Trooper Killed In Line Of Duty

This Texas Highway Patrol Car was parked in front of White Family Funeral Home
in Bowie, Texas with a single wreath on the windshield. People started adding flowers
 and small flags to the back and sides of the Patrol Car as a tribute to Texas Highway Patrol
Cpl.  David Slaton. Cpl. Slaton's body was inside the funeral under the protective and respectful eyes of two
Texas DPS State Troopers pending Funeral on Sept. 24, 2010 at First Baptist Church, Bowie.

The above composite photo is a tribute to my friend, Highway Patrol Cpl David Slaton. Cpl. Slaton died Sept. 20, 2010 as he responded to a complaint of cows on the road on U.S. Highway 81. His shift was to end in one hour. He had talked to his wife on the phone about 20 minutes earlier and said, "If I don't get those cows off the road, someone is going to get killed." His Patrol car struck a cow  which knocked the Patrol car into the path of an 118 wheeler on this narrow two lane highway. He was the friendliest guy I ever met, yet tough as nails when necessary. I was Chief of Police when he came to to Bowie as his first and only duty station after graduating from the DPS Academy. He met a girl, Lynetta Boudreaux, that was a Bowie Police Department Dispatcher.  I had hired Lynetta not long before David came to Bowie. Love and marriage followed for David and Lynetta. David and Lynetta had one son, Bo who is a college student.

My wife took a number of photos of the Highway Patrol car  parked in front of the Funeral Home with its' wreaths, flowers, and flags. It was a cloudy day. As we drove away from the funeral home, I spotted the Texas flag flying in the distance against a cloudy sky background. I asked my wife to stop and take a photo of it. This flag seemed to me to be a fitting tribute to a fallen Texas State Trooper. I added more clouds to the sky and made the above composite photograph as a tribute to my friend. 

I Love you Lynetta, Bo and, LaVelle. I am sorry that I did not get to know David's parents.

Parkinson's Disease

I started developing symptoms of Parkinson's Disease about four years ago. It did not affect my guitar playing until slightly over a year ago. I was entertaining at a meeting of Senior Focus, an activity sponsored by Bowie Memorial Hospital. I noticed that I was having difficulty controlling my hands and my fingers. That was the last public entertainment I have done with my guitar.

Since that time, I have continued to sing without my guitar. I have sung in my own Church as well as many other churches for many years, always with my guitar. On August 8, 2010, I sang at my home church, First Baptist Church, Bowie, Texas for the very first time ever without my guitar. You can see a video of that song at Bowie Texas Area Music http://bowietexasareamusic.blogspot.com/ . You can also see it on YouTube along with two other videos. In one of the other videos, I am singing a song entitled, "A Little Spot in Heaven"written by Marty Robbins. Harold Goad of The Village Singers played lead guitar for me on that song. Note: If you do not have any CDs of the Village Singers, you are missing some great music. I had only one mic on that one and Harold's guitar is the only one you can hear. The other video is a Jam session at the home of Chuck and Faith Duffin.

I continue sing on a regular basis at the Friday Night Jam Session at the Bowie Senior Citizens Center. I also "plunk" around on my guitar almost daily for physical therapy. I find that it helps with the use of my hands and fingers. It has no value, however, with tremors.

I had a video of myself posted on this website, plunking on my guitar at home. I called the video Eppiphone therapy. I decided that the video served no purpose and removed it from this site.

Parkinson's is a horrible, strange and unpredictable disease. It affects the brain and central nervous system. Although I continue to sing, my voice is weaker now and I suspect it will continue to grow weaker. Some Parkinson's victims loose all oral communication. Fatigue also seems to affect the disease. Occasionally on rare days it seems that the Parkinson's does not exist. On Thursday, June 3, I picked up my guitar for my regular therapy session. I was able to play smooth, correct and without a single error. I wish I could do that all the time, but it just is not to be.

 

First published June 5, 2010, JBW
Revised and Video removed Sept. 7, 2010, JBW

J. Bryan Wasson
Bowie, Texas Area Music - Remember Music is Good For You !

The Business Card

My business card while assigned to the Arkansas Division.
My first duty station with UDOT was with the South Carolina Division,
with headquarters in Columbia, SC. I was in the Arkansas Division
at the time of my retirement.

Looking Back – The Business Card


By J. Bryan Wasson

The business card has become so much a part of the operations of nearly all business and governmental institutions that is difficult to consider day to day business without them. Such cards under the name of, “calling cards” were used as far back as the 1800s.

All U.S. Government agencies use them. The U.S. Department of Transportation is made up of a number of operating administrations  such as the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, The Federal Aviation Administration, The Federal Railroad Administration, etc. All business cards for the U.S. Department are of the same basic design. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation logo known as a Triscallion is in the upper left hand corner with one exception, the Federal Aviation Administration which uses its own logo that predates the establishment of the U.S. DOT. (Note: During my tenure with U.S. DOT, there was another exception, the U.S. Coast Guard which also predated the establishment of the U.S. DOT and has its own logo. The U.S. Coast Guard is now under The Department of Homeland Security and at that time was under the Treasury Department.) The only thing different about the cards was the name of the individual, the operating administration, the office address and phone number as well as job title or position. The job title on my own business card was Special Agent.

All Federal Agencies Have an Inspector General (IG). In cop talk that is cop talk for Internal Affairs. The Office of the IG for the U.S. Department of Transportation also had other functions including the investigation of fraud related to construction on Interstate Highways and other Federal Aid Highways.

I had conducted a couple of investigations related to an Arkansas motor carrier. For some reason the office of the IG had become interested in that same motor carrier. I don’t know if their investigation related to my investigations of that motor carrier or something else related to that specific motor carrier.

