in late 1969 or 1970 they closed the cotton mill in mckinney where i did most of my growing up,behind the mill the railroad tracks ran and next to the mill was the mill block.
this was housing that the mill use to own but i'm not sure if they still did,but alot of people who worked in the mill lived there.
it was there when my dad went to work there as a boy of 12.they lived there then which would have been about 1927.not long after he quit school and went to work in the mill they moved to dallas and he worked in a mill there.
we moved to mckinney because my dad had a cousin who worked at the mill and my dad got a job there on the loading dock as a temporary measure until he could finish machinist's school after he retired from the air force.
a kid that lived on the mill block named donny wall and i use to go down the railroad tracks a little ways and spend hours throwing rocks at the insulators on the telephone lines trying to break them off,and if a train came by we would throw rocks at the boxcars,the sound of the rocks hitting the boxcars was kind of neat to hear for boys 12 or 13 years old.
in the summertime when it was hot the creosote in the railroad ties would have a strong smell,one i remember to this day,and down the tracks about a half mile was a small tressel that was made completely out of timbers soaked in creosote,and man could you get a good whiff of it there.
though i haven't seen any in a while,there were places further down the tracks where cattle and goats were kept and you would see turd rollers(dung beetles)rolling crap along side the tracks.
well one day while donny and i were chunkin' rocks at the insulators,he told me they were moving because the mill was closing and when i asked him where to,he said mccomb,mississippi.
well i said my great uncle charlie lives there and ain't that something.the next day he told me his parents had known him and worked in the mill with him down there.
it was around this time my great uncle died,he had moved there to mccomb because his wife was from eastern louisiana close to the state line and he lived there most of his adult life.
my rock throwing buddy moved and i guess he was just one of those people who pass us by.
later on i found out a kid named chuck wilson was donny's cousin,i hadn't known him but they were around the same age.
chuck was one of those people who are skinny but seem like they weigh a ton,and all bone,if you bumped into him it seemed like you ran into a sack of rocks.
when i was in junior high we would walk home rather than ride the bus that way we could sneak around and smoke a cigarette on the way home.this was in the day when boys wore saddle oxfords,penny loafers,and wing tips.we would wear socks that matched our shirt in color and if you bought levi's shrink to fit jeans you bought them so that they would shrink up to reveal those matching socks.
this was just prior to long hair and frayed bell bottoms,they had a dress code in mckinney so this change came about slower.
anyway you could do damage with those heavy leather shoes if you kicked somebody with them and this is usually what happened if a fight broke out.well you know how it is with packs of junior high boys walking home from school,it's that age where you get your metal tested or you test somebody else's.
the wolf brothers lived close to the mill,darrell was my age,and he and his older and younger brother would fight each other as hard as anybody i had seen.their dad had worked for the ford assembly plant in dallas and when they shut it down he never went back to work.
they never wore old clothes but they were poor and they lived in a house that i bet couldn't have been over 700 square feet,and old frame and i think the boys slept in the living room at night.
darrell wore some heavy saddle oxfords,and one day on the walk home from school darrell and old chuck wilson got into it about something,i was out ahead so i missed this,but the events were related to me later on.apparently they squared of to fight,did i mention that leather soles in slick grass is a no no if your going to fight,well darrell i know was faster than chuck,and at the start of the fight darrell kicked at chuck in the grass and slipped and then chuck popped him about three times in the eye,nose and face and i think that ended it all.the next day darrell had a black eye and swollen nose,and wounded pride.this was usually a once a week occurance between somebody on the way home.
well chuck was usually alone when i would see him and he wasn't real talker or friendly for that matter,but i would see him at the pool room sometimes on weekends and usually by himself.
one summer saturday night just about dusk chuck was shooting pool by himself near the pinball machines where i was talking with some friends,he racked up the balls and went to the counter to pay up.
i think all the old guys who run pool rooms must be named charlie because that's what his name was,and he usually had a little something to drink hidden back there somewhere because by about this time he would be feeling a little tight.
i heard chuck holler something about there was no way he had been shooting pool that long and that he wasn't going to pay that much,to which charlie said something back,the last thing i heard was chuck call him an old sob.
there was several big panes of floor to ceiling glass behind the counter,they kind with the extruded aluminum dividers.
chuck went outside and started pecking on the glass and everytime charlie would turn around chuck would shoot him the finger and cuss at him and make faces.
well old charlie got tired of this and was getting real mad,he was about half drunk and feeling it.
there were about 8 or 10 of us boys about the same age as chuck watching this and a couple older,when old charlie offered anyone 5 dollars to go out kick chuck's ass,when no one took him up he offered 10,still no takers.i laughed on the walk home that night and still chuckle at this incident,i never saw chuck after this,at least i don't remember,i guess he was just one of those people who pass us by.
