You Still Can't Kick a Dead Horse (Story)

(2010)  Stories sometimes take on a life of their own. They are passed along like a children’s game of telephone until truth and fiction are hard to separate. 

One such story involves an Allen High School student and a dead horse named Cricket. I can’t even remember who first told me the story. It was probably one of the three guys I met at the Allen Old Timer’s Reunion last year. 

 “Get him to tell you the story about the day his horse died at school,” one of them said. They were referring to Paul Knight, a 1957 Allen High School graduate who literally stood a head above everyone in the room – even without his cowboy hat. 

I spoke briefly with Paul that day but he just smiled when I asked him about “the horse.” I asked around town last summer and got the real story – or so I thought. 

 The high school junior had ridden his horse into town and tethered her outside the old red brick schoolhouse. Sometime that morning a student looked outside to declare there was a horse lying on the ground that appeared to be dead. Kids ran to the windows to witness the spectacle as a truck arrived to remove the unfortunate mare.

 It was also rumored that Paul received a good whupping when he returned home. Not so, said another “old timer” at the AHS alumni tailgate party last fall. “I graduated a few years later but my brother told me the whole story. Paul had ridden the previously mentioned horse several miles into town. Unfortunately the horse had come up lame and a veterinarian had to put him to sleep.” 

 I heard several more variations of the story before I ran into Paul at last Saturday’s Old Timer’s Reunion. It was time to get the story straight from the horse’s mouth –so to speak. “I had hurt my knee when a mule kicked me so I couldn’t practice with the football team,” Paul explained. I took the bus home from school but decided to ride my white mare Cricket back to practice for a laugh.” 

Classmate Dan Dugger convinced Paul to let him take the horse for a ride around the old school gymnasium on Belmont Drive. “Just as they came around the corner of the gym Cricket collapsed like she had been shot,” said Paul. “She just died right there next to the football field.” 

 At this point of the story I need to explain that removing a dead horse is no easy task. No tractor was available that afternoon so Cricket was unceremoniously covered up until the next morning. “Our big concern was getting her off the school property before the little kids came in the next morning,” he added. 

 The tractor did come early and Cricket was taken to Fort Worth where she soon passed into Allen’s collective history. They never determined why the horse died although Paul suspects she ate some bad Bois d’Arc apples or drank some contaminated runoff water that afternoon. 

I actually liked the first version better but it’s hard to argue with a 6’5” cowboy. Thanks Paul for setting the story straight. #

Big Dreams For Small Town Newspaper

“The first two guys I met in town were Walter Curtis and Alvis Story. They took me over to Don Rodenbaugh and the deal was done.” That is how a young man named Buddy Camper started The Allen American newspaper in November of 1969. 

 “I had been running the newspaper in Whiteright and wanted to start a country newspaper of my own,” said Camper. “I was checking out Allen when I ran into Walter and Alvis at the tax office. They thought it was a good idea and wanted me to meet Don, who also saw the need for the small town to have its own newspaper.” 

 “Don Rodenbaugh convinced most of the local businesses to take out advertisements and we started a charter subscriber campaign for $5 a year,” he added. Camper operated the business out of a small 12’ x 18’ block building on Main Street but it kept him close to the action in the city and business community. “It wasn’t long before I was on a first name basis with everyone in town,” Camper said. 

 There weren’t many big news stories during the ten years I was in Allen but a few stick out, said Camper. One story in 1974 involved a woman who streaked down Main Street and was picked up by the police. Her husband barged into the small office one night demanding to know who wrote the story. Camper admitted he was the writer and the husband promptly asked him for extra copies! “I thought I was in big trouble but it turned out to be a good laugh,” he said. It is best to let Camper tell his other “big story” in his own words which were written in a newspaper column called Scribbles in 1972. 

 “I was standing at the counter at The State Bank when there was a loud crash. I heard a scream and the walls of the bank seemed to be caving in   Then I realized it: your editor was right in the middle of an honest to goodness news story….My camera was handy so I rushed out and took a picture of the woman screaming, then came back to see bank president Dudley Robertson helping Mary Meyer out of her station wagon. Her foot had slipped off the brake pedal. … no one was hurt and all’s well that ends well….and I had a subject to write my column about this week.” Speaking with Camper, who now lives in Hideaway, Texas, he paused to remember many of the people who are familiar parts of our town’s history. 