A Special Agent from the office of the IG showed up in our office and asked for all files related to that specific motor carrier. He introduced himself and gave me his business card and I stuck it in my pocket. Remember, the job title on his business card was Special Agent, the same as that on my own business cards. There was a vacant cubical directly across from my cubical that we always used to set up folks from other offices who needed a temporary place to work while in the Arkansas Division Office. This guy from the IG office was set up in that cubical. From that location he could see and hear everything I did.

This guy had less than zero personality. One day, I answered my phone on a routine matter that had absolutely nothing to do with his investigation. He could only hear my end of the conversation. When I hung up the phone, he proceeded to tell me that I did not handle that phone call properly and that that was not what he would have said. He should not have been eavesdropping and it was none of his business. It sort of raised my hackles.

When I changed shirts, I always transferred the contents of my shirt pocket to the other shirt. His business card therefore remained in my shirt pocket for quiet some time.

A few weeks later, I encountered another person who was very unhappy about something. This guy had a bad attitude and would not have been happy if he had been about to be hung with a brand new rope. At the conclusion of our conversation, I remembered the business card that I had in my shirt pocket from the other very unpleasant guy from the office of the IG. In my mind, I thought that these two very unpleasant guys might just hit it off great. I reached in my pocket and handed the man the business card of the Special Agent from the office of the IG. I said, “Give me a call if I can assist you with anything.” That was the last I ever heard from either of these two tormented souls.


09-04, JBW

A little Spot In Heaven

In this Video I am singing, "A Little Spot In Heaven", written by

Marty Robbins, at First Baptist Church, Bowie. I am being backed up by

Harold Goad of The Village Singers. Harold Goad is one of the greatest guitar players

you will ever find. If you have not heard the Village Singers, you need to get some of their CDs.

There CDs are available at, The Music Shed which you can find on the web.

You can also do a Google search for The Village Singers, and find other

sources for their music. If you ever get a chance to go to a Village Singers concert, you are in for a treat.

Flying Newspapers

Elevators in buildings today are self – serve. You just get in and punch the button representing the floor you wish to go to. It was not always this way. During the 1930s and 40s there was an Elevator Operator. This person usually sat on a tall stool and operated the controls. The controls were most often a round wheel looking device with a handle on it. The Operator used this device to stop at the desired floor and to open the doors. The method of operation was by cranking the wheel to a specific location that made the elevator go up, stop or go down and to open the doors. Most often there was no (inside) doors mounted on the elevator car. The doors were mounted to the walls of the building. The passengers could see the walls of the building as they went up and down. The floor numbers were often painted on the wall as the only means to tell what floor had been reached.

In office buildings many offices subscribed for one or more copies of the local newspaper. A newspaper delivery person would make the rounds of office buildings before daylight and place a stack of newspapers inside an open elevator. When the elevator operator came on duty, the first order of business was to go to each floor and deliver the appropriate number of newspapers to each office on that floor. This process was repeated until every office in a building received its newspaper or newspapers.

By the time I was in the second grade, I was very familiar with every square inch of one office building, including it’s’ elevator. My mother worked as a Dental Assistant on the 3rd floor of a building known as the Alexander Building in downtown Abilene, Texas. I rode the elevator frequently as I visited the office where my mother worked. Our family physician, Dr. Prichard also had his offices in that same building. I often roamed the halls of all seven floors of the building. By today’s standards, a seven story building is not very tall, but in the early 40s to a child seven stories was very high up in the air.

I watched many parades through downtown Abilene from an office window or from the fire escape of that building. Throughout World War II troops from nearby Camp Barkley paraded through the streets of downtown Abilene. There was also the annual parade for the West Texas Fair. It was always led by the world famous six white horses of Hardin Simmons University.

Now I will fast forward to 1954. I had served a hitch in the U.S. Air Force and had become a member of the Abilene Police Department. The Abilene Police Department no longer uses foot patrolmen, but when I went to work, a downtown walking beat on the mid night shift was considered to be a good starting place for a rookie. In those days, shifts were not rotated. All rookies started on the 11:00PM to 7:00AM midnight shift.

It was a very cold night with a cold Texas north wind blowing. On that night I was assigned to the Pine Street Beat. The Pine Street Beat ran from North 1st Street to North 6th Street. The East/West boundaries were from the alley east of Walnut to the alley between Pine and Cypress. I had been walking sidewalks and alleys checking doors and windows on places of business since 11:00PM. It was about 4:30AM. I needed a break to rest my feet and warm my body for a while. Officers in patrol cars could stop at an all night cafe and drink hot coffee. There was no such luxury for downtown beat walking officers. But, I knew a place I could rest my feet and warm up.

I was aware that the doors into the lobby of the Alexander building were never locked at night. I also knew that the two elevator cars were parked on the first floor with the doors open. I also knew of that tall stool used by the elevator operator.

I walked into the lobby and entered one of the elevators where I proceeded to get comfortable on that tall stool. This was nice. I was warm and cozy and my feet got a much needed rest. I had sat there in the dark elevator long enough that my eyes became adjusted to the light. At about 5:00AM, I heard the front door to the lobby open. Then a delivery person walked into the elevator with a tall stack of newspapers. Just coming in from outside, he did not see me sitting there in the dark. I said, “Good morning.” He screamed, threw up his arms and newspapers went flying everywhere. He must have been in a hurry to deliver the rest of his papers because his exit from the building was extremely rapid. I decided that this would be a good time for me to return to my beat.



Cartoon by Mack Sterling: Mack is my uncle. We grew up together and
he is more like a brother than an uncle. Mack is also a former Abilene
Police Officer.


O2-03, JBW;



Wasson's Looking Back
Looking Back by J. Bryan Wasson
Looking Back