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Friday Night Lights

Game Day

The 2004 Mountaineer football season gets kicked off against Abilene Christian Friday at 7:30 in Mountaineer Stadium. I hope to see ya there under the Friday night lights. There was a JV game Thursday night against Fredericksburg Heritage but I had to stay at home and mow. Jessica went to the football game until halftime and said the mosquitoes were really bad and they nearly carried me off right after dark so be sure and bring your OFF to the game! With all the nice rain, about three inches in our gauge for the week, besides the mosquitoes the grass was getting out of hand too. I had to do some spraying for aphids in our pecan trees also, as they have been covering up the vehicles along with the dove stuff.. looks like it might be a good dove season. We have been losing a lot of pecans this year too.. not sure what is causing that... I guess the birds could be trying to eat the big ole green things.

Check out this week's Sports page for some great Lady Mountaineer volleyball action! The Ladies play again Saturday in the Abilene Christian tournament so be sure and make the trip.

What Santa Anna needs

Cindy and I always enjoy going to Abilene and eating out a few times a year. They have so many choices though it is sometimes hard to pick, but our budget usually chooses! You know what Santa Anna needs is a really good restaurant.. you know where you can maybe dress up a little or just go as you are and not feel out of place. Not really a burger shack, but a place where you can get good service.. you know.. where they are glad you are there and keep your tea glass full.. and bring stuff you want before you want it. And of course good food.. maybe a big ole steak or chicken fry.. I sure miss Kitty's! I think I will have to cover this a little bit more later..

In service to our country

Florida man sets himself and a US Marine van on fire after hearing of his son's death in Operation Enduring Freedom. See this ABC News article for more on this tragic story.
Does it hit you yet?
972 American soldiers or sailors have died in Operation Enduring Freedom as reported by the Department of Defense and the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. Pray for our our country, our leaders, and our soldiers and sailors.
You know sometimes it really doesn't hit you until it is personal.

Many service men and women return home safely. Operation Tribute to Freedom Homecoming Photographs. Will it hit you?

I was eating lunch at the Exxon Quik Chek / Cahoots Cafe and convenience store, one of the better places to eat lunch in Goldthwaite, this past Thursday with some of my co-workers when 10-20 pickup loads of soldiers on their way to Fort Hood stopped in to "water and de-water". We noticed that most of them were about our age, 40 to 50 and they all had on crisp new uniforms and wore the new black berets, of course they all remove them upon entering the building to reveal fresh new haircuts. I could not help but think how I wanted to go with them to be a part of defending our country and protecting the freedoms of all people. Looking back over the years that is really the only thing that I think I would do different.. join the military in some way or another. But the years have gone by and I am afraid they don't let us old guys in. These guys looked like they have had plenty of training, but I understand they are going for 5 months of training and a one year deployment in Iraq. I am sure that many of them thought they would not be called up since they were in the National Guard.. but these guys no longer looked like "weekend warriors", they looked like seasoned veterans, the kind that you really don't want to mess with and I am sure they will do a great job over there. I know that our kids, the 18 to 30 year olds that we have seen on TV everyday for the past year or so have done an outstanding job of liberating the Iraqi people, but these guys look like they mean business. One of the younger men was from Goldthwaite and one of the guys I work with recognized him and said, "I didn't know he was in the Guard." There was a crowd around him outside and hugs, kisses, and tears. You know sometimes it really doesn't hit you until it is personal.

I travel 120 miles a day back and forth to work in Goldthwaite so I have a lot of time to listen to the radio, etc. Most of the time I listen to KOXE in Brownwood. Usually in the mornings Bob James is the DJ and he does a pretty good job except for when we have bad weather during school and all the kids aggravate him wanting to know whether or not there is school that day. Anyhow, on Friday morning he replayed a tape from Thursday that the radio station had made of calls from folks wishing the soldiers well, all played over songs from Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood in the background.. many calls were from children and family, and some were from co-workers and friends. I tried to think of someone I knew that was in the Guard and could not until I heard an old school mate's name. Eddie Dawson. It was a small child's voice and it hit me. I did not know Eddie that well in school.. we played football together and he was in the class ahead of me, SAHS Class of 81, but that is about it. He had a little sister Deborah Bodine that was three grades below me and his mom Nancy Conner is a really nice lady that still lives here and works in one of the beauty shops in Brownwood and used to trade with me when I was in the service station business. Eddie had joined up pretty early the best I can recall, so I am sure he has been in for quite a while.You know sometimes it really doesn't hit you until it is personal.

