Growing up in Westlake Hills (James Short)

Interview transcript with James Short, an Eanes Elementary alumnus, on incidents at school: bees on the school bus, a road bonfire built to stop the bus, and student fights.

Transcribed text

_The following text was extracted via OCR from the digitized scan held by The Portal to Texas History (UNT Libraries). OCR can introduce errors, especially on handwritten material; the canonical record links to the original scan._

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GROWING UP IN WESTLAKE HILLS INTERVIEW WITH JAMES SHORT, 197, I would like to dedicate this tape to honor Eanes School and -m all the people throughout the ages that have tried to make it a great institution for us and our posterity. And to Della Edwards and Lucille Stegman who have asked me to share my youthful experiences, beginning in 1949 at Eanes Elementary as student, with all of you. M) name is James Shor t and my father, before me, like his mother who taught at Eanes School, can all say that we do know some supportive history of the school and have shared in making The first time I ever saw Ean es School was in 1' 49 when I was attending what we would consider today as an old-fashioned family graveside service taking place in the cemetary across the street from Eanes. School. At that time Eanes School consisted of two rooms, seven grades, and the old Presbyterian Mi ssion next to it. The old road leading down from Bee Cave Road was. nothing but an old dirt road leading to the school. After the service ended and the remarks were said by the Presbyterian mi i i ster, we returned home in the most popular mode of transpor tation during those days which was either a truck or a pickup. After this I did not see Eanes School , to the best of my knowledge, for another year at which time one of the local fund-rai s-i ng ordeals was to have a cake walk , which was strictly illegal but a popular way to raise funds for a depressed school distric-t and bring the, hill people together for some er joymen t. In September of 1951 I star ted my six years of studv at

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Eanes Elemen tar,). At that time we had the pri nci'pal who taught the first through third grade, Nellie Hampey (?), and Mrs. Lucille Lang, who taught the four th through seventh grades. Although it was my first year here it was the last year to have seven grades at Eanes. Elementary. To the best of mry recollection there was about 15 students in the class, and the names of some of the students are as colorful as the history of the class. There was Bill and Duane Ediw.ards, Nancy Fowler, Nan Elkins, Bradney (?) Flat, Paulette Teaque, and the rest I do not recall their name.. The first day of school was, naturally, a hectic ordeal because Duane Edwards and myself both had our eves set on the second grade beauty queen, who was none other than Alma Jean Bul i an . Since I had two older sisters attending Eanes and Duane had two older brothers., nat urally a fight had to occur to see who would get Alma Jean. But in real i ty it was just another battle like many that ranged between one family against another of their older brothers and sisters to see who was the meanest of the school. Although the clans. for the battle rooted for the side they knew best, the Edwards. , the Johnsorns, the Bul i ans and the Rogers on one side, ver s.us the Pierces., the Reeses., the Teagues and the Shor ts and some others. on the other s.i de , the great battler ended with neither one of us getting Alma Jean. The older ones of the fami lv , plus other members of the clan getting involved in the dispute, until Mrs. Hampey got into the act and ended the whole thing. The next event I remember in the first grade was a s.eventh-

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grader by the name of Cecil Rogers made a beautiful paddl- with air holes in it and give it to his favorite teacher, Mrs. Lang, since Mrs. Hampey was. always most unpopular with the students. And the comment I remember from Mrs. Lang was she said "Wouldn't it be funny if I had to use the paddle on the person who made i t?" Needless to say that's exactly what happened. At that time she didn't break the paddle on him, but after teaching school for five years and never using a paddle, I would at least say that a paddle can bring out some brains in some child. And at Eanes School during those days they cer tai nly knew how to use them and did use them. Ant. other event I remember quite well my first year at Eanes w.a walking home through ol' Oscar Carlson's dairy. The route consisted of about a mile and a half; there was one trail leading through his dairy to my parents' house. About six of the neighbor children from the first through the sixth grade walked this route. Naturally,, my mean sister Evelyn, known as "Elvin," was the leader of this little ol' group that walked through the woods. Well, of' Oscar had a bull, and we always watched for the bull whenever we went through his pasture. One day it just so happened that the bull, who was rambunctuous, decided he especially liked me and my sister up in a tree. Well my sister, she was as mean at Eanes as they ever got to be. In fact, one day she hit Mrs. Hampey in the head with a mop in the girls' bathroom and run all the way home before they could catch here. Well, this here bull, he had both of us up in a tree. Nell , my si ster was out on a limb, pok i n g the bull wi th a stick. The more she poked, the madder the bull got. Well, being in the first