 “I saw Pete Ford almost every day. He knew all the politicians and was a great source of information for the paper. Guys like Jerry Burton, the sheriff and Frank Dugger, the mayor were just fun people to be around. Then there was Lee Rountree, the school superintendent who was a genuine person that always had the best interests of kids and the schools in mind.” “Allen has grown into a first class city but it was also a great place back then,” added Camper, who can regularly be found visiting Allen with a set of golf clubs in tow. “It was a small and cozy place in the 1970’s and I am happy that I was able to be part of that. I still consider it home.”

George Anderson: Practicing What He Preached

As part of Allen ISD’s 100th anniversary, we have been looking back on the school district’s namesakes. The school board bestowed that honor on Rev. George Anderson in 1997 for his career of service to the children and families of Allen.

George Anderson was born in Collin, Texas in 1920. Following high school, he worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) before enrolling at Wylie College in Marshall.

“I had hoped to study engineering but college opportunities for blacks were very limited in the late 1940’s, said Anderson in a 2002 interview.

“Teacher education programs were more accessible so I headed off to Wylie College with a lot of hope but no money.”

Anderson met the college president and successfully proposed three months of work at the college in exchange for three months of tuition. As a football walk-on the next fall, he earned an athletic scholarship and was able to attend school full time.

He traded his football uniform for army khakis in 1942 and was eventually stationed in Cairo, Egypt until 1945.

Following the war and with help from the G.I. Bill, he returned to Texas College in Tyler and earned a teaching degree in 1949. He began teaching in 1950 and went on to earn a master’s degree from Texas Southern University in 1959.

Anderson told the story once of his persistence in getting a job in Allen. He visited with Allen Superintendent W.H. Moseley who had no openings. Each week Anderson would appear at Moseley’s office until the superintendent “gave in and hired the ambitious young man.”
He taught grades 5 through 8 at Allen’s segregated school until 1964 when the school district was able to educate all students under one roof. Anderson briefly worked for Collins Radio before returning to Allen as a middle school and high school social studies teacher and football line coach until his retirement in 1975.

Anderson’s wife Hazel taught school in northern Collin County most of her career and then joined George at St. Mary’s shortly before the school closed.

In addition to his teaching role, Anderson was ordained in 1969 and became pastor of Allen’s St. Mary Baptist Church in 1978 when Rev. H.W. Howard retired. He also served as pastor of the St. Paul Baptist Church in Melissa.

“Mr. Anderson was an easygoing teacher but could be tough if you got out of line,” remembers Charles Hall, who attended both the segregated school and Allen High School. “He was a good teacher and the kids looked up to him.”

Billie “Rabbit” Robinson also attended both schools and spent many days in class with Anderson.
“He was nice but the kids knew to listen in class or they would pay the price. He was a ‘straight A’ teacher and you knew you were going to learn in his class.”

Robinson also lived across the street from Anderson on Coats Drive growing up.
“The black community at that time was small – only a few blocks – and he was “the man.” As the teacher at the black school and pastor of the church, he knew every kid and every family. You knew he was watching over us and I was glad he lived across the street.”

George Anderson was a teacher, pastor and community leader at a time when many towns in the south were struggling with the fact that segregation was wrong and integration was inevitable. Working with other community leaders like high school principal Max Vaughan and Superintendent D.L. Rountree, Anderson helped make that transition a smooth one.

“There’s one pattern I’ve tried to set for myself my whole life,” said Anderson in a 2002 interview about a school being named in his honor. “I try to follow the 13th chapter of St. Matthew every day teaching myself that the seeds I sow are the plants I will reap. You have to put your community first and be the best you can in helping your community thrive.”

Rev. George Anderson died in 2003 but the seeds he sowed in Allen, Texas have deep roots.

Who Was Alton Boyd?

Who was Alton Boyd? Folks stuck in traffic at the corner of Bethany and Jupiter would certainly recognize the school that bears his name but most don’t remember “Papa” Boyd.

Looking to fill in some blanks in our school history, I tapped some of Allen’s long time residents and found a smart group of second graders who had researched their school’s namesake.

What I discovered says a lot about the once small town of Allen and one really nice guy who helped build it both literally and figuratively.

