James Pelton's News for and about folks from Santa Anna Texas
The Risk is Real - Serving our CountryRemembering those that have served and those that are serving our country.
You know sometimes it doesn't hit you until it is personal.
Please remember these Santa Anna folks that are serving our country in combat, training, or support: Maricela (Marty) Siller, Eddie Dawson, Ike Garza, Clay Hubbard, James Watson, Austin Voss, Randy Casey, Mike Montgomery II, Mark Rutherford, Allen Tucker, James Culpepper, and Shane Watson.
1470 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 country, its' leaders, and our soldiers and sailors.You know sometimes it doesn't hit you until it is personal.
Many service men and women return home safely. Operation Tribute to Freedom Homecoming Photographs.
.. Rusty Buzzard? - Part II sort of.. Well I couldn't hardly resist this when I ran across it and I really should give Rusty a break, but the good looking quarterback always gets the cheerleader right?
Whatever happened to Alice Deleon? She is of course now Mrs. Buzzard and was always was like a sister to me. As I had told you already, her brother Ernest was one of my best friends and I grew up at the Deleon's house almost as much as I did mine. It was not unusual to go to Ernest's after school and eat Mary's fresh tortillas and fried baloney, bologna becomes baloney after you heat it you know!
Mary also cut my hair back then.. believe it or not even if it doesn't look like I cut it in those pictures.
Anyhow I am an equal opportunity kind of guy so here is a picture of Jerry Don Culpepper and Alice Deleon from the 1980 Mountaineer:
I am cheating a little but I wonder.. "Whatever Happened to Jerry Don Culpepper?"
.. you know where "Three Oaks" is.. or if you have ever been there to watch or be in a fight, or to make out!
.. Rusty Buzzard? Well I got an e-mail from Rusty Buzzard Wednesday and he told me "My kids thought the photos were pretty funny." It was really good to hear from him.
.. Tara Stark? I also got an e-mail from Bodie Stark and he tells me about his sister, Tara, that "She lives in Willow Park, Texas just down the road from me." and he is living in Weatherford now.
I am sure that she is raising race horses or something like that since I think their family was raising them when they lived here. I think their folks may have worked on the Rolling Oaks Ranch back then but I don't know for sure.
I was trying to think of someone else that I knew in Willow Park.
Several years ago my Dad gave me one of his Rat Terriers that he had raised. We had a Rat Terrier named Trapper that M.L. Guthrie gave Chrystal when she was a little girl. Trapper was the son of M.L.'s Queenie that was always his faithful companion. My Dad had bred Trapper to one of his female Rat Terriers and this dog was one of theirs named Mouse Trap. Cindy and I were on the way home from My Dad's in Canton with Mouse Trap and we stopped off at an inconvenient store in Willow Park. I took Mouse Trap across a street to a large field to let him stretch his legs and man did he! There was a church, a wooded area, and a creek that I chased him around for a couple of hours. I didn't know if it was the trip or just not being used to me or what but I could get pretty close to him but I never did catch him. I wasn't as upset about losing the dog as I was having to tell my Dad that Mouse Trap had taken flight!
It was starting to get dark and we went to a home that was just across the creek from the Church and there were a couple of boys that had seen him. The lady that lived there was very nice and took my name and number. I wish I could remember her name. She worked for one of the grocery suppliers that supplied convenience stores.. I think C.D. Hartnett.
A couple of weeks later she called me and said that the Mouse Trap had been spotted by some folks she knew on the other side of town. These people had some horses and he had been seen around the horse barn and was staying under one of their old horse trailers out in the pasture. Mouse Trap knew all about horses and wouldn't chase them because my Dad had him when he was raising Quarter Horses in Brewster County.
I arranged with my Dad to meet him in Willow Park in hopes that we could trap the Mouse Trap. We arrived there about the same time at the lady and her husband's house that lived by the creek and headed across town to the other folks horse pens. When we got there the Mouse Trap was there under the horse trailer but we couldn't get with in 100 or so feet of him and he would take off. So we kind of chased him for a while over a mile or so through some fields and around some houses. One man came out of his and said that he had shot at the Mouse Trap because he had sheep. He had even doubled back to the horse pens once and we ran till we gave out and Dad said we would just have to give up. I was heat broke of course and I don't think Dad was too happy with me or the Mouse Trap.
