GROWING UP IN THE SMALL TOWN, YOAKUM. A MEMOIR OF THE 1950'S

                                             

  

   I awoke this morning and decided to give a tea party. I want to invite three of 

my childhood girlfriends, Judy, Elaine, and Faye.  They all live in Yoakum and I only 

live ten miles away in the country. We were all blessed to have a safe, memorable 

time growing up in the fifties in our hometown of Yoakum. We lived close to each 

other and were within walking distance to almost everywhere we wanted to go. 

And I’m proud we’ve been quite successful, despite our small-town background.  

    I was a skinny little girl, who moved with my mom and sister to my grandmother’s 

house when I was in the fourth grade. Mom left my father in Oklahoma, not long 

after “the war” ( World War II). His partying and drinking left too many unpaid bills

and crying nights. So Mom bravely decided to start a new life and move to her 

mother’s in Yoakum, a state away. My grandmother said she would help.

    Elaine and I walked to school together in the fifth grade to West Side Elementary.

Elaine was a cute little girl, who always complained about her freckles.  Her family 

moved to Yoakum from California, near the time we did and her father became a

manager of Tex Tan, the major industry, which manufactured an array of leather 

goods. In high school, students took leather classes and were able to slip right into 

the Tex Tan factory and work there for the rest of their lives. Leather goods were in 

such demand, years later, Elaine’s family built their own leather company and 

named it Torel. It marketed goods all over the world.

    Elaine and I married young as many did in the fifties. And each of us had three 

children. Later when our children were older, we returned to school and finished 

college. She bought a boutique in Yoakum and she also helped manage her family’s 

leather company.

   I became a Liberal Arts major, teaching in high schools and junior 

colleges for thirty years. For the last twenty years, I taught college courses at a state

prison and met some of the most interesting people I have known. 

        Judy and I were good friends early in elementary school, as well. When I lived at 

my grandmother’s she biked over to greet me and we rode bikes together. I 

remember her having the first portable radio I had seen. She placed it in her bike 

basket and we would have music wherever we rode.  

    When we were in junior high mother remarried and we moved across the street 

from Judy and her parents.  In high school, we walked to school together every 

morning. But that was only after I waited for her to practice Bach and Mozart for 

thirty minutes to an hour on her piano. Then we started on our trek two 

blocks away to school. I learned to love Bach and Mozart.

    Judy married her childhood sweetheart, Charles. He moved to our small town in 

the fifth grade. When we started having girl-boy parties in each other's homes we 

played spin the bottle. Each of us had a turn and whomever the bottle pointed to we 

would have to walk around the block with them, holding hands. When Charles spun 

the bottle it always pointed to Judy, for he declared his love early for her. We all 

knew it was a match made in heaven because Charles, as a very young child, aspired 

to be an architect and build houses.  Judy’s dad owned a lumber yard and 

building houses was what he did. Judy and Charles went off to college, married, and 

returned to Yoakum. Charles worked with Judy’s father and eventually took over the 

business. Judy taught school and was a very supportive wife to Charles. They, too 

had three children. And Judy became a most successful and popular hooker in 

central Texas. She hooked all sizes of rugs and all colors. Many asked her to teach 

them her skills.

    Recently, Charles died and Judy and her family gave Charles a memorial at the 

Lutheran Church,  in Yoakum. The church overflowed with people of all ages because 

Charles built many houses and friendships in his life. With his giving personality and 

constant smile. Hugs were his specialty. After the memorial the family served lunch 

and I saw Judy, Elaine, and Faye. That was when I thought about our getting 

together.

            While the rest of us moved away for a while and returned close by, Faye stayed

closer to home. She married her high school sweetheart, as well. But, success did 

find her. A fast-growing new cable company that stretched into the rural towns of 

South Texas was quick to hire Faye.  She climbed fast in the company when they saw 

her bright intelligence and electric personality. She traveled around the country 

in her management positions. On one flight we accidentally ran into each other.

    I met and became more acquainted with my friends when I was asked to join the 

Polly Pigtail Club There were about six of us in the fifth and sixth grades who met 

every Saturday.  I don’t know about the club’s early history or how and why it was 

organized. We met every Saturday at the Grand Theatre for the Saturday matinee.