Alton Boyd was born in Macon County, Tennessee in 1903 and was moved with his family to a farm near Midlothian in 1905. The family moved to a cotton farm east of Allen along FM 2551 just north of Bethany Drive in 1919 and Alton graduated as valedictorian of his four member class in 1920. Boyd married Arlene “Boonie” King in 1924 and the couple settled on the family farm which produced cotton, corn and wheat. The couple’s only child, Margie, was born in 1929 and is better known by her married name of Margie Marion (as in James and Margie Marion Elementary School).

In addition to his farm responsibilities, Boyd worked as a carpenter and handyman in town and could frequently be found sipping a cup of coffee with the lumber yard owner Ed Lynge. He also worked at the Stacey Cotton Exchange in Allen.

“Alton was just a jolly fellow,” according to Wayne Stratton, who worked for Boyd on numerous building projects along with his brother Bill. “He was a pleasure to work with and always seemed to be looking out for others.” The biggest project they worked on together was the First United Methodist Church which still stands behind the current church on south Greenville.

“One thing people may not know about Mr. Boyd was that his favorite TV show was Top Cat and he got a kick out of people calling him Top Cat in those days,” added Stratton.

Boyd’s son-in-law, James Marion, first remembers the pipe. “He always had a pipe with him and that tobacco smell became so familiar when you spent time with him.

“He was a big Allen sports fan,” added Marion. “I can’t think of a football or basketball game that he didn’t attend. He was Allen’s number one cheerleader. He was also an easy mark for fundraisers. Kids in town who were selling stuff would run to Papa Boyd and he would buy something from every one of them.”

He was always doing things for others, recalls Kenneth Bolin. “He built the press box and concession stands for the old stadium and also built all of the bookshelves in Boyd Elementary School when it opened. He wouldn’t take money for it though.”

Boyd was among Allen’s longest serving school board members joining the board in 1936 and retired from service in 1963 when his daughter Margie began teaching in Allen. He was then tapped to serve on the Collin County Board of Education until 1975.

He was instrumental in fighting for Allen ISD’s right to exist in the late 1940’s when the state proposed consolidating Allen into the Plano and McKinney school districts.

“Papa Boyd lived a simple life and devoted his time and energy to the community, especially the kids,” according to Kim Marion, Boyd’s grand daughter-in-law. “At a time when Allen was more like Mayberry, he was the man everyone in town looked up to. He was a special person.” Boonie Boyd passed away in 1955 and Alton remained a vital part of the community until he died in 1985. The school bearing his name opened in 1978.

Pam Knight and Becca Clark’s second grade classes shared some additional facts about Papa Boyd on a bulletin board at Boyd Elementary School. The story would not be complete without these fun facts so I offer them unedited below. - He was on the Allen basketball team in 1919. - He married Arlene King in 1924 - He got as t-shirt at Boyd’s 5th anniversary - After retirement he enjoyed a free cup of coffee at McDonalds - He could be seen driving an old green and white Ford pickup around town - He is buried in the Allen cemetery So the next time you’re stopped in traffic at Bethany and Jupiter, tip your hat to a really nice guy who helped build our community one board and one kid at a time.

Royal Drive-In Cast of Characters

Every small town has one – a café or restaurant where the locals congregate for coffee and the breakfast special. Forty years ago that place in Allen was called The Royal Drive-In. 

The Royal was bulldozed in the early 1980’s but its footprint still exists at the corner of Allen Drive and the northbound Central Expressway access road. Pull to the Allen Drive stop sign, look to your right and there it is; the driveway that once led Allen residents to a hot meal and a heap of conversation. 

 The Royal was built in 1967 by Jack Rattan, a successful McKinney businessman who owned a wholesale candy and fountain supply operation. Rattan leased the Allen store to one of his salesmen, Odie Clark, who ran the business through 1978. 

 Odie and his son Randy (a 1977 AHS graduate), recently sat down for some coffee and breakfast to discuss a business that every long-time Allen resident remembers. 

 I was warned that Odie was a “bit of a character” and he doesn’t deny it. That’s because the Royal Drive-In was full of characters he says. “Almost every day you could count on Papa Boyd and Gene Butler and Pete Ford stopping in for breakfast. If our staff was shorthanded, one of them would just go behind the counter and make the coffee themselves. It was that kind of place.” 

