The Light and Champion (Center, Tex.), Vol. 142, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 30, 2019 Page: 5 of 24
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News
Wednesday-Thursday, Jan. 30 - 31,20191 5A
The Light and Champion
at
PICTURE FROM OUR PAST
.h
; 4-
' '2
'he Polley Hotel
some
not
even
www.lightandchampion.com
HOTEL
have
before
By Chris
Watlington
Community
Columnist
couple
ago
r
one
the
and
This is a photograph of the
Polley Hotel No. 2. It was
erected in 1920 and demol-
ished late 1963, accord-
ing to information from the
Shelby County Historical
Society. The Polley Hotel
No. 1 was destroyed by fire
in 1916.
(Courtesy of the Shelby
County Museum/The Light
and Champion)
a uh '
USPS no.
Published Midweek on Wednesday-
Thursday by Center Light and
Champion, LLC.
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J
Off
The
Cuff
It’s a
Story
Worth
Telling
By Leon
Aldridge
Community
Columnist
San Augustine, Center, TX 75935.
• Email address: publisher@ lightand-
champion.com
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nonev.
failed, to deliver, but
W;:
Chanwinn
>. 165360 - Est. 1877
JHI
So as I watch
happy
their
...rTS
T * ’
S I
m ”
’ i ■ ':
w M2
couple
six-year
old run outside and
push each other in a
tire swing then hug
grandmother as she
sprints out to join the
fun while the sunlight
streams through im-
possibly beautiful elm
trees with chipmunks
watching the action as
flowers bloom behind
them, I get a bit con-
fused. I do not feel sick
at all. In fact, I want to
be like the happy cou-
ple with the chipmunk
and the elm trees and
the tire swing.
But what does
that have to do with the
drug they're selling?
They do little to make
me want to get sick so I
can buy Flotsam.
But the ads do
make me ask another
they
good
people
sledge
Between
swings, they look at
another really good
looking person and
explain their vision for
the new room they'll
build after they finish
sledge-hammering the
existing one.
Either that or
the show's all about
flipping or selling or
buying a house. So
pretty much, after any
HGTV show, I feel pret-
ty lousy about my own
house, especially since
have
looking
who swing
hammers.
II
that they can find true
love while one of them
becomes a US citizen.
Or "Dr. Pimple
Popper," about a
doctor that... well, you
know.
But a
months
Christmas,
bedroom
wagered on when she was
going to deliver. One bet
it would be between Cisco
and Strawn while the other
put his money on the stretch
between Weatherford and
Aledo. As word of the wager
spread, others began to lay
down money.
She
fortunately the bus driver
didn't, bringing us into the
Dallas terminal at 10 min-
utes to midnight, 15 minutes
ahead of schedule and 30
minutes faster than I could
drive it in good weather in
the old family cruiser.
"Thank you, driver, for
getting me here, You'll be
an inspector, have no fear.
Too much—Magic Bus..."
Contact Leon Aldridge
leonaldridge@gmail.
com. Aldridge columns are
archived at leonaldridge.
com
ing, silver giants with the
dog on the side. Boarding
the big charter buses trans-
porting the Kilgore College
band and the Rangerettes to
games and special appear-
ances was much cooler than
the yellow school buses that
carried us to Friday night
games at Mount Pleasant
High School.
My last bus ride six or
seven years ago was the
first leg home from the
Oshkosh "AirVenture" air
show in Wisconsin. Ameri-
can Airlines stood ready to
whisk me from Milwaukee
to DFW, but the 90-minute
Surviving travel adventures which are stories worth telling
bus ride to start reminded
of a night about 1978 when,
"Leave the driving to us,"
took on a new meaning: a
trip from Abilene to Dallas.
In ice and snow.
Three hours driving the
speed limit was making
good time for this same trip
in the family cruiser on a
sunny afternoon. Purchas-
ing a car in Dallas neces-
sitated leaving said family
cruiser in Big-D and driv-
ing the new one to Abilene,
then hopping a bus back the
following weekend to fetch
it home
"One-way to Dal-
las, please," I said. "Will
the snow pose problems
tonight."
A short "no" and a
punched ticket was my an-
swer. Besides faulty weather
prognostication, other un-
disclosed information in-
cluded the sub-sonic travel
time featuring stops in ev-
ery burg along 1-20 boasting
an exit and a convenience
store.
"I don't want to cause
no fuss, But can I buy your
Magic Bus?" —song lyrics
"Magic Bus" by The Who
1970
Countless are the miles
I've traveled in a lifetime
of cars, motorcycles, air-
planes, and boats. Many
are the places I've been and
things Ive seen. Wonderful
are most of the memories,
but thankful is the keyword
for surviving some that be-
came stories worth telling.
Early travel memories
center around my mom.
Boarding a train bound
for Kentucky. Buckling in
for the same trip in a DC-3
prop-driven airliner for
which I still have a certifi-
cate noting my first airplane
ride at the age of three. And
many trips on commercial
bus lines.
