Dave, way back in 1962, when I was first married, Carol and I moved to Palestine, TX, which was a neat, little town very close to Texarkana. When I was not working, which primarily was on weekends, I fished just below the dam of Lake Texarkana where I caught hybrid striped bass and alligator gar ranging up to 5 feet long and mean as Hell. One day, I brought one of the gar home to eat - big mistake. There were so many bones it was like trying to eat a hair brush - UGH!

We lived there for about 6 months before the company sent me back to Maryland. Carol really loved living there, the house we rented was a spacious rancher of about 2,000 square feet with an attached carport. Ironically, the washer and dryer were in the carport - didn't have to worry about things freezing up there, but we did get an inch of snow one day and the entire town shut down.

I remember we had an armadillo living under the house, which eliminated any bug problem that we may have encountered in that part of the world. He, or she, was slow moving, but it spent most of it's time looking for bugs to eat, day and night. It was still there when we came back to Maryland.

We went back to Texarkana about 10 years ago, during a visit to Don Mason's part of the world, just to see how things changed. WOW! Big difference and none of the changes were good. The motel where we spent the first few week prior to renting the house was still standing, but the swimming pool had been filled in, the peacan trees had all been cut down, the place was a disaster. The house we rented was still there, and pretty much looked the same, but the quaint little town looked like a slum. Such a shame. It was pretty much a Mayberry kinda town when we lived there, and everyone knew their neighbors. Today, some of the neighborhoods have bars on the windows and doors of homes. When we were there, we never locked our door - didn't need to.

Ironically, you would think there would be something on the news about Pearl Harbor, and the vets that defended our nation - but nothing I could find on the tube. I had 6 uncles that served in the US Marine Corps, three of which were shot, but survived, my dad was in the Merchant Marines and made an Atlantic crossing. Three of my uncles were in the battle of Iwo Jima and two fought at Guadalcanal. You are absolutely correct, we owe those vets so much. Ironically, our armed services at the time only represented a tiny fraction of our population, about 9 percent if I recall correctly.

All the best,

Gary