Ghost Chasing in McKinney, Texas

The City of McKinney, Texas  is just to the east of us here in Frisco and is the County Seat of our Collin County and thus has a Courthouse and town square. It gets it’s name from old Collin McKinney, signer of the Texas Republic Declaration of Independence, general organizer and cheerleader for North Texas in those early days.

McKinney’s star has been on the rise for some time. Although incorporated in 1848, it sort of moped along (like many communities in North Texas) until the late 90’s when things began to take off. Dallas/Fort Worth had their hay days and, mostly built out, were expanding northward. The surrounding communities welcomed (well sort of) the new start up families and industries needing a place to stay and grow in the limited tax and regulation environment that makes Texas so darn attractive.

The Census Bureau listed McKinney as the nation's fastest growing city from 2000 to 2003 and again in 2006, among cities with more than 50,000 people. In 2007 it was ranked second-fastest growing among cities with more than 100,000 people and in 2008 as third-fastest. In July 2010, McKinney was ranked 5th place in CNN's Money Magazine's  10 best places to live in the United States.

There was the original Courthouse of 1874 which was remodeled in 1927 to it’s current look. The original looked like something out of the Addams Family, it needed an update from its Empire style to it’s newer Neoclassical Revival style. It was again restored in 2006. By then a new Courthouse had been built elsewhere and a community theatre group turned it into the McKinney Performing Arts Center. They rebuilt the District Courtroom into a stage and auditorium seating (note the historic second story gallery seating).

We went to the square for it’s Halloween Ghost Walk . The Historical Society gives walking tours of it’s Heritage Park  which contains many original period homes of late 1800’s McKinney. They also do a walking tour to the spooky spots of the town square where tales of murder, fires, and accidents fill the square with the walking dead. All around they’ve gotten the assistance of the Texas Paranormal Research Team  to scope out the different locations and were more than happy to show you their videos of infrared cameras, digital voice recorders, Gauss, EMF and ELF meters tracking and hearing spirits wandering through the various sites in McKinney.

Of course, when we arrived we (well..I) was hungry and we took in our regular Italian cuisine restaurant on the square, Sauce on the Square . They do make pizza but their regular dinner menu is great. We always have the Bruschetta or the baked Fontina for an appetizer but this time we had the baked Peaches. Wow. Then Dianna and I share either the Chicken Prosciutto or the Rustica Ensalada.

One place on the tour was a restaurant we had frequented in the past, The Pantry Restaurant  on E. Louisiana just off the square. They had a tale to tell. The Pantry originated as a dry goods store then the Hope family hardware store. The building was built in 1898 and was Hope Hardware for almost 80 years. Most of the building is still 1890’s original including the creaky original wooden slat floors, with numbers for measuring rope and chain still in them. Our tour guide said that during the time it was a hardware store, a couple of incidents of note occurred.

The first was a love triangle which involved a female worker and two men. The forlorn woman ended up hanging herself. The second was an industrial accident of all things. The hardware store, at some point, installed a lift between the first and second floor to move goods. One of the male workers fell from the second floor into the pit below the first floor and died. Since that time, several sightings have been recorded by both workers and patrons. The most frequent is the worker who fell to his death. He is often seen, in worker clothes, leaning down from the second floor gallery down onto patrons dining below. On occasion the woman spirit is seen doing the same thing or standing at the top of the stairs to the gallery. Both seem friendly and appear to be watching over the store and the people who occupy it.

Of course, when we got there a seemingly major paranormal event had taken place as the tour group before us were being lectured inside. A stream of water came pouring down from the second floor gallery almost hitting the tour guide and some tourists. The guide explained that there is a third floor to the building which is unoccupied. The old roof leaks and they have positioned several buckets to catch the rain water that comes into a corner room. As some workers were busily cleaning up the water, the guide had gone upstairs to discover one of the buckets had toppled over causing the spill. When describing the event, I noted a distinct lilt to his voice and worried look on his face as he spoke. He really looked scared.

Turns out our young guide was the assistant manager of the restaurant. He said he frequently has to stay late to finish paperwork in an upstairs office after closing. He’s often heard voices conversing outside of the upstairs office and, thinking there were other people still in the restaurant, has gone out to see he was completely alone. While working, he has often seen lights turning on and off and kitchen machinery inexplicably turn on by themselves. He uses those moments in deciding the work can wait and leaves.

Another cool spot was the old Collin County Prison. Now I know you’re thinking jail but it actually was called a prison.

This simple, utilitarian fortress was the work of F.E. Ruffini and finished in 1880. Claude West was the jailer, and the son of a Collin County Sheriff. For many years a jailer's job was seven days a week - 24 hours a day. Mrs. West cooked for family and inmates alike. Sometimes they executed them.

Frank James was there briefly for being disorderly, Ray Hamilton, one of the Barrow Gang got a meal or two there and Charles “Tex” Watson of Manson Family fame spent time there on a California murder warrant and did his time fighting extradition back to Southern California to stand trial for his role in the Tate-La Bianca killings. Charles was a local boy and had gone to High School in Farmersville, Texas.

The last man executed by hanging in Collin County (and most of Texas) was Ed Stepp. Mr. Stepp had been convicted of killing a man and sinking the corpse in a well, Mr. Stepp was the last legal execution in Collin County before the State assumed the task. The fatal day was November 17, 1922.

Probably the worst part of this hanging was there was no hanging scaffold in the yard behind the prison. To accomplish the hanging, a temporary scaffold was assembled between the second floor windows. Mr. Stepp was then asked to climb up a ladder to the scaffold where a noose was placed around his neck by the executioner leaning out from the window. Mr. Stepp then stepped ( I know…not funny) off into oblivion. Reports at the time indicated Mr. Stepp had a very high degree of cooperation during the entire process. Apparently a real team player.