Reading a history of the
Greyhound Bus Line last
week conjured college
band memories and the
black smoke belching, die-
sel driven, air-brake spew-
the ones on HGTV that
are roughly the size of
my house seem to be
selling for 750 grand.
But some time
last year, we stopped
watching HGTV as
much and started
watching The Learning
Channel. Again, when
that channel started
programming, they
had educational shows
that were good for the
entire family, but af-
ter discovering that
entire families never
watch things together
anymore, especially if
they are educational,
the Learning Channel
became "Reality TV
Channel."
They have in-
credible programs like
"My 600 pound life"
about a creepy doctor
shooting straight with
obese people about
their health.
Or "30 Day Fi-
ance" about couples
who love each other
so much that they lie
about everything so
.....
I’m hearing soothing voices on Hallmark Channel commercials
the credits roll and
they start another one
about the same exact
thing.
My favorite
one is about five years
old. Megan Markle is
the beautiful urban
executive who falls for
the small town guy.
The town is impossibly
lovely, the guy is
impossibly perfect, the
ending is too good to
be true.
Then you think,
"Wait. In real life,
Megan wrapped this
movie, went on a date
with a prince, went to
England and met his
princely father and
queenly grandmother,
got married on
national TV and
became a royal." And
you realize that her
Hallmark movie-
ending was kind of
disappointing.
guess
clientele
movies
very
old,
Despite that, we were
soon passing everything
on the highway showering
plumes of snow on creep-
ing cars and idling trucks
as the silver dog danced on
the slippery super slab. The
driver was good. He man-
aged to hit every icy spot on
the road causing the big bus
to execute variations of the
Texas Two Step while spin-
ning wheels searched for a
spot of pavement.
A young man with a gui-
tar toward the rear of the
bus broke into song. "They
say music soothes the soul,
said the lady behind me
traveling to Mobile with her
daughter. I tried joining in,
but holding my breath just
wasn't conducive to belting
out the next verse of "Magic
Bus."
The jolt of every slip or
slide sent a cacophony of
screams and four-letter
expletives from the back
all the way to the pregnant
lady at the front. A couple of
older guys across the aisle
I guess the
average clientele of
Hallmark movies is
either very sickly,
very old, or both,
because almost every
commercial is one
of those dreaded
prescription ads. You
know the ones I'm
talking about:
A soothing
voice comes over the
air while you watch a
happy couple making
breakfast and laughing
30
of
during
my bedroom TV
discovered the
Hallmark Channel.
You familiar? On this
network, you can find
romantic movies—all
rated G, mind you!—
featuring the same
story: a beautiful urban
executive who for some
reason or another has
to leave the city for
a backwoods small
town with charming
but annoying customs.
When she arrives she
meets a local guy who
is as handsome as she
is beautiful—perhaps
he is an old flame,
perhaps he is a new
one. After a couple of
misunderstandings,
the urbanite realizes
that all she ever
wanted is right here
in this small town and
so she stays and lives
happily ever after.
And there is
absolutely no falling
action: the whole
show builds up to the
marriage proposal,
the acceptance, and
the first kiss. Then
important question:
why do my wife and I
not fix breakfasts that
seem to be as satis-
fying as this couple?
And why do we not
have a tire swing? And
where are the happy
chipmunks in my life?
Huh? We need more
elm trees and chip-
munks and less fever
and chafing.
I need
Flotsam!
So because I
want to be as happy as
the couple on the ad, I
listen to the symptoms
and look them up on
the internet and find
out that I occasionally
suffer from almost
all of them which,
according to the
website, probably
means that I'm either
pregnant or hoping
to become pregnant.
And that's bad for me.
Still, as predict-
able as the plots are
and as awful as the
prescription ads and
their potential side ef-
fects can be - I mean,
after all who wants to
hear about how Flot-
sam might cause bloat-
ing and involuntary
nasal discharge—I still
prefer the Hallmark
Channel to Dr. Pimple
Popper.
It's
close.
at their adorable six-
year old:
"Askyour health
care professional
about Flotsam."
Then for
about 10 seconds,
the professional yet
mildly seductive voice
asks you if you are
experiencing painful
symptoms. Then it
says you deserve a
life without those
symptoms and that's
where Flotsam comes
in.
In my bedroom, the
TV is almost always on.
And it is almost always
tuned to something
I would not have
chosen. But since I
have almost no say in
what plays on the TV
in my bedroom, I have
learned to put up with
some amazingly bad
stuff.
I
mentioned
how little use I have
for HGTV. Stands for
Home and Garden
Television. But they
dropped the Garden
part years ago, and
they have very few
shows which show you
things you can do to
make your home more
homey.
Instead,
really
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The Light and Champion (Center, Tex.), Vol. 142, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 30, 2019, newspaper, January 30, 2019; Center, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1279052/m1/5/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library.