I just wrapped up my last post about my hometown of Kilgore,Texas. I hope you enjoyed them as much as did in getting to see my family and friends while I was home.
Livin’ Sassy is giving away some things in honor of her big ol’ family and the small town she grew up in!
Sassy’s Siblings in birth oder are: Janie,Bill,Trisha,Jimmy,Liz,Kathryn,John,Laura and Lynn
I am in my Dad’s lap. Can you tell our Mom cut our bangs?
In order to be included in the drawing, you must post a comment about your favorite memory growing up in Kilgore or if you haven’t been there yet, then mention the landmark you would like to see first!
I will be giving away:
*Four tickets to the Taste,Trade and Music Fest on April 24th www.kilgorechamber.com for details.
*Free entry for up to a family of five to the East Texas Oil Museum www.easttexasoilmuseum.com.
*One ticket for each performance for a total of 4 tickets to the 2012 main stage productions of the Texas Shakespeare Festival www.texasshakespeare.com.
*Hair Day Salon Service by Laurie Thrower-Day which includes your choice of a Keratin blow-out 140.00 service , non chemical relaxer for curly, frizz etc. includes hair care products or a color service up to 3 colors, cut and style. Phone 903-984-5150.
*$25 Gift certificate to Nanny’s Goats www.nannygoatscafe.com.
Here are all the links in case you missed a post!
http://livinsassy.com/2012/03/shopping-and-eating-under-the-oil-derricks/
http://livinsassy.com/2012/03/our-love-note-to-downtown-kilgore/
http://livinsassy.com/2012/03/must-sees-while-in-kilgoretexas/
http://livinsassy.com/2012/03/feel-pampered-at-lauries-hair-day-salon/
http://livinsassy.com/2012/03/sassy-on-the-street-from-kilgore/
Dang, I was busy! Now Ya’ll get busy and post. Remember you must post a comment about your favorite memory or which landmark you most want to visit in Kilgore in order to be eligible for the giveaway!
You have until next Friday, April 6th to enter.
Love Y’all and Love Kilgore!
My favorite memory of growing up in Kilgore is the wonderful neighbor we lived in (and my mom and stepdad still live there). Highland Park, corner of Hart and Highland! What an awesome neighborhood it was. Some of our neighbors included Jo and Ann Kemp, the Dukes boys, the Keys, the Clearys, the Bumgardeners, Jackie Evans, me and my sis Claudia and brother Ron, and did I mention the Ott’s!!!! We danced to the Flight of the Bumble Bee and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Ott’s living room. We picked blackberries in the woods and waded in Turkey Creek to catch crawdads. We rode our bikes to the Midget Market to buy penny candy. And yes we even rode our bikes to Chandler School. And I must not leave out Blue Top Grocery. I also remember riding with Mrs. Ott to Buddy’s Grocery on Harris St . We couldn’t wait for school to be out for summer so we could play “school” on the Keys patio. And best of all our mother’s didn’t have to worry when we were at a neighbors house. Oh and I must mention Mr. and Mrs. App and the yearly cookout he had for the neighbor kids. He mowed his yard in dress slacks, dress shoes, white shirt and tie, and a hat. Such wonderful memories. Those were my Wonder Years.
OK, Kilgore, some of my fondest memories have to include those wonderful Christmas parades where you spent the evening underneath those wonderful decorated derricks as the Kilgore College Rangerettes strutted by in their smart red, white and blue uniforms. I truly believed that this was how everyone celebrated. How I longed to be able to strut, too. Riding on floats, marching in the bands, or sitting on a corner watching it all go by, there was a role of joy for everyone.
One favorite memory? That’s a tough one; there are so many! I suppose one of them would be going to the old drive-in movie theater and swinging on the swings while watching the movie on summer nights. That property is now in the hands of Kilgore ISD and two new schools are currently being built on it. Also included in the long list of my favorite memories would be shopping downtown with my mother at the Toggery, Longhorn Drug Store, Sears and Roebuck Catalog Sales shop, The Western Auto, and picking up our mail at the old Post Office (I still love that old building). I also grew up with some of the best people I’ve ever met, and still have the honor of calling them my friends. Band trips, parades, football games and the after-game bonfires, high school dances and performances (I remember the Junior Jollies, do you?) and playing army with the boys in my neighborhood are others that would certainly be on that list! Thanks for doing this, Livin’ Sassy…typing this just now has brought back a flood of wonderful memories from growing up in this little boom-town called Kilgore, Texas!!
I just LOVED hearing about my old hometown, Kilgore, and seeing pictures of some of my beautiful high school classmates! These gorgeous girls have not aged a BIT in almost 30 years!! Growing up in a small town is something you can’t possibly comprehend unless you’ve lived it yourself… But let me try to explain it…..although many of us have moved away and live scattered all over the state and country, there is still a beautiful closeness amongst us….We cry with each other in times of loss and trials, pray with and for each other, and rejoice in each other’s joys and accomplishments. It is a closeness that outsiders find curious, as their childhood relationships have mostly faded away over the years.
