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The Risk is Real - Serving our Country

Remembering 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, Clay Hubbard, Eddie Dawson, Ike Garza, James Watson, Austin Voss, Randy Casey, Mike Montgomery II, Mark Rutherford, Allen Tucker, James Culpepper, and Shane Watson.

Santa Anna OAP Performs for Public

The Santa Anna High School held a public performance of this year's One Act Play Thursday night in the High School Auditorium. This years performance is titled "Livin' De Life" by Ed Graczyk and is set in the past at the Briar Patch and the Creepy Crawly Forest

The Cast of Characters in order of appearance is Tasha Zarate as Brer Tarrypin, Rudy Enriquez as Brer Coon, Jessica Pelton as Brer Rabbit, Raelee Watson as Brer Fox, James Singleton as Brer Bear, Michelle Wetsel as Miss Meadows, Mayra Dean as Sis Buzzard, and LeaAnda Bennett. The crew is mad up of Jessica Bennett - Alternate, Bianca Dean, Kendra Cannon, Kristle DeLeon, and Becca Fellers. This year's play is directed by Kathy Walker with assistance from Amanda Ellerbe and Orabeth McIver.

The play was really funny and well acted, and the costumes, set and makeup were great!

The cast has been working really hard and has two practices scheduled for tomorrow.. one at the Brownwood OAP Festival and the other at the Sonora OAP Festival.

Whatever Happened to .. Shelby Tuttle? - Follow up

The "Whatever Happened to..? has gotten a lot of response from readers and subjects alike. It has put some old friends together again and given me some newfound hope for SantaAnnaNews.com as well.

One of my faithful readers and friends, Montie Guthrie, shared this with me about Shelby:
A little story to add to your nice update on Shelby Tuttle: Shelby was a year ahead of my oldest, Sonny. He graduated and went to Tarleton the year Sonny was a Senior, when Sonny had to take his SAT test. Sonny asked to have Howard Payne as his first choice testing site, but it was full, so he had to go to Stephenville to Tarleton, his second choice. He knew nothing of that area, so old Papa the TSU grad took him there EARLY on that Saturday morning in October. After dropping him off at the test building I walked around the campus I hadn't seen in 15 years, looking at the changes. Thinking of all the good times, fond memories, and miss-spent youth as I sat on a bench under the oaks in the gentle breeze and the blowing leaves I got all teary-eyed. Now, remember--NOBODY--but NOBODY is stirring at 8:15 on a Saturday morning on a college campus. So who, of the 4000 students at TSU then, should walk by at 8:15 and see the old man sitting there on a bench all teary-eyed? "Mr. Guthrie? You alright?" Yep-- Shelby Tuttle.

It seems like I heard something else about Montie and Tarleton the other day.. something about a proposal and a restroom.. probably one of those Purple Poo deals of some sort 'eh Montie?

SantaAnnaNews.com Classifieds Work..

Looking for work? How about a good Prom dress?

Send your classifieds to news@santaannanews.com today.

Guthrie-Olsen Engagement and Wedding Announcement

Lane and Sharon Guthrie of Santa Anna are pleased to announce the Engagement and up coming marriage of their daughter, Shala Kay Guthrie of Stephenville, to Brandon Michael Olsen, son of Dennis and Pat Stovall of Cisco.

Let's talk about cars..

I have owned a few vehicles in my time and I do mean a few.

In high school I drove a 1962 Buick Special that my neighbor, Mrs. Gladys Hunter, gave to me around 1981 when she put herself into a nursing home. She had been a widow ever since we moved to Santa Anna and I used to take care of her lawn and occasionally we would drive out to the Santa Anna Cemetery and take care of Mr. Hunter's grave site. We drove it for a couple of years after I got out of High School. I used it mostly for work. There were four of us that worked at Kohler right out of school and we carpooled. JR Salazar, Ernest Deleon, Brad Wardlow, and myself all drove there for a couple of months until we got laid off or quit. Ernest worked the night shift so he didn't actually ride with us. Brad worked for a roofing contractor that was putting a roof on a new addition at the time. I will never forget the first day at work.. we were waiting on Brad in the parking lot when he walked up and looked like he had been run over by a truck full of tar!

That old Buick had really cool aluminum block V8 215 that was sought after by race car builders because of it's light weight. It had air conditioning and all. I drove that old Buick to work near Trickham when I worked in the oilfield. It held up pretty good considering the rough roads I had to drive. The air conditioning went out and so did reverse gear and I continued to drive it even when I started to school at Howard Payne. There were only a couple of places I could park on corners or by fire hydrants without having to backup or parallel park which made it a daily adventure. We had it up until about ten years ago when one of Mrs. Hunter's sons from Austin came to town and heard I still had it. It had been parked for several years and was rapidly deteriorating so I tried to give it to him since it was a gift to me but he insisted o n paying me a couple hundred dollars. He wrote me a check and I kept it for several years in my wallet.