this was housing that the mill use to own but i'm not sure if they still did,but alot of people who worked in the mill lived there.
it was there when my dad went to work there as a boy of 12.they lived there then which would have been about 1927.not long after he quit school and went to work in the mill they moved to dallas and he worked in a mill there.
we moved to mckinney because my dad had a cousin who worked at the mill and my dad got a job there on the loading dock as a temporary measure until he could finish machinist's school after he retired from the air force.
a kid that lived on the mill block named donny wall and i use to go down the railroad tracks a little ways and spend hours throwing rocks at the insulators on the telephone lines trying to break them off,and if a train came by we would throw rocks at the boxcars,the sound of the rocks hitting the boxcars was kind of neat to hear for boys 12 or 13 years old.
in the summertime when it was hot the creosote in the railroad ties would have a strong smell,one i remember to this day,and down the tracks about a half mile was a small tressel that was made completely out of timbers soaked in creosote,and man could you get a good whiff of it there.
though i haven't seen any in a while,there were places further down the tracks where cattle and goats were kept and you would see turd rollers(dung beetles)rolling crap along side the tracks.
well one day while donny and i were chunkin' rocks at the insulators,he told me they were moving because the mill was closing and when i asked him where to,he said mccomb,mississippi.
well i said my great uncle charlie lives there and ain't that something.the next day he told me his parents had known him and worked in the mill with him down there.
it was around this time my great uncle died,he had moved there to mccomb because his wife was from eastern louisiana close to the state line and he lived there most of his adult life.
my rock throwing buddy moved and i guess he was just one of those people who pass us by.
later on i found out a kid named chuck wilson was donny's cousin,i hadn't known him but they were around the same age.
chuck was one of those people who are skinny but seem like they weigh a ton,and all bone,if you bumped into him it seemed like you ran into a sack of rocks.
when i was in junior high we would walk home rather than ride the bus that way we could sneak around and smoke a cigarette on the way home.this was in the day when boys wore saddle oxfords,penny loafers,and wing tips.we would wear socks that matched our shirt in color and if you bought levi's shrink to fit jeans you bought them so that they would shrink up to reveal those matching socks.
this was just prior to long hair and frayed bell bottoms,they had a dress code in mckinney so this change came about slower.
anyway you could do damage with those heavy leather shoes if you kicked somebody with them and this is usually what happened if a fight broke out.well you know how it is with packs of junior high boys walking home from school,it's that age where you get your metal tested or you test somebody else's.
the wolf brothers lived close to the mill,darrell was my age,and he and his older and younger brother would fight each other as hard as anybody i had seen.their dad had worked for the ford assembly plant in dallas and when they shut it down he never went back to work.
they never wore old clothes but they were poor and they lived in a house that i bet couldn't have been over 700 square feet,and old frame and i think the boys slept in the living room at night.
darrell wore some heavy saddle oxfords,and one day on the walk home from school darrell and old chuck wilson got into it about something,i was out ahead so i missed this,but the events were related to me later on.apparently they squared of to fight,did i mention that leather soles in slick grass is a no no if your going to fight,well darrell i know was faster than chuck,and at the start of the fight darrell kicked at chuck in the grass and slipped and then chuck popped him about three times in the eye,nose and face and i think that ended it all.the next day darrell had a black eye and swollen nose,and wounded pride.this was usually a once a week occurance between somebody on the way home.
well chuck was usually alone when i would see him and he wasn't real talker or friendly for that matter,but i would see him at the pool room sometimes on weekends and usually by himself.
one summer saturday night just about dusk chuck was shooting pool by himself near the pinball machines where i was talking with some friends,he racked up the balls and went to the counter to pay up.
i think all the old guys who run pool rooms must be named charlie because that's what his name was,and he usually had a little something to drink hidden back there somewhere because by about this time he would be feeling a little tight.
i heard chuck holler something about there was no way he had been shooting pool that long and that he wasn't going to pay that much,to which charlie said something back,the last thing i heard was chuck call him an old sob.
there was several big panes of floor to ceiling glass behind the counter,they kind with the extruded aluminum dividers.
chuck went outside and started pecking on the glass and everytime charlie would turn around chuck would shoot him the finger and cuss at him and make faces.
well old charlie got tired of this and was getting real mad,he was about half drunk and feeling it.
there were about 8 or 10 of us boys about the same age as chuck watching this and a couple older,when old charlie offered anyone 5 dollars to go out kick chuck's ass,when no one took him up he offered 10,still no takers.i laughed on the walk home that night and still chuckle at this incident,i never saw chuck after this,at least i don't remember,i guess he was just one of those people who pass us by.