 A short time after the Royal opened, Dairy Queen was built in downtown Allen where the current Allen Café stands. The DQ became the hangout for kids, said Randy, while the businessmen and highway travelers usually stopped at the Royal. “The two restaurants and a parking lot downtown formed a sort of triangle for the teenagers,” he added. “Kids would drive by all three to see who was hanging out where for the evening. It was a small town.” 

 The place could be murderer’s row for football players after a bad game, said Odie. “Everyone went to the games and the guys at the counter would be ready to quiz the players who wandered in the next morning. It was in good fun but they could be tough on the kids.” It was the people coming through that made the Royal a special place according to Odie. He then proceeded to drop names that are familiar to anyone who grew up in Allen. 

“Guys like Jerry Burton, Anthony Hancock, Kenneth Shearer, Jerry Carpenter, Bill Enloe and Dudley Robertson were all regulars. Throughout the day the cast of characters changed but the menu rarely did. Burgers and fries, chicken fried steak, fried chicken and milkshakes were standard fare. One name that drew a smile from both Randy and Odie was Pat Terrell, the cook. “She could cook faster than two people and folks knew she was the boss.” The most colorful character that rolled into the Royal was Erven Bolin. 

“Every day he would pull into the Royal parking lot in an old beater pickup truck. An old yellow hound dog would sit patiently on the tool box while he was inside. He always referred to his wife as Bear saying “got to get home before Bear calls me.” Odie pulled out of the food service business in 1978 and worked in the home improvement business for about 15 years. He then got talked into managing the Farmersville Dairy Queen for several years. 

 The Royal lasted a few more years and was converted into a used car lot before it was torn down. It was time for that building to go, Randy pointed out. “Allen was just a great place to grow up,” added Randy, who serves as assistant chief of the Collin County Sheriff’s Department. “People knew who you were and where your family lived. They looked out for each other.” 

 One thing is for sure. Odie Clark knew everyone and everyone knew Odie Clark. That’s a pretty good legacy for a character.

Cows Come Home To Collin County

“Go with me where the famous winter wheat stands hip high and promises a luxurious harvest of the finest biscuit flour on earth; where meadows of native grass recall the vast ranges of yesteryear; where they buried the scrub boar years ago purchased sires are standard equipment on every stock farm; where garlic enough to flavor the breath of Mussolini’s minions grows almost accidentally; and where 3,500 of her 6,300 farms have steam pressure canning equipment.” Collin County, Texas was probably not the first place you thought of after reading the glowing description above but that paragraph, even with reference to Mussolini, was pulled straight from the August 1931 issue of the Farm and Ranch newspaper. 

 I came upon the yellowed newspaper in a corner of the Allen Antique Mall that has occupied the former Beals Department Store for many years. I was searching for an old Sad Sack comic book for a different Flipside column when I found the farming newspaper for twenty times its original price of five cents. For $1.50 I could have signed up for a 3-year subscription in 1931. 

 Farm and Ranch was apparently published in Dallas but this issue focused on the rapidly changing farms to the north in Collin County. “Stately country homes of a Victorian vintage, embowered by lovingly planted trees, recall the spacious life of those aggressive entrepreneurs who plowed the prairie to raise homes while herds roamed to multiply and fatten with little care.” 

 I believe Kohls and Krogers now embower the above mentioned prairie while suburbanites cruise the restaurant row to fatten with little care. The feature story called “The Cows Are Coming Home To Collin County,” takes great pains to describe Collin County “yesterday and today.” “This is perhaps the richest soil county in the state wrote Governor J.W. Throckmorton in 1867.” 

According to Farm and Ranch, Throckmorton’s family came to Collin County “before the Secession” in 1841. Western Collin County (Frisco) was a vast unfenced pasture until after the war (Civil War), says the author. “Today these flats are yielding 15 to as high as 35 bushels of wheat per acre. The author, T.C. Richardson, moves on to describe the housing boom in McKinney. “Now the modern bungalow elbows the old fashioned farm home, hard highways penetrate every section of the county so that farmers roll smoothly and wagons remain unbogged on the streets of McKinney.” A modernized version might read: “now the McMansions elbow out the ranch houses of the eighties and six-lane streets penetrate every section of the county so that residents roll smoothly across town and remain unbogged on the Central Expresway. 