Our guide said, since that time, Mr. Stepp has been seen peering into the second floor windows or at the top of a metal fire escape leading down to the courtyard from the second floor. The building has been a restaurant and now contains an Attorney’s Office (a truly appropriate use of the space). Our guide said workers on the second floor got so spooked about seeing Mr. Stepp, they had the curtains on the windows overlooking the courtyard permanently closed.

We ended our tour of haunted places sitting sedately on the square at Pacuigo a four-generation gelateria, of Christiana Ginatta, her husband Ugo and son Vincenzo. The Gelato makers came from Turin, Italy with a family recipe and a dream of a gelato empire in America. They now have twenty stores nationwide and Mexico. In the gentle, cool wind of an October in Texas, people watching on a sidewalk in McKinney, Texas, I shared a Gelato with the wife and a decaf coffee. It doesn’t get any better than this.

The Mid-Term Election

Ok…I need to say something about last Tuesday’s election (I apologize in advance, recall Blog number 1 and let me get this rant over with).


I am, and always have been, a card carrying Republican since my Young Republican days at Mesa College back in 1972 when I turned 18. I consider myself a left-of-center conservative who may actually be dragging my blue shirt wife kicking and screaming with me into the dark side.

It’s only been a week and I am officially tired of all the chest-bumping and high-fiving going around the Republican and Tea Party houses of ill repute. I want John Boehner (pronounced Bayner…yeah, I know it’s not how it’s spelled) to know that there’s no crying in politics and I really don’t care that it’s been his “life’s work” to become Speaker of a House divided. I’m less enthusiastic about Mitch McConnell being the Republican Leader of the Senate. This is the guy who still questions the citizenship of our President. I’m not sure if being able to read is a much sought after quality in that backwoods district you’re from but it’s a documented fact he’s a citizen, get over it.

Here’s the thing. One of the flaws of a two party system of government is….it’s only two parties. Yeah, I know there’s a smattering of Green Partiers and Independents out there (how’d that work out for you Governor Crist?). Our beloved Constitution does make it possible for discourse and disagreement. But in reality, there’s only two. So to all those who are running hysterically through the hallowed halls of our Local, State Houses and their Federalist brothers and sisters, let’s be clear. We didn’t have much of a choice. Oh, we did want to unseat most of you fools who, once elected and receiving your lobotomy at the door of the Senate and House Chambers, completely turned off your hearing aids and pulled out your own worn and frayed agendas from your pockets.

And there’s the rub. John, I’m not sure I would have voted to keep your gravelly voiced, “Pledge to America”, Brooks Brothers suited butt in your 8th District seat if I was from Ohio (have you checked the unemployment rate in the Buckeye State lately?). Hey, is it me or doesn’t the “Pledge” look a lot like Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America” from 1994, look how well that went for ol’ Newt. Talk about “Professional Politician”, Johns been in the House since 1991.

Oh yeah Mr McConnell, by the way, I didn’t vote straight ticket either. You might want to know that when I looked over the field, I didn’t think all the red shirts out there warranted my vote. Unlike Rand Paul, I (and I dare say most Americans) believe the Civil Rights Act (that’s right, LBJ was a Democrat) was the best thing to happen to America since Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 (oh yeah, he was a Republican too). The Civil Rights Act snapped America back from the worst legislation ever created, the “Jim Crow” laws of the 1870s, a complete repudiation of our “unalienable rights” our very own Constitution guaranteed us. Oh, wait a minute, isn’t Mr. Paul from Kentucky too? Hummmm.

Oh, and get a reality check. Mr. Obama is our President. He is a birth-certificated citizen of these here United States. Get passed it. I kind of like the guy and being POTUS is not the easiest job out there. I also like the idea of free or low fee health care for the poor, old, and especially kids. Especially when I hear how the huge, bloated, health care insurers won’t treat a child’s brain cancer or replace a missing limb because it’s not cost effective or due to a “pre-existing condition”. Are there actually humans on this planet who can tell kids to their faces they might die or can’t have a new leg because it’s too expensive? I’m a Dad and that sort of thing really upsets me. Especially when I see an elected official take a different stance as he’s filling his next campaign coffer with money it would take to treat the kid from the insurance industry PAC .

Oh, Mr. McConnell, I forgot to mention that my vote was not a vindication of your personal agenda to make sure Mr. Obama is a “one-term” President. Really, is that all you could come up with representing a Nation with a 13 trillion dollar debt, which grows daily (Source:  http://www.usdebtclock.org/ )? I was hoping the people I voted for would abide by my agenda of getting my neighbors, many of whom haven’t worked for two years, back to work so they can provide for their families, stay in their homes, contribute to their community’s well-being and reduce the crushing debt that has virtually ceased all economic expansion and left us, for the first time in our history, beholding to the very nations we scorn for their human rights abuses and dictatorial governments.

What I believe to be the most important message I and the rest of America sent on November 2nd to the new and old guard is…you’re currently the only game in town and we have so little to work with. But, if you get to your State House or your tony Alexandria, Virginia farmhouse home away from home, you can stay there and earn our respect and your paycheck (and free heath care...did I say that out loud?) if you continue to listen to your electorate and the American People as a whole and do their bidding not yours. The alternative is to become one of the 9.6 percent of the unemployed you so handsomely made possible being the party of no for the last two years. Well…after you exhaust all those honorarium fees and the book advances. Remember, “it takes a village”.

Waxahachie Update

In my last post, I highlighted the condition of a World War Two memorial just outside of Waxahachie, Texas on the US 77 south of town. Well, as promised, I wrote the City Manager and the Editor of the local paper, the Waxahachie Daily Light about the memorials condition.

Just today I received very positive responses from both the City and the newspaper. It seems my note came too late. In the week since we were there, someone had stepped up, cleaned and spruced up the site in time for Waxahachie's Veterans Weekend Celebration. Mr. Pike, the Editor of the Light even enclosed some recent photos one of their readers sent in. They added they were doing a story on the memorial as part of their Veterans Weekend coverage. Kudos to the mystery landscaper.

