Winter Storm Worst in Years

Bitter cold on Sunday afternoon.

I hate to say this, but that groundhog up in Pennsylvania is looking smarter all the time. And those meteorologists with their six-figure salaries who predicted hotter and drier weather not only for Texas, but a great swath of the US, have some explaining to do.

We’ve had a week for the weather that beats anything we’ve had for at least a decade. The last storm we had with similar intensity was in the first week of February in 2011—almost exactly ten years ago—and even that one was not as bad as this one. It lasted only about four days, and the coldest it got here that year was 6°F. 

This year’s stretch has proven both colder and longer. It has lasted for over a week now and is predicted to continue for at least two more days. And Monday morning, Roscoe weatherman Kenny Landfried recorded an official -3°F temperature. I don’t know when there’s been a cold spell that was worse, but it wasn’t in this century.

This was the first time since the National Weather Service has been issuing weather bulletins that the entire state of Texas, all 254 counties, were under a winter storm warning at the same time. All the counties in Oklahoma were also under the same warning. The storm is huge and has followed the jet stream all the way down into Mexico. When it’s 25°F in Brownsville, you know there’s a problem.

And of course, it could be worse. I know this may be small consolation for those who’ve been dealing with broken pipes and no running water, but in some ways local folks have fared better than people in other places. In Abilene, for example, the entire city was out of water as electricity to the water treatment plants went down, and reports this morning say that over 3 million Texans are without electricity. Also, many Texas cities are experiencing rolling blackouts that give their residents multiple extended periods of no electricity. 

The blackouts are bad enough that a friend who lives in the Metroplex texted me yesterday to find out our local situation because he was thinking about driving to Sweetwater to stay in a motel until conditions improve in Fort Worth.

The cold spell really began last Wednesday when the second day of heavy fog accompanied the arrival of an Arctic front with an afternoon high of 26°F, and Thursday’s high was 28° with a sharp north breeze. The fog turned to frost that covered all the trees, which stayed that way because the temperature never got above freezing. On Friday, a second wave of cold hit with a high that day of 20° and a low of 13°. Saturday was similar with a high of 18° and low of 12°. 

Then on Sunday, the storm really intensified with a sharp north wind, about four inches of snow, and a high of 12°. It dropped into the single digits that night with wind chills well below zero, and at dawn Monday morning the temperature had dropped below zero to  -3°. Monday was in the single digits most of the day, and yesterday climbed back into the teens with some more afternoon snow.

At RCISD, regular classes have not met yet this week, but these are not the happy snow holidays that many of us remember from yesteryear. This time there are no snowmen or snowball fights. Classes are still in session with virtual learning, and students have work to do on their laptops and tablets. Besides, it's too cold to play outside.

Today’s high is projected to climb to 23° with a low tonight of 13°, and tomorrow will have an afternoon high of around 28°.

Then on Friday, we should finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Skies will be sunny and the afternoon high will reach a balmy 46°! Another big storm is due Friday from Weatherford or Fort Worth east, but we'll thankfully miss that one.  So, if we can just hang on for a couple more days, this miserable stretch will finally be history, and maybe we can start having some normal weather again.

Weekend highs here will be 56° on Saturday, 50° on Sunday, and 56° on Monday, all under sunny skies. And starting on Tuesday, highs will climb into the mid-sixties and stay that way all the rest of next week. 

I can’t wait.  

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PLOWGIRLS PLAY McCAMEY THIS AFTERNOON

The Plowgirls begin the playoffs today with a game against McCamey in Sterling City with tipoff at 4:00pm.

Roscoe Edu-Cast plans to stream the game on Facebook for those unable to make the trip. If you haven’t caught any of the games there so far, all you have to do is go to Roscoe Edu-Cast in Facebook at 4:00 and click on the livecast. Then click the double arrows in the bottom right-hand corner below the image to get full-screen coverage.

Go, Plowgirls!

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SCHOOL BOARD AMENDS MAY ELECTION

RCISD Press Release.--On Monday, February 15th, 2021, the Roscoe Collegiate ISD board of trustees voted unanimously to hold a special board election for the three seats that were up for election in 2019.

RCISD did not hold a board election in 2019; therefore, they will hold a special election for those seats in May 2021. Those three seats will be up for election again in 2023.  After the 2023 election, those same three seats will be back on four-year terms.

These seats should not be confused with the four seats that were already up for regular election in May 2021. The application period for the regular election ended on February 12th; however, the application period for the special election is now open through March 1st.

You can find general election information in the school website: https://www.roscoe.esc14.net/page/School%20Board%20Elections

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COVID-19 NUMBERS STILL TRENDING DOWNWARD

The Covid-19 numbers continue to fall across the country. The number of new cases has dropped 41% in the last two weeks and hospitalizations are down 28%. Deaths continue to be high, but in the past two weeks, even they have fallen by 12%. States with the highest infection rates are South Carolina, New York, and New Jersey.

Vaccinations are now being given at the rate of over 1.7 million per day. And despite problems in certain states and areas, the CDC says 40 million have now received at least one dose, and 15 million are fully vaccinated. No one knows when the US will achieve herd immunity because the new variant strains are complicating the prediction.

