Forty-three years ago today President John Kennedy was assassinated. Even as a six-year old I remember as we were told by our teacher the president had been killed. It didn't really mean much to me at the age of six. What I took note of most that day was how the teachers were reacting and the somberness among them.
Turkey Day is almost upon us and beautiful weather is predicted. I'll be heading south for a couple of days so the Kosse Blog will probably not be posted again until Friday. I think it's fair to say that Thanksgiving ranks #2 on most American's list of holidays, preceded only by Christmas. Among the people I will see is my mother. The doctor changed some of her medications and she is now feeling much better. According to my sister she is eating twice what she had been and has actually gained a little weight. I wish I could give her about thirty of my pounds and we would both be better off.
It was a tough personal day for people involved with President Bush yesterday. His daughter Barbara was robbed in Argentina despite having Secret Service protection. Click for article. In the same article it mentions that one of the Secret Service agents in the Barbara detail was badly beaten after a night out in Buenos Aires. In Honolulu the head of the White House Travel Office was beaten, robbed, and left lying in a pool of blood while on a trip with the president. Click for article. The Honolulu layover also resulted in three separate motorcycle crashes in the Presidential escort, with two of the victims now in serious condition. Click for article. Our Commander-in-Chief has had a bad month and it looks like it's catching.
I mentioned a few days ago I had gone to the doctor to get my prescriptions refilled. Before going I got on WalMart.com and printed the list of $4.00 generic prescriptions they are now offering. To make a long story short, I was able to save about 2/3 off what I had been paying to stay alive. Being a sufferer of every malady known to mankind, this represents about $200.00 for a three-month period. Wal Mart has caught a lot of flak lately from various sources but I am certainly glad someone in Bentonville, Arkansas decided to bring the price of drugs down.
I received an interesting e-mail today from Ronnie Yarber, a native Kosseite now living in Athens, Texas. I answered his questions but thought perhaps others can send him their recollections of this interesting Kosse landmark.
Mr. Rasco, I read your blog page regularly. I was born and reared in Kosse during the 40's and 50's. I am curious to know if the Bassett building that has been sold is the building that was a drug store during those years. If it is the building that has the metal stair case on the side I would buy a nickel ice cream cone and sit up on the stairs and eat it. I was also taken to the Doctor who had an office upstairs. His name was Doctor Smith as I recall. Also I believe there was a Dr. Green who was there at one time.
Also, I have eaten in the Kosse Cafe a few times in the past whenever I came through Kosse for whatever reason. On one occasion I met and talked with Kenneth Simms, the former pro-football player from Kosse, in the Cafe.
Thanks for any response you could give on the building.
Ronnie Yarber Athens, Texas ronnie.yarber@netzero.com
We're supposed to get our first freeze tonight. The yard mowing ends and the leaf raking begins.
The Falls County Tax Assessor/Collector drama gets stranger by the day. It has now come to the point that the office has shut down. Click for article. I guess that's about as bad as it can get if they have to literally close the office.
We have hired Stephanie Lockhart and Brittney Sellers to distribute a circular offering coupons for discounts on the award-winning Kosse Cafe Catfish. It's nice to see girls like Stephanie and Brittney wanting to earn a little money during their Thanksgiving break from school. I have a feeling they may be two of our future waitresses.
Yesterday I mentioned one of the most powerful Congressman was introducing a bill to reinstitute the draft. The idea is being shot down today and it appears this will not be happening. Click for article.
Former Secretary of State and legendary negotiator Henry Kissinger has stated an Iraq military win is an impossibility. Click for article. One hundred-twelve Iraqis were killed yesterday by other Iraqis. Click for article. The incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is introducing a bill to bring back the military draft and mandate military service for men and women between age 18 and 42. Click for article. What a mess.
I was watching a show on the History International Channel about the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. This was the one that took place immediately before the beginning of the World Series at Candlestick Park. I was watching the World Series pre-game show with Al Michaels and Joe Morgan when the quake hit. The signal immediately went off the air and a few minutes later the first videos of the damage begin airing. Six months later we went on vacation to San Francisco. We rode a Gray Line Tours bus which showed the damage in the various parts of the city. It was strange to see the formerly double-decker freeways which had collapsed. It was also strange when the bus driver took us into the gay area of San Francisco, but that's another story.
As far as I can remember, Kosse has escaped any major natural disaster. Around here the most common wrath of mother nature is manifested in a tornado. The two worst I am aware of in this area were the Waco tornado of May 11, 1953 which killed 114 (click for article), and the Jarrell tornado of May 27, 1997 which killed 27. Click for article. Thornton was hit a few years ago by a tornado. A few people got banged up but no one died.