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grade, I decided that poking the bull would also be fun. Especi ally on the same limb. Well, I broke off a limb and I started climing out on the same limb, poking the bull, and it was all very funny until the limb broke, falling flat over the bull's head! Both of us came crashing down on each side of the bull. The bull went one way and the two of us went another way, and ol' Oscar di don't like us fighting his bull too much! I t wasn't but about six months later and ol' Oscar was fixi n' on his fence, and the same oi' bull charged him. The only thinq oi' Oscar had in his hand was his hammer. It just so happened that the bull got crowned that afternoon, right up side the head and did not Another event that took place in the first grade was the Hill girls were meaner than the Hill boys. There was one, especially, Jane Ryans. She was redheaded and freckle-faced and as u'ly as lye soap made in a hill count try washpo t . Nell Jane, she was a pretty nice little -irl, but her biggest problem was she just liked to bite people. Although oi' lady Hampey had used a board on her behind several times, Jane was just a little hard headed. So one day Jane bit me. And I had a notorious habit of throwing rnqrocks. So I pinned C-l- Jane down behind the ladi es' bathroom. She stuck her ol ' redhead out from behind the wall and when she did one of my special curving rocks caught her right above the eye and that's when ol' lady Harripey entered the scene. Jane star ted crying and the blood star ted running like she'd lost her life, and when ol' lady Hamp ey stopped that bleeding, she got her a paddle and her hand was like a revolver and my behind was

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like a beet. It was about three days before that beet eould sit back down in its chair! She made me write 50 times "Frank Short, you will never hit another girl in the head with a rock will you?!" By the time I printed that 50 times I have not to this day hit another girl in the head wi th a rock. About three years later, (God knows I wasn' t the best child around in that district) ol Jane hit me with a rock one day play in' ball. So I said if she could bite and ol lady Hamp ey wouldn't let me throw rocks, the only thing I could do was bite her back. And brother that's iust what I did. I di dn' t bite her on the arm, like Jane liked to do. I bi t her right on the spine of the back. And that was the last time Jane ever wanted Another event I remember in the f i rs t qrade was being caught cheat i nq on a math test by no other than olf' lady Hampey. Well one of the Dougher ty kids., who should been in about the fifth grade and he was in the f i rst grade, could subtract and I could add. Hell when the test was 50% add and 50% subtract for the 100% and you could only do half, you get tired of failing pretty quickly. He care up wi th our cheat scheme and after mak i ng 100 on one quiz, ol' lady Hampey knew I w'asn' t that smar t. On the second quiz she caught me. Hell thank God I didn't get another beating. I think her hand was worn out after the first time and the second time she said i t wouldn' t do any Sood.... i t'd be a waste of time. But I set back in the back of that room and I learned how to subtract and until this day I still know how to subtract. In fact I even know how to subtract on a computer and she put that in my brain to stay for a long long time.

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Nell, the second grade wasn't too eventful but around about the third grade Della Edwards, who was young in her years at driving a bus in those days, had some 01l' bantam hens and one of / em got up on the block of the bus and decided to lay a egg. Nell, Della had been driving the bus for a while and all of a suddent, going up what is currently Walsh Tarlton Road but was Tucker's Lane at that time, you have never smelled such a stink in all your life. The smoke star ted coming from the engine and the kids star ted bailing out. Della didn't know what to do. One of the kids popped the hood on the bus, and sure enough, here was that egg. And stink. Took us 15 minutes 'fore we could board that bus again and head on up that hill. I think after that Della star ted check in' the hood see if any of those ol' ban ty hens had laid or, the block. And later she gave all those o1' panties to me thinking' I was a chicken-pluckin' hillbilly. Another event that occurred about the third or fourth grade on Della's bus was that during those days candy Easter eggs did not ex.,i s.t and we always had hard boiled eggs that we brought to school for Easter. Nell Della was talk i r' to cil' lady Hampey and all of a sudden the egg fight star ted on the bus. Well, Paulette Teague, who was about a third grader, hit Margie Pierce in the face, and Margie was about a sixth grader. And poor Paulette's egg just happened to be a rotten egg and it went all over Mar gie's. face. Nell then this occurred the battle really started. Margie proceeded to make Paulette eat needless to say the rotten egg. Well the Teagues didn't like this too much.

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Well since the Shor ts were good friends and relatives of -the Pierces, the f istf ight started. Well i t was really going strong 'til Della came back to the bus and that stopped it. Poor cl' had to put her two cents' wor th in. Another event that occurred at one of the famous intercollegiate country school baseball games we just before the game was Walter Reyes (?), who has never been nothing but trouble since the day he was born, I think even Daddy gave his mother a hard time, t..was hor play i n around wi th Hi nston Edw-ards. And sure enough Hi n ston was our star p i tcher. Hell no cther Halter Reyes let the bat fly and catches poor Winston up side the head. Well we loist the game as usual., but we did learn a lesson in sportsmanship. Hold onto your bat. Another event that was quite popular about the third and fourth grade t.-as. this si cknes=s brought on just before an examination given by Mrs. Lang each .ear. Well, this one girl, Paulette Teague was deathly afraid of Mrs. Lang, would always wait until the test was given out, then she'd turn twhi te, then she'd regurgitate from one end of the classroom to the other and, needless to sav., poor Mrs. Lang had to pick up the test, take care of the sick Paulette, and give us a quiz again at a later date. Not that she didn' t have her hands full teaching three classes, and today they complain if they have to teach one. But this poor teacher taught three classes and all the subjects. Another event that I can remember t.as the first time that I watched TV. This was the election of Presi dent Ei senho.wer in 1952. We spent one whole day w..'atchi ng his Inaugural on T'V.