We saw other friends at the shows, except for those who sat upstairs. We didn’t 

know them. They went to separate schools and drank from different water fountains 

that were identified by “Color Only." Their restrooms were identified similarly. 

    

    We watched movies starring Gene Autrey and Dale Evans  on the big 

Screen. Sometimes there were movies with children, such as Margaret O'Brien, 

Natalie Wood and Our Gang shows with a gang of kids that roamed around town 

causing trouble. Sometimes,  we were able to see adult movies during the week 

or in the evening with Betty Grable, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, 

Van Johnson. They were about beautiful people falling in love, marrying, and living 

happily ever after.

    After the movies, we met alternately at each other’s homes. Most of us lived 

walking distance from the Grande. After short walks, our mothers prepared cookies 

and punch and sometimes tuna sandwiches served with tea in hand-painted tea 

cups. If we had seen Western movies we went outside to play cowboy and Indians, 

hiding in lush gardens planted with magnolia trees, chinaberry trees, oleanders, 

rose and zinnia beds and thick green carpet grass all around. One girl, 

was fortunate to have an old wash shed behind her house where laundry was done in 

the past generation. That is where we prepared the most beautiful mud pies with 

sawdust sprinkled on the tops for coconut. Other times, we played office inside the 

house where our mothers set up card tables, paper, and pens.  They gave us receipt

books and ledgers. We wanted to be like the lady secretaries we saw in the movie.

Or we played school and pretended to be screaming and grouchy 

teachers with misbehaved children. We didn’t have many role models in those days.

 We didn’t have lady astronauts. We never even knew of them unless we read Buck

Rogers comic books.

    When we moved on to junior high and high school our attention turned to other 

events and Polly Pigtails was soon forgotten. Early in junior high a band director 

visited school with all kinds of instruments and told us to choose what we would 

like to play. Mother bought me a clarinet and I became part of the Junior high 

marching band at the Friday and Saturday night football games. That was our new 

adventure. Our Bulldog stadium was where Yoakum’s HEB is today. That is where

 we first got to cheer and strut our stuff.  

   The summer in junior high I attended twirling school in Huntsville and by the 

time eighth grade began I helped lead the band down the field as I twirled my baton 

and tossed it in the air from time to time. Elaine was a twirler, as well.

    When we attended high school I continued twirling school and twirled at varsity games.

Faye was a varsity cheerleader and voted football sweetheart four years in a row. Judy and

Charles were the UIL state winners for the One-Act Play and Charles was a fierce football

 player who helped his team go to the state playoffs.

    The second summer of high school Yoakum celebrated its yearly tomato festival, 

called the Tom-Tom. Elaine rode a horse around a rodeo arena, dressed in a dazzling 

leather outfit that made Dale Evans look dowdy. She was crowned Yoakum’s Rodeo 

queen for 1955.  I entered Miss Yoakum’s bathing beauty contest, at my mother’s

insistence. In a black stretched suit with a wide yellow satin ribbon that bore

letters spelling Rotary Club I was instructed to walk all around  the swimming 

pool by myself and twist in a circle at the judges' stand as I winked at them, while 

attempting to be as graceful as a 16-year-old could be and hoping to not pee down my 

legs in front of god and everyone. I was chosen as the runner-up Miss Yoakum bathing beauty.

    After these events college, marriage and babies followed. We sometimes met 

in the summers at Tom- Tom celebrations. We took our children to the parades

we once marched in and rode floats in other small-town celebrations. Those who 

live close enough still follow the Yoakum Bulldogs at the Friday night games.

Now if we’re lucky we get to see each other to celebrate the lives of those who move 

on, as we did at Charles’s memorial, recently.

    The other morning I had a problem standing on my left leg as I arose from bed. 

Dang it, I thought, I kicked too high when I was a majorette. I knew that knee was

giving out like the right knee did a few years ago. The squeak it made as I moved it

sounded like my clarinet when I first started practicing on it, many years ago.

    As I thought of all this in the early dawn I decided to turn over in my bed and go 

back to sleep for a quick nap before I arose.  I wanted to remember all the names in 

Polly Pigtails and think about my Tea Party. And my friends I will invite.

    I wondered if I still have my taffeta tablecloth for my round table. I know I

still have my beautiful wedding china, the hand-painted teacups, and the silver

teaspoons.