 4omph. Friday the 13th was the coolest day with cloudy skies and a high of 58°, and Sunday was probably the prettiest day with clear, sunny skies, a high of 63° and practically no wind at all.

The coolest low of the week was 41° on Sunday morning.  Wednesday, Thursday, Monday, and yesterday all had sunny skies and afternoon highs in the mid-seventies. It was also another week with no precipitation.  

The forecast is for more of the same. The highs for the rest of the week should all be in the mid-seventies—74° today, 77° tomorrow, 78° Friday, and 74° Saturday. Today will have strong south winds and so will tomorrow. The wind will diminish on Friday, and Saturday should be partly cloudy and nice.

On Sunday, a cold front will move through with north winds and a high of only about 58°. Skies will be cloudy, and forecasters are giving us a 50% chance of rain. The low on Sunday should drop to around 39°. Monday will also be cool with a high of 54°, but the rest of next week should be nice again.

The current forecast for Thanksgiving Day next week is for sunny skies, light south winds, and a high of 75°.

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ROSCOE IN YEARS GONE BY: FLYING KITES

Editor's note: Many of us who grew up as kids in the ‘50s were familiar with the old folks chiding us for our “modern” softness. Along with their oft-repeated complaint of walking a mile or two to school barefooted in the snow was their reply to the question about what they did for toys back in the good old days. The answer usually went something like this:“Toys? We didn’t have no toys! We made our own toys!”

The following account is apparently a version of that old familiar trope. With that said, it certainly has the ring of truth to it, so I present it here as a former aspect of growing up now unknown to young people who spend their down time lost in computer games on their phones and tablets.

It was written by George Parks in his Pickin’s column of the Roscoe Times of March 4, 1974. He was responding to another article in that week’s issue warning young people about the dangers of kite flying, written by the manager of Texas Electric, telling them what to do if their kite got caught in the electric wires, the dangers of using wire instead of string to fly the kite, and of flying kites in the rain.

Ray Rhodes, of Texas Electric Service Co., is quoted on this page as giving advice to kids about “making their kites.”

Seriously now, Ray, do kids make kites nowadays, or do they hurry down to the supermarket to buy an already made one? To an old kite fancier like myself, the sport of flying these childhood toys has lost its old touch.

As a boy I made my own kites, cutting the sticks from an apple or orange crate (they didn't come in a cardboard box then), made my own flour-paste to put the wrapping paper on, and was ready to go. Later I had some store-bought paste, but everything else was the same.

And I flew my kites high—putting out a mile of string on them sometimes—not a mere 100 or 200 feet as I see mostly nowadays. You'd get your kite away out there, and when they hollered supper was ready, you'd stake it out by tying the string to a convenient post, and let 'er fly by remote control until you got back.

Even later, when I was in this boy's organization I have inflicted myself on for the past 42 years come March 29, kite flying was still a “do-it-yourself” thing.

And we had kite-making contests. To win the smallest kite that would fly, broom straws were used for sticks. The winner was about the size of a postage stamp, and silk thread was used to fly it. The biggest had 2x4's for sticks. and binder twine was the string. It would have carried 1 boy up with it, but fortunately we were careful about that, and only got it a little way up and brought it down quickly. It was 7 feet high and 5 feet across.

Of all the boys I ever knew, Walter Maloney, now a sober Sweetwater pharmacist, took the prize. He could have made and flown kites 24 hours a day if schools and meals and other necessary items hadn’t interfered.

By that time, a box kite was my long suit, and I’d make one each spring, and we'd fly it until summer came. Often we'd be around the old tabernacle, and folks would have to look a time or two to see the kite way up high over the city disposal plant a mile away.

No, Ray, I'm afraid kids nowadays don't know the real thrill of kite flying—making it yourself, and sending it high in the blue sky to fly still and stately for hours on end.

Not a store-boughten contraption a mere 150 feet in the air, for 20 minutes or so!

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† JERRY D.WAYNE ROBERTS

Graveside services for Jerry D.Wayne Roberts, 57, of Sweetwater will be at 2:00pm Saturday, November 21, at Sweetwater Cemetery with McCoy Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. He passed away Sunday, November 15, at Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo.

Visitation will be Thursday from 6:00 until 7:30 pm at McCoy Funeral Home.

Jerry was born May 5, 1963, in Hamlin to the late Amos L. and Noralyn Jean (Miller) Roberts. He married Deborah Crawford June 2, 1979, in Sweetwater. Jerry worked as Warehouse Manager for Nutrien AG Solutions in Roscoe for 20 years. He is a graduate of Sweetwater High School, member of the Roscoe Lions Club and had lived in the Sweetwater-Roscoe area most of his life.

Jerry is survived by his wife of 41 plus years, Debbie of Sweetwater; daughters, Brook Bailey of Roby, Candace Smith and husband Wayland of Sweetwater; sisters, Marilyn Eivens and husband Billy of Sweetwater, and Darla Hendrix of Sweetwater; grandchildren, Kaylyn, Destynee, Devon, Dakota, Sara, Jimmy, and Erica; great-grandchildren, Neveah, Nickovey, Shaylee and Jah-Kari; numerous uncles, aunts and cousins, and his brother-in-law, Allen Crawford and wife Merry of Sweetwater.

He is also preceded in death by his mother-in-law and father-in-law June and Charles Crawford.

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