Skeeter Klaus and “Red” Berry were two who gambled and ran cock fights in in the San Antonio area. Red Berry had a ranch over off Rigsby Street and ran all the fights on the east side of San Antonio while Skeeter ran the fights on the southwest side. In the early 1930’s Dad (Jesse Garfield James) got into cock fightin’ with Skeeter. The two were practicing with the chickens by holdin’ them and making them peck at each other to see if they were any good. Dad was out there in the chicken pen with Skeeter. Each had chickens in their hands when Dad got the idea to make the chickens peck at my (Jesse Columbus James, age 8) duck. They’d hold my duck […]
Yearly Archives: 2019
20 posts
by Mae Ernst Elliot I leaned against the old rail fence and watched the sinking sun, And thought of how many, many suns had set upon this scene. I saw the evening star hang: As cooling sand was felt beneath my feet. I looked toward the old gray house where families once had dwelt— The broken windmill, iron bedstead beneath the old oak tree— The fallen roof, the old chimney— what stories the could tell Of people who have lived and loved in that big family. I left the calf back in his pen and drove the milk cow out And thought of all the cattle that rail’d kept in and out. Through many years and seasons and it was then I knew I was part […]
from Poems to Play/Poemas Para Jugar by Bertha Jacobson from her 2019 book of Bilingual Poems for Children: My brother, dressed in western clothes, Mi hermano vestido al estilo oeste, could ride his horse for hours. montaba al caballo por horas. He always was a sheriff on the go, Siempre era el sheriff ocupado, fighting against the apaches in pajamas (that was us). peleando contra apaches empiyamados (nosotros). My sister’s steer belonged to the circus, and she tied a pink ribbon around its neck. With an elegant style she could even stand on its back, while the crowd blasted in great applause. El corcel do me hermana era de circo, y le ataba un listón rosado al cuello, Con gran elegancia hacía pirurtas en so […]
In my case hair cut were free after the first one. Understand that I was my mom’s first child, Jesse Columbus James, born in 1923, and I had a head of what they called “handsome black curls.” You might imagin’ how much attention I got, but my mother got most of the benefit with friends ooh-ing over my black curls. Now my dad had a “thing” about long curls on a boy. In those days (the mid-1920s) my family di’n’t have a camera, so we only had word of mouth from relatives to prove it, but dad din’n’t need such proof. He could for his self what I looked like. JESSE C’S FIRST HAIR CUT One day he took me to Mr. Peterson’s barbershop in […]
I was born in 1923 and now that it is the year 2000, I got to thinkin’ back on my childhood in the 1920s. Maybe it’s a good thing that we don’t remember everything about our early years. Maybe it’s good enough that we learn about it from what others tell us. Much of what I learned about my early life and my cousins’ came from visiting our nine aunts and uncles. We visited them as often as we could. In each house there would be pictures – photographs – of each child, hangin’ or sittin’ on every empty spot. I wondered in later years just how many pictures of kids and then their grandkids they were given and just where they managed to put […]
Residents of Somerset have been honoring our veterans and celebrating Veterans Day for more that 80 years. The earliest record that Peggy has found so far is a November 7, 1937, San Antonio Light newspaper ad in the sports section announcing a RODEO at Somerset, Texas on Armistice Day, Thursday, November 11. The “sponsor, Jay Rowland,” was said to be”under the personal direction of, W. T. “Zack” Miller.” Admission for adults was $.40 and for children $.25. Following World War II, a brushfire of sorts began on the Korean peninsula. From Summer of 1950, one nasty war was fought. In July, 1953, a halt in the shooting was agreed upon – an Armistice. Note: no peace treaty followed and to this day, 10 Oct 2019, […]