In Texas, the number of new cases and hospitalizations also continues to drop, although not as fast as many other states. We are now tenth in number of new cases per capita. Covid-19 hospitalizations fell to fewer than 10,000 statewide a week ago and on Monday had dropped to 7,824. Unfortunately, the number of deaths remains high for people who were infected during the peak. Over 40,000 Texans have now died of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Similar trends continue in the Big Country. The number of active cases in Taylor county has fallen to 1,278 from 1,662 last week and 2,502 three weeks ago. Hospitalizations for Covid-19 in Abilene are now down to 25 from last week’s 39 and 127 five weeks ago.  Deaths, however, are still high. There have now been 340 Taylor county deaths from Covid-19 including 14 on Monday, compared to 290 last week, although some of this new count includes Taylor County residents who died elsewhere.

In the Big Country’s 16-county trauma service area, the percentage of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients is also dropping. It has been below 15% for two weeks and on Monday was down to 5.82% compared to last week’s 7.55%. The number of hospital staff in quarantine has also dropped to 14 from 15 last week and 44 three weeks ago. However, there are still no ICU beds available.

In our four-county area, the numbers are generally improving. Nolan County has dropped to 98 active cases from last week’s 144, and Fisher County has dropped to 1 active case from 2 last week. Mitchell County still has just 4, the same as last week, and Scurry has an estimated 53 active cases up slightly from last week’s 47. Nolan County had 2 more deaths to bring its total to 29; Mitchell County and Fisher County had no deaths to remain at a total of 8 and 12 respectively. but Scurry County had 4 more deaths to bring its total to 56.

RCISD reports good news again this week with no active cases among students or staff.

Here are the Big Country’s county totals since the pandemic began as of yesterday (with last Tuesday in parentheses): Scurry, 3,380 (2,445); Howard, 2,963 (2,956); Erath, 2,662 (2,631); Jones, 2,072 (2,044); Brown, 1,893 (1,824); Nolan, 1,483 (1,462); Comanche, 1,027 (992); Eastland, 861 (846); Runnels, 761 (753); Mitchell, 575 (571); Callahan 580 (570); Coleman, 471 (470); Stephens, 412 (418); Fisher, 290 (290); Coke, 212 (211); Haskell, 193 (193); Knox, 170 (170); Shackelford, 125 (123); Throckmorton, 49 (49); Stonewall, 48 (48); Kent, 35 (35).
 
Selected west Texas counties yesterday (with last week in parentheses): Lubbock, 47,788 (47,474); Midland, 16,140 (15,687); Wichita (Wichita Falls), 14,358 (14,226); Ector (Odessa), 8,161 (7,847); Tom Green (San Angelo), 4,548 (4,525).

Texas now has had a total of 2,225,399 cases (2,177,572 last week), 246,542 active cases (322,929 last week) and 40,593 total deaths (39,001 last week).

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ROSCOE IN YEARS GONE BY: THE BOYS CLUB HALL

William Earl Erwin and Bill Rhea in front of the Boys Club hall in 1957.

Editor's note: Most Roscoe boys who grew up in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s will have happy memories of the Boys Club hall, a daily center of Boys Club activities for over thirty years. The description I give here is the one I remember from the 1950s, but the hall was pretty much the same in the 1960s and ‘70s with minor changes.

The Boys Club hall was in the back of the grey, cinder-block City Hall building built in 1952. It was the successor to the old Troop 37 Boy Scout Hall, which had been in the old wooden City Hall building that was torn down to make way for the new one.*

Located on the ground floor in the back of the new building, the Boys Club Hall was beneath the Masonic Lodge Hall upstairs and next to the Fire Department office. Boys wanting to open it up for the day first had to sweep it out with floor-sweep obtained at the Times Office. In the evenings, the last boys who left had to lock it up.

The hall itself was a big room with a concrete floor full of games and recreational equipment. These included a regulation pool table, which could be played only by boys of 12 years or older, a ping-pong table, tumbling mats, a TV (one of the city's first) with several metal lawn chairs arranged around it, and a couple of card tables with folding chairs where cards, chess, checkers, dominoes, Monopoly, and other table games could be played. 

Against the far wall was a pinball machine someone had donated to the club. George had it fixed so that you could play it for free. Along the west wall next to the restroom were two soft drink machines (Dr. Pepper and Orange Crush, both a nickel a bottle) and just inside the side door a small refrigerator with milk, both white and chocolate, that boys bought on the honor system by putting money in a pint Mason jar--3¢ a half pint, 6¢ a pint.

Against the back wall was a pile of tumbling mats and a mini-tramp, which could be pulled out for use when needed. Outside the back door was an area for the trampoline and, after about 1956, a circular metal swimming pool (about twenty feet in diameter and about two feet deep when filled), where boys could cool off in the summer and where many learned to swim.

Shooting pool in the Boys Club hall, 1962. L to R: Andy Duvall, Danny Pitts,  Joe Coplen, Evan Shelan, Charles Shelan. (Photo from Abilene Reporter-News)

On the north side of the hall was the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railway office building. On the side of its brick wall was a basketball goal and backboard (and sometimes a net). There was a light out there so basketball and trampoline jumping could take place at night.

