This a collection of some nostalgic memories of a pre-teenage boy’s times
spent with his grandparents in the Texas Panhandle. That boy, and the writer
of this article, is the senior of the two bandbs from the About Us page of
our father and son website. This was taking place in and around Lefors, Texas,
which is a small oil field and ranch town built on the North Fork of the Red
River and State Highway 273.
My paternal grandparents lived about 8 or 9 miles east of Lefors. About 2
miles out of town, where the McLean highway turns southerly, you would go
straight east on a black top county road which after a ways turned to dirt (
or sand…lol). This would be on the north side of the river. After taking the
county road you would pass the old Coltexo gasoline plant. After going 5 or
so more miles you would turn left on a dirt road for 3 or 4 miles. Their
place was on the Davis ranch. My Grandfather (Pawpaw) worked as a pumper for
The Texas Company which would become Texaco in later years. My Grandmother’s (
Mammaw’s) job was keeping the house, sewing cooking, taking care of a big
garden and canning the fruit and vegtables, and feeding the chickens just toname a few things!
In the 40’s and 50’s Lefors was an bustling oil and ranch town of about 1600 or more residents. On summer Saturday evenings there were softball games at
the square under the lights and a lot of town and country folk there. Two
drug stores, a couple of grocery stores, a dry goods store, a theater, two
beer joints, a pool hall, 2 or 3 gas stations and a great, cold, well water,
swimming pool! The Texas Company and Magnolia Oil Co. had yards there. A pure
Norman Rockwell type of place for a kid like me to spend a lot of his youth.
Sadly, the town as I remember it, is no more. The oil companies moved out and
most of the town with them.
My maternal grandmother (Lefors) lived about a 1/2 block off the square in a
small house across from the one drug store in town. Great hand packed ice
cream and a big selection of funny books! She had raised 5 kids, by herself,
during the depression and up until World War 2. She didn’t accomplish this by
being on welfare or social security either. She took in washing and ironing.
I remember many nights laying in my little bed listening to her tell me
stories while she ironed; rotating hot, heavy, solid irons from the stove. No
spray starch or sizing either!
When I stayed with her I explored the old town with my friends and when I
stayed out in the country I roamed the sand hills with my single shot 22rifle, dreaming of cowboys and Indians.
A few fond memories and some nostalgia too!. There are many days that I would
love to live those times again. What we do today is tomorrow’s nostaligia!