As I get older, I get a little more emotional about certain things and on this morning I almost had to pull over. You know sometimes it really doesn't hit you until it is personal.

There was another call for Eddie and one to Ike Garza. I am not sure if this was "our" Ike or not but "our" Ike was in Deborah's class, which would be the SAHS Class of 85. If anyone knows if this is our Ike please let me know.

I am not really trying to make any kind of political statement here. I am not sure that I believe in us being in Afghanistan or Iraq, or in Germany, the Phillipines, Korea, or Vietnam for that matter, but I do support our country and the men and women that defend our freedoms and the principles of freedom that our country stands for. This is somewhat of a radical thought, but if I were President of the United States I think I would consider bringing all our men and women home, rebuilding all of our shutdown air bases and shipyards, and building more long-range bombers, submarines, and aircraft carriers..

In service to our country - Part 2/8-23-04

I don't claim to be a journalist, and for that matter don't really want to be, but I hope that you are getting as much out of SantaAnnaNews.com as I am. Please let me know what you think. You may notice that I sometimes seem to ramble and I really just put down what I am thinking and then try to sort it all out so that it makes some sort of sense when read!

Spending American dollars protecting Americans, I think we should stop sending our tax dollars to foreign countries, paying them rent for bases that protect their often ungrateful citizens. I believe that we should start strengthening our borders and ports of entry, doubling the size of our Border Patrol and stationing armed guards or soldiers in airports similar to what I saw when flying this past couple of years, concentrating on International airport gates.

Well I have given this next related subject a great deal of thought over the years and I have mentioned it a time or two in conversation so I will put it up for discussion in this format. I have thought for some time that one solution to several issues would be to have a mandatory 2 year service for all young Americans to their country. There would be lots of details to work out but basically it could be modeled after some other countries that already do this such as Finland. Jean and Ray Findley have hosted a couple of foreign exchange students over the years and one very nice young man named Yuha, SAHS Class of 95 I believe, was from Finland and upon his return home he was to serve a mandatory two year service job.. I think he worked at a state owned resort hotel.

This could include a number of jobs in several fields including all of the normal military services, US, state, and local governments. And it should be a choice of study that the individual is interested in such as medicine, education, emergency services, law enforcement, etc. Once the two year training is over they could continue working in that field fully trained or continue on with a paid college level of education in a work study sort of fashion. This could even include athletes such as the Olympic athletes.

I know there are others from Santa Anna that are already serving our country: Clay Hubbard is in the Navy, Randy Casey is in the Texas National Guard in Austin, and I am sure there are others.

I would like to include in santaannanews.com those servicemen and women from Santa Anna that are serving our country. If you know or have someone that is serving our country please send me some information, service portraits, and/or pictures in service: news@santaannanews.com.

Off to college

I also will be putting together an article featuring college back-to-school students. If you have a student from Santa Anna that will be heading back to college or technical school this Fall please e-mail their name, parents' and relatives' from Santa Anna names, school, classification, field of study, etc, and a photo if available.

51st Annual Coleman County Telephone Coop meeting

There was a pretty good turnout for the Coop's meeting at the Civic Center on Friday night. I believe that I heard them say that there were 297 members that had registered. I bet there were 400-500 people that stayed for the meeting with standing room only. Although it was a little humid inside the Armory, I think it was a good choice for a meeting place considering the weather we have been having. Just in case you missed it, here are some pictures:

New Business in Santa Anna!

Are we getting a new airport on the West side of town? I would bet you could land a plane on US HWY 67.. you know on the "dragstrip".. no that's not an aircraft hanger.. that's Morgan Time Machines! See the new Business page for the complete article.