Opinions

20 years ago when we still lived in Brighton, CO, I had invited several friends to have Thanksgiving at my house. (A tradition my insurance agent later said I could no longer afford). Each of my guests were gracious and had asked if they could bring anything. When Mac asked what he might contribute I suggested he bring the goats.

“Goats?” he asked. I explained that Friday was Goat Day. We always built a big fire outside and spent the afternoon basting Spanish goat in sop made from Shriner’s beer. And, since the best Spanish goat came from west Texas, I figgered he could bring it.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. https://etypeservices.com/Martin%20County%20MessengerID317/

This Week In Texas History

A troop ship carrying more than 500 fighting men from Texas was a week out of Hawaii on the way to Australia on Dec. 14, 1941. National Guardsmen from Wichita Falls, Abilene, Lubbock and other towns throughout northwest Texas were drummed into federal service in November 1940. A stroke of the pen turned the weekend warriors into regular Army and lumped them together in 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment, 36th Infantry Division.

We were watching The History Channel at Grandma’s casita. It was a story about the USS Enterprise being attacked. It was 1945. They were describing acts of heroism that occurred. Stories of men risking their lives, staying with wounded comrades instead of swimming to safety. Stories that never made the paper or were recognized but were remembered only by those brave souls who dog-paddled in the waves next to a burning ship 3 miles above the sea floor.

It was one of those moments where my son and I were engrossed. I said, “Isn’t it funny, the only person in this house who really understands what we’re watching, is asleep in his chair.” Grandpa Tommy. Kansas farm boy, Junior Petty Officer on a rebuilt WWI destroyer, 3 years, 3 months, 21 days operating as troop ship on the Pacific ocean, docking only twice in ports other than atoll island landings.

The Evening Tribune took note of the presence of Frederic Remington in El Paso in a brief announcement on Nov. 19, 1893. The renowned artist was such a frequent visitor to Texas’ westernmost town that the editor saw no reason to make a big deal of another appearance.

Proving roots need not dictate destiny, the painter who gave stay-at-home Americans their first true glimpse of the Southwest grew up in northern New York state. He enrolled in Yale at age 16 to please a demanding father but dropped out as soon as he died.

A few months later in the summer of 1881, Remington began his lifelong love affair with the West. Soaking up the spectacular sights on a two-month trip to Montana, he understood even then that the frontier was living on borrowed time. “I knew the wild rivers and the vacant land were about to vanish forever.”

Each fall, the governor of the great state of South Dakota host his Invitational Pheasant Hunt. This is meant to be a way to show off South Dakota’s state bird, their pride and joy, the wily pheasant. It’s also a means of attracting some special guests from out-of-state to look into the possibilities of investing money and business into the state. Well, it worked. High-rollers from as far away as New York to celebrate and join the hunt.

Now, lots of these fellers were good hunters, but a lot (like yours truly) couldn’t hit a slow-moving freight train with a bucket of Pratt & Lambert.

They split us into teams. Mine was called Custer’s Last Chance and Bugle Corps.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition http://www.etypeservices.com/Martin%20County%20MessengerID317/

By Bartee Haile

The Republican Army of the North, a motley crew of American adventurers and Mexican rebels, reached La Bahia on Nov. 1, 1812 and made themselves right at home in the empty fortress.

When Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara hurried off to Washington, D.C. in March 1811, the Mexican revolt against the Spaniards was treading water. As he begged the U.S. government for desperately needed aid, his compatriots went down for the final time.

But Don Bernardo refused to call it quits and resolved to foment another rebellion. Learning from the fatal mistakes of his dead predecessors, he chose a more favorable site, the poorly guarded province of Texas, and more experienced fighters, the outcasts and outlaws of the Neutral Ground.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition http://www.etypeservices.com/Martin%20County%20MessengerID317/

Good ranch managers often use numbered ear tags to monitor their herd more closely. Clem thought Reg ought to give up and start all over again.

They had moved the pairs that were mothered up to the east pasture down the road. Accidentally, calf number R31 had gone with that bunch. His mama had been left behind. In his I.D. number the R stood for red. His mama’s number was also R31 but her tag was yellow. In the record book she was listed as YR31. Her calf was listed as BYR31. There was also a cow in the herd with a red tag numbered 31 (R31 in the book).

Mama YR31 was bawlin’ and missin’ her calf. Reg asked Clem to haul her to the pasture and find her calf. On the way he asked him to pick up a dry cow they’d left in a trap.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition http://www.etypeservices.com/Martin%20County%20MessengerID317/

By Bartee Haile

The Republican Army of the North, a motley crew of American adventurers and Mexican rebels, reached La Bahia on Nov. 1, 1812 and made themselves right at home in the empty fortress.

When Jose Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara hurried off to Washington, D.C. in March 1811, the Mexican revolt against the Spaniards was treading water. As he begged the U.S. government for desperately needed aid, his compatriots went down for the final time.

But Don Bernardo refused to call it quits and resolved to foment another rebellion. Learning from the fatal mistakes of his dead predecessors, he chose a more favorable site, the poorly guarded province of Texas, and more experienced fighters, the outcasts and outlaws of the Neutral Ground.

To read more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition http://www.etypeservices.com/Martin%20County%20MessengerID317/