Dad exchanged names and numbers with the really nice folks that lived by the creek and the ones that had the horse pens.. which I think they also owned a feed store in Willow Park.
A couple of weeks later Dad called me and told me he was headed to Willow Park to get the Mouse Trap. I was on edge until he called me and told me the rest of the story (hmm.. that might be a good story line for SantaAnnaNews.com that I could borrow from Paul Harvey). Dad said that the man that had the feed store and horses was out mowing his grass with his riding mower in his back yard when the Mouse Trap came into his fenced back yard along with him. He was amazed because he figured the mower would scare him off, but my Dad always had a riding mower and the Mouse Trap would run along side looking for mice I guess.. anyhow the man had shut his gate with the Mouse Trap trapped!
We were really grateful to these really nice folks from Willow Park and Dad always wanted to go back and have a Bar-B-Que or something for them but he got to where he couldn't see anymore. I will have to give him a call and ask him their names.
My Grandad, Ernest Coder, was originally from nearby Aledo and some kinfolks may be who I am thinking of that live in Willow Park. Mom will probably line me out on that since she is the family genealogist.
Well it was good to hear from Bodie and about Tara.
I wonder.. "Whatever happened to.. Ricky Perry?"
Since so many readers liked the "You might be from Santa Anna if.." so much, I think I may have to make it a regular feature!
Had I known that some readers liked the "Whatever Happened To..?" so much I might have finished that statement with .. big hair, helmet hair, or maybe just my hair! Or maybe "Whatever happened to bell bottoms? Oh yeah this is going to get better.. just wait.. you are laughing about ME now..
Maybe I should clarify a little that I need you the readers of SantaAnnaNews.com to help me with this because there is no way that I can keep up with everyone from Santa Anna. Maybe one of your old friends or a relative or maybe someone from Santa Anna that meant something special to you.
Maybe just your name suggestion, or any information you may have about them, what they meant to you, or what they are doing now. Then and now photos would be good to if you have them. Maybe you have something to add about someone. Whatever you have it is only with your help that this will be successful.
Looking just in these pictures there were several names that came up and some of you sent them in too so I will start with one of them with the next.. "Whatever Happened To.. Tara Stark?"
Send your "Whatever Happened To..?" information or suggestions to news@santaannanews.com.
What great weather we have had the last three days. After the little shower Saturday, I poured out about an inch and a half of rain but I don't now for sure how long it was there.
And the last couple of days the temperatures in the 80's have been nice. I actually killed a mosquito Sunday night while Bar-B-Queing.. it probably hatched in my rain gauge!
I know better in the middle of February but I sure do like the Spring like weather. It even seems like the days are getting a lot longer with the Sunshine.
Sunset from East of Santa Anna
.. you take your wife to Best Fried Chicken for Valentine's Day!
Well that's where Cindy wanted to go.. we at least sat in the corner booth where the light is out. That is about as romantic as it can get at BFC.
I had to get her to scoot over so I could sit down in the booth beside her. I guess it has been too long since I did!
Well I hope you got to spend the evening next to your Sweetheart.
As part of my "I Believe" column I will try to let you as a reader know over the next week or so a little more about me, who I am, where I come from, and where I am going.
It will be kind of an extension of the About Us page.
I believe in God.
I came to realize a long time ago that I am not so sure that I can tell anyone why I believe in God but I do.
As a Scout I took an Oath and promised to "..do my duty to God and my country..". I also learned to be "Reverent" which is one and the last of the twelve points of the Scout Law. To be reverent means "A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others."
I believe in the Bible and that it is God's word.
Through Scouting I learned that you don't have to be in a church to be close to God and some of the times that I have felt closest to God have not been in a church and most of them I have been alone and many of them have been during Scouting activities. For the most part I believe that God speaks to us in ways we can't understand and maybe should not understand.