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During that period, to the best of my knowledge, there was one television set in what is now known as the Eanes Independent School District. Another event I can remember quite well is the return of Emmett Shelton, Jr . at the end of the Korean conflict, or near the end. His brother Polk was a year ahead of me at Eanes and I can remember qu i te vividly how patriotic we were about a war hero returning to speak to us at Eanes.. A Chr i s tmas event that I can remember was when Stonewall Jackson Teague, Rober t E. Lee Teague and myself sang "Oh Chr i s.tmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree" for our parents, our relatives and our neighbors, our dear teachers and everybody else there while the three of us were dressed in paj amas. I was holding onto an old cedar tree wi th a few snowflakes while the audience was laughing up a storm enjoying their night, and one of us looked down and to and behold there I was half undressed in front t of everybody . Needless to say, the firs t and two second gr ader s got hi gahl y embarrassed ver t hi s. . Anio ther Christmas event that I can remember was that one student, whom I cannot remember his name, literally hated Mrs. Ri ckercall ( . The tradition at that time at Eanes was that the teachers opened their Christmas presents in front of the class, the parents and whomever else was at the Christmas par ty. This particular student had the most beautifully wrapped box there, plus the largest, and lo and behold Mrs.. Ri ckercall opened up the box, turned white and would not pick up her present. Naturally Mrs. Hampey insisted that she show everybody what she had received as a gift. What it was was a box full of cow bones.

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The poor teacher had to pull them out one at a t irme to f irid her 25-cern t gift at the bottom of the box. That was one of the biggest hoots that had ever been presented to a teacher at Eanes. Another event I can remember on myself about the third grade was. climbing one of the large oak trees and when I started down I slipped and ripped my pants. and lo and behold, "3ues s. who had to pin 'em ol' lady Hampey and guess who does' t get to go home! Everybody had to see the damage that I had done to my pants. which was highly embarrassing to me. Another event I can remember qu i te vividly was an old bee tree was located on the school grounds and, since I was always fascinated by honey bees., my father, Joe Halton who was a neighbor and also went to Eanes, and myself decided to rob the tree, put the bees in a box, and take 'em to our place. Nell that was a fairly chi lly Sep tember day or October day and the bees were' t too much cif a prciblem, cept ore crawled up and got into c my ear drum. For those of you has been close enough to knoiiw what a jet engine sounds like, this was just about the bee flopping his wi rigs sounded like in my ear . Poor ol' Joe Halton, it took him 45 minutes with my bee smoker, next to my ear, putting smoke in my ear, going thr ugh my nose, to get that bee bee finally backed himself out and I went home, content, a li t tle Another event I remember is carrying a bottle of drone honeybees onto Della's bus and just before going to school letting the whole bottle loose and watching the kids run, afraid they were going to get stung. Well, the bees could not sting.

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Naturally I told them they would sting 'em just to get some exci temern t gOaing. A another event I used to remember qui te well would be chas in the city slickers. These were--especi ally John Roy Pru i t t who lived in Roll ingwood and was the fir "t really ci ty children that came to Eanes. Gladerie Flack (?), Paulette Teague and myself would chase him up to the old cedar trees near the baseball diamond, throwing apples him and oranges and anything else that we possi bly had. This was their indoctrination to the Earies School because the country kids really did not care for the city kids and vice versa. Another event I can remember is. walk ng from Beard's Grocer..' Store, which is now a U-To term, up to Eanes School early one morning and it was Stonewall Jackson Teague, Robert E. Lee Teague and myself and on the way, near the current Presbyterian Church, was a little pipe running underneath the ground for drainage purposes next to old Westlake Tavern. And we killed a small rattlesnake and was proud of our accomplishment and all of a sudden out of the pipe unexpectedly comes a skunk and sprays Stonewall and we qo on to school, but Stonewal1 does qo home fcr three days to get the odor off him. Other little things we did was. put squirrels in the teacher's desk, snakes in the teacher's desk, let bats loose in the classroom and a few other nice little goodies. Another even t I remember was one day when about six of us skipped class, or I should say school instead of class, and there was some horses. over at what is current tly now Soap Creek Saloon.

