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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRecollections of Mary Bolton Eckles . , ..., ... ptcoLLecrijoilf . ,,, by Marguerite Anthony MARY BOLTON ECKLES It is a hot day. A "working into summer" kind of day and sipping glasses of ice tea with Mary Bolton Eckles is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Mary is one of those rare creatures; a native of the campus of Texas A &M. She was born to Frank C. and Lura Bolton shortly after her father joined the faculty following his transfer from the University of Mississippi in 1909. (Dr. Razor of Bryan drone in by buggy to attend her birth.) Her father served the University as professor, Dean of Engineering, and President. A young man in the Aggieland Band, Col. Bill E. Eckles, persuaded her to marry him and after worldwide travels, they returned to College Station for Bill to serve on the faculty. They reside at 1212 Orr in College Station and are the parents of two sons, Frank and Jim. Jim is a graduate student at A &M and his wife, Ann Marie, is the assistant director of A &M Presbyterian Day Care Center. Mary, Bill, and their children are active contributors to the community, and grandson Eric gives the appearance of being a fellow that Coach Wilson will want to meet in fifteen years.. it's all in the family tradition, of being a part of Bryan - College Station. wasn't even a place where people could treshen i al up before the football games. Even the restrooms available at Kyle Field last fall were better than none at all. 1 """... have fifteen or twenty —at least 20 special trains that brought the people in for ballgames and 11/ R . ' then they left right after the game. At Thanksgiving, for the big game, Mother would L g' g. g 9 I � ri 4 feed 40 at noon for a big Thanksgiving dinner before they went to the ball game and have "` t� -� sandwiches for them after the game before they left. 1 wonder how she managed this, even with the extra help that we would have for the t `� , occasion. Si 1 can recall so well what it was like when the trains came in to the station. They were just Mary Bolton Eckles lovely passenger trains and they came from Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and "As I was driving down Glade Street towards everywhere bringing people to A &M. The Southwest Pkwy. a few days ago, I noticed that people got off, went to the ballgame, and got there is a new roof on the old home across from back on to go home after the game. To hear South Knoll Elementary in which I grew up. them tooting; people running up and down - it Actually, I was born down the street from it was just very exciting. It was like a fair and was when it was on campus but we moved into that lots of fun. Then, too, we took special trains house in 1918 and I was delighted to see that it when we went to Dallas or Fort Worth for the was being renovated. 1 have the loveliest games and took the whole corps. memories associated with that house. It was The A &M campus was just a little community always full of people— ALWAYS. As you of its own and there were no stores. All of the know, in the early days there were no facilities houses were owned by the state and were for people to stay overnight in College Station. located on campus across from Rudder tower in In fact there was no College Station and the vicinity of its parking lot. Mother telephoned 16 everyone lived on the A &M campus. There coned on pg. 27 ill r cunt d from pg. to pool in the basement of the YMCA building. the grocery order into Reids Grocery in Bryan in Our mothers took naps in the afternoon so we'd the morning and they delivered it in the all go to the pool and that's where we spent our afternoon. afternoons. There were many children my age living Actually, where I learned to swim was out at • around me and we had a very nice time. We all the fish tank. You may never have heard of it gathered and walked down the street to catch the trolley into Bryan for school. Until 1920, but it's out where the reactor is now. Everybody went there for picnics and they went in a horse there was no public school in College Station and buggy. They spent the day and everybody and so, we had to go into Bryan. We walked to went swimming. I was taught to swim in that SBISA Hall to catch the 'Toonerville Trolley'. It tank and it's still there. 