Don't get me wrong here I love going to church and I am a member of the First Baptist Church of Santa Anna. Cindy and I were married at First Baptist and so was our oldest daughter Chrystal and her husband Jason. All of our children have been saved and Baptized at First Baptist.
To be honest with you though I can't remember the last time I went to church so I guess I am considered an inactive member if there is such. I stopped going several years ago when a part time job interfered with Sunday morning services. We were pretty regular in attendance when the girls were younger.
I believe it is important to take your children to church.
I know that I may lose some of you on this but for those that will stay with me I hope this journey will be worth your while.
I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins.
In 1981, I became a Christian and a member of the First Baptist Church of Santa Anna. I remember making my decision one Sunday morning while nervously sitting through the Sunday morning service of Brother John Stanislaw who is now the Pastor of First Baptist in Coleman. I can't remember much about the service except my heart beating in my throat and the tight grip I had on the pew in front of me as the invitation was given. I also remember the words of encouragement of Rusty Buzzard that morning as I had shared with him that I was thinking about going down that morning.
Rusty was a year older than I was and I always looked up to him. He was smart, good looking, a star athlete, and a Christian as well. I didn't sit with him very often but for some reason I did that morning and he told me to "just let go and step out there and everything will be OK."
First Baptist had started a pretty large Youth Group of teenagers which for the most part can be attributed to Brother John and his wife Susie and it didn't hurt that they had two daughters either! Others that I remember contributing in those early days, especially to Wednesday night prayer meetings, were Ricky Jones, Tony Malaer, and Angie Malaer.We took several large groups to the Heart of Texas Baptist Encampment, started a large puppet ministry called the Puppet People, and also began the construction of a Christian Life Center.
I think that most people believe that there is a Heaven and a Hell whether they are Christians or not. I enjoy reading church marquees and recently noticed one on the way to work that said "Will you make your Last Minute reservations smoking or non-smoking?"
Have you made yours?
Through this column you will learn that most of my beliefs center around the values that I learned as a member the Boys Scouts of America and that is why I believe in the Boys Scouts of America and it's program.
It has been a while since there has been a Scouting Program in Santa Anna and it is about time that it was started up again. This is a list of Santa Anna Eagle Scouts as taken from the
West Texas Scouting History website maintained by Frank Hilton of Brownwood:
1948 Don Woodruff
1973 Sam Allen, Larry Benton, Bobby Burton, Jody Day, David Robinett, Jerome Shield, Mark Turney
1981 James Pelton
1985 Shawn Harper
1986 Curtis Puckett
1995 T221-Coleman James Balderas
All of these Santa Anna Eagle Scouts, including myself, have taken the Scout Oath and tried to live by the twelve points of the Scout Law, the Scout Motto, and the Scout Slogan. For each one I can't speak about what these may mean to them but for me these are something that I live with everyday.
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Be Prepared
Do a Good Turn Daily
I believe in marriage.
I am of course talking about the marriage of a man to a woman. Although I have no problems with a man and a woman living together or even homosexual couples living together, I believe that is their right to live their lives as they choose just like it is my right to choose mine. But don't try to call it marriage because it isn't. Sure I know that this is a major political topic and even was a factor in the last Presidential race and probably not that big a deal around Santa Anna, but it just one of those deals that is just not right any way you look at it.
What a lonely life it must be not to have a companion and I am thankful I have mine and I hope that you have or will find yours.
I believe in families.
There is no feeling like being a part of a family. Cindy and I have tried to raise our girls in a way that they knew they were loved. That is just how our Mother's raised us which sometimes was dificult because of our divorced parents.
My Dad was from a pretty good sized family and he was the baby so I did not get to know most of them very well. I can just barely remeber my Grandmother Pelton because I was pretty little and she was fairly old then. There were times when some of them wouldn't speak to each other for whatever reason but when they did get together they loved each other.
