PatchWork by Joyce Whitis

Last Updated 09/06/05

Email: joy@our-town.com

The Party Guest Gets An Education 
by Joyce Whitis

    There are times when I feel like a one woman Stephenville Chamber of Commerce and I enjoy those times. There’s not much that gives me more pleasure than enlightening absolute strangers about the achievements of the inhabitants in this neck of the woods. Just a couple of weeks ago, I got that opportunity one more time and it was delicious. The occasion was a party for a granddaughter who just graduated from the University of Texas. Her parents, who live in Hurst, sent out letters to all the kinfolks and family friends to come over to their house and help celebrate. And so we did. We eventually came back home but some of them may be celebrating ‘til yet.

    One of the invited guests at the party, a nice looking young man, a college student at the University of North Texas, was seated next to me for awhile and my inquiring mind quickly found out that he was from Hungary and had only been in Texas four years. He spoke great English, for which I was thankful since the only other language that I speak is what I call, “dairy wetback”. When I told him we lived in Stephenville and he asked me where that was……well, whoa… Nelly! I grabbed the bait and started talking. One of my granddaughter’s boyfriends recently said to her after they visited in our home, “Your grandmother sure does talk a lot.” To which my dear little granddaughter replied, “Well, she has a lot to say!” 
    
    Stephenville, I told the party guest, as he sat with his chin in his hand, is the COWBOY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD !!! He continued to stare me in the eye so I asked a simple question, “Do you know why?” He shook his head. “Because”, I grinned, knowing that here was my opportunity to educate, “There are more professional cowboys per square mile in Erath County than any place on earth.” If I had been wearing my Jim Sharp hat, I would have thrown it in the air.

    Still, this young man, with some name that I never learned to pronounce, just smiled without putting any real feeling in it. “Did you ever hear of Ty Murray? Cody Ohl? Jim Sharp? Tuff Hedeman? Tom Reeves?” I shouted and then stopped out of breath as he continued to shake his head after every name was said. “There are around 100 Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association card holders in Erath County and lots of world champions, both current and past.”

    And not only do we have cowboys enough to claim 1st place, we are also the number one milk producing county in the great state of Texas. Chances are the milk you buy comes from Erath County. Milk from our cows leaves town in refrigerated tankers headed down the highways in every direction.

    My new friend looked like he was beginning to get the picture so I raved on about our football team and that they had won the state championship four times and no doubt would soon do so again.  Besides, I went on, we are proud of Tarleton State University, certainly one of the very best schools anywhere. The students come from all over to get an education and they are a real asset to our community.

    Our county is full of friendly folks, our unemployment rate and our crime rate are low. So you just drive down to Stephenville and we’ll make you feel right at home. I finally shut up, waiting for some feed back.

    He leaned back in his chair and gave me a big smile. “You must be awfully proud,” he sighed.

    I sat back and wiggled my cramped toes in my new shoes. I didn’t say anything but the words rolled through my mind like a lighted marquee sign…

“ Y O U S A I D I T B U S T E R ! "

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