Our next vehicle was a 1969 Ford F250 pickup truck that I bought from O.D. Warnock when I owned the Mobil Station. It even had air conditioning. That was a good old truck and I still wish I had it. We owned it for around ten years and I sold it for something that got a little better mileage after I started working in Brownwood. The air conditioner stopped working even though I rarely used it. We sold it to a man from Sweetwater but I have seen it in Brownwood in the last few years.

We bought a four door Pontiac car from a used car dealer in Coleman for Cindy during that time. We had it for a while, the air conditioner stopped working, and then Cindy got rear ended while trying to make a turn at the bank when the red light was still there.. see below for "You might be from Santa Anna if..

We traded it wrecked for a two door 1985 Olds Delta 88 from Matt Giles between Bangs and Brownwood that the girls called a boat. It had a 80,000 miles on it and the front tires had steel belts showing and the water pump was leaking but he knocked off a couple hundred dollars and gave us a heck of a trade for a wrecked car and it had air conditioning that worked. We were in the Exxon station by then and I put about eight water pumps on that thing. The reverse went out on the Olds at about 150,000 miles. Joey Cupps had worked for me for a while when he was going to school and had got a job at a transmission shop in Brownwood and we rebuilt that transmission with a $100 kit and a $50 dollar clutch tool. We drove that car for a long time.. hang on a second and I will tell you how long.

When I sold the truck we bought Cindy's brother Troy's 1991 Nissan Pickup. He bought it new and drove it to school at Texas A&M until he graduated. He thought the clutch was out of it and we drove it for several years before I had to replace the clutch slave cylinder. The clutch and transmission lasted but the air conditioner stopped working, and then Cindy sold it to some guys that come through town buying trucks to take to Mexico.

We drove that 85 Olds till it had over 250,000 miles on it and we went car shopping on trip to Waco. The kids were getting too big for a two door car and it was on it's last leg and the air conditioner stopped working. We borrowed Cindy's mom's new Buick LeSabre to go car shopping and decided we liked it so we started looking for a Buick. They were pretty pricey but we found a GM Dealer in McGregor that had one we thought we could afford. I told the young salesman that, "our old car is wore plum out!" and he asked if we drove it from Santa Anna to Waco and I told him yes when he replied, ".. if you drove it from Santa Anna it has to be worth $500!"

We drove back to Cindy's Mom's in Robinson to pick up the car and take it back. I even stopped to wash off the dirt on the way over there. We pulled up in front of the dealer and went inside where the air conditioner was on. We sat inside while the salesman and his boss went to check out our trade. He walked back in with his head kind of low and said, "Well I am afraid I have some bad news.. we can only give you $250 for your car." We still made the deal because we liked the Buick and I wasn't about to drive in the heat with those four girls all the way back to Santa Anna!

After she sold the Nissan we had to have another vehicle. We had seen the new four door Toyota Tacoma pickups, even test drove one, but knew we could not afford one. On the way home from work one day I noticed a wrecked one on a trailer at Johnny Herrod's body shop. A couple of weeks later it was on the lot at Glenn's Car Sales and we stopped and talked to David Herrod about it and that is when we made our best deal ever. He gave us a really good deal on it since it had been wrecked and had a reconstructed title. Johnny had really done a top notch job rebuilding it was pretty hard to tell it had been wrecked. Cindy and I both like the way it looks, drives, and handles and Cindy wouldn't take for it today.

Let's talk about cars.. Part II

Sometimes you have to eat a little crow with this stuff and I have made a mistake. Mrs. Berniece Hunter was the Hunter that lived next door and gave me the 62 Buick. This was pointed out by one my faithful readers Tex Wright:
James- I am going to take your mothers habit of corrercting you. Mrs Gladys Hunter lived on Ave A. Mrs Berniece Hunter lived next to us. She was the widow of Lee Hunter of the old Hunter Bros Grocery. See sometimes it pays to be old enough to remember things like that.
Tex

Thanks for pointing that out to me. I am not real sure that I knew that Berniece was Mrs. Hunter's name because I always called her Mrs. Hunter!

Gladys Hunter was a good customer of mine when I was in the service station business. I remember one time she told me she got her old Ford up to 90 after she went to the car wash to "Let it dry off and to blow the soot out!"

Tex just doesn't realize that is the reason I can't remember everything.. because I am getting old!

The spelling of "corrercting" above is a direct copy so I am glad that no one is correcting my spelling, grammar, or punctuation!

Whatever spelling, grammar, and punctuation I do get correct I owe spell check and to Joan Jones, Ruth Dodson, Sandra Guthrie, Ann Cross, and Dr. Edward Dass.. all of course my English teachers.

Enough of that! Let's talk about these cars some more!