My Mom was the baby of her family also and I knew her brother and sister pretty good. My Mom's Dad was retired as long as I can remember and her Mom and her were a lot alike I think. We were all pretty well spread out especially after we moved to Santa Anna in 1975.
One of the two biggest family influences in my life is my step dad's family lead by my Granny Wright, who I have mentioned here before. She, along with my Aunt Clara, Uncle Lynn, and Aunt Judy all took us Peltons in just like we were their own and never treated us any other way.
The second biggest influence of family in my life is from my in-laws, the Robinett family, lead by the patriarch of the family, Robert Robinett. Robert is one of those people that just lives for life itself. You can go to visit him and he is always happy to see you. He never has anything bad to say about anyone and he loves God and I believe that God loves Robert. He and Maggie have been just like Grandparents to me the last 23 years. There are not too many families that have the closeness that the Robinetts have. It is not unusual for everyone to just kind of show up on a Saturday just to be with family.
I hope that you have had the opportunity to be a part of a family in your life like I have mine.
Last week I told you that I was going to start a regular article about someone from Santa Anna, who they were, what they did, where they are now, and what they are doing.
My first "Whatever Happened To?" is Rusty Buzzard.
Rusty was a member of the SAHS class of 1981. He was Class President, an All District, Third Team All Area, and Class-A All West Texas Quarterback of the District 7-A Champion Mountaineers. He was on the Bi-District Champion Mountaineer basketball team, played golf, and tennis as a State Qualifier in Doubles with Tommy DeLeon. He was also the Student Council Vice President, National Honor Society President, and an officer in JETS Club and Librarian's Club as well as Valedictorian of his class.
Rusty married one of my best friend's, Ernest DeLeon's, sister - Alice and they now have four children Austin, Branson, Colton, and Dylan.
Rusty is now the Athletic Director and Head Coach of the Yorktown Wildcats. He has also coached at Cuero for a while.
Rusty and I were in a lot of the same things in school and I really didn't realize how much until I opened up the 1981 SAHS Mountaineer. Just for laughs here are some for you to laugh at too:
Rusty Buzzard - 1981.
1980-81 JETS Officers.
1980-81 Student Council.
1980-81 Student Council Officers.
1980-81 National Honor Society.
1980-81 National Honor Society Officers.
Well the next one is up to you the readers of SantaAnnaNews.com. We will have to rely heavily on you all to participate in this. And you thought I was the one going to do all the work?
Send your "Whatever Happened To?"s to news@santaannanews.com otherwise I may pick you next!
Well I am sure that you probably made it to the Santa Anna 2005 Santa Anna Valentine Coronation held at the Santa Anna High School Auditorium Saturday night because the place was packed. But just in case you didn't make it here are the winners and I have created a special 2005 Santa Anna Valentine Coronation Photo Album:
2005 Little Mr. and Miss Valentine - Christopher McMillan and Codie Sturgeon.
2005 Valentine Prince and Princess - Kaleb Russell and Kassie DeLeon.
2005 Valentine King and Queen - Caleb Absher and Korynne Hernandez.
Entertainment was provided by the Heartland Harmonizers under the direction of Charles Conners.
Music and entertainment provided by Donnie Neff.
Serving as Masters of Ceremonies - Janice Fellers and Stanley Hartman.
The Santa Anna Mountaineers took on the Paint Rock Indians Friday night in Perry Gym for the last game of the 2004-2005 season for the Mountaineers. The boys dominated Paint Rock with what I thought was their season's best performance. There was a pretty light home crowd without the girls games, but the Paint Rock fans were pretty scarce too. The final score was 63-42.
Those that were there got to see some run and gun basketball from the Mountaineers as several connected with Senior Matthew Vasquez for at what I think might have been 10 for 10 fast break buckets. The cheerleaders also put on a nice show the last couple of games. Without some of them suiting out for a girls game must have left them enough time to prepare and they really did a good job.
The last two games the Mountaineers played some of the cleanest basketball in the last several years. I know there were a couple of times when the play was pretty wild under the basket and I saw Senior Bryan Fellers help up a grounded opponent. I would just like to say that I for one am very proud of the way these guys finished up their season.. "Good Game Guys!"
