hope you don't mind the re-occuring theme of the poolroom,it's just where alot of events happened or started out.
there were three brothers that lived down the street from me whose parents were a little stricter than some,they had moved to mckinney from duncan, oklahoma as their father worked for cabell's diaries and mckinney had an ice cream plant and he was transfered there,cabell's was a part of southland corporation,which owned 7-11 and had it's headquarters in dallas.
the brothers names were billy,larry,and brian woods,one saturday night larry got his parents to let him go with myself,another guy from our street billy mcintire and another boy from the street mike mason to the pool room downtown.
i don't know what it was like in your hometown but some parents wouldn't allow their kids to go into a pool room,this must have been about 1969.
such was the case for mike mason,he was always nervous when we went because he was suppose to be at the movies,if he saw a car go by that looked like his dads he would scramble to the back and hide and if somebody would open the door to the alleyway he would step out there.
this particular night we had all got permission to camp out and we did this in the fields around our street or in a drainage ditch along a new industrial road close to our street,which our area of town had been re-zoned industrial.
well we had our night on the town and were headed back to camp out when somebody noticed that a little mom and pop grocery store downtown had left their watermelons outside for the night.
well my dad didn't like thieves and i know if i got caught doing something like stealing a watermelon he would probably be real ticked off.
the name of the store was bergvalls,and the owners wife was my seventh grade history teacher,next to the store was an alleyway and a double door for unloading freight but it was at street level with no dock,and there were a few burlap potato sacks in the alley next to the door.
the police station was just a few buildings over,and the county jail was behind another building across the street.
well somebody, not me grabbed a melon put it in a potato sack and started down the alley,just about that time a police car pulled around the corner and a cop stepped out and said,ok you boys stop right there,which sent everybody running for there lives,i ran down the street the store was on towards home.about two minutes later an off duty cop stopped me in front of a funeral home and said to wait for another cop to come get me.
they caught larry woods right off the bat,there was another friend there with us who had been at the pool room when we got there named keith dickerson.he and billy mcintire were a little more fleet afoot than me, and mike mason worked his way out of site and made it to the camp out site with the other two,not to be caught.
well the cop pulls up and larry wood is in the front seat,and some drunk guys in the back,he says where you going boy,and i said home.you know how it is when your a young teenager and you snitch on friends,well i wasn't going to be no snitch.the cop asked me for the names of all the other boys and i told him lie names and addresses except i gave him my real name.
well larry wood had told him the truth,the took us to the station where they had a enclosed carport type deal where you couldn't escape once they got you out of the car.
i was worried because my dad didn't know i smoked at the time and i use to put my cigarettes down the front of my jeans to hide them.
larry woods was nervous and worrying about getting killed by his dad and to make matters worse they put us in a room with glass where they could see you but you couldn't see them.
i was trying to hide my cigarettes behind a filing cabinet,just so i didn't get a double butt whippin' when my dad came to get me,but larry was resolved to his fate that he would never get to do anything again.
well they lead us into another room and another police officier asked if these were the right names,i said yes sir those are right,the ones larry gave him,to which the officer that brought us in responded,son i wouldn't believe you on a stack of bibles,oh man that hurt.
well lucky us, the head cop said i'm going to let you boys go, and if we come up with anything we'll be in contact.
i bet those cops had a big hoot listening and watching me and larry woods fretting and wondering while they watched and listened and not only that i lost a half a pack of cigarettes in that room.nothing to smoke for the rest of our all night camp out.
well larry and i headed out to our campsite and the others were there when we got there and we filled them in on the details,i mentioned to them that i gave the cops all lie names and addresses and that larry had told the truth,they didn't seem to appreciate it one way or the other.
we finally figured that a jail trustee must have been watching from the the third floor of the jail and notified the cops because how could they have got on us so fast.
larry's family's lot improved and they moved to a bigger two story house on the westside of town,we visited everynow and then,and got into mischief a couple more times involving christmas decorations,but once we moved i never saw larry or his brothers again.
