Summer Time Memories

As a teenager, most of my summers I worked for my dad. He had a cattle trucking company, which was located out in the country between Saginaw and Haslet. The work hours were early morning until past 7:00 in the evening. Most of the time I had one job -- cleaning out cattle trailers. My younger brother, Doug, also worked (sometimes) for my dad. Cleaning out double decker cattle trailers is very hard work. Especially when temperatures reach over 100 degrees west of Cowtown.

As I got older and got my license, I was able to do different things, like run for truck parts, or lunch. I also went to the stockyards and helped load trucks. At night we would go to the yards and load hogs and water them down.

There were two things I really enjoyed about working for my dad. Drinking Cokes from the 10 ounce bottle after cleaning out a cattle trailer. I could drink a coke (or a grape or orange) in one swallow because I was so hot. Also, going to eat lunch. When my dad had his office closer to Saginaw, we would go to Bobby's cafe and eat the best chicken fried steak in Texas. I would put French dressing on my salad. The dressing would collide with the white gravy blending into a special sauce, which was great for dipping my French Fries. After all was eaten, I still had enough gravy to sop up with my last piece of toast. When my dad's office was further away from town, we would some go to Haslet and eat at this Mexican restaurant. This was before there were more Mexican restaurants than McDonald's in Texas. I don't remember the name of the this place, however, they had the best homemade Mexican food.

One of the worst jobs I had was changing oil in the trucks. We usually did this on Saturday. The trucks had 3 or 4 filters and you had to put gallons of oil in them which was pumped out of 50 gallon drums. I would usually come home with my clothes caked in oil. Combine that with manure, and you have quite a washing job -- which reminds me of how wonderful my mom is. Can you imagine washing jeans and other clothes which were saturated in manure and oil for many many years? I can remember taking off my underwear at times and it was as if I wore them on the outside of my jeans. Speaking of my mom, it was great to come home after a long day and eat her meals. I never met a meal cooked by my mom that I didn't like.

Occasionally, I would go with a driver or my dad on a trip -- usually in Texas. This would give me an opportunity to see some of the largest ranches in Texas. I often made trips to the Hunt Ranches in Texas and Oklahoma. My dad hauled cattle for Nelson Bunker Hunt (think silver). He had a ranch near Roanoke, the Circle T, which is now surrounded by houses, not too far from the DFW airport. I saw cowboys young and old cowboys gather their herd through the gates and into the corrals so we could load them. Sometimes they were going to ranches or feed lots, other times it was to a processing plant. I also remember eating with the ranchers a few times, usually having a big steak.

I worked for my dad throughout high school until my senior year, when we moved to a ranch a few miles away from Chico. Saturdays then were the days we did the big stuff, like working cattle or unloading grain trucks or a flat bed with cotton seed cake cattle feed). It was amazing how strong I was. I could stack hundreds of 100 lb sacks of cotton seed cakes, even over my head without too much trouble. I was wore out, but not dead like I would be if I tried that today (I need to get in shape!). I would only work at the office when there was a trailer that needed cleaning out immediately or to help with oil changing day.

There were probably few teenagers that worked as hard as I did growing up. I was always buffed and tan, but it wasn't because I had been at the pool all day. I even had money in my pocket, but I didn't become a chic magnet. Sometimes I could smell manure in my nose, so I was very self conscious. When it was really powdery, it was hard to get out of the manure dust out of my nose. Also, I hadn't had my growth spurt yet (which I am still waiting on).

Did you have a tough summer job? Phyllis worked for Hancock Fabrics -- tough job, but somebody had to do it.