 The descriptions of Collin County throughout the four-page story are fascinating and eloquent. Here Richardson looks back on early farming in the county. “Where the cradle sang through the wheat with the sweep of muscular arms and the binders joked as they twisted wisps of straw around the sheaves; the tractor now snorts and the combine cuts, threshes and winnows the grain.” 

 The article about changing Collin County is more than a novelty. It comes across as a reminder that change is a relative term. T.C Richardson says it best in the closing lines of his story. “The highest mark of Americanism is the vision to see both obligation and opportunity; and the nerve to cast aside outworn ways for those which fit a new and different regime. My contacts lead me to believe that Collin County has this kind of leadership and an intelligent fellowship to complete the team.” There is no reason to modernize that paragraph – it could have been written yesterday.

Allen Christmas Parade - December 1970

One blinking light – not even a traffic light; that’s how Allen is often remembered by those who passed through town thirty-seven years ago. There was one subdivision and you knew where you were by the names on mailboxes at the end of long dirt roads. In many ways, Allen was almost unrecognizable from hundreds of other small Texas towns. Downtown was anchored by a feed store at one end of Main Street and a Dairy Queen at the other.

For many, it was a place you passed through. But for Allen’s long time residents, the small town had a special quality about it and they are willing to share that fact with anyone who will listen.

I took the time to listen to those stories recently at the Allen Old Timer’s Reunion. The reunion was open to all residents who lived in Allen before 1980 and as it turned out – there were a lot of people proud to make that claim. Planners for the event anticipated a crowd of several hundred and got double that number to gather at the “new” Allen High School on March 17.

The reunion was actually not a large gathering at all. Instead it was room full of small groups in noisy, perpetual motion – not unlike those atomic diagrams we remember from our science classes. There was the 1959 eight man football reunion and the Class of 1979 hug-fest. There were tales of homecoming floats and hot summer nights at the Dixie Drive In. Then there was the story about the unfortunate horse who died while tethered to the old school but that’s a story for another day.

The highlight of the afternoon for many was a collection of home movies that captured four of Allen’s early Christmas Parades, including the first parade in December 1970. The 8mm movies were shot by the late Don Rodenbaugh , who owned the local appliance store and later served on the Allen City Council. The movies offer a rare look through the proverbial window of time as fifteen cars, three firetrucks, ten floats, one band and no less than 100 horses and riders marched up Main Street. In case you missed it, the parade always circled back and marched back down Main Street for “the folks on the other side of the street” as I was told.

The old timers and some not so old timers were thrilled to see themselves as well as their parents and friends passing by in the parade. It was like opening a time capsule and out popped Pete Ford and Sheriff Burton. It was a slice of Allen before the population boom and it was a reminder of how special Allen was – even with the 1970’s haircuts!

Group Hug For Miss Iva Mae

Is there anyone in Allen, Texas who can speak about our town’s history with more authority than Iva Mae Morrow? I don’t think so. 

Sure, there may be folks who remember Allen when it was a one stoplight town but Miss Iva Mae remembers when there was no stoplight – not even a car in Allen. That’s because the lifelong resident is approaching her 102nd birthday this year. 

 To put this in perspective, Teddy Roosevelt was president and the Cubs won the World Series the year Iva Mae Miller was born on a farm in northwest Allen - 1907. Her father died unexpectedly of typhoid fever when she was 6 years old leaving her mother to raise five girls, four boys and one more girl who would arrive three months later. She attended the new red brick school at Belmont and Cedar Streets which had opened only three years earlier in 1910. 

 “We walked four miles into school each day,” explained Morrow. “If the weather was bad we might ride in the wagon but most times we just walked and walked.” Once again to gain perspective; the intersection of Custer and McDermott Roads is four miles from downtown Allen. She graduated from the same two story school and lived with an older sister and her husband before getting married at 22 to Bemon Morrow. The couple was first introduced at a funeral, she explained. 

