I
suspect that the best-read column in the Buffalo Press, a weekly newspaper in
East Texas, is Sheriff Ralph Billings’
report on criminal activity in Freestone County.
When the local 911 dispatcher
received a call from a young caller, she told her that her five-year-old brother
had shot their Dad with a BB gun, killed him “graveyard dead,” and had buried
the father in the back yard. The caller wanted someone to come to the home, arrest
the five-year-old and dig up Dad.
The 911 dispatcher finally located the
boys’ mother and found that Dad didn’t even live in Texas,
and there was no homicide.
Billings reported that seven dead hogs were
found on U.S. Highway 84 between the Country Club and the Boyd prison unit. He
said a Texas Department of Transportation employee was enroute “to perform graveside
services.”
Billings also wrote that a young lady reported that her ex-boyfriend
called her and wanted to come over. She explained she had company. The ex boyfriend
broke her window and fled on his bicycle.
In another report, Billings
commented that Oakwood
had a goat problem, but noted that it had been alleviated when six or seven goats
were found loose in the downtown area and had been were arrested by the chief
of police.
In the community of Wortham,
a driver took a spin around the local nursing home, ended up crashing through
a fence, and was apprehended by the Wortham
police department. The man, it turned out, was wanted on a parole violation from
Austin.
A police office told
911 he was trying to pull over a woman motorist, but she said she would pull over
only when she got to a street light at Streetman. Stopped by another policemen,
the womon said she would pull over when she got to a service station. “Heard no
more on this,” wrote Billings, “and assumed she eventually stopped somewhere...further
assume it was where she wanted to.”
Billings also reported that a lady
from Wortham said a
possum had gotten into her deep freeze, and wanted to know what to do. Billings
advised her to “keep him cold, serve him with potatoes and carrots and onions,
cook him at 325 degrees, and serve with cornbread on the side and Blue Bell for
dessert.”
Bob
Bowman's East Texas
January 18, 2010 Column
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
Copyright
Bob Bowman |