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Well several of us decided wie' d just ride the horses and really have a fun day. But Jesse Jaries Small decided he would proceed to catch the horse by the tail and hold it while we put a bridle on i t . Well the horse decided that just about the time Jesse grabbed his tail it was gonna kick. Well needless to say we spent hours bringing Jesse around and we told the parents that what had happened was that he had fallen down, and not that we had skipped school that day, and it was rather eventful in that event in that I had to go home and et a wa'Ron and we carried him in a wagon about a mile, noft knot.i ng whether he was li v i ng or Another event I remember is the establishment t of the first Optimist Club of Westlake Hills. Mr. Ma::x Hull and others. By the time it ;ot established all the good players except two or three of us were already onC other leagues play ing in the city. Bill and Daune Edwards played for a team in the city. Arid we formed a club wi th whatever i.ie had left . And when they had me for a p itcher, a thi rd-baseman, and a catcher , you can imagi ne the quali ty on that team! Well anw ay' we practiced for a couple of weeks. and our first game was riin no other than Taylor, Texas. The sponsors ot together and drove us down there and the final .core was Taylor 17 - estlake Hills Optimists 3. Another even t I can r emember is tw..her, there was a University student t driving the bus for Eanes School. The standard trip was from Eares to Roll i ngwa:ood Drive where we got off the bus, then on through Rall i ngwood Drive into the city. Well, that afternoon , for some reason I could not get off. And I rode the bus on to Allen Junior High School, then we came back by Austin High, then

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we came on up Lake Austin Blvd., and the route wen t across the low!-water bridge, and from there on up towards Eanes School. And at that time classes got out at 3:30 and some of the students didn't get home ' t il about six o'clock and there was one bus r ervicing the whole area. I can also rememeber catching the bus many times before six o' clock in the morning so that the one bus could make its route from where we lived., down Westlake Drive, Rocky River Road, back up to Eanes School, into ':that is now Lake Austin Estates and back to Eanes School. Generally the bus got back to Eanes about 8:00 and then the student-- made it to Austin High and Allen by 8:%30 Other events I can remember quite well is when some of the older students who were the Thomrrase'E., the Ni lk i n5.on , and the Currys that lived near our area, decided they did not want to qo to school . And what they would do is put nails in the road so dear ol' Della would have flats or else they'd build a bi g bonfire in the middle of the road wi th casi nqs . And they were also insane enough to put bullets in some of their fires, thinking that they 'would hit the bus and somehow destroy it. About one of the last great even ts I remember at Eanes School was when I fir!i shed the Sixth grade and i t was Mr s_. Lane' s last year, and as a going away present we all took a train ride from the terminal on West First Street to San Marcos to Aquarena Spring s and then parents and sc forth picked us up in San Marcos and drove us back to Austin. But the great trip was on the Texas Eagle and the students really enjoyed it.

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And to tell you how expensive things were during tho se first six years, was that Eanes did not even had a refrigerator. And a man would come out and sell milk fr crr one of the dairies at two cents a pint you brought your lunch from home or you could run down to Beard's Grocery Store and make a sandwich and then you could run back, which was one of the favorite deals that we did. He had two rest r o oms, a well, we did not have a library, we had a bookmobile that came out once a week or once a month -- I think it was once a mon th. The bu i ldin qs. were heated by gas fans and they were not cooled whatsoever ex cep t by fans. From the first through the fourth grade, which was my first year there, there was students from the age of five up through 16, and the older ones had to attend school because of state law, and the teachers let 'em color on pads or write their name, and some of 'em even to this day, all they can do is write a X. And I st ill say i t was not the teacher's fault. And another thing I want to bring out is that there used to be a hive of bees in the old fireplace which was the li br ar y at Eanes. which was the Presbyterian Mis.si on, and on Sundays before the congregation got there, we used to co up to the fireplace, go in to the church, stir up the honeybee, _,pen up the ven t so the bees could come out and sting the congregation once they got in, and then we'd run over and get on the roof of Eanes School and watch all the exci tement. Naturally this was just children at And now I would like to tell you in my closing remarks what has happened to some of the people I remember who were in the first or second grade w ith myself.

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high school arid is currently making a

career out and is wor and Sharon Dougher tyI to the Uni Force Base this time

of the service. king in Austin.I the city of Aus.t Frewi tt are both that I mentioned ivi nq somewhere n versity of Tex~a5,. of Texas., and I in small bus.ines

Duane Edwar Nan Elkins, in in the put ear Austin. tin. And I' also teach a

the either people that wen t

in i s.hed high school last I heard, was a schools. John Roy public schools. The Lake. Nancy Fowler is. accounting consultant t of taxation at the rse at Bergstrom 'ir do not know what has anes School and at

would like to thank you for the opportuni ty of

experiences and knot.ledge Thank you .

f my past at Eanes School

Original record: metapth1065542 on the Portal to Texas History.