Waxahachie, Texas

Waxahachie, Texas  is a great place to visit. Waxahachie has designated itself, among other claims, the "Gingerbread City," for the elaborate wooden lacework on vintage homes, and the "Movie Capital of Texas," since four Academy Award films, including Places in the Heart and Bonnie & Clyde, "Tender Mercies" starring Robert Duvall, as were the movies "1918" and "The Trip to Bountiful". The long-running television series Walker, Texas Ranger, starring Chuck Norris were all filmed on location in Waxahachie.


The name Waxahachie has it’s origins among the early Tonkawa Native American tribe. Generally meaning "cow creek" or "buffalo creek" some say it is actually a derivative of the language of the Wichita Indians who used to live in the area but now reside around Anadarko, Oklahoma (gee...I wonder how they got there). In their language, it means “fat wildcat”. Considering the first two, I’m going with “fat wildcat”. Sounds way better.

Many of you might recall in 1988, when Waxahachie was designated as the location for America’s Superconducting Super Collider. It was supposed to be a 54 mile in circumference particle accelerator to smash atoms, forward the new field of quantum physics and disclose the makings of the universe. They sank several construction shafts and tunneled about 14 miles underground before they were stopped. Serious cost overruns shut it down in 1993.

Imagine a project costing an estimated 4 billion goes to a mere 12 billion and Congress decided it cost too much. It would be a drop in the bucket compared to some of today’s Congressional spending. The Europeans decided to build theirs, the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland for a paltry 5 billion. Guess our guys included too many $500 dollar ashtrays and $100 hammers in the plan.

Waxahachie was established in 1849 and made the County Seat of Ellis County in 1850 thus it has a central Courthouse and square. It is the fourth Courthouse built on the site, the first two burned and the third was judged too small and the fourth was built over the foundation of the third (1870 cornerstone) in 1897. Waxahachie and Ellis County had a period of great growth from about 1880 to 1930. Waxahachie was considered the center of Texas cotton production (actually all of America) and the largest producer in the world before 1930. Cotton made a lot of people wealthy here and Waxahachie still has fine examples of classic late 19th century and early 20th century homes. Yearly, the town sponsors a “Gingerbread Trail” home tour, which takes in most of the restored older homes.

Now to the important stuff. It was a Saturday and I had been given marching orders to find a likely destination for our weekend road trip. A town called Paradise, Texas looked promising but when I glanced outside, some serious weather was brewing out to our northwest and heading our way. So, I decided to err on the side of caution and decided to check out the  Texas Country Reporter  (kind of a California Gold TV series) street fair in Waxahachie. We had been there about a year ago on a Sunday and found it deserted and barely alive. This time there would be food (a big plus) and activities in the square.

When we arrived it was cold and rainy but, sure enough, there were tons of people milling around (Texans are a hardy lot) and it was hard to find a parking place. We parked some distance off the square and as we made our way into the square, two things immediately jumped to mind. We had forgotten our umbrella (there was now a steady misting drizzle) and Dianna had forgotten her iPhone.

This requires a moment to explain the seriousness of the matter. Since Dianna discovered the immense benefit that Social Networking has provided man(and woman)kind, she has become passionate (I call it obsessed) about updating her Facebook page and her need to text everyone in her contacts book about each significant moment in her life (I’ve caught her texting in the bathroom). Mind you, we were slowly getting soaked for lack of an umbrella, yet her first thought was, “How am I going to text anybody while we’re here and tell them what we’re doing. I won’t be able to update my Travel Log App”.

Realizing the gravity of the moment, I immediately volunteered to go back to the car and get it (and the umbrella). She took a deep breath, steadied herself and pronounced that it wouldn’t be necessary. She had decided to tough it out and go without her phone. She needed to show me she could go without her vaunted iPhone. It was the timid resolve of a drug addict attempting to throw off the monkey on her back. Though I questioned her decision and the effect it would have on our morning, she stuck to her guns and we moved onto the square.

The last time we had gone to Waxahachie, we discovered a great restaurant right across from the Courthouse, the 1879 Chisholm Grill . Waxahachie was a stop on the famous Chisholm Trail cattle run from South Texas to Kansas. The Chisholm Grill occupies what was a row of small wood-frame structures housing the General Store and several saloons (and brothels). In 1890, as the town square developed, the current building replaced the General Store and saloons with a row of two-story Victorian commercial buildings typical of late 19th century Texas. It has been the site of a restaurant of some kind since 1920. We shared the ample 1879 Chisolm Special of eggs, sausage, bacon, crispy hash browns and “scratch made, never soggy” pancakes. Really great sweet tea too. It was awesome.

Full from breakfast, we made our way through the square. I quickly noted there were guided tours being given of the Courthouse. Always aware of Dianna’s tepid interest in all things historical, I stopped and she quickly said, “Why don’t we go on the tour?” I was stunned into silence. I looked her in the eye and could see her pupils constricting like a cornered animal deciding to fight or fly. I knew the iPhone thing was working on her. I decided to take the bait and agreed. We met our guide who walked us around the perimeter and described all the wonderful attributes of architect J. Riely Gordon’s Courthouse.

The Ellis County Courthouse was built from architectural plans created by J. Riely Gordon. The building incorporates the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style (a knock-off of Italian Romanesque) originally created by Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson and made popular in Texas by Mr. Gordon. One of the classic Romanesque style elements is to incorporate faces of people within the facades. There’s even gargoyles (originally rainwater gutters or flumes; from the French gargouille, originally "throat" or "gullet"; or Latin gurgulio, gula, gargula ("gullet" or "throat"), it's where we get the word "gargle" from) on minarets below the clock tower.

Around the base of the Courthouse, we saw the prisoner entrance. It was a simple door, not visible from any of the entrances. The forward thinking designers knew it would be important to have an entrance so the defendant wouldn't have to be brought through the entrances or walked by the public. After all, it is Texas and everybody back then (and some say now) had a gun and lynchings were commonplace in the early west. The door led to a sprial staircase which led to a rear door of the second and third floor Courtrooms (kind of like third floor holding in the old San Diego Courthouse). The defendant would only have to walk to the defense table to stand trial.

