Afterthoughts

       In West Texas on a clear summer night, there's a marvelous display of twinkling lights. In the country they appear to be more spectacular.  At a very young age, on one of those wonderful cool nights, my best friend Dottie, my brother Sharol, and I got to sleep outside in my grandparent's backyard.  Instead of going right to sleep, we did our best to count as many stars as we could.       Before long we got bored.  So, in the dark we head ed to grandad's old, black, ford pick-up.  Dottie got in the front seat and pretended she was driving to church.  Sharol and I jumped into the bed of the truck and stood behind the cab. In unison and very loud, the three of us began to sing hymns. In the middle of Amazing Grace, we heard a strange voice louder than ours.  We stopped singing and looked toward the house.  Grandmother stood on the front porch frantically waving her hands in the air.  She yelled, "It's af...

Roy Westbrook        Walking across the chicken yard, in my bare feet, I could feel a dampness begin to ooze between my toes. My sister had the right idea and wore her shoes. We went to the back of the chicken house and climbed on top.  In a flash, I stumbled and slid off the roof. Just as I went over the edge, a nail snagged my jeans. There I was hanging upside down. While I screamed and thrashed about, my sister did her best to help. Her arms just weren't long enough to reach me. So, she got off the building and ran for Grandmother. When she found her in the garden, she tugged at her shirt and yelled. "Patricia needs you!  Patricia needs you!" As fast as she could, grandmother came to my rescue.      After things had calmed down and grandmother went back to her chores, my sister and I went into the house to get a drink.  Then, once again, we walked outside into the morning air searching for something else to explore. The Answer A man l...

Dottie, Kathleen, Patricia, and Sharol           The afternoon sun slowly moved across the Texas sky scorching the sand making it too hot to go barefooted.  So, with shovels in hand, my brother and I set out to dig a swimming pool in grandmother's back yard.  We worked diligently until the hole had the perfect dimensions.  After filling it full of water, we jumped in.  It didn't take long until we resembled two hogs wallowing in a mud hole.  The coolness of it all made us feel as though we had won the battle with the sun.  The Hole A country preacher stood in the sun looking into a deep hole. A boy passed by and asked, "What are you looking for; I'd like to know." The preacher smiled and said, "When I was young, I got mad one day. I took my Bible and threw it into this hole of rock and clay. Even though the Book was gone, I remembered the words I had read. Day by day I wallowed in sin, but I couldn't get them out of my head. Life di...

Jennifer Perkins     Having been raised in West Texas in a Christian family, conversations of the end times and the rapture happened often.  They always intrigued me. One day, while visiting my sister, we sat at her kitchen table drinking coffee. Suddenly we heard a noise that sounded like a trumpet.  It got louder and louder.  I looked at her and said, "When the rapture comes, isn't there supposed to be the sound of a trumpet to announce the return of Christ?"       After a moment of awkward silence, my sister got up.  She went to the living room where earlier she had been ironing. When she unplugged the iron, immediately the sound stopped. Laughing she said, "That did sound like a horn.  It was just my worn-out iron.  I've needed to get a new one for a long time.  Can you imagine what it would have been like if it had been the rapture?" The Trumpet Daily, an old woman sat by the side of the road. She had lost her yo...

     There are times in life when a little boost is a good thing.  In order to help my son with the subjects he struggled with in school, I took him to a local Learning Center over the summer before his tenth- grade. When he returned to school that fall, to his surprise, one of the teachers from the center was teaching his class. One day, she started making fun of a special needs girl.  It bothered him so much he spoke up, "We need to go to the hall."  He had to repeat the request several times before she went with him.  Once there, she fussed at him for interrupting the class. After she calmed down, he replied, "You're the teacher; you know better.  The kids make fun of her all the time, and here you are doing the same thing."  The conversation ended there, and they returned to the room.      Later my husband and I received a letter from the teacher.  From what she wrote, I realized she had learned a good life lesson from...

        As we rode down a country road, to my grand-parents farm, my brother, sister, and stepsister chanted, "I double dare you to jump."  Sitting on the tail gate of the pick-up, just to show bravery, I stuck my leg out as far as I could.  They didn't need to know I didn't intend to jump.  At that very moment, the tires on the old truck plunged into a deep hole.  When the vehicle bounced, I flew into the air, did a somersault, and to my surprise landed on my feet.  Immediately, I began to run.  My siblings rushed to the back of the cab and hollered, "Patricia fell out!  Patricia fell out!"       Granddad Roy lost his hearing at the age of nine.  Even though he had his hearing aids on, he couldn't hear them.  When he looked in his rearview mirror and saw me running after the truck, he stopped and opened the passenger side door.  I got in expecting to get a good chewing out.  He turned to me a...

      A cow tongue is not what we expected in our order of a half beef from Tevebaugh's Meat Market.  Even so, my husband stewed the thing in order not to be wasteful.  He insisted our four children taste it. When he looked at me as though he expected me to have a taste, I shook my head and said, "No way."  My daughter's middle school history teacher told his students he would eat any food they brought to school.  I considered him to be a very brave man.  The next day, she took him a large portion of the tongue to eat.  The memory of that poor cow's tongue still lives on because a few weeks later her English teacher had her class write a limerick. Here is what my daughter wrote. A Stewed Cow Tongue Mr. James ate a stewed cow tongue, And it slid over and around his lungs. Don't ask how he feels. Cause now he's on pills. It flung and flung and it's still hung.                   Diana Westbrook Pate

                                                                                                            As darkness settled in, the night was perfect for an adventure for four East Texas boys.  However not the one my son, Roy, expected. It all started when he and another sixth grader went to spend the night with two brothers. As three of them erected a tent in the back yard, one of the brothers threw a green plum at a passing car.  Minutes later, a squad car drove by.  When the police used a spot light to search the area, Roy and two of the boys hid behind a boat and trailer. The one who threw the plum ran into the darkness out of sight.     At Roy's next baseball game, the mother of his ...

