Our next leg heading west was a short visit my hometown Camp Wood to visit family. Although not a long stay, we were able to visit with Aunt Reba Hicks and my cousin Sondra Madden.
Aunt Reba is an amazing, vibrant person, and someone I can listen to forever. She tells the greatest stories and is a superb writer. At 92, she has a few aches and pains, but is in remarkably good health. Sondra, as I have mentioned before, continues to be involved in about 10 things simultaneously, and is one of those people who makes small towns in Texas work; she's involved in everything civic-wise, while holding down a full-time job, and likely gets her energy from Aunt Reba. Unfortunately Sondra was a little gimpy because she threw out her back chopping "cane" in the back of her property. Get well soon Sondra! Bonnie and I had a great visit; it was a real treat for us. We love you both and hope to see you again soon.
This trip, we stayed again (
see previous post) at the Big Oak River Camp just South of Camp Wood. We pretty much had the park to ourselves as there was only one other RV there. However, this is a great RV park, near the Nueces River. It is well designed, well maintained, with an excellent and friendly staff.
 |
| Sunset at Big Oak River Camp |
 |
| Big Oak River Camp Entrance Sign |
 |
| All Tucked In |
 |
| Sunset at Big Oak River Camp |
We toured the big cities of Camp Wood (population 715) and Barksdale (population ?). Some new businesses in both Camp Wood and Barksdale which is good to see.
We drove by Northcutt Stadium, the football stadium that the Nueces Canyon Consolidated Independent School District named in honor of my father Si.
 |
| Northcutt Stadium: Home of the Fighting Panthers |
We drove by the house I grew up in, now owned by the Church of Christ. The house looks so much smaller than I remember it. They have cut down the Jasmine bush where my mom Vena took out her frustrations upon hearing that her grandson Kelly join the Army, by furiously pruning it almost down to the ground; they have removed all the outbuildings that Dad built, and they have put a rock veneer on the house and a new tin roof. The big oak tree and rock retaining wall up next to the house is still there. That's surprising because I dug holes under that tree for years, because someone told me there was a Calvary sabre buried beneath the tree. The old home place was also the cemetery for the calvary post. Back during the CB craze days, my brother Norvell got Mom a CB base unit and she would occasionally talk to folks on the CB. Mom worked, among other places, for the Post Office, so her handle was the "Mailbag on the Graveyard Base." (I don't think she came up with that handle on her own, but she might have.) It was fun talking to the "High Pine" and to "Pine Cone," (Lent and Ada Lee Wells) and all the other CB'rs out there back in the day. I forget who gave us the pine tree near the front walk, but when we planted it in that hard, rocky Real County dirt, it was only about 2 feet high. It's certainly higher than that now as you can see.
 |
| The House I Grew Up In |
 |
| Historical Plaque in front of the old Home |
 |
| Marker for Town of Camp Wood |
 |
| Marker for the Mission San Lorenzo De La Santa Cruz |
I had heard from my friend Treassa Hohman Willbanks that Camp Wood had placed a marker on the old concrete jail house which has been a fixture in Camp Wood for decades. I had never heard anything about it from my family that I remember, but after going to the jail near the old Alamo Lumber Company and after reading the plaque, I realized that my grandfather, Paul Northcutt, along with a man named Less Allen, built the structure in 1928, at the astronomical contracted price of $635.00. (According to the CPI Inflation Calcultor, that would equal $8,672.61 in today's dollars.) I hope you can read the plaque in the photo below, because the story of the "Concrete Calaboose," and it's first official resident who was a member of the construction crew for the jail, is funny.
 |
| The "Concrete Calaboose" - Camp Wood's old Jailhouse |
 |
| Plaque on the Jailhouse |
Next up, we head for a few days in Alpine, TX. Till next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment