Flight From Callahan County

When I was growing up on the family farm on the Callahan County side of Scranton, Texas in the ‘40s and ‘50s, we didn’t have a telephone. In fact, a lot of families there did not have telephones. One of the reasons was probably the economic status of folks suffering from a long drought and the decline of the family farm. But a primary reason to go without a telephone was poor phone service. Downtown Scranton, in Eastland County, was served by Southwestern Bell, which provided their customers with good phone technology. However, that company’s franchise extended westward less than a mile just over the county line into Callahan County. Thus, our area of the Scranton community was beyond that boundary and in the service territory of a small company situated in Putnam, later to be absorbed by another small firm in Baird, Texas. This phone company on the Callahan County side provided poor line maintenance and antiquated equipment. The phones in use on the rur...

It seems like every other product you find at the grocery store these days contains a label warning of manufacture at a facility where peanuts may be used. That’s because so many young children are allergic to peanuts. Back when I was growing up on a farm on the Callahan County side of Scranton, Texas, the term “peanut allergy” would have been a sacrilege. The peanut was our cash crop, determining our financial status for the next 12 months, and everyone – young and old – consumed peanuts. I was exposed to peanuts very early in life. Among my earliest memories as a little boy are those of following my dad to the field, where he would pull up sample peanut plants to determine if the crop was ready for harvesting. My dad, a second generation peanut grower on the family farm, would break open the shells even if the nuts were immature, giving me a taste. The peanuts were harvested – usually in October – by a “combine,” a mechanized machine pulled by a tractor. T...

When I was a young boy, my dad used to take me with him to Scranton, about 2-1/2 miles east of our farm over the county line in Callahan County. In warm weather there were usually old men, telling stories while sitting on the porch of either Morgan’s Store or Gattis Brother’s Store. Morgan’s faced west, providing shade in the morning. The Gattis store was situated eastward, making it a cooler afternoon spot for conversation. A lot of little towns had gathering places like this. In some communities in the South, the old men played dominoes. But in Scranton, these geezers did nothing but talk. And chew tobacco. And spit on the ground. There were usually brothers Felix and Lee Boland (Uncle Drake, husband of my dad’s aunt Lena) and brothers Arthur Baily (husband of my dad’s great aunt Nancy Elvira) and Jim Bailey (husband of my mother’s aunt Grace – In those days, most people in Scranton were related either by blood or marriage). Add to the mix of regulars farmers with chores ...

When I was a boy living on the Callahan County side of the Scranton community, my grandfather, John Shrader, used to take me and some of his other grandchildren with him to fish in one of the local stock tanks. Granddad was the elementary school principal at Baird, the county seat, and usually had plenty of time in the summer for one of his favorite leisure activities. As a longtime fixture in this sparsely-settled area, he knew most people who lived there, and he made it a point to make friends with the ranchers with watering holes for cattle, known as stock tanks. These ponds were usually stocked with fish – bass, crappie, bream (sunfish), perch and/or channel catfish. One summer afternoon during the drought of the 1950s, my grandfather took us to “Mr. George’s tank” to fish. Grandmother, who was often better at fishing than Granddad, went along with us, and there may have been a couple of my cousins, too. My grandfather explained to us Mr. George had been reluctant to gr...

Welcome to Flight from Callahan County, a blog from an old, retired guy. Here I’ll occasionally post my thoughts on whatever comes to mind. I grew up in Callahan County, Texas, a rural county situated along Interstate 20 just east of Abilene. The Census Bureau reports a population there of 13,660; median age of 43.3, older than the Texas median of 34.3; median household income of $40,945, lower than the Texas median household income of $59,206; a poverty rate of 15.6%, higher than the Texas rate of 14.7%. Callahan County is part of what is known as the Big Country and where I have always thought West Texas began with traditional farm land giving way to gentle hills and valleys of scrub brush and mesquite good for ranching only. I love Callahan County. I always roll down the car window to smell the fresh air when I drive into the county. I love seeing the magnificent wildflowers along FM 1864 near Scranton in the springtime. I love traveling farther west on that ...