Cool story about Waxahachie’s façade. In 1894, stone mason Harry Herley was brought to Waxahachie to sculpt and decorate outer walls of the new courthouse, replacing the old wooden courthouse. While he carved some of the porches and arches himself, he also supervised several German-trained carvers. He and his workers were lodged at a local boarding house near the square.

Known as "The Legend of the Ellis County Courthouse," the story goes that Herley fell in love with beauty Mabel Frame, the daughter of the owner of the boarding house where Herley stayed. He carved her radiant likeness over one of the courthouse entrances. The story goes that Mabel’s mom wasn’t happy about Herley’s interest in Mabel and, as time went by, Mrs. Frame began to get a little short with the boys and their relationship became strained. He and his workers became embittered and subsequent carvings of Mabel were alternated with mom’s and depicted her as a twisted demon.

While a great story, there is no factual basis for it. Harry Herley is credited with being the master carver for the Waxahachie project, but more than likely, he carved only a portion of the portraits and supervised several other carvers, all of whom worked for Theodore Beilharz, a master stone carver in Dallas. The carvings were probably made in Dallas at the Beilharz yard and shop and shipped to Waxahachie in their finished condition, ready to mount. I’m a romantic at heart, I like the first version.

As we made our way around the red limestone and sandstone structure, I could see the thin crust of Dianna's resolve cracking. It started when I pointed out the images of Mabel and her mother. She snapped back, “Pretty cool, except I don’t have my phone camera to take a picture.” Our tour continued on the inside to the very ornate first floor Courtroom and to the really cool second floor Courtroom. Both are still being used today and were the focus of a massive restoration in 2002.

The old Courtrooms, hallways and offices were treated like an archaeological dig and taken down to their first layer of paint. The interior was then brought back to their original construction and luster in hues of red, green, white and gold. They even uncovered skeletal remains of some poor man who ended up inside a large vault in the basement of the Courthouse. No identification was ever made but the tour guide assured us the cause of death was not violent. We were sorry to hear there were no ghosts wandering the halls.

The second Courtroom was the crowning accomplishment. In the 50’s, in an attempt to gain more space, the County decided to extend what was an audience gallery on the fourth floor over the Courtroom creating more office space above the Courtroom. In the 2002 restoration, they removed the fourth floor construction and replaced the gallery. The room is now used as a Courtroom and County Commissioners (County Supervisors for us Californians) Court. The Courtroom ceiling now rises almost all the way to the base of the clock tower spanning the entire room. It looks remarkably like the Courtroom used in the movie “Inherit the Wind”. You can almost see and hear Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond, doing his best Clarence Darrow.

In the basement we found the old County offices of the Treasurer, Records, and the bathrooms. Through a rear door leading to a back stairway, we found the bathroom reserved for non-whites. The room was no longer there but the sign revealed by the 2002 restoration reached out a grabbed everyone who saw it. There was also the drum used in jury selection up until they began using computers.

The weather worsened and it was time to go. We retrieved our car and Dianna was finally reunited with her phone (a joyous moment surpassed only by the rescue of those miners in Chile). As we drove off, I could see her softly rubbing the glass face of her phone to restore it’s brightly colored graphical user interface to check on the latest emails and text messages she may have missed.

I chose a lengthy route of return to the I-35 so we could pass by the Sonic at  Italy, Texas . On the way, I was struck by a roadside memorial we passed. In a rather dismal setting, really a dirt turnout on the highway US 77. I only noticed it because of a roadside sign stating “World War II memorial” across from it. As we passed, it was only by chance I caught a glimpse of it through some high grass obscuring it. I made the U-turn and pulled up next to it and got a photo. There is was a tribute to “Waxahachie’s Sons and Daughters” who served in World War Two. I am writing a letter to the City right after I’m done here.

Knowing what a difficult time Dianna had without her phone, I decided to reward her with her favorite  Sonic R44 Strawberry Limeade . I could see the stress wash off her face as we entered the drive-thru.

Our trip back was rather uneventful but we could see dark ominous clouds before us as we made our way north to Frisco. When we arrived back home the wind had picked up and we could hear the wail of our town tornado warning system calling out to seek shelter. I ran inside to check my favorite weather site Weather Underground  and discovered the threat was well to our south and west so, we were in no danger. Dianna was now taking a bath and reported to me a friend had texted her (I kid you not) and told her the tornado horns were sounding in their neighborhood too. She asked me if I thought she should get out of her bath and take shelter in our closet. I assured her it was not necessary.

But as the afternoon progressed, communities around Waxahachie ended up getting the full brunt of the storm and there was a tornado that touched down just north of the town square. We were lucky and thankful our only concern that day revolved around a forgotten phone.

Night at the Wales Winery

You might recall a visit to the Wales Winery in McKinney, Texas. John “Josey” Wales was sponsoring evening events outdoors on his winery. We got ourselves on his e-mail list and (after the weather cooled considerably) decided to take one in. It wasn’t until October 2^nd when, after several months of 90+ days and sometimes nights, the weather broke. The north wind pushed through and promised a rather crisp evening, which actually required long pants and jackets.

I should explain that in Texas we have two distinct weather patterns. For most of the year we ascribe to a southern wind, which rises from the Gulf full of humidity and warm (some say stifling) air. It drives up north and slams into the cooler air of the Midwest and generates the tornadoes we see on CNN and Discovery channel. Depending on where that cold front resides decides where the tornadoes strike. It has come as far south as central Texas but has reached down toward the areas at a line from Austin to north of Houston. Most of the stuff occurring in the south Texas zone are those pesky hurricanes wending their way from the Caribbean.

