Granddaddy’s Musings
I will do my best to do this chronologically, but at this stage of life, I'm sure that will not be the case. God has given me a full and blessed life and for any victories or successes, I may have enjoyed He gets all the Glory. For all the failures and defeats I bear total responsibility. So, I will start with some basic personal history.
One of the fondest memories I have is growing up in the small town of Garland, Texas. Didn’t realize it at the time, but I was truly blessed. Garland was a peaceful place for a boy to grow into manhood. The year I started Elementary School, 1940, the population was 1941, that's one thousand nine hundred forty-one. Hard to believe since now the population is perhaps more than 200,000.My Grandmother, Cora May Schafer, my Dad’s Mom, raised me from the time I was about 18 months old. My Mother (Gladys Faye McGee) and Father (Roy Leonard Schafer) were both young and found it difficult to take care of a little boy. Also, as I have come to think in later years, my Grandmother probably pressured them into giving me to her. She was a strong-willed woman who pretty well ruled the whole family. I have no complaints about that, although I did miss having a family with Father-Mother. My Grandmother, who will be known from this point as Mama did a good job providing for us and keeping me in check.
I can remember as a little boy going to visit Mother & Daddy in Dallas. They had an apartment somewhere off South Harwood. I would spend a week or two with them and then go back to Mama's. I remember our visiting a tent revival near Fair Park. We walked to get there and sat not too far from the front. There was sawdust under the chairs and over the ground. They had a choir up on a platform, but I can't remember how large a crowd they might have had, nor do I remember anything else about the service. As I think back now it would have been great if they had gotten saved at that time and put our family together for good, not to be. Besides, God had different plans for my life.
I have been surprised to find out that I happened to be at Mother and Daddy's, in Dallas, when the 1940 Census taker came. When the Census taker in Garland, came to Mama's, Willie Maud and Glen was living in the house with her. That caught me by surprise when I saw the record.
- I'm going to insert a bit of history/trivia here about Billie. We knew her biological Father's name was Nelson Barton. That's all we knew about him, her mother would never talk about him. Papa Dewey adopted Billie when she was a little girl and her Barton birth record was closed/removed or something, so she was only known as Thomason on her Birth Certificate. Anyway, in researching the 1940 Census for her I found that she and Mama Lucille lived together with Pampa and Mamma McWhirter in Greenville. Both their surnames were Barton in 1940, so we are not really sure as to the exact date she officially became a Thomason. She could not have had a better Daddy than Dewey Thomason.
To be continued..........