1 haven't seen it in years but it is still there. "The A &M campus was just a little I left College Station in 1928 when I married community of its own and there were William E. Eckles. I lived at home for two years no stores. All of the houses were during WWII and came back for several owned by the state and were located summers when my husband was working on his master's degree. I worked in the government on campus across from Rudder Tower program for cotton to help pay for his degree in the vicinity of its parking lot." and 1 got $2.63 for eight hours work a day. All of the salaries had been cut terribly because of was fun to ride on it but, it go old too. And, of the depression and people were being paid in course, when I was a child I had malaria as so script instead of money. If you could afford it. many did. I would go to school early in the you could hold your pay check, but few could morning feeling all right and by the middle of afford to do this during the depression. When the day, 1'd have a temperature of 105 °. They you cashed the check, it was discounted didn't have nurses or anything at the school. heavily. If you taught school and were on a nine They did have a little place called the arbor; just month pay scale, you certainly felt the lack of a place outside where you could eat your lunch. money. They would send you out there and you would When my father was president of A &M. and sit with this high temperature until some one all through his association with the university. I could come to get you. I do recall that malaria had occasions to meet many interesting people. would come on quickly and you would have to Once 1 had a chance to meet the oldest living take quinine for it. There were so many five star general, Omar Bradley, when he was a mosquitoes in the area. house guest. General Dwight Eisenhower was College Station has grown but I can recall also a house guest. 1 came home from Fort several folks that were around then. Virginia Leavenworth to be a hostess for his visit. S Burns Abbott lived across the street from me and we would ride our tricycles together. There The entertainment was very formal and no liquor was served. People were invited to be were the Waltons who were Mr. Hershel there at six o'clock so you arrived at six o'clock. Burgess' parents. Ethyl Burgess and l shared At 6:05. you sat down at the dinner table. many summer afternoon adventures and also In the earlier days. people dressed up more walked to school together. than they do now days. The men were splendid During WWI, my father had charge of in tuxedoes and the women -had lovely gowns. training soldiers for the signal corps. To a child, I remember how much everyone enjoyed the that was very exciting because we had a special dances and how everyone went to them. They telephone in the house that was just for were heavily.chaperoned. All of the faculty messages regarding the war effort. I mean it was wives and chaperones of the dances sat around just for officials and officers to call him on. It was the edge of the dance floor. They were held in like living on an army post at that time. Much of SBISA Hall in the front which was a great big the faculty was serving their country in some dance hall. At least. it was a dance hall when way and the majority of the students would go they weren't eating in it. into the services. Anyhow, my father was over On Saturday nights, we had our Saturday the program for training them. night dances and nobody went home for the 1 have no real memories of 4th of July week -end. Everybody was on campus and celebrations - not the red, white, and blue everybody came to the dance. We had bunting kind of memories. Summer school was programs, dance cards that were filled out for very small and at the end of the spring semester, Friday night dances so you always knew who everyone just hibernated because it got so hot. you would be dancing with next. 1 don't think We didn't do anything until September when we had programs on Saturday night because school started again. Of course, children played that was just a 'cut -in' dance. out in the afternoons. There was a swimming cons d on pg. 30 27 - - - cunt. J from pg. Y i K ITCHEN REMODELING HINTS, Patio Door by Jonathan Allen of Allencraft Problems? • If your cabinet doors and facings are in good shape or can be repainted or refinished, replace old hinges ill . ..,w - and catches with new self- closing hinges. Clean up old pulls and knobs or replace with new pulls or T he knobs. Back plates are available if the old holes do not align with holes for the new hardware. 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A THE ENERGY ST 0 R little more difficult to use and a bit more expensive are wood veneers. Proper surface preparation prior to FREE ENERGY CHECKS application of the above mentioned materials is a prerequisite for achieving a professional type job. 508 Avondale, Bryan • It is usually better to rebuild drawers using metal (next to Sears) 779 -3010 drawer runners than to modify existing drawers to use the metal runners. Sidemount tracks are usually more dependable than monorail -type drawer runners. • Various types of moldings range from small lipmold II o to "plant -ons" are available to add decoration to i S otherwise plain cabinet doors. • Since cost is definitely a factor in redoing a kitchen ( the lists above are things that the do -it- yourselfer can � �` .