So, after a seriously hot summer, you hear there’s a north wind coming, we break out the fall clothing and open the champagne. Like the winter storms of New England, the nor’easter we get tends to be very cold blowing air (admittedly without the driving snow or sleet), which can cause one to cover their plants as well as the outside water spigots so you don’t freeze and break a pipe. Though the cold front moving through that night was just a short break in the action, it was welcomed relief for a hot, damp north Texas.

Joined by our friends (and concerted wine drinkers) Debbie and Torrey, we got there as sunset came upon us. Well, there was that brief unwillingness on our part to concede we were kind of lost. The guys were in front and the women were in back. Debbie had us turn up onto a road she felt was the way to the winery. Being the dutiful husband, Torrey (against his better judgement) took the path and we quickly saw we were not on the right road. Though Debbie quickly conceded she was wrong, Torrey and I took the male view of (as I’m sure Columbus did), “Hey, let’s see where this goes.” As the sun was setting (recall the unrelenting darkness of a Texas night) fear began to take hold but a quick check of my iPhone GPS app found we were actually circumnavigating around the winery land. Two quick turns and we were there. Thanks Steve Jobs, we might still be driving if it wasn’t for you.

Once there, we were herded to our parking place by two 10 year olds on a 4 wheel ATV. A stop at the entrance and we paid our $10 cover charge and, with folding chairs in hand, found a soft spot in the grass to see the stage. Lots of folks were already there (probably took the right turn) and lots of wine was already flowing. Mr. Wales had told us on our first visit that his highest sales are from the outdoor events. We could see why. Turns out the $10 cover charge went straight to the band; Mr. Wales doesn’t take a cut.

That evening we were entertained by Jon Christopher Davis  and his band. Mr. Davis is a singer-songwriter who has written for some big names like Dolly Parton, Hal Ketchum, Tammy Cochran, Sherrie Austin, Billy Ray Cyrus and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles. "Little Bird," as recorded by Sherrie Austin, peaked at number 4 on Billboard's Top Country Singles Sales Chart. He also recorded his own songs for Warner Brothers, Sony and MCA Records, with Vince Gill singing back up.

He has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the business like Rodney Crowell, Radney Foster, Steve Lukather of Toto, Stan Lynch of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Charlotte Caffey of The Go Go's as well as hit producers, Dann Huff (Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban) and David Z. (Prince, Jonny Lang).

As part of the festivities, Mr. Wales had a hot air balloon available and for $10 bucks you could ascend on a tether to above the tree line and look out over the landscape. Of course, I had to get the skinny on the balloon and asked questions of the crew as they assembled then inflated the balloon in an open space next to the open-air venue.

The balloon, an AX8-88, was made by Head and consisted of 90,000 sq feet of envelope owned by Ann & Lance Terry of Frisco, Texas. It’s about 73 feet high with the basket and about 60 feet in diameter. It consists of 24 panels or “gores” and uses a combination of Nomex and Kevlar in the panels and lines. The basket contains the 30 million BTU burners and the 30-gallon liquid propane fuel. Once all stretched out, the 15 person crew then partially inflates the envelope with a big fan then fires up the burner to get the balloon on it’s feet. Once up, they began taking passengers including the happy couple who just had their wedding just prior to the event.

As we settled in, ate our sandwiches ( Jimmy-Johns ....the best) and sucked down a pretty good white and red wine, we watched the balloon flair to life with each ascension. After a time, typically in the evening in Texas, the wind came up and really cooled things off. Trouble was it began to exceed the performance envelope of the tethered balloon. As we sat and listened to the soft Country sounds of Jon Christopher Davis, Mr. Wales broke in to caution those of us on the eastern side of the venue to move because the balloon was becoming unstable in the now swift moving north easterly wind. When the burner wasn’t churning out hot air, the envelope grew dark and virtuously invisible in the now complete darkness that surrounded us outside the glow of the stage lights.

That all changed for as soon as Josey put out the warning, a roiling blob of fabric rolled toward us and, like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man in Ghost Busters, laid over the crowd causing some to bolt and others to just let the blob have them, dumping people out of their folding chairs onto the cool grass carpet below. The crew had tried to quickly dump the hot air from the balloon but not before it got caught by a gust of wind. Nobody got hurt but it definitely was an icebreaker as strangers laughed with other strangers as they compared notes on the experience. There was, after all, a lot of wine flowing by then.

Once the excitement died down, we continued to sit and watch Mr. Davis and his band entertain us with old and new Country music. At one point, Josey (who may have been drinking a little more wine than the rest of us) decided to order pizza for everyone who wanted it. A surprisingly short time later, Pizza Hut delivered about twenty pizzas, which quickly touched the pallets of about 50 people. The store involved probably had to shut down their delivery orders to get this done.

Mr. Davis finished out the evening playing some old Country standards and as my bedtime approached (10 pm Central Standard time), we decided to pack up and make our way home. It was just as Josey had told us, a relaxed gathering of his friends (and customers) to drink wine, eat, and laugh. We did all those and were sad to leave but invigorated with a new sense of community that hanging out with a bunch of friendly Texans can bring you.

Tecumseh, Oklahoma

Sometimes the smallness of the world can just slap you upside the head. My wife was born and raised in San Diego, California  and lived most of her young life in a suburb called Linda Vista until she graduated from Kearny High School and, much to her chagrin, married me. She lived in a home on Atlas Street and one of her long time girlfriends she grew up with, Melanie Fortson, lived next door. The Fortson’s became an integral part of her life and helped her through some tough times after the untimely death of her mother.

During our 31 years together in San Diego, friends came and went. The shiny new neighborhoods and schools of the 60’s we lived and played in morphed into old neighborhoods we hardly recognized. Many of us have lost contact with those we knew then and only fleetingly come to mind when driving through an old haunt or a High School reunion. So went our relationship with the Fortson’s.

