I'm Just Sayin'...

Our hotel burned Sunday. It was an old building, it had not been used as a hotel in years. When I was a kid, an antique store was there briefly. The building was old and in disrepair. That being said, it was our building, a part of our town's history. Once upon a time, people spent the night there. Perhaps they enjoyed a meal in the cafe, bought groceries from the store there or even got a haircut and a shave.

This article appeared in the Amarillo paper today. Boys ranging in age from 9-12 are facing arson charges. I am saddened by that. I am also outraged by the fact that kids thought it was okay to do this and by the comments at the end of the article. Some people believe that the boys shouldn't be punished because they are young and because the building was an "eyesore." I wonder if they'd think that if it had happened in their town, or to their house, or to their property. I wonder if they'd think that if 3 fire departments had to come to their town and spend 7 hours and use no telling how much water to put it out.

The owner of the building is probably not going to take responsibility for the cleanup. More than likely it will fall to our city to foot the bill. We are not a rich community, the cost will certainly hurt our town.

I like to think that we may live in one of the few places that still has a sense of right and wrong. How safe will our town be if kids are allowed to set fire to random buildings? Are we in danger of losing our small-town greatness??

I'm not saying that the people responsible should be sent up the river, I'm just trying to say that it is time we started making people accountable for their actions.

I'll step down from my soap box now...


My sister has great thoughts here. A friend of mine from Happy had this to say. I'm so proud of both Kelly and my sister for capturing what makes our community great.

You can see pictures of the fire here. (Aren't cell phones amazing? I'm told that pics were on Facebook as the fire was in progress...modern technology at its finest.)

(Sorry for the lack of spaces between paragraphs...Blogger is not cooperating!)

Happy, Texas--The Town Without a Frown

Yes, there really is a place called "Happy." I've been thinking for a while about posting a little about our town. We'll start today with some frequently asked questions and interesting facts.

Is everyone "happy in Happy?" For the most part, yes. If you would have asked that question on Saturday when the wind was blowing around 70 mph there might have been some who were unhappy.

The film Happy, Texas was not filmed here. We have very few trees and certainly have no orange groves. As far as the plot of the movie, to my knowledge nothing remotely like that has ever happened here.

A Blue Bell Ice Cream commercial was filmed here when I was a kid. At that time Blue Bell was only available in the area close to the Blue Bell plant. The commercial said something like, "We'd be happier in Happy if we had Blue Bell Ice Cream."

Parts of the movie Leap of Faith with Steve Martin were filmed in Happy and in the area. Also, a French film did some shooting here.

Happy has a population of around 675. We have one fillin' station, 1 cafe, 4 churches, 1 fantastic school (K-12), 2 grain elevators, and 1 bank (Happy State Bank). What we lack in size we make up for in the type of community we are. More on Happy (how we got our name, some history) this week as time permits.

Hall's Kitchenware

Here are my pitchers again, both are Hall's. I did a little research. This was a useful site. On it I found out that my little yellow pitcher is a 5-Band small jug. This line was introduced in 1937. The red one is a ball jug, probably a #3 with an 8-9 cup capacity. These were introduced in 1938 and have been copied by many manufacturers. A Hall Ball Jug will always have a stamp.

This site was even more helpful with narrowing down when the pitchers were made. Both my stamps are pre 1970. The yellow canary color and the type of stamp on the bottom show that it was made between 1930 and 1970. The stamp on the bottom of the red pitcher shows it was made after 1932. The color narrows it down to 1937 or 1942. So, since this type of pitcher wasn't introduced until 1938 we can guess that the pitcher may have been made in 1942.

Are they worth anything? Who knows. On eBay, I found the red pitcher, although I don't know if it is the same size, bidding was starting at $9.99 and no one had bid yet (I should probably go bid, but am afraid that'd turn into an addiction.) Another pitcher was for sale for $59.99. I just like my pitchers because of the shape and color. Also, I believe they both came from one of Robby's great-aunts when they cleaned out the house. Surprisingly, I'm the only one in the family interested in pitchers. I'm probably sitting on a gold mine.

So, that's your Hall's Kitchenware history lesson for the day. The company is still in business, you can check it out here.