My First Motorcycle

My First Motorcycle

Pictured above is a 1942 Harley Davidson WLA Military Motorcycle,
My first motorcycle was much like the one pictured above, less
the windshield and rifle rack. My motorcycle, however had the original
military leather saddle bags. It had been painted black, the same color of
APD motorcycles at the time.

  

By J. Bryan Wasson

It was a motorcycle that caused me to meet my wife, Shirley. I was a Motor Officer with the Abilene, Texas Police Department at the time we met. It was also a motorcycle that came close to ending a very short marriage.

There is no doubt in my mind that the happiest period in my life as a law enforcement officer was the five years that I rode a motorcycle in the Traffic Division of the Abilene Police Department. I was on duty from the time I stepped out of the house in the morning and through my leg over that motorcycle until I got off the motorcycle at my home at the end of my shift. Can you imagine, getting paid to do what you loved to do most? Therein lays the problem.

I did not own a motorcycle when Shirley and I first got married; I just rode a motorcycle owned by the Abilene Police Department for eight hours per day. Soon after we were married, I purchased my first motorcycle, a 1942 Harley Davidson WLA, U.S. Army surplus motorcycle in mint condition. The Motor Officers rotated shifts. Some of us went in early for the early morning traffic. Some came in later and stayed on duty until the 5:00PM traffic rush was over.

Shirley was working at the S&H Green Stamp Store. She did not get off until 5:00PM or after. On the days that I worked the early shift, I would be home by 3:30PM. I would park my Police motorcycle, run up the stairs of our garage apartment, change out of my uniform and then back down the stairs. I would then mount my own personal motorcycle and be gone again. I would ride until about 9:00PM and then come home. My wife asked me point blank, “don’t you get enough motorcycle riding in eight hours?” My answer was, “well, no.” She then explained to me in a way that I could understand that this was not normal behavior for any husband, let alone a newlywed. I soon sold my first motorcycle. ---------Many other motorcycles would follow, however.






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Looking Back by J. Bryan Wasson
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J. Bryan Wasson

Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Month

2010 Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

Abilene, Taylor County, Texas

 The month of May is National Law Enforcement Officers Month. Memorial Services for fallen Law Enforcement Officers are conducted throughout the nation during the month of May. The Taylor County Commissioners Court as well as the Abilene City Council proclaimed the week of May 9th - 15th as National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Week. It was my honor to answer the Roll Call for my dad, at the Roll Call of fallen Law Enforcement Officers at the Memorial Service at McMurry University in Abilene on May 5th. My dad, Taylor County Deputy Sheriff J. B. "Jake" Wasson is listed on the Lost Lawman Memorial located at the Offices of the Sheriffs' Association of Texas in Austin and on the Texas Peace Officer Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin. Please check out the web site of the Sheriff's Association of Texas under links on this blog. Click on Lost Lawman Memorial on that site. Then check by county or by officer's name.

My dad, Taylor County Deputy Sheriff, J.B. "Jake" Wasson;
End of Watch January 12, 1967

It is ironic that as we made plans to attend this memorial service in Abilene that an Abilene Police Dept. Motor Officer, Rodney Holder was killed while in pursuit of a traffic violator at So. 12th & Sales Blvd, just a few blocks from the site of the Memorial Service.

Memorial Table at front of room, Photo by Richard Valdez, APD Retired.

Back of Program for Law Enforcement Memorial Service
Inside of Program at right below:

APD Badge with black Mourning Band
in honor of fallen officers

Front of Program

 Program For Law Enforcement
Memorial Service

Flap Pole in front of Garrison Center,
location of Memorial Service

L to R:  Retired APD Officer Richard Valdez,
J. Bryan Wasson; Abilene Chief of Police Stan Standrige

Officer Jim Davis, son of  long time dear friend,
 the late APD Sgt. Bill Davis;
Jim also has a son on the Abilene Police Force;
When he graduated from the Abilene Police Academy,
Jim pinned Bill Davis' badge on him.
(Photo by Richard Valdez)

APD Chaplin Donna Kleman, Motor Officer Mike Richer

Motor Officer War Stories:
L T R: Mike Ricker, Terry Monroe, J. Bryan Wasson

Myself and my bride of 54 years enter the Garrison
Center for the Law Enforcement Memorial Service
(Photo Courtesy, Richard Valdez)

Abilene Police Department Motor Officer, Rodney Holder;
End of Watch, April 29, 2010


Military Law Enforcement - USAF Security Forces

1st Lt. Joseph D. Heltton, USAF Security Forces

End of Watch: Sept. 8, 2009

This year fallen Military Law Enforcement Officers were honored.  To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time military law enforcement was included in this memorial service. An Officer from Dyess AFB 7th Security Forces Squadron was on the program. Police cars from Dyess AFB Security Forces also participated in the funeral procession of Motor Officer Rodney Holder. I appreciate the participation by and the honoring of fallen military law enforcement officers as my own law enforcement career started in the US Air Force in what was then known as  Air Police and is now known as Security Forces.  I once wore the badge pictured above with the wording, "Air Police" rather than, "Security Police. While a member of the Abilene Police Department, I was also in the Air Force Reserve and assigned to the Base Police Squadron at Dyess, AFB.

This Memorial Service could not have occurred without the hard work of APD Chaplin Donna Kleman. She is known to most people as Chaplin Donna. She had lots of help including Chaplins from other Departments, but my hat is off to Chaplin Donna. Surely God sent her to do a special work. Many thanks to McMurry University and to many members of the McMurry Staff for hosting the 2010 Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Service.