Vaughn and Gerry Fortson brought up their five children in that Linda Vista neighborhood. Vaughn worked at General Dynamics where they built Atlas missiles and later Atlas boosters for satellites and Mercury spacecraft (now redeveloped into the New Century Center) in Kearny Mesa and Gerry was a full time mom and worked part time at the Bank of America branch in Serra Mesa. They had a long and happy marriage and were very active in their community. Dianna spent lots of time there and the Fortson kids spent lots of Summers in Dianna’s pool.

Melanie got married the same year we did (1975) and Gerry sponsored Dianna’s bridal shower and our wedding reception in her home. Melanie had three kids in rapid succession and she and her husband moved to New Mexico so he could work at a little known computer chip start-up called Intel. I began my career as a cop and Dianna went into the world of mortgage banking.

Although we lived just a few miles away, we only caught occasional glimpses of Gerry and her younger kids at the FedMart (a Wal-Mart style self-serve department store) or like passing ships on the road to somewhere. At one point, we heard Vaughn and Gerry had retired and moved with the boys to Oklahoma. Our kids grew up and when I retired, we made the move to Texas so Dianna could continue in her career path in the mortgage banking business with Countrywide.

By now, Dianna had gotten quite techno savvy and began a crusade to put her life on Facebook. She had gotten the bug locating old high school and neighborhood friends from days of yore. It seemed like every day she’d make a new “find” and relate tales of the life path a friend had taken over the ensuing years.

One day Dianna came to me gleefully reporting that she had received a Christmas card from Melanie and that Melanie was helping to organize a surprise birthday/family reunion for her 80 year old mother, Gerry. Unbeknownst to us, Gerry and Vaughn had moved to their childhood hometown of Tecumseh, Oklahoma  a mere three hours up the I-35 from our place in North Texas. We signed on and were rewarded with the look of disbelief and joy on Gerry’s face when we walked into the Tecumseh Housing Authority Community Center. We got to reacquaint ourselves with family, friends and grandkids we hadn’t seen in a bunch of years.

A year later, Melanie contacted Dianna and asked if we could come up to Oklahoma to coincide with a visit she was making to her mom’s house in Tecumseh. Melanie lives around Lincoln, Nebraska and makes the drive often. We made the time and made our way across the Red River up the mighty I-35 Purple Heart Trail to Sooner Country.

Tecumseh is a small town set aside from the hustle and bustle of urban life. Once an up and coming agricultural and transportation center in the new Oklahoma Territory, Tecumseh, not for the want of trying, became a quiet backwater berg in what is still an underutilized portion of the State.

Tecumseh is the product of the great land run (or "rush") of the 1890s. While many of us may recall the land rushes for individual land ownership, Tecumseh was born from the little known town site rushes. This requires a discussion of Sooners, Boomers, and Moonshiners.

Sooners is the name given to settlers in the midwest of the United States who entered the Unassigned Lands (like the Native Americans had never been there) before President Grover Cleveland officially proclaimed them open. Boomers were members of the "Boomer Movement," white settlers who believed the Oklahoma Territories were public property and open to anyone for settlement, not just Indian tribes. Moonshiners were Sooners who crossed into the territory illegally at night, and called "moonshiners" because they entered "by the light of the moon." Some of these folks were lawmen and surveyors who had been on the land prior to the rush and had knowledge of the best spots to claim. Moonshiners would hide in ditches at night and suddenly appear to stake their claim after the land run started, hours ahead of legal settlers. It’s always been about who you know.

Little side story to the whole Sooner, Boomer thing was the nickname given to the Oklahoma University student body and teams. For ten years they tried Boomer and even Rough Riders but in 1908 settled on “Sooners”. The OU Athletics website explains, “As time went on, "Sooner" came to be a synonym of Progressivism. The Sooner was an "energetic individual who travels ahead of the human procession." He was prosperous, ambitious, competent, a "can-do" individual. And Oklahoma was the Sooner State, the land of opportunity, enterprise and economic expansion, very much in the Progressive spirit that engulfed the old South in the 1920s.” Isn’t it great the way an institution of higher learning can ignore the history it teaches and “spin” what was an illegal act into something positive?

Although the US Government had relocated many Native American populations to the “Indian Territories” north of Texas around 1870, with names like Creek, Seminole, the Iowa, Sac and Fox, Absentee Shawnee, Citizen Band Potawatomi, and Kickapoo ( yeah, I thought that had been made up by Al Capp too). The Dawes Act of 1887 changed all that and prepared the land for the rushes of 1890 by pushing the Native Americans farther west into, in most cases, desert land unsuitable for farming or ranching. This opened up vast swaths of land for populating and extending America’s control from sea to shining sea.

When the rush came, townships competed for the opportunity to be the County Seat for a particular region, which would bring the railroads and prosperity. The two big contenders of the time were Tecumseh and  Shawnee, OK both vying for control of Pottawatomie County. Although back then government was having a hard time keeping up with all the land claims and all the town sites weren’t immediately named but were referred to by numbers. The Counties by letters.Though incorporated in 1891, it wasn’t until 1896 the town was officially named Tecumseh.

Tecumseh muscled right in and completed a County Courthouse in 1897 figuring they’d get the jump on Shawnee but a series of missteps by the town fathers and the railroads ultimately got Shawnee the County Seat. It saddens me to report that it was an extension of our very own Frisco Railroad Line (and maybe a bribe or two by Shawnee town fathers) that cut Tecumseh out of a spur to the Santa Fe, which it needed. It wasn’t until 1930 when Shawnee became County Seat.

Shawnee had their share of grief when they tried to get the jump on being the State Capitol. The original capitol had been given to Guthrie, Oklahoma  in 1889, which was also the starting point of the great Oklahoma Land Rush. Soon after, town sites all over Oklahoma began politicking to be the capitol. Shawnee even built a Governor’s Mansion in the hopes of getting the nod but lost out to Oklahoma City in 1910. Though the Oklahoma Legislature approved funds for a State Capitol building, it wasn’t until 2002 (yep, that was 2002) the final cast had been added completing the Capitol Dome. Nothing in Oklahoma moves quickly. Well there was a depression, dust bowl, two major wars and the oil bust which kind of held things up for awhile.

