by WalkWithMe1948

Created on: June 02, 2008

Today I wanted to tell everyone what it was like, growing up in a small town in Texas. The name or location of the town doesn't matter, for the memories are the same in any small town in Texas during the 60's.

My hometown only had a population of about 8,000 when I was growing up. Because it was so small, every adult in town knew you and your parents, and they all had an eye out for whatever trouble you were tempted to get into. In fact, if I got into any type of trouble on a Saturday night, my mother frequently knew about it by the time I got home.

Back then, in the 60's, there were no doors locked at night or cars locked up. I can't even remember there being any crime in my town - except for the mischief of the school kids. There were no air conditioners during the summer - the hot summer sun was just something everyone was use to. Cars didn't come with air conditioners and none of the schools or stores had air conditioning either. I remember that the Dime Store and the Drug Store just had huge ceiling fans everywhere.

We rode our bikes everywhere, especially on Saturdays. That was the day my gang of neighborhood kids would take off early in the morning on our bikes, across the bridge, to the drug store soda fountain on the town square. There we would take a break to get an old-fashion milk shake while reading all the newest comic books that were on the magazine racks. Then we would bike up the big hill to our church, for choir practice. After choir practice, we biked over to one of my friend's grandmother's house and she would fix us all tuna sandwiches before we went to the big old tree to spend the rest of the afternoon. On Saturday that tree wasn't just a tree, it would become a space ship or a pirate ship or a sniper's nest. That was the biggest tree in our whole town and we spent hours of make believe in that old tree.

After dark, we would lie on our backs in the cool, green grass, looking up at the stars in the night sky. We would tell scary stories or talk about life on other planets. But most of these times, we would just watch the sky and stars and listen to the sound of silence before we would get on our bikes and ride home, exhausted after a busy day of just being a kid.

In the fall, the whole town revolved around the high school football team. If the Friday night game was out of town, the whole town traveled to the game. So needless to say, no one was left in town. And if it was a home game - everyone was at the football stadium. We would have pep

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