“He was one of the pall bearers and when I saw him I said that’s the man for me. We went on a date two weeks later at the Ritz Theater in McKinney. He was a real honey – the nicest man you would ever meet.” “We drove to Oklahoma (Durant) with my sister and her husband and got married,” she continued. “We gave the preacher $5 and bought rings for $5 and that left $5 to live on.” Iva Mae and Bemon moved to a farm in Lucas and lived there for two years. “We came into town every two weeks in his old car. We often had to stop and patch the tires just so we could get home.” They later moved back into Allen where Bemon worked as a butcher at the grocery store in town. The depression hit Allen as hard as any small town but no one seemed to notice, she said. “Everybody was in the same situation – no one had money so we just did what we could.” Life wasn’t much easier during World War II. Bemon kept his job and Iva Mae sold hamburgers for a quarter to the high school kids out of her house at lunchtime. The small business helped her get her first electric refrigerator. The couple raised two children, Doyle and Linda who graduated from Allen. She brought her cooking talents to the Allen School at the age of 51 and worked for 30 more years with Lois Curtis, the food service manager. “There were 125 kids in the school when I started working there,” she said. “Lois and I would arrive early and start peeling potatoes and making rolls.” Every lunch was a home cooked meal as Iva Mae and Lois dished out chicken fried steak, meatloaf, corn bread and fried chicken based on their home recipes. In addition to her school duties, she worked for many years in the nursery at Allen’s First Baptist Church. There wasn’t a child in Allen who didn’t know Iva Mae from church or school. Surprisingly healthy and active for the age of 101, Iva Mae offers no secret to her good health.. “I never drank and never smoked,” she admitted. “I have taken a One A Day vitamin every day so maybe that’s it.” “I’ve lived here all my life and loved every minute it,” she added. “I loved the schools and I loved all the people in this town.” I think Miss Iva Mae Morrow deserves one big group hug from the hundreds; make that thousands; of lives she has touched since the Cubs won that world series back in 1907.

Learning Lessons From Grandma: Flossie Floyd Green

Flossie Floyd-Green never ran for school board or taught in a classroom but that didn’t make her any less worthy when the Allen ISD Board of Trustees named a school in her honor in 1995.

In simplest terms, Flossie was a farmer who overcame many hardships to raise a family and touch the lives of many children in the small town of Allen. There’s more to the story of course.

Flossie Floyd was born in 1886 and raised on a farm in west Allen north of the current Green Elementary School that bears her name. The farm was given to her parents, Robert and Lena, as a wedding present in 1872 by her grandparents who had settled in Collin County shortly after the Civil War.

One of nine children, Flossie attended a one room school house near the current intersection of Custer and Highway 121. She later attended college at what is now called Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas.

Flossie married John W. Green who was born and raised on a nearby farm where Green Elementary School stands. The couple raised two children, John and Leonard, in Allen and Albuquerque, New Mexico before returning to McKinney. John died unexpectedly in 1932 leaving Flossie to manage the 132 acre family farm at the height of the Depression. Despite the challenges, Flossie maintained the farm and provided a college education for her sons. Both grew to become highly successful businessmen with one becoming executive vice-president for Texaco and the other serving as president of the Dr. Pepper Company.

Church was an important part of the family’s life, according to Flossie’s grandson John Green who, with his wife Georgie, managed a Morgan horse farm on the original Floyd family property for many years. “She rarely missed a service at the First Baptist Church in McKinney and was active in that congregation for over 50 years.” “She loved children and especially enjoyed working with the GA (Girls In Action) group at the McKinney church,” he added.

Years later, Flossie and her lifelong friend Lucy Rasor helped raise funds to rebuild the church from their childhood, the Rowlett Creek Baptist Church. The structure, which is the oldest recorded church in Collin County, still stands near the intersection of Custer Road and Highway 121.

John spent many summers at his grandmother’s farm and remembers her as strict but kind. “I learned more than a few good lessons about telling the truth but it was a wonderful place to visit.”

“My grandmother was a good steward of the land,” said John. “She had many opportunities to sell the property over the years but instead kept it as a working farm. She later saw the changes coming to Allen and hoped that her land would someday be used for a school.”

To that end, her grandson donated land in 1993 and worked with the developers of the new Twin Creeks subdivision to accommodate a new elementary school in her name.

Flossie Floyd-Green passed away in 1976 and Comanche Drive hardly resembles the old dirt farm road but we can be sure that she would be pleased to hear the sounds of children who visit her farm each school day.