The first new car I bought was actually Chrystal's Saturn. I guess it was really her's because she paid for it but since she was under age when we bought it they had to put it in my name.

We had heard a lot of good things about Saturns and they are all true. Chrystal loves her Saturn.. but the Saturn of Abilene, where we bought it is a whole other story.

We got the new salesman of course and he was an older man that was really very good. He told us all about and sold us on the car. We made the deal and traded in Chrystal's second car which was a red Geo Storm that she had bought from Briana Horner now Guthrie after the Volkswagen lost its' fun factor.. see The Classifieds. The Storm was a real good little car and she drove it back and forth to Coleman her Senior year. The only problem she had was people backing into it. She had three people back into it at the school or at Allsup's by the school. Once on the right front fender, once on the left front fender, and once over the hood. We also put a radiator and a half shaft drive axle in it. Anyhow they didn't give much trade but gave us a good deal on the new car altogether.

It was raining the day we bought it and they wanted to detail it and she also wanted a cruise control put in it for another 3 or 4 hundred dollars which they said they had to order so we set up an appointment for the next week.

Chrystal took off from work at the Baskit' and went to the scheduled appointment before lunch I think. They offered to drop her off at the mall or whatever while they worked on it but I think she stayed there. It was supposed to take an hour or so but went until after 5. She was naturally upset with the amount of time it was taking and so was I when she called. The cruise control they installed was not factory and come to find out was done at another local shop. They took so long that instead of detailing her car they rinsed it off with a hose and didn't even bother to dry it off.

Need I say when she got home I was a tee'd off dad.

I called the dealer the next day and spoke to the Service Manager and he apologized and offered her three free oil changes and a $100 gift certificate from Walmart. I accepted his apology on her behalf went on that I wasn't sure she would ever go back but I would tell her.

A couple of days later we got a letter from him and a certificate for a free oil change and wash. You can not imagine how mad I was.. but that was OK because she still never wanted to go back.

Now comes the unbelievable part. A month or so later we still haven't got the license and registration back from them. So Cindy called them and got the run around about how they hadn't got the title for the Geo yet. Well you can really not imagine this but I will try.. so I called the Sales Manager. I don't recall his name but he was a young fellow that said all the right things when we were buying the car of course. Let me put it this away.. I promised to drive that Saturn back to Abilene and let them have the Saturn back in their SHOWROOM if they didn't get us some plates before she got stopped. That is pretty much where the Saturn Saga ends.

Now to pick up where I left off Tuesday..

We traded our Buick LeSabre for a 2002 Ford Taurus at Brownwood Ford. My first and last brand new car.

We got the new salesman of course and he was really pretty nice. They gave us about $3500 less than what we owed on the Buick, but by the time you figure in the dealer discounts and all we came out about the suggested retail on the Taurus. The way I figure a trade in deal you basically give them your car when you buy theirs.

They took me around and introduced me to all the key personnel and it was really a nice place. After we got home I got to looking over the paperwork and all and noticed that there was a $1000 difference in the price of the car and the sales tag that had been in the window. I called them the next day and they checked into it and made the correction. They blamed it on the new guy of course. I had told him of our dilemma with the Saturn and all and my hesitation in buying a new car. He reassured me and told me he would drive to Goldthwaite or Santa Anna and put my new license plates on for me when they came in and I believed him. He called the next week and said they were in and asked if he needed to bring them to me and I said that I would stop by and sure enough he put them on for me that evening when I stopped by on the way home. He doesn't work there any more either of course.

They had told me that they wanted to take care of the car and that the service department could meet all of my needs in the evenings or on Saturdays. I told them that I worked in Goldthwaite and drove by every day and not having to change my own oil sounded pretty good at the time considering I didn't have much time to spare.

The first change came due and I stopped by there around 5:30 and they had all closed up shop for the day so I asked if I could come by that Saturday. The salesman said no problem of course and when I showed up Saturday around 10 they said they couldn't get to it and that I should have called and made an appointment. OK, I thought as I drove to AutoZone to pickup a Motorcraft oil filter and oil. Ford recommended 5w20 motor oil which was only available in the Motorcraft brand at some places. It looks brown water is probably why nobody keeps it. But it has done the job so far as I change it every 4-6000 miles.

The tires began to wear abnormally so called the Service Department and made an appointment for a Saturday at 10 to get the wheels aligned. They said it would take a half hour to an hour. I pulled up a little early and when the service man came out I told him I needed an alignment and he said they could not get to it.

Well you can imagine how I let that guy have it. He insisted that they could not get to it and I just completely lost it. I asked to speak to whoever his boss was and pretty soon he was working me in. I have never really done that before or since. As I sat through a couple of hours of waiting they finally got it finished. Fifty dollars later I was heading back home on a straight path again never to return.