Just south of the hall was the downtown city park, where the Roscoe State Bank is now. About half of it was an open, grassy area where outdoor activities were held and games played. In the summer during the day, baseball players often played catch there, and pitchers got their daily throwing practice. Archers could practice their aim by shooting at targets on stacks of hay bales next to the corrugated metal city storage building. 

In the fall during football season, impromptu pass-touch games were a favorite activity, and in summertime, when the weekly meetings were held there instead of at the high school gym, the park was also where games pitting patrols against one another sometimes took place and where watermelon, homemade ice cream, and bean feeds were held. And on Tuesday afternoons, the Little Boys Club (i.e., boys aged 7-10) met there for games and refreshments.

During the time that boys were in the Club, they learned several sports and skills: archery (with bows they made themselves from bois d’arc posts), rifle marksmanship, swimming, table tennis, pool (eight ball and scratch), trampolining, tumbling, chess, checkers, auction bridge, monopoly, basketball, and other odd and assorted games.

One year, Karl Driggers, a college student who had taken courses in fencing at Texas Tech, offered to be our fencing instructor, so George bought about a half dozen fencing outfits with masks, epees, and sabers. Every Tuesday night thereafter for about eight weeks a group of us took fencing lessons, learning the basic techniques of parrying and thrusting and yelling “En garde!” and “Touché!” Not too long after that Karl got a job and moved away, but the swords and masks remained in the Boys Club hall, and wild sword fights, although forbidden, occasionally took place when George wasn’t around.

There were also other skills taught at the hall. One was semaphore signaling, a system of using hand-held flags to communicate with others from a distance such as had been done on ships in the second world war and earlier. Another was learning to send and read morse code.

There was a big closet over by the pool table, and once George got a ham radio and put it in there. Boys could earn a ham radio license, and some did. But even those of us who didn’t would often go into the closet to put on the headphones and search for others to communicate with. Once we talked to a pilot flying his plane somewhere in Alaska.

In those years before the Super Bowl, baseball was “the national pastime,” and the biggest sporting event of the year was the World Series. When it was played in October, the Boys Club Hall was open to anyone who wanted to come in there and watch it on the Boys Club television since not many people had TVs back then. Many of the old men who normally hung out in the pool hall or domino parlors took George up on the invitation and filled up all the lawn chairs around the TV set. I remember sitting and watching the games with maybe fifteen or twenty people in there and as many old men as boys cheering for or against the Yankees, who always seemed to be one of the teams.

In the summer, some of the Tuesday evenings were Girls’ Night at the hall, and when that happened, boys were not allowed. In those years, most non-school activities for kids were for either boys or girls. The girls had the Girl Scouts, and the boys the Boys Club.

There were also times when the hall was used for other activities, one of which was the Turkey Shoot, an annual fund raiser for the Boys Club. It was held shortly before Thanksgiving and was open to anyone who thought they were a good shot with a .22 rifle. Turkeys were not actually shot but were frozen ones awarded to the winners. The targets were official National Rifle Association bullseyes affixed to stacked crossties against one of the hall’s walls. Entrants paid a dollar for ten shots to try their skill against others, and for every ten contestants, a turkey was awarded to the one who made the highest score on his or her bullseye. Shooting had to be done standing behind a table about 20 feet from the target.

In those years, the Texas Boys Clubs got together every year in a different city for the Games Room Tournament. The Roscoe club always went with entries for each of several contests, and boys who represented the club did their practicing beforehand in the Boys Club hall. The competitions included table tennis, both singles and doubles, checkers, chess, and trampolining, and there were always Roscoe boys who were good enough to compete and sometimes win.

But the best feature of the Boys Club hall was just that it was always there, and there was always something to do with the other boys who happened to be there—jumping on the trampoline, playing a game of ping pong, shooting pool, taking a swim in the little pool, shooting baskets, or challenging someone to a game of chess or dominoes. Parents who came to town often dropped off their boy or boys while they shopped or took care of other business and then came back to pick them up when they were done. It was a happy solution for both parents and kids, and it was such a normal part of daily life back then that we never really realized until we were grown what an advantage it had been for us.

* Edgar Nance remembers the old Scout Hall well since he spent a lot of time there as a boy. He says that in the front was one long room entered through the old building’s front door, where there was a well-used table-tennis table. Then there was an L-shaped room with a library and bow-making equipment with bows and arrows, paints, feathers, etc., with some narrow lockers on the wall. There was also a library, where boys could borrow books to read. Out back were hay bales and target for archery.

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† BERNICE NORMA (HACKFELD) PATTERSON

Bernice Norma (Hackfeld) Patterson, 95, of Sweetwater and formerly of Roscoe, passed away Tuesday, February 16, at Sweetwater Healthcare.

Services are pending with McCoy Funeral Home in Sweetwater.

Local survivors include a niece, Glenda Soules and husband Jay of Sweetwater, and a nephew, David Green and wife Karen of Sweetwater.

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