A Letter from the Good Doctor!

JAMES HAYS sent me the following email and the cute photo of him and Grider in their "uniforms" his mother made for them during WWII. JAMES always wanted to be a "soldier", and it must have started with the uniform he wore in 1942! He has told us previously about his own time in the National Guard.

"I just finished reading your latest missive. Thanks for your help keeping us in touch. Since this Communist Chinese plague has calmed down considerably, I think we should be thinking about our cancelled reunion for early this fall. Lots of things need to be done in planning, etc. Go or no go, setting a date with or without consideration of a homecoming ballgame. I bumped into the lawyer and the Ballinger gun show is set for November 13/14, so the barrister is safe from meeting with Peggy! 'Class joke.' (Maybe some of you understand this. I don't.) My Saturdays for planning a trip are about half open, but is anybody still gainfully employed? Weekdays are generally open. I am still active with the Runnels County Historical Commission, The pay doesn’t complicate my tax return at all. 

"We made a quick trip to Arlington last week for Kay’s/our great-grandson’s second birthday. Two weeks ago we also went to the old home place so I could promote my nephew Lance Jorgenson to Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer-4 at the same place where my picture was taken in February 1942, also in uniform that my mother made for me. It takes a senior officer to promote an officer, active or retired. The biggest surprise was that I could still get into my dress uniform.

"When Dad tried to enlist in the army Dec 13, 1941, they refused to let him in with four small kids, sheep, cattle, and farming cotton, wheat, and other crops. He was mad as hell and joined the newly created Texas State Defense Force, soon to become the State Guard. My mother made these uniforms for Grider and me and we had a Kodak moment. At two years and eight months old, I remember getting this picture taken very well.

"My dad, Marion Hays, was in an Army pre-OCS school in 1918; war ended. 1918 graduate of Ballinger High School. Had Maryatt Smith in math. I spent 51/2-years in the Texas State Guard after 20-years in the National Guard.

"I am no longer the Brown County Medical Authority since December, but I hung in there until Vaccine became available and still show up occasionally on a volunteer basis. On that note, let me recommend one of the vaccines to everybody. Our aged arteries are still open season to that virus and the shots are very, very rarely hazardous. I have lost a couple of friends to it so far."...JAMES HAYS

Who knew Maryatt Smith was teaching school at BHS in 1918?
I had to do a little research on Miss Smith and came up with this old newspaper article. I had her for Algebra II, Plane Geometry, and Latin I and II. She made me angry by giving me a "0" in my daily work for talking. I walked out of her class and straight to Joe Forester. I insisted he put me in another math class. Good ole Joe talked me into staying. And I didn't regret it!

"The Ballinger Ledger (Ballinger, Texas)

May 19, 1966"

"Miss Maryatt Smith Will Close

Teaching Career on May 24, 1966"

If any of you want to comment or send your own stories, just use the comment link at the bottom of this post or email me. If you wish to work with or have suggestions for JAMES, you may email him directly. His email is in the back of your class directory...or I can send it to you.

May all your days be full of the "good stuff".

Peace and Love,

Marilyn

A LITTLE HISTORY

JAMES HAYS answered my question about the old building they demolished. NANCY BAKER also told me the name was not Home Furniture, but King Holt. (I think Tuckey's must have had Home Furniture.) BOB BURTON'S stepfather, A.J. Hendricks worked at King Holt when BOB and I married in 1960. Our whole household full of furniture - including appliances - cost only $350, and came from there. Of course, some of it was used, but I remember the brand new Danish modern (remember those?) sofa and end tables! 

The photo below was all I could find of a small portion of the old building (to the left of the insurance agency) before they tore it down. JAMES wrote an interesting little bit of Ballinger history concerning the early years of this location. 

JAMES: "The building in question was the King Holt furniture building.  I had been in it a couple of times in the early forties to the early fifties.  It was rumored to have a printing press of some sort in the upstairs, used mainly for storage in the seventies.  

Up until about 1930, it was the T. S. Lankford company, originally a saddlemaker/leather shop but he sold hardware, harness, and wagons.  Lankford and his two (?) sons moved to Abilene and manufactured work clothing, where his two sons did their whiskey drinking and gambling at the now defunct Abilene Club.  

Sometime after 1908, Lankford had joined a Mr. Hathaway (related to Drury Hathaway the abstractor aka the man with no sideburns after his peculiar haircuts?) at which location I do not know. Hathaway had been associated with James Asa Hays, a saddlemaker who settled in Runnels "City" in the mid-1880s living and working in a lean-to in that location until 1886 when he moved to newly founded Ballinger. He talked his younger brother H. G. Hays, my grandfather, into moving to Runnels County about 1891 or 1892.  

I have seen one money-cartridge belt marked with Lankford's name but have been looking for anything made by J. A. Hays for 25 years unsuccessfully. Any help would be appreciated.  Maybe something will walk into the Ballinger gun show Nov. 2-3. I'll be there."

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I have to share a little family history of my own. My great-great-great grandfather, Benjamin Varga, was a master saddlemaker and harness maker in his native Hungary. He was also a tax collector for the monarchy until the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849, which he fought in. Family legend has it that he made money belts for each of his sons after the Revolution and divided the family "wealth" in gold so that as they escaped Hungary, if they got separated, each would have enough money to survive. He came to the United States first, followed by four of his sons a few years later. They arrived at the port of  Galveston around 1857, joining their father in San Antonio, where the Varga saddlemakers made a name for themselves that lasted over four generations. All four sons served in the Confederate Army. It is rumored that Benjamin Varga was silent about his position as a tax collector in the Hungarian monarchy until the day he died. He was always expecting someone from the old country to come after him. Hmmm. Tax collectors have always been despised, huh?

This is a money belt and holster made by Ben Varga Saddlery.  Probably a lot like they all wore coming to America.

And you all thought I was just French! More than a little Hungarian gypsy in my soul. Lots of good stories on that side of the family.

Peace -- and good memories to you all,

Marilyn