� accomplish and be proud of while saving money. However, if you do not want to do it yourself let a _� reliable cabinetmaker evaluate your present cabinets to determine if it is feasible to facelift your present O • by s' f cabinets or produce a new set to suite your needs. 1 faml �� There are many new space saving items available that you might want to incorporate into the new work. If possible avoid using comer -type lazy susans. While a it novelty and seemingly useful they can be contrary . and definetly contribute to the loss of needed storage A Country Store space. • Always get an estimate of how much the new Work Fresh Fruits & Vegetables will cost completed. The space - saving items will Snacks, Beer, Wine, Gas always add to the cost and availability may limit their • Browsing Library & Books for sale use. • Don't be in a hurry to have your work done. This Teas, Dried fruits, Nuts, Beans causes animosities and tensions which are undesirable Oils & Herbs Yard eggs in a work situation. Blood pressure checks • Don't rule out prebuilt, prefinished cabinets. There Jesse Gibson: World's Biggest Liar are a lot of lines available through lumber yards, Semi - free advice cabinet shops, etc. Be sure when pricing these type of cabinets that you are pricing price per quality and not Open Mon. -Fri. 11 -7 Sat. 10 -6 price per price. You will probably be dissappo1nted if you use the least expensive cabinets. 693 -0817 • Above all, plan your kitchen or bath or hails Hwy. 6 So. at Rock Prairie Rd. someone qualified design a functional and usable kitchen or bath area. The kitchen is the most used 28 ( mile past the Ponderosa on the left) room in most homes and it should be the one place • coned from p8. 27 For the big Thanksgiving Dance after the game, we had name bands and they were always name bands that were very good ones. The Aggieland Band played for the Saturday ASSAY night dances. 411 The big RV dance in the spring lasted Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I'll 'go back and tell you that there was no place for anybody to stay on campus so the students would ask, if ' 8 1 they knew us, or happened to be in my father's � ��A classes, if their girls could stay with us. We were d i•V \ always glad to have them and we had many of l e a ‘1 � them every weekend. When 1 was a young lady and going to the , dances myself, I always enjoyed the intermissions. They were held at twelve o'clock and one of the mothers would fix sandwiches and drinks. Everybody that had been invited � , � would come with us as we strolled from SBISA back down to the campus homes. Nobody had a car in those days. We would all walk together, St - V - have our refreshments, and go back to the dance. Occassionally, someone would have a drink but they were frowned upon and they weren't considered to be good students. They Male weren't considered to be the ones you went with. In my day, the girls were dressed in short Female dresses. At least, they were short in front and longer in back, but they were just beautiful. Oh, Escorts the dresses were just lovely. The girls would Available come from all over the state for these dances and they just dressed beautifully. They dressed up then, you know. The little girls nowadays don't go in for that like they used to do. It was very exciting. 1 recall a rather ususual experience that 1 had Hourly, when I brought home four girls for one of the DallB, RV dances. The house was crowded with folks staying with us and we had all of our new Evening, evening clothes hanging everywhere - When I got ready to go back to college I couldn't find or my clothes. We searched and searched to no Weekend Rates avail. We had a lot of extra help in the house so we just decided, well —those gowns just weren't there. They were gone. Finally, somebody thought to ask my little brother who was about five or six at the time. 'Oh,' he exclaimed, 'Yes, nobody asked me where they were. Billy and 1 775-1923 were playing with them out on the roof and they are still there!' They'd been on the roof all night. It was very upsetting, but thank goodness, it hadn't rained. The dresses were all right even though they had been on the roof all night. Passersby must have thought some interesting Mon. - Fri. 12pm - 12am things if they noticed the dresses spread about on the roof. That would be the roof of the old Open for business July 5 house across from South Knoll Elementary. 808 South Main, Bryan Every time 1 pass that house I'll envision those beautiful party dresses lying upon the roof."