The town was named in honor of the great Shawnee Chief Tecumseh. I know most of you figured it was named for Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman but you’d be wrong. A figure of note, Astronaut Gordon Cooper was born in nearby Shawnee, Oklahoma and piloted both the Mercury spacecraft Faith 7 and later in Gemini 5. I learned this when we arrived in Tecumseh for our visit. We had a little time before meeting Gerry and Melanie and took the time to visit downtown. The very utilitarian 1897 Courthouse is no longer standing and has been replaced by the modern City Hall and Library complex. However, the graceful 1905 Opera House still resides across the street from the Tecumseh Historical Society Museum.

I (to the consternation of my wife) cannot pass up a museum of any kind. Leaving her in the air conditioned comfort of her Nissan Rogue; I entered the little storefront to find one of its senior members, Ruth Hulin, on duty. She directed me to several items from Tecumseh’s past including a poster for a city festival a couple of years back. That’s Ruth on the left and our friend Gerry Fortson on the right standing in front of the town movie theater circa 1946. Turns out they were both raised in Tecumseh, went to school together and are card carrying members of the Historical Society. As we talked, Gerry’s son, John came in to check on Ruth. John is the current President of the Society. Most of the region’s history is laid out in "Pott Country and What Has Come of It: A History of Pottawatomie County" by John Fortson, Gerry’s brother-in-law. Didn’t see that coming.

During that first day with Gerry, I mentioned our meeting with Ruth and John at the museum. This set Gerry off on a walk down memory lane relating tales of early Tecumseh and the surrounding lands. Gerry's neighborhood was originally the site of a Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) camp. The original owner told her he had dug up a septic tank used at the camp when landscaping the front yard. After a long afternoon of history and talk of family we made our way to Shawnee and our hotel on the I-40.

The following morning we took some time to wander around Shawnee. Shawnee too has fallen on hard times. It is still the County Seat but has long ago lost its importance as a commercial hub. Like so many towns we have visited, the railroads determined their viability but as industries changed and technology took over, towns had to diversify or die. The real death knell was the building of a huge mall on the I-40 at the north end of town. All the mom and pop businesses on Main Street practically collapsed overnight and the once vibrant business district became a boarded up ghost town.

At the east end of the business district still lies the Santa Fe Depot built of Bedford limestone blocks next to the tattered tracks. The design is Romanesque Revival with a touch of European Castle thrown in. Built in 1902 and used until the last train came through in 1956. It sat dormant until made into a museum in 1982.

I, of course, cannot pass up a cemetery either. We made our way to the City’s main cemetery, Fairview Cemetery that has graves dating back to the time Oklahoma was still “Indian Territory” prior to the land rushes. We came upon the grave of Dr. Brewster Higley. Dr. Higley was from Kansas and is credited with coming up with the original words and music to the famous western ballad “Home on the Range”. Problem was that, unbeknownst to the good doctor, somebody else published it in 1910 and Dr. Higley never saw a dime of the royalties for his widely popular song.

 The cemetery is also the final resting place of Mrs. George Fluke, the designer of the current Oklahoma State Flag. A native of Shawnee, Oklahoma she won the flag design contest in 1924.

Cool story about the Oklahoma State flag. The first Oklahoma State Flag was adopted in 1911. The 1911 flag displayed a white star, edged in blue, centered on a field of red. Inside the star, the number "46" was shown; reference to Oklahoma as the 46th state to enter the union in 1907. It is said that the flag began to fall into disfavor after the Russian Revolution in 1917. The Red flag and single white star began to be too closely associated with symbols of Communism (well we can’t have that, can we).

So in 1925 they changed it to Mrs. Fluke’s winning design of an Osage warrior's shield made from buffalo hide and decorated with seven eagle feathers hanging from the lower edge on a field of blue borrowed from the blue flag that Choctaw soldiers carried during the Civil War. The flag design was revisited in 1941 and the state name "OKLAHOMA" was added to the 1925 design.

The other cool thing which seems very popular in Oklahoma is the prolific use of painted horse (and Buffalo)statues. We first saw this during our visit to Oklahoma City (specifically the Oklahoma Bombing/Murrah Building Memorial). Businesses and government buildings acquire this art and place them outside of restaurants, Courthouses and City Halls. They usually have some historical significance and honor people, places and ideas. This one was outside the Shawnee City Hall and Safety Center.

Shawnee no longer has its original Courthouse and has substituted it for a very sanitary WPA (Works Project Administration) building with hints of Art Deco in the late 30s. Next to it is a real 1920s Carnegie Library which now houses the District Attorney’s Office. Right next to that is the newly constructed veteran’s memorial park.

Our visit with the Fortson’s behind us, we wended our way back home but not before stopping at the Original Fried Pie Shop  (I call it a shrine) at exit 51 on the I-35 at Davis, Oklahoma  . Here you can acquire handmade fried pies of every flavor imaginable. My favorite is the Pecan Pie. Loaded up with great memories and a dozen fried pies, we left the Indian Casino world of Oklahoma (Texas doesn’t have Indian Gaming yet), crossed back over the Red River and returned home.

Rockwall, Texas

On a quiet Sunday, the wife and I decided to take a drive to the city of Rockwall, Texas. Well, we actually made the trek to Terrell, Texas to follow-up on an earlier blog about the No. 1 British Flying Training School (BFTS), located in Terrell. In an attempt to get into the Museum, contrary to the information I had, we discovered the Museum was only opened on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Go figure.

We then moved back into the city of Terrell to ascertain if there were any other historical sites or data I could report on. It seems that the historical content of the town consists of the really old Iris Theater built around 1926 and closed 2001, now a bookstore. Several NFL players and a USA Track Team member of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta were born there. One such notable is the actor Jamie Foxx who was raised in Terrell. It can be a very small world.

