Saturday – August 1, 2015 – If You Grew Up in Magnolia, Texas in 50’s and 60’s

Today I have a guest blogger. My sister. While I certainly agree with her that we should remember Walter, I think we mean Robert and Edna too.

Robert and Edna were the parents. I am quite certain their only child, Walter, was left on the doorstep, found under a cabbage or was actually delivered by a skinny-legged stork. We will need Celeste and Tarvah and maybe Little Cecil to confirm our theory, but I am confident you are correct that Robert’s sack became Walter’s invention that changed the world.

FYI the Sawmill was only half a mile from our mill house, so Alethia Switch was only a few tenths of a mile. It probably seemed longer on a bicycle.

But now – from the memories banks of Dale.

THE SACK

Growing up in the small sawmill town of Magnolia, Texas, (actually Alethia Switch….about a mile from the town of Magnolia) during the 50’s and 60’s, we met many different kinds of people.

One was Robert Seymour.  You never saw Robert that he did not have a brown paper sack with him.  He walked everywhere.  Well, back then almost everyone walked or rode a bicycle. There was only one family car and your daddy usually took it to work.

I would put my dog, Ringtail, in my bicycle basket, and we would ride to the commissary (the store at the sawmill) to get an ice cream cone.  Ringtail liked the cone as well as the ice cream.  But that’s another story.

Back to Robert. I asked him why he carried that sack with him. His reply was that he always carried something to eat in case he got hungry….or he might find something interesting to pick up while he was walking.

Today, I always carry a “sack” with me….in addition to my purse.  But we have come a long way from Robert’s brown paper sack.  I change sacks from time to time but my sack of the present is red with white flowers on it.  It is water proof; has a draw string top; and a zipper on the side.  I usually have a bottle of water (now that’s another story, also….what would Robert or folks from that generation think about BUYING water in a bottle instead of getting a glass of water from the faucet)….a package of crackers; my Kindle; a book in case my Kindle runs out of battery; some napkins; and sometimes something that I have picked up.

Little did we know back then that Robert’s sack was the first of the backpacks, fanny packs, or the like.

Thank you, Robert.

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Back to me – I currently own three full-size backpacks, one small draw string backpack, and numerous canvas book bags and grocery bags. Even my “purse” is a small backpack. Thank you, Robert and Edna and Walter.