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My mama always told me, “Elgin is a small town, there’s nothing you can do that I can’t find out about.” She proved her point when I was in junior high.
While visiting my mom, Wanda Pearson, at work, my best friend, Kim Allen, and I decided to walk to town to get an Icee at Winn’s. As we leave, the last thing she says is, “Remember the rules.”
The rules
1) Don’t get in a car with a stranger or any teenager, for that matter, without my permission.
2) Don’t take anything that doesn’t belong to you.
3) Be back at the time you said.
Following the rules has never been a problem, but she always reminded us of them every time. So, with a yes ma’am and a slight eye roll, out the door we went.
We walked about three blocks from the Meyer’s Sausage Plant when a car pulls over beside us. Nellie Ramirez or Cindy Cantu, depending on who tells the story, asked us if we wanted a ride to town. Since the lady in question worked for Kim’s parents at the time, we didn’t hesitate to climb in for a short ride to town.
Less than an hour later with Icees in hand, we walked into Meyer’s Sausage. My mom looked up from her desk and asks, “So, who did you ride to town with?”
We didn’t get in trouble, but it did prove her point – there was nothing we could do in Elgin that she couldn’t find out about.
Years later we found out that Dickie Ramirez had seen us and told Mom that he saw us getting into a car.
Yep, a golden moment for any parent.
A treasure of train magazines has arrived at the depot museum. Many years old and in good condition. Check them out.
Hallelujah the weather is tamping down.
Visit the Elgin museum on railroad tracks downtown to enjoy the exhibits of Elgin’s Black History, and a travelogue about the El Camino Real de las Tejas (the oldest and longest trail in Texas) at facebook.com/elgin.depot.