Other than that there are two little things that bother me about my "new" Taurus. About six months ago the dash lights stopped coming on when the lights are turned on and the driver' side rear window stopped rolling down. I can slap the dash and get the dash lights to flicker on. Thankfully the window is in the up position and not one of the front windows. They tell me it need a new motor which is $150.

I really like the Taurus other than those two little things but there is one thing that still really bothers me.. that it is not worth half what I owe on it. We have tried several times to trade it at Brownwood Ford and other places too. Brownwood Ford does offer us the best trade though it is much less than what we need.

On one recent trade attempt the salesman said that we were "off" on Coke a day. I thought to myself, "Yeah, all I drink is one Dr Pepper or Mountain Dew a day and you are trying to take it away from me!" Some dealers want to talk "real" money which translates to we aren't giving you anything for your trade in and we will make it sound like we are giving you a good a deal on our car.

Now is where you might say I have a lot of miles on my car driving 600 miles a week to work and back. Just today, Wednesday, I rolled over 81,000 miles on the way home from work between Bangs and Santa Anna. But lets take a look at some imaginary numbers because the real ones are worse.

Let's say I gave $20,000 for the car and just for grins at 0% interest for 5 years which it wasn't. That is $333.33 per month for 60 months. After three years I would still owe $8,000 for it. Lets say you put 20,000 miles a year on it for 60,000 miles in three years. That car trades for $5200. Lets say you put 80,000 miles on it.. it is worth $4375. With 40,000 miles it would bring $6400. So lets go with the happy medium of 60,000 miles and the car is now worth $5200. That means in three years you lost nearly $15,000 in value of the car which is more than what you paid in monthly payments!

How about this.. that would be $12,000 in monthly payments plus the $14,800 in lost value for a total $26,800 for those 60,000 miles.. which comes out to 45 cents per mile.

OK lets say you are a pretty good driver and only costs $100 a month for insurance for this car for a total of $3600 for the three years.. 6 cents per mile at 60,000 miles. In this case the more miles you go the better it gets.

Let's say this car gets an average of 25 miles per gallon which comes to 2400 gallons to go 60,000 miles at a real cheap price of $1.75 per gallon which equals $4200 or 14 cents per mile.

Let say the tires last for 30000 miles and are $200 a set. Two sets would be $400. An oil change is around $20 at most places and let's say you do it every 5000 miles for twelve times in 60,000 miles for a total of $240. Oil changes and tires come to a big one cent per mile.

Not counting the yearly registration and inspections the cost per mile to drive that car would be 66 cents per mile or $13,200 per year at 20,000 miles per year. That is $1100 per month to drive your car!

I think these figures are pretty conservative... how about you? I guess I will drive my "new" car until it falls apart or maybe just till the air conditioner quits!

I have one more car deal to tell you about but it will have to wait for Friday!

Whatever Happened to..

I wonder whatever happened to.. Shelby Tuttle?
Well I am cheating here again but you will have to stay tuned until Tuesday to find out what I do know about Shelby.

Whatever Happened to..Shelby Tuttle?

I didn't know Shelby all that well in school because he was in my little sister Alys's class. They were in the Eighth Grade when I was a Senior. I knew he was a pretty good athlete in high school though.

Shelby had this to say in a recent e-mail to SantaAnnaNews.com:
Being away from Santa Anna for several years I have missed many friends but it is nice to see some of them are still in the area. I have gone through several of your archives and it seems that many good things are still the same in Santa Anna.

I quizzed him a little about where he was and what he was doing and he had this to add:
I am glad you are doing this, I feel it will be very popular for your readers. I know I will be looking forward to hearing about people that I have not seen or heard from in years.

Shelby also had these nice pictures to share with us:

Weather Update

Monday night I poured out an inch of rain out of the rain gauge. Most of it got in there over the weekend. The Winter grass in our backyard jungle was dry enough to mow but I quickly ran out of daylight as the days are still a little short.

The WeatherRoom has been a little more reliable as far as being available. I am not sure how accurate the forecasts are. It appears from what I can find that the forecasts all are coming from the National Weather Service whether they are on TV, Radio, Newspaper, or Web.

You might be from Santa Anna if..

.. you stop at the corner of Second and Wallis (Thanks Jean!) by the bank and wait for the light to change.. even though it hasn't been there for a couple of years!

.. or you blast through the traffic signal headed to Coleman at the Brady Highway intersection while the light is red.. because it used to not be there!

Track Meet Weather

Well we had some pretty messy weather for the weekend track meet in Menard and for just about anything else you may have wanted to do.

Cindy and I drove down to Menard Saturday and made it just in time for the start of the running events. We were beginning to think we should have stayed at home because it was pretty dreary. There is no such thing as a fair weather track fan!

We saw some pretty good races but left early when the rain started getting worse and Jessica was finished running.

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