KILGOROUND

I REALLY thought she didn't understand what I was asking when she started her story. But, the more she talked, the more I realized she knew exactly what she was talking about when I asked how she wound up in Kilgore.

"My older brother and I were born in Arkansas and, while my mother was pregnant with another brother, we moved to Michigan. We lived across from a peach orchard and my mother craved those peaches. A fence separated us from those peaches but she would put my brother over it to climb up the trees after her some peaches. She would shout 'go higher,' as the sweeter peaches were high up on the branches. One day my mother was going after peaches and fell across the fence. She was not aware the fence was electric. Needless to say, my younger brother was born early," said Frankie Edney Colvin.

"The doctors told us it had affected his heart and

circulation and we needed to move him south to a warmer climate. We moved to Louisiana for a couple of years and then moved to Kilgore," she said. "It took a while before dad could find us a house. So we lived at Mrs. Ward's apartment house. It was located right behind where Rader Funeral Home is now. My, uncle, Cullen Edney was already living there. I had another uncle and aunt and family move in from West Texas and later one from Arkansas and his brother-in-laws arrived and we all stayed at Mrs. Ward's. It became like the family meeting place.

"It was either right before or right after the oil boom and my father worked for the WPA. He helped build the rock fences at the city park and other areas seen around town. He also helped build the red brick roads in Longview. I cried when I saw the people take a dozer to the beautiful fifty foot fence around the location where the Sonic Drive-In was built. I would have given anything to have had a section of that fence.

"He made about a $1.25 a day for the work he did with those hands," she said. John Carson Edney later went to work for East Texas Saltwater Disposal where he retired years later.

"I remember one time when East Texas Saltwater tried to become union and the men went on strike. My dad carried a shotgun and paced back and forth across the road leading to his location to keep the 'scabs' off. The scabs were sent in to do the employees work while they were on strike. Nobody was going to take over my dad's job he had a family to raise. Nobody was hurt during the strike; the company did not go union and the men all went back to work.

"I married a homegrown boy, Earl Colvin. We went to school together and virtually raised together. He was born in a shotgun house that is now part of the city cemetery off Commerce Street. I thought that was quite different to have a husband who had been born in a cemetery.

"His dad worked for several oil companies on Commerce Street. If one couldn't give him a day's work he would go to the next one. They kept him with plenty of work.

"Earl retired from Bolt Fuel Oil after fifty years and still goes out to help dispatch on weekends.

"Today, we live on a little farm west of Sabine and watch the cows have calves," she laughed. "We have three daughters, seven grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. We have a heck of a crowd when we all get together.

"This life ... there have been some sad times, but the good times make up for it," she said.

"Now, I could tell you about us standing in line for gasoline and we will probably have to do it again, but that's another story that needs to be continued."

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HAPPY Birthday today to Betty Spradlin, Peter W. Keiser, Ruby Ferguson, Maria Spear, Johnny Leach, Billie Sonier, Frank Coleman, Alan

Nettles, Janna Helen James, Lee Mayfield, Eddie Palmer, Mrs. George Reese, Jewell Pool, Lisa Kincaid, Bob Hale, Bill Hall, Janet Browning, B.R. (Bubba) Barnes, Marcia Davis, Kelvin Jawayne Mills, Sylvester Crabb Jr., Rebecca Holbrook, Donna Custer, and Happy Birthday to our very own Valerie Larson.

CELEBRATING wedding anniversaries today are Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Walden.