i guess he was just another one of those watermelon stealin' people that pass us by:lol
there were three brothers that lived down the street from me whose parents were a little stricter than some,they had moved to mckinney from duncan, oklahoma as their father worked for cabell's diaries and mckinney had an ice cream plant and he was transfered there,cabell's was a part of southland corporation,which owned 7-11 and had it's headquarters in dallas.
the brothers names were billy,larry,and brian woods,one saturday night larry got his parents to let him go with myself,another guy from our street billy mcintire and another boy from the street mike mason to the pool room downtown.
i don't know what it was like in your hometown but some parents wouldn't allow their kids to go into a pool room,this must have been about 1969.
such was the case for mike mason,he was always nervous when we went because he was suppose to be at the movies,if he saw a car go by that looked like his dads he would scramble to the back and hide and if somebody would open the door to the alleyway he would step out there.
this particular night we had all got permission to camp out and we did this in the fields around our street or in a drainage ditch along a new industrial road close to our street,which our area of town had been re-zoned industrial.
well we had our night on the town and were headed back to camp out when somebody noticed that a little mom and pop grocery store downtown had left their watermelons outside for the night.
well my dad didn't like thieves and i know if i got caught doing something like stealing a watermelon he would probably be real ticked off.
the name of the store was bergvalls,and the owners wife was my seventh grade history teacher,next to the store was an alleyway and a double door for unloading freight but it was at street level with no dock,and there were a few burlap potato sacks in the alley next to the door.
the police station was just a few buildings over,and the county jail was behind another building across the street.
well somebody, not me grabbed a melon put it in a potato sack and started down the alley,just about that time a police car pulled around the corner and a cop stepped out and said,ok you boys stop right there,which sent everybody running for there lives,i ran down the street the store was on towards home.about two minutes later an off duty cop stopped me in front of a funeral home and said to wait for another cop to come get me.
they caught larry woods right off the bat,there was another friend there with us who had been at the pool room when we got there named keith dickerson.he and billy mcintire were a little more fleet afoot than me, and mike mason worked his way out of site and made it to the camp out site with the other two,not to be caught.
well the cop pulls up and larry wood is in the front seat,and some drunk guys in the back,he says where you going boy,and i said home.you know how it is when your a young teenager and you snitch on friends,well i wasn't going to be no snitch.the cop asked me for the names of all the other boys and i told him lie names and addresses except i gave him my real name.
well larry wood had told him the truth,the took us to the station where they had a enclosed carport type deal where you couldn't escape once they got you out of the car.
i was worried because my dad didn't know i smoked at the time and i use to put my cigarettes down the front of my jeans to hide them.
larry woods was nervous and worrying about getting killed by his dad and to make matters worse they put us in a room with glass where they could see you but you couldn't see them.
i was trying to hide my cigarettes behind a filing cabinet,just so i didn't get a double butt whippin' when my dad came to get me,but larry was resolved to his fate that he would never get to do anything again.
well they lead us into another room and another police officier asked if these were the right names,i said yes sir those are right,the ones larry gave him,to which the officer that brought us in responded,son i wouldn't believe you on a stack of bibles,oh man that hurt.
well lucky us, the head cop said i'm going to let you boys go, and if we come up with anything we'll be in contact.
i bet those cops had a big hoot listening and watching me and larry woods fretting and wondering while they watched and listened and not only that i lost a half a pack of cigarettes in that room.nothing to smoke for the rest of our all night camp out.
well larry and i headed out to our campsite and the others were there when we got there and we filled them in on the details,i mentioned to them that i gave the cops all lie names and addresses and that larry had told the truth,they didn't seem to appreciate it one way or the other.
we finally figured that a jail trustee must have been watching from the the third floor of the jail and notified the cops because how could they have got on us so fast.
larry's family's lot improved and they moved to a bigger two story house on the westside of town,we visited everynow and then,and got into mischief a couple more times involving christmas decorations,but once we moved i never saw larry or his brothers again.
i guess he was just another one of those watermelon stealin' people that pass us by:lol
