When I was about 9 years old

   
When I was about 9 years old (1959), my family would make visits to some of my Mothers (Maudy Beatrice (Bea) Dagley Busby) family who lived in Millersview, Texas way out in the bad lands of West Texas.

Just about every three months or so and on all special holidays Mother and Dad (Jack Busby) would gather my sister (Carla Ruth Busby Miller) and Me (Robert Wayne Busby) and we would all pile into our blue Buick Road Master station wagon and drive from Waco, Texas to Millersview for the weekend or a long weekend if there was a holiday involved.

The trip from Waco was always exciting since we would start out in the mega metropolis Waco (to me Waco was a mega metropolis) and drive out towards Millersview, once we crossed the Lake Waco bridge, we headed towards Valley Mills where Mother also had family, then head towards Gatesville, Evant, Goldthwaite, Doole and then finally Millersview. Once we got past Goldthwaite there was nothing but open road and fences, not a sole to be seen for hours until we got to Doole, which was just a gas station and post office as was Millersview.

Once in Millersview we would stay with my Aunt Letha and Uncle Frank at their house located several streets off the main road just across the street from the Millersview School. Aunt Letha was the school cook or at least that is what I heard, also think Uncle Frank was the maintenance guy for the school.

Letha and Frank were great folks and did anything for a guest within reason. The house we stayed in was large and with a few folding beds and cots and couches, we all managed to have a place to sleep and Letha was a GREAT cook, we would wake up to biscuits baking, bacon frying, eggs cooking, and coffee brewing, that was always about 5AM since Uncle Frank had to get out to the barn yard located adjacent to the house to take care of the cow, the chickens and other animals early.

While in Millersview the grownups sat about the kitchen table (the kitchen was the largest room in the house) which could seat at least ten folks, talking and smoking. Carla and I would amuse ourselves by getting out in the yard or on the porch (large front porch with roof overhang) and doing whatever we felt like doing. No TV at Millersview for us, there was a TV in the living room but I doubt I ever saw it on when we visited.

We would take drives out to the other relatives who lived nearby, one relative had a big house way out in the middle of no where and in the living room they had a large picture print of a WWI Armored unit over the fire place, it was amazing, covered the entire space over the fire place, never did find out what it was for, who was in it, or why it was over the fire place, heck now I do not remember the name of the Aunt and Uncle, most like was Ethel and Author, but not sure.

Remember they would always tell me they had a Daisy BB Gun on the back porch and I could go shoot the birds with the split tails, could not shoot anything else but was told to shoot as many split tails as I could, that kept me busy. I had to learn how to load and cock the Daisy BB gun, but once I learned that, I was dangerous, or so I thought till I got out to the barn yard and started to shoot at split tail birds.

If you have ever upset a bunch of birds for any reason you know what I am talking about, those birds were not happy I was standing in their barn yard shooting little metal pellets at them.
I know I hit those birds, did they fall out of the sky, nope, they just made a turn and flew toward me as fast as they could and had me running for cover most of the time, and on occasion grazed my had or shoulder.

Once I recovered I would start shooting again and they would come out in force seeking me out, they were fearless, never did kill any, just upset the heck out of them...smiles and frowns.

Other exciting things to do in Millersview, walking the dusty streets, all five of them; playing at the school play ground; making up games in the barn yard adjacent to Letha's and Frank's house, eating, drinking and listening to the adults talk about the family...smiles.

More on the life and times of the Busby's and Dagley's out in the bad lands of West Texas to follow, any one has pictures of Millersview, Aunt Letha and Uncle Frank and the house and barn yard from those days please post them.