Sloan: Hometown mix of old and new

Despite being a gold-medal favorite in the shooting-fish-in-a-barrel competition during the Olympics, I decided to take a break from writing about politics and continue the travelogue about my recent Texas vacation.

While visiting my parents’ graves in Mt. Vernon, I saw the nearby memorial for legendary Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith. (I hauled hay for Meredith’s parents.)

Wendel Sloan

Located in an isolated, wooded part of the east Texas cemetery, a sidewalk widening into a square under two granite benches inscribed with “Meredith,” with three oval stones in gravel on each side, led to a double tombstone flanked by small solar lights. One side is awaiting his wife.

Exiting past a modest section from the 1800s, two female teenagers’ epitaphs on decaying tombstones caught my eye:

“The sweetest flower in all the field nipt by an untimely frost.”

“Weep not papa and mama for me. I am awaiting in heaven for thee.”

I was shocked my hometown restaurants now serve alcohol. Had they during my college days, I would have been a dropout because I funded much of my tuition through bootlegging. Using a fake I.D., I brought back cases of beer and wine from 40 miles away.

Having lunch with friends at a new pizza / pub, the owner told me a waitress had chased a customer down the sidewalk a few days before for stealing a mug. He escaped, but returned the day I was there and was kicked out.

Over dessert at different friends’ house, I heard about school administrators wearing blackface in the ’50s for a minstrel show fundraiser to build a swimming pool. Private funds were required to keep it segregated.

The conversation resurfaced a childhood memory of overhearing a Mt. Vernon teacher / lifeguard say he would “close the pool down before letting @#$^%&* in.”

When we were kids, blacks sat in the balcony and whites downstairs at the local single-screen movie house. (I recall no Hispanics, so there must have been a wall.)

We and our cheerleaders were thankful Mt. Vernon schools became fully integrated by high school — especially since our football team improved dramatically.

Contact Wendel Sloan at [email protected]