We (ok...I) was hungry and we had originally set out to have a late breakfast on the road so we cruised E. Moore (State Hwy 80 Business) to locate the historic downtown area seeking sustenance. As it turns out, historic Terrell is about two blocks long and consists of a series of old (maybe early 1900s) boarded up brick facades on both sides of the street interspersed with a couple of traffic lights. There seemed to be a dearth of eating establishments (well there was the Sonic Drive-thru). I now understand why Jamie and those NFL guys left.

Still in need of food, I decided to hightail it out of Terrell and head north up the 205 to Rockwall, Texas  . We had been to Rockwall before but I needed photos of Rockwall’s Courthouse and square. They market themselves as the “smallest square in the smallest County”. It is the County Seat of Rockwall County ( what a coincidence) and the smallest County in Texas. Rockwall was part of neighboring Kaufman County but split off in 1873. It is diminutive by Texas standards, its only 147 square miles. The average Texas county is around 1000 square miles. Brewster County is the biggest at 6,193 square miles.

However, for its size, Rockwall County residents enjoy the second highest per capita income of all 254 counties. Not too hard when the City of Rockwall holds approximately 18,000 people and the whole County only holds about 43,000.

Initially, no one could agree on a name for the County or the Town. Ultimately, the city’s name came from a unique geological feature of the area. When residents started digging for wells, they found what they thought were large underground rock walls that were initially believed to be man made. Later study of the wall-like features by geologists and archaeologists found them to be jointed, naturally occuring sandstone dikes but the names stuck. Rockwall is on the east shore of Lake Ray Hubbard a huge reservoir and recreation center within the DFW area.

They do have a pretty nice Courthouse but I think you’ll agree the 1893 Courthouse made of local sandstone was the best. It is the fourth Courthouse built in 1940 we see today. The first two burned and the 1893 Courthouse began to crumble (thus the name "sandstone") and had to be razed. The County approached the Feds for stimulus money to build their new Courthouse. They secured $52,000 in funding from the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and completed their Art Deco building for $92,000 bucks in 1941. Probably couldn’t do that in today’s dollars.

Ok...a word about well meaning native Texans and the overuse of the word "Historic". We have been to a lot of places but never have I seen "Historic" references bandied about like in Texas. Yeah, Texas, all six flags of it, is loaded with history (well it's actually eight. Spain actually held Texas twice and there was that little Republic of Fredonia  thing in 1826 but who's counting). But Rockwall city fathers ( and I'm sure the Downtown Preservation Commitee) have labeled their current Courthouse "Historic"(note transom window below). Construction started in 1940 and was completed in 1941.  Not to say there was nothing important going on (well except that little skirmish commonly referred to as WWII) but I can't say anything of significance occurred in Texas much less Rockwall during that same period.

Throughout Texas, many cities and towns describe and market their downtown areas, town squares and various points of interest as "historic". Yet many are just plain old buildings and structures some with little real "historic" value whatsoever. A running joke here is the use of generic State of Texas knock-off historical markers which just state, " On March 2nd, 1836, the Republic of Texas declared it's independence from Mexico. Wild Comanches roamed the plains and Texas Rangers protected the frontier settlements. But in this spot absolutely nothing happened."

On our arrival, I spied a new café ( and the only eatery opened, well it was Sunday) across from the Courthouse at the corner of Goliad and Rusk, TR Café and Grill . It had recently been refurbished and may be the oldest building in Rockwall. According to the owner (and the Historical Society), it was built just before 1900 and originally housed the Lowe & Allen Dry Goods store. In 1911, a millinery operated out of the building and from about 1913-1930, it was the home of Guaranty State Bank. It is now a neat little family run restaurant, which has a light menu of baked goods, sandwiches and salads. During the week, their primary function is as a Starbuck’s style coffee bar for residents trying to wake up for the trip to their big city jobs in Dallas.

The floor in the dining room hearkens back to when the building was a bank - wood for the tellers and patterned tile for the customers. The old vault is still there and is visible to the dining room. The vault houses the restaurant cooler. The owner said, if the power goes out, it can keep cold for three days without defrosting.

While waiting for the food, I couldn’t help but notice the large sections of open walls showing off the old masonry. I thought this was a nice touch and was a reminder to the patrons of the history of the old building. When I commented about this to the owner, he said that was an unintentional consequence of leaving the masonry exposed.

He explained that the original masonry was so poorly done that he had to make several structural changes to support the walls when he moved in. He said I should walk around and note the amount of “dust” on the floors. Every day they sweep and mop the floors of the restaurant. But the next morning they find more dust on the floor where there had been none the night before. Turns out, it’s the dust from the crumbling masonry constantly falling to the floor. So leaving the walls exposed makes it easier to see potential masonry failures and fix them. Gives one a new perspective on using an “historic” building for your business. Any moment, the walls could come tumbling down.

The food came and the wife had their burger and fries and I had the chicken sandwich and side salad. Very reasonably priced and big portions. Thumbs up to TR.

Like most Texas towns, Rockwall had its beginnings as a rural farming and ranching community. In more recent times, farming and ranching have been displaced by tourism and housing. When Lake Ray Hubbard was built in the late 70’s by damming the Trinity River, it flooded the western edge of Rockwall County but opened up a whole new growth industry, upscale lakefront housing, where most of the monied residents set up shop. Generally regarded as a bedroom community of Dallas, new home development has made parts of Rockwall somewhat exclusive and gated communities litter the landscape.

Rockwall has few points of interest but for you “Idol” fans, two residents of note are Jason Castro - Top 12 contestant on American Idol (season 7) and his brother, Michael Castro - American Idol (season 8) contestant. Two contestants from the same small town, how crazy is that.

Rockwall does have an extensive lakefront mall, marina and resort area along Lake Ray Hubbard that we plan to take advantage of and will report back when that happens.