I visited with a couple of gentleman tonight. Charles Boren stopped by my office to tell me I had left my headlights on. Charles was one of the ministers at the Lake Jackson Church of Christ in the early 1970's and I had not seen him in the ensuing thirty years. He is now preaching at the Kosse Church of Christ and lives behind the Cefco. It was nice seeing him after all these years.
I also met the gentleman who bought the Bassett Building next to my office. Robert and Dianne Bailey are the new owners of this historic piece of property. They live in DeSoto. Robert will be turning the building into living quarters as he works extensively in this area. He was commenting on the doctor's office that was once located there. There is still clinic equipment in the upstairs rooms from the early 1900's medical practice. I am going to ask him if I can see it sometime. Sounds quite interesting.
The kids are out of school for the next week. The weather is crisp and almost perfect, and the leaves are beginning to fall off the trees. My favorite time of the year is here.
I went to a doctor's office in Marlin yesterday. I normally go to the Bremond clinic but the doctor was not going to be there for the next two weeks. I was low on my prescriptions so I had to go to a doctor in Marlin. My appointment was at 1:30. When I arrived there were about twenty people waiting. I asked the receptionist how long the estimated wait would be. She said he was still at lunch until 2:00 and then it would probably be another thirty minutes. She then told me I had to go to the front desk and pay the $65.00 before he could be seen. So I went and payed and returned to the office. I noticed a sign beside the receptionist window that said "If you have to wait 45 minutes beyond your appointment time please contact the clinic administration". By now there are probably twenty-five people waiting and the doctor is still on his lunch break. I am required to fill out a five-page questionnaire asking every question imaginable, about half of which I had no idea the answer to. At 3:30 I was finally called in. Fifteen minutes later the doctor walks in. Thank goodness I had my list of questions and prescription needs written down. He was in the room long enough to write the prescriptions and stick a stethoscope on my chest. As mentioned before, I suffer from just about every malady known to mankind. He wrote out the prescriptions without question or examination. I assume I could have asked for any medicine imaginable and would have received it. It was all quite strange.
Speaking of the continually growing list of strange events in our neighbor to the west, the Falls County Central Appraisal District has filed suit against the Citizens State Bank of Marlin, alleging that unauthorized and forged checks totaling more than $200,000 were cashed without required signatures between December 1998 and May 2006. Click for article.
The price of oil continues to drop. It fell 4% today. Click for article. If gasoline goes down 4% it will be below $2.00 per gallon in Kosse.
A couple months ago I bought two lighted outdoor signs for the cafe and Rosebud. Yesterday's high winds damaged both of them. I cannot recall such high winds lasting for so long a period of time. Click for related article. In the mid-1990's a large portion of the grocery store roof was blown off one night. I remember driving up the next morning and seeing a huge amount of debris on the Highway 7 side of the store and wondering what it was. Unfortunately It was my roof. The most harrowing high wind experience of my life occurred in the late 1980's in Houston. A hurricane had hit that morning somewhere on the coast and Houston was experiencing very high winds. I was driving home in a torrential downpour. The exit off the tollway onto Interstate 10 was a long one-lane road which was the top tier of four highway levels. It slowly arched into a 90-degree turn and rose into the air at least 100 feet. I suffer from acrophobia (fear of heights) and this particular road caused a near panic attack each time I traversed it. So I am driving slowly up it getting more freaked out by the moment. The winds are blowing the mid-sized car around to the point of almost no control. Cars are in front of me and behind me and my chest is tightening with each passing moment. I finally got to the point where I was going downhill. I don't know if it is common among acrophobics, but my panic subsides when I am going downhill rather than uphill. The worst was over and the remainder of the trip was uneventful. I have been fearful of heights all my life and if possible avoid driving over tall bridges, getting close to multi-story balconies, riding ferris wheels, climbing tall ladders, and sleeping in the top part of a bunkbed.
The drama continues for the Falls County government. A new tax assessor/collector was named a couple of weeks ago after the previous one resigned following indictment. Yesterday the new one resigned after seeing the difficulty of trying to clean the office up. Click for article. To further add to the bad news coming out of Marlin, a man was shot and killed at his house during the night Monday morning. The killers were going to murder a second man but decided it against it. A relative of the victim was quoted as saying "they put the gun to him, but since he was an old cat they let him go." Click for article.
Tomorrow night is the annual Thanksgiving dinner at the Kosse Community Center. The community center is constantly being utilized for various events which draw people to Kosse. It has seen many physical improvements over the past few years due to the hard work of people like Nora Ensminger and others. It is yet another example of Kosse's excellence for a town of 500.