There are so many memories it’s hard to just pick one or two….I guess I’d have to say that Maude Laird Middle School and Kilgore High School hold a great deal of those memories, as we all spent so much time in school each day. I moved to Kilgore in 6th grade, and having lived many other places (Austin, TX, Bossier City, LA and Monroe, LA prior), things were much different in this new town…..my new classmates, most of which had grown up together since birth, welcomed me just like I was one of their own. Just before my senior year my Daddy took a job in West Texas, and we moved to Midland….I went from a graduating class of about 200 to a class of over 600, and I can tell you that it was quite a different scene there…..it was a cold and unfriendly place, for the most part, and if you didn’t grow up there, well, you just didn’t belong. As you can probably guess, I still call Kilgore “home”.
Some of my memories are from football games….a sea of red and white cheering our team on, (you’ve all heard about those “Friday night lights” in Texas!), and watching our amazing hi-steppers perform. Football games were not only an athletic event, but a social gathering as well. I can remember seeing the same parents and grandparents sitting in the same reserved seats for years….there’s just something about routine and familiarity that soothes the soul.
The high school had an open campus, and across the street was the “High School Inn”, where they served up frito-chili pie, fried burritos, etc…..wonderfully healthy lunches that our current school districts would NEVER let OUR children eat these days! During lunch and break, we hung out on the school lawn, talking, eating, playing catch or Frisbee….. and Kilgore was where I got my first kiss, and met my very first boyfriend. Oh, to be young again!
I remember performances at the Dodson Auditorium at Kilgore College (the high school didn’t have an auditorium large enough for our Talent Shows, Beauty Pageants, etc.) and hanging around the college with some of the college boys we knew. And let’s not forget snowcones across the street from the baseball field!! What a treat on a hot, East Texas afternoon!
I remember the Christmas parades in downtown Kilgore….standing in freezing cold in the shelter of the old store fronts, and trying to catch a glimpse of Santa at the end. I remember swimming in the city pool in the summer, sliding down the snow-covered hills when it snowed in the winter (not frequently, but it DID snow!), and Prom at the Community Inn. I also remember from time to time someone would put detergent in the fountain in front of the Community Inn, so that it overflowed with soap suds! lol
We didn’t have many restaurants for most of the time that I lived there…..we had a Dairy Queen, Pizza Inn, Whataburger, and even a Mr. Gattis Pizza (I think that’s right), and on Sundays there was brunch at the Community Inn …when I was a sophomore or junior in high school, we got a McDonald’s, and we sure thought we were up-town!! We didn’t have a movie theatre, so it was a big deal to go to Longview to catch a show.
I loved going to the public library, especially throughout the summer. I loved to read, and we had a beautiful library, housed in a very old stone building with beautiful stained glass windows….I can still close my eyes and smell the aroma of all of those books.
I can also remember when the East Texas Oil Museum first opened….I enjoyed it then, but as I’ve gotten older and gone back several times with friends and family, I appreciate it even more. …and let’s not forget the Rangerette Showcase….a museum cataloging the history of the World-Famous Kilgore Rangerettes! You won’t be sorry you went!
Kilgore is a quaint little town, and a wonderful place to raise a family. I could go on and on…..but then you might never go check out Kilgore for yourself!
My favorite memory of Kilgore. I’m like some of the rest there are so many. The great Christmas parades and the way Kilgore decorates the oil derricks and downtown. Going to Rangerette Revels every year and watching with pride the World Famous Rangerette’s show off their talent. The Friday nights during football season spending at the stadium with literally everybody in town cheering on the mighty Bulldogs with the stands filled with only red and white. The Kilgore High School band and their sharp military style performing at half time and then all of us being right back in the same spot on Saturday nights with our blue and white on to cheer the Rangers and enjoy the Rangeretts and their famous high kick routine. But I think some pictures that Cheryl posted this week brought back my fondest memory of playing in the park. Going down the rocket slide, being pushed round and round on the merry go round until you were green in the face and just as you got yourself back together getting right back on hollering do it again do it again. This is a memory I not only have of doing myself but I have also had the joy of sharing and watching my daughter doing the same thing. No matter how old we got we still loved playing in that park. I love growing up in Kilgore and the wonderful bond that was made between all of us that grew up there. We had our moments with each other but boy don’t let anyone from anywhere else mess with someone from Kilgore it didn’t matter if that person was your least favorite person you were always going to stand up for them when it came to an out of towner. Great times and a wonderful place to raise your children. 🙂
Thanks for all the wonderful comments. I swear I am getting teary eyed reading them! We do love our hometown! Love you all so much!
Some of us have yet to leave the lovely little nest that is Kilgore, and I profess to being of them. I have been in Kilgore since I was 3 and right here on Longview Street since I was 10 years old, with a very short digression that I have all but forgotten in the early 90’s. I live one short block from the High School and one short block from Downtown and when I think of my favorite memories they include watching our little town go by from my front porch swing. I have counted those lighted stars atop the derricks from my childhood bedroom window on a thousand sleepless nights. I have walked the warm, sunlit sidewalks between my house, the city pool, the park and the library till they must surely be smooth with the proof. I have ridden my bike to the baseball park and the cemetery and to my best friend’s house a million muggy summer afternoons. I marched up and down the football field and felt the grass between my toes. I was scared to death my first day of Kilgore College along with every single other one of my classmates as we went en masse to 13th grade. I have had the same insurance agent for 30 years and can drop by just to say hello. Our family doctor always asks how each of us is doing, no matter which of us he’s treating. These are both the memories and realities of a town that is small enough to walk around but big enough to reach, really reach those within its tree-lined limits.
I just love all these comments~What wonderful testaments to our hometown! Love ya’ll so much!