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Everything has a purpose
By Ken Byler
Have you ever noticed how places are defined in our memory by the joys and sorrows we found in them? When we think of long-ago places where life was uncomplicated and pleasures were simple, we recall them as the "good old days."
In the good old days of the 1950s, nearly every town in Collin County was in a state of arrested development. Back then, agriculture was the lifeblood of the entire county. Little towns created by railroads or communities with a church or school house and a little store served as a support system for surrounding farms.
Yes, life was simple. Without Old Spice or Aqua Velva, men smelled like bales of hay, harness leather, grease and gasoline. Without Avon and Elisabeth Arden, their wives smelled like vanilla, fresh baked buttermilk biscuits and angel food cake. Every house had a front porch. Children caught chickenpox, and old folks had bursitis and lumbago. Old age was considered a legitimate cause of death for folks in their 60s and 70s.
Haystacks Calhoun and Audie Murphy were the only famous people that called Collin County home. Haystacks was a professional wrestler who wore overalls and a horseshoe around his neck. Audie wore an Army uniform that had more medals pinned to it than any other soldier in American history. He traded it in for twin six shooters and a Stetson hat in Hollywood. Every wide place in the road in east Collin County claimed Audie as their own.
I believe life began to change in Collin County with the emergence of Collins Radio and Texas Instruments. Now, good-paying jobs could be had about 15 or 20 miles down the road in Richardson. Many farmers' wives kept the family farm afloat by working at Texas Instruments. It's been said Eugene McDermott's Texas Instruments brought more change to Collin County women's lives than suffrage. Women were paid the same wages as men for the same job, but their independence came by way of the Texas Instrument Credit Union. For a lot of them, it was the first time in their lives they could get a loan without their husband's signature.
Collins Radio and Texas Instruments were the vanguard of the technology revolution in North Texas. More Collin County women entered the workforce, and a lot of family farms became housing tracts and strip malls. Cotton gins and corn shellers disappeared. McDonalds, Whataburger and 7-11s moved in, and a lot of folks couldn't relate to the places from which their Chicken McNuggets and corny dogs sprang.
Family farms and small towns are now mostly distant memories, and lessons learned in the good old days have been forgotten. In those small towns, everyone was held responsible for their behavior and secrets never stayed secret. It was unhealthy to rob another man of his delights or encroach on the sovereignty of neighbors.
Growing up in the country was a great way to learn that folks reap what they sow and nobody owes you a living. Lessons learned the hard way will be the ones you'll profit from and everything has a purpose. That's why farmers never let their kids claim chickens or pigs as pets. Being pets was not their purpose, which reminds me of a story.
It seems there was a hog that had saved a farmer's life on two occasions. Once by awakening the farmer when the house was on fire, and again by throwing a rope to the farmer when he fell in the well. News of the hog's heroics spread, and folks for miles around gathered at the farmer's house to see the hog. When the farmer was asked what happened to the hog's missing left hind leg, he told the assembled crowd, "You just don't eat a good hog like that one all at one time".
Ken Byler is a Star columnist, author and artist. Email him at kbyler@tx.rr.com.
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