Ride Home On The Milk Truck

I was staying at Mommy and Grandaddy's (Hershel and Erma Leta) in Lums Chapel for a week during summer when I was about eight years old, between second and third grades anyway. About the middle of the week I wanted to go home and was told that no one could take me home until the end of the week. Early the next morning I decided to go home so I started walking on Hwy 385 towards home. I really hadn't gotten too far and was in front of a house when a lady came out to get her mail as I walked past. She asked me where I was going and I told her Sundown. She convinced me to come into her house for some cookies, never turn down cookies, anyway about an hour or so later I confessed that I had come from the store. She loaded me up and took me back to Lums Chapel. Mommy met me there and was mad! She said that Boots was driving up and down HWY 385 looking for me. Anyway that evening after getting the cold shoulder from everyone but Janice who thought it was cool that I almost excaped. She was mad that I hadn't taken her with me. The next morning they woke me up early and when the Foremost milk truck stopped to deliver milk they asked him to take me to Sundown. It was great, we made many stops and I helped him load milk into crates. When we finally got to Sundown, Mr. Ross the store owner, called mom to come get me. She was madder than mommy had been. She kept telling me how bad I was for embarrassing her. But nothing could take away the great memory of helping the milk man.

The Tree Slide

We visited Plainview often and once when we visited Uncle Wayne and the boys had built a tree slide. It consisted of a cable from the fork in the tree to the base of another tree, at the time it seemed a really long way. I wanted to slide down and climbed up behind Billy Wayne, he grabbed the pipe that the cable ran through and Whoosh, there he went, all the way to the other tree. Uncle Wayne and dad, Uncle Jr, stopped him before he hit the tree. It now was my turn, I balked, Terry and then Lonnie went around me, I was scared and embarrased that I was too sissy to slide down. I climbed down the tree after a while and sulked around the rest of the afternoon. I was a coward, a real sissy. It was terrible, anyway later in the evening I knew I had to make the slide, I couldn't stand it any longer. I walked out and climbed the tree, the pipe was at the bottom, I climbed down and tried sliding the pipe up but it wouldn't stay. I found a piece of rope and tied it to the pipe and climbed the tree again, then I pulled the pipe up to me. I was ready, I had to do it. I pushed off and slid down the cable, however, no one was at the bottom to catch and stop me. Yep, I hit the tree. I didn't care I did it. I ran inside yelling that I slid down the tree slide. My mom saw me and was very upset, I didn't know it but I had scraped my face a little. Anyway Billy Wayne, Lonnie and Terry and I ran outside and slid down the tree slide until after dark.
By the way did you know that Billy Wayne was run over by a car while I think riding his bike. You'll have to get the story from Tarzan Billy himself.

Hi to all my name is kenneth aka kenny. There are many good memories over the years between marvin, billywayne, terry, lonnie, gwen and others . I am currently living in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. I am current licensed massage therapist, and enjoy helping people feel better. A Short note Denise just had double knee replacement on May 5. I will add more at a future date, by for now.

Growing up Tisdale, huh? I got a few stories about that. One time Terry decided to walk out to Lums Chapel from Mama and Papa's house. I was maybe ten or eleven and went with him, not realizing just how far ten miles ( or however far it is) really was. I remember we found a buffalo nickle and a hole in the side of a bar ditch that Terry said might be badger hole. Anyway, I was really starting to get tired and regretting coming along. Terry told me, "If we keep this pace, we can do one mile an hour". Or something like that. It didn't make Aunt Irma Leta's house any closer for me. I have no idea how long or how far we actually walked, we were definitely out in the country. Just when I thought I might start to cry, a miracle occured. Janice and her boy friend, I think his name was Bruce, drove by and they stopped to pick us up. I was SOOOO happy. Forever after, in my book, Janice is an Angel.

I remember one time riding with Aunt Irma Leta and Uncle Herchel out to thier place and Uncle Herchel told me he had an airplane engine in his truck. It was an old white Dodge. I never did get a look under the hood, and I always wondered how he could have gotten a great big airplane engine under there. At the time it never dawned on me that he was pulling my leg.

Almost all of my other Tisdale stories would, of course, involve the same two suspects. Ricky and Terence Tisdale. I used to spend a couple of weeks each summer with them on the farm. We would build forts out of hay bales in the loft. They had a hole going one summer. Deep enough to need a ladder to get in and out of. I helped move into the "new" house. The rope swing in the barn is STILL there. Hoed some of the hottest, longest rows of cotton in the state of Texas. Learned that the only thing a dull hoe is good for is clubbing a snake. Tricks with electric fences. Details of that story and many others are, and forever will be, classified!

If your name is Tisdale, or your maiden name was Tisdale, or your family is part of this big Tisdale family, you need to get out to the farm. That's kinda like the ancestral home.
As far as I know Uncle Johnny still has his grand dad's hat hanging in the "old" house.

Uncle Awbrey's "Red River"

Uncle Awbrey had a cabin at Red River, New Mexico. I think it was Red River. Nikki or Karen might correct this if I am wrong. Anyway we visited them at the cabin when I was maybe 12. The day we arrived, it was late in the day and I had to go to the bathroom. The cabin wasn't completed yet, no indoor plumbing. Nikki told me to follow the road signs. I wasn't certain what she meant but I was used to the pasture so I started up the trail looking for a good tree. Then I realized the "road signs". There were miniature signs cut and labeled appropriately, you know, yield signs cut in a triangle etc.... The signs directed me to a latrine behind a large tree, anyway I felt better going down the trail than I felt going up the trail. dad woke me early the next morning and we went hiking looking for deer. We saw a doe with a fawn that morning, really pretty. It was a nice visit.