                                                JT and Alan Westbrook set free in Heaven.                              There are times, we can no longer stand by and watch  a person being bullied.  As a fourth grader, that is the way my youngest son felt when riding the bus home from school.  In the process of taking up for a small boy being bullied, he broke his hand.  Two days later, on the same bus, an older and bigger boy started harassing my son.  Several times he asked him to stop to no avail.  When he didn't quit, my son lifted his arm and hit him on top of his head with the cast he had recently acquired.  Even though he cracked the plaster, his hand suffered no further damage.  From that day on, there was peace on the bus.  Perhaps the wo...

Dan      In 1964, our family opened our home to a bird dog puppy named Dan.  Little did we realize he would soon be joined by another creature.  That summer my husband went hunting with his cousin.  When he came home he handed me a surprise.  Wrapped in an old shirt two scared eyes stared back at me.  That is how I met Sam the raccoon.  As Sam grew and no longer needed special attention, we gave him the run of the place.  He slept in our out buildings during the day.  Even so, he always took time to play with Dan and my children.              Dan and Sam became best friends and came up with special ways to play. What they played most caused Dan's ears to get huge calluses on them.  Dan would lay on his back while Sam took a running leap at him.  He landed on top of Dan grabbing his ears with his teeth.  After which, Dan took his paws and threw Sam as far as he could.  Over ...

     During World War 2, when I went to town with my grandparents, Grandmother would point to a lone tree in the middle of a cotton field and sing, "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree  with Anyone Else but Me."      After my grandfather died, in 1975, periodically  my husband and I would drive to West Texas to check on my grandmother.  On one of our visits, I looked at her and said, "Let's go see the tree you used to sing about."        She frowned and replied, "What tree?"      After getting permission from the owner of the farm, the three of us drove down the turnrow to our destination.  Once there, we stood in the shade of an old apple tree. Half of it was dead while the other half had a bounty of apples pulling it's branches to the ground.                                               ...

     The year 1967 happened to be the roughest year our family of six had ever experienced.  My husband worked hard as a bull dozer operator, but in the late fall and early winter things slowed  down. Yet we always had enough money for groceries, so each week I traveled nine miles from Milano, TX. to Rockdale, TX. to a Brookshire's store.      A couple of months before Christmas they had a contest giving away green stamps. One afternoon while shopping, the store manager went to the office and brought me a sealed envelope with a ticket inside.  When I went there after the contest ended, she asked,  "Have you turned your ticket in?"  Since I didn't have it with me, I answered, "No!" As she walked away, she looked back at me and said, "Be sure you do."      When I got home, I steamed the envelope open, and inside were the words 55,000 green stamps. With excitement as quick as I could, I rushed back to the store to claim ...

     Several times a week a man in a wheel chair sits by the side of the road a block from my house.  He doesn't have a sign asking for money, but I feel that is why he's there. Our city officials have asked the citizens not to give money to panhandlers.  Even so, one day I stopped my car in front of him,  lowered my window and made sure he saw the money in my hand. He rolled up to the car. Without thinking I cleared my throat  and asked, "Hi, do you know where you're going when you die?" (By all accounts, that is a strange thing to ask a person looking for a handout.)       He looked startled. "I know all about the Bible and Jesus."      My next question surprised even me.  "Can't you find work?"      He thought a minute and said, "I don't have legs.  I guess I could work in an office but if I do I'll lose my disability check."      After giving him the money, I left him with t...

Photo by Brett Jordan (Unsplash)      Like a cowboy in the wild, wild west, I pointed my gun at the dirty rat standing before me.  He staggered from side to side.  From his actions, I knew he had gotten into the rat poison we had placed in our out buildings.  In order to put him out of his misery, I shot at him.  Bang! Bang! Bang! I stood in amazement. Not one of the six bullets I shot hit him. As soon as I emptied my gun, he shivered and fell over dead.  Little Fellow I'm sorry little fellow. What else could I do? You were truly suffering. It was my fault it's true. They say you cause diseases And all kinds of other things. You had to go, Or so it seems.                         Patricia Westbrook                                        

Vesta Marie Appling-eighty five years old Vesta in her twenties      Ever since 1914 children from all over West Texas looked forward to the Panhandle South Plains Fair.  In the late forties, my sister, brother, and I could barely wait to go from Tahoka, Texas to Lubbock, Texas for our day of fun at the fair.        When the day finally arrived, Granddad and Grandma stopped by our house to take us.  Since we had not eaten, Grandma, being of a helpful nature, put an apron on and proceeded to fix our breakfast.  She looked grand in her Sunday best with a pillbox hat on her head.  The hat had a veil on top.  ( In the forties most women dressed up no matter where they went.)  Moments after she started to fry our eggs, the flame on the gas stove flared.  Her hat veil caught fire.  She slapped at her back trying to put the flames out.  The three of us jumped up from the table and  hollered, "Grandma's on...