The Mountaineers seemed to come together as team right at the perfect time for entering the playoffs but will sitting them out this year. The Senior hustle of Richard Rankin, Bryan Fellers, and Matthew Vasquez is going to be sorely missed next year but I am really excited about the opportunities our girls' and boys' teams should have next year.
These two guys have done a good job this year.
Senior Matthew Vasquez going up for one of his ten fast break buckets.
Ben McIver fights through the Indians for the bucket and the foul.
DEEEFENSE - Patrick and Bryan team up again to reject an Indian shot.
Cheerleaders put on a nice halftime show.
Game photo albums are on the Sports Page.
I have debated whether or not to do this but I am going to try it out and see how it works for a while.
Several have asked me for copies or prints of various photos on the site. Based on my experience and what I have read in various publications, photos printed at home just are not lasting very well, especially in the Sun or bright rooms. Some that we have printed out look good for a couple of weeks and just seem to fade too fast. So I have found a site that will do a pretty good job of printing and of course all the photo places can print from a floppy or compact disk now.
Many want photos of some of the various school games and since this whole deal really started after the Booster Club asked if I would take some photos for the programs and maybe to give each athlete a CD with some photos on it at the Sports Banquet in the Spring, I want to be sure that each of you knows about it. The CD's given to each athlete won't have all of the photos but will have some of the better ones, simply because they all won't fit on a single CD. Of course you can always just right click on any image on this site and print it out (please note that they are copyrighted but I will grant you personal use.. especially if they are of you or one of your children!). For other use please get my permission before using them.
The photos on the site are also not the original quality or size in most cases, because they have to be redone for the Internet and faster loading. Some of the older photos won't be suitable for printing larger than 4x6 prints because of adjustments made when using my old camera. My new camera is an 8 megapixel so most of the new ones will work for up to 20x30 prints and possibly larger if I can find a place to print them.
Here is the picture resolution recommended for each print size to help ensure that you get a high-quality print:
Wallet size: 320x240
4x6 prints: 1024x768 (640x480 resolution is acceptable but not always recommended)
5x7 prints: 1152 x 864 pixels (1 megapixel)
8x10 prints: 1600 x 1200 pixels (2 megapixels) (1280x960 is acceptable but not recommended)
8x10 prints (cropped from original image): 1920 x 1600 pixels (3+megapixels)
16x20 prints: 1600 x 1200 (this is a bare minimum, for best results 2048 x 1536)
20x30 prints: 1600x1200 minimum, for best results 5 megapixel (2560 x1920)
With that said I will be selling season CD's for $5 each and you can get the whole season for each sport and then print out whatever you want. The 2004 Football season with pep-rallys, homecoming parade, and some halftime activities is on one CD and the 2004 Volleyball season on another. The Basketball season should be available at the end of the season but will probably be on two CD's.. one Girls and one Boys.
The following pricing will be for professional quality commercial prints:
Photo Size |
Per Print |
4 wallet size |
$6 sheet |
4" x 6" singles |
$1 each |
4" x 6" multiples |
6 for $5 or 15 for $10 |
8" x 10" |
$10 each |
16" x 20" |
$25 each |
20" x 30" |
$30 each |
Prices are subject to change but I will give you notice before ordering. Plus shipping and handling which is currently $2 for any amount. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back upon return of photos in original condition. Please allow a few weeks for delivery... which I will have a better idea of as time and orders go by.
To place an order just locate the photo or photos you want, identify them by game and photo number (right click on the photo to see the filename and number), and then send me an e-mail at photos@santaannanews.com.
Want your own dot com?
This is great time to get it whether you just want it for an e-mail address of your own, like james@yourlastname.com, or for putting some family pictures on the web, or getting your business on the web
1 and 1 is by far your best bet!
Any questions just send me an e-mail and I will be happy to help you get started, or just click the 1 and 1 ad on the left, or any of the links in this article.
