There were squeals of delight when I contacted my high school friends to meet me over spring break so we could show off our hometown of Kilgore, Texas. We all currently live in various parts of the state so I had to juggle travel and busy schedules of all these Sassy Mom models but we finally had a date and time to meet so I could take their pictures for the website.
We are so proud of the new look and feel of downtown. We couldn’t wait to share with you the transformation our town has gone through the last few years. I knew there were lots of places to shop and eat but I didn’t realize just how many until we were walking all around to the various stores. Here are some pictures of our wonderful day together in downtown Kilgore.
Cheryl is ready for her full day of shopping. Her trendy colored top was found at Heart to Heart. She is a very successful sales director and travels all over the country but there is nothing better than coming home to East Texas.
Terri found the perfect baby gifts while she chats with Melissa. I think they’ve been best friends longer than Gayle and Oprah! Oh, I just love these pretty girls so much!
Joy found this wonderful dress at Calamity Jane’s. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in nearby Longview. She loves the selections of the stores in Kilgore. I don’t think she could look prettier in it if she tried!
We were starving! Shopping and modeling is an awful lot of work! Look who we ran into in Nanny Goat’s? The lovely Chantal and her boyfriend Tracy. They went to school with all of us. Chantal told me that Tracy said as he walked in the restaurant ,”there’s a bunch of loud,cackling ladies having a good ‘ol time on the balcony over there.” Sassy Models cackle. We are not ashamed!
Enjoying the outdoor dining scene at Nanny Goats. We loved seeing Lee Ann. She was in town for spring break too! You always run into someone you know in a small town.
I have lived in Dallas and San Antonio and I have never seen such a beautiful store as Two O Five. It was just incredible inside and outside. Thank you Justin for showing us around!
Time for another break from shopping. Sally and Vickie are relaxing on one of the many seating areas in the coffee shop. They now live in the same town not too far from Kilgore. Sally (on the left) is a wonderful teacher just like her Mom and Dad. Vickie is the director of a museum. Sally is showing off her new blouse from Lucky Cowgirl next door to the coffee shop. Vickie found hers at Calamity Jane’s!
We couldn’t resist a “Friend” picture on their comfy couch! They have WIFI too in the coffee shop but we were too busy shopping to take advantage.
It was a pretty hot day for March so we stopped at Napoli’s for something else to drink and cool off. We couldn’t resist their bread. It was delicious! Isn’t the street view just beautiful?
We hope you enjoyed our day in downtown Kilgore. Come and visit real soon.
You will be glad you did!
Although we have all taken very different paths in life and live all over the state, it was very important to all of us to take the time to celebrate where we all came from.
There is just no place like home.
Stay Sassy Y’all.
I love it. Thanks Laura.
Laura,
I love it!! Great job!!!
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!
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!
Can’t wait to visit Kilgore this summer. So many places downtown I haven’t seen yet. Who owns Two OFive? Thanks for Kilgore info and pics! Love it!
I love all of your posts about Kilgore. I am happy that I grew up there and will always consider it home no matter where I may roam. It is exciting to see all of the new stores in the downtown area. We were there last week and had a wonderful time.