**************************************************************************************************

(Special Note:) Tuesday, May 11, 2010
APD Mourns the Loss Of Another Officer

Officer Boyd Burns

I have been informed that Officer Boyd Burns, a 25 year veteran of the Abilene Police Department,  passed away  last night at his residence in Potosi.  No indications of anything other than natural causes were present at the residence. One source advised  that it was believed to be the result of a heart attack.

*****************************************************
Wichita Falls, Texas

The Wichita Falls Police Department conducted a Memorial Service for fallen Wichita Falls Police Officers on  May 10, 2010. Six fallen officers were honored. The name of Motor Officer Hugh Fuller was added to the Memorial Stone in front of the Wichita Falls Police Department building the previous day. Officer Fuller died on October 22, 1927 while responding to a motor vehicle traffic accident at 9th & Bluff.


                                                    **********************************************

Bowie, Texas

At present time, I live in Bowie, Texas. To the best of my knowledge, the Bowie Police Department under Chief David Scruggs, is the only law enforcement agency that honors fallen officers by stars on the badge. Note: The two stars at the bottom of the badge in photo at right above.
The two fallen Bowie, Texas Officers are:
William H. (Jack) Hill, EOE July 6, 1932
Tommy L. Roland, EOW:  June 4, 1959

May 11, 2010, JBW












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Anniversary of Bombing of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

Anniversary of Bombing of Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building

Monday, April 19, 2010 was the 15th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The act of domestic terrorism was an attack on the United States and a national disaster. It had a special and emotional significance to me. I lost two very close friends and an acquaintance in that bombing.

I was working at my desk in the Arkansas Division of the Office of Motor Carriers, U.S. Department of Transportation in Little Rock Arkansas when we were notified that the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had been bombed. It took a few seconds for it to sink into my brain, the seriousness of the information we had just learned.

Everyone in our office went down the hall to the office of Senator David Pryor in which we knew there was a television set. Federal employees from various offices in our building gathered around the television in Senator Pryor's office to watch as the information unfolded.

I no longer remember how long it was before we learned the names of those in the Oklahoma Division of OMC who had been killed.

At some point in time we received information that State Director, Mike Carrillo, and Division Program Specialist, Rick Tomlin had been killed. We were advised that John Youngblood was injured, was hospitalized as critical, but was still alive.

During the time I had been assigned in South Carolina, I had become close friends with a fellow Safety Investigator in the North Carolina Division, Rick Tomlin. A few motor carriers had offices in both North and South Carolina. Some of these companies attempted to circumvent Federal Regulations by providing false information related to the location of company records. If an agent went to the South Carolina office, they would claim that all there records were in North Carolina and visa versa. We often met at Rock Hill South Carolina or Charlotte North Carolina to deal with investigations related to these carriers.

A vacancy became open in the Oklahoma City Division. I was extremely interested in a transfer to Oklahoma City because it would be much closer to my home in Texas. Both Rick and I applied for the same position. When Rick was given this transfer, we had a little bit of friendly joking about it. At our Regional Conference following the announcement that Rick got the transfer, I told him that he was the best ex-friend I ever had.

Rick was talking to his wife on the telephone when the explosion occurred. She heard the explosion on the telephone then the phone line went dead. John Youngblood appeared to be improving, but died about three days after the blast.

The death of John Youngblood was extremely ironic. My friend John Youngblood was State Programs Manager and full time instructor at the Howard Motor Carrier Safety Academy of the Transportation Safety Institute (TSI) in Oklahoma City. John recruited me to the Associate Staff (Part Time instructor) at TSI when the Howard Motor Carrier safety Academy was pulled out of TSI and moved to the Washington DC area, John did not want to leave Oklahoma City. He chose to take a voluntary downgrade to a Safety investigator position in order to remain in Oklahoma City. He had only been in his new job for a short time when the Murrah Federal Building was bombed

Not long prior to this, I had taught a class on Compliance Reviews at the North Campus of TSI, the site of John's office. Although I was working for John while teaching this class, John sat in on the class as a student, in order to learn his new duties as a soon to be Safety Investigator when the transfer was completed.

Had John accepted the transfer to Washington, DC, he would most likely be alive today. Had I received the transfer to Oklahoma City that I wanted so desperately, I most likely would not be alive today.
JBW, 04 -21- 2010

Poster placed on memorial fence at Oklahoma City National Memorial

Following the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, I placed the above poster on the chain link fence that became a memorial fence. This fence was placed around the site to keep people out during the clean up and the construction of the Oklahoma City National Memorial that was constructed on the site after clean up. Visitors to the site place all sorts of the items on this fence. The plan was to take the fence dwn after construction of the memorial. The fence and the items placed on it by visitors became so emotional for so many people, that a decision was made to keep the fence as part of the memorial. - See the related article that I have posted.

J. Bryan Wasson

Looking Back by J. Bryan Wasson

Wasson's Looking Back

Looking Back

The Waltons

By J. Bryan Wasson

There were a number of old Television series that I really loved, but one stands out above all the others. That program was, “The Waltons.” I liked the show because it was based upon the way day to day life was in that day. Most of all I liked it because of the parallels to my own life. I had lived it.

I was born in January of 1933. We were not yet out of a period known as “The Great Depression.” This bleak period in our history started with the failure of the stock market in 1929. Throughout most of my childhood, we were still feeling the effects of the depression. Most folks were unemployed and very few had any money. I could identify will all the aspects of the old Walton TV series. The story was set at a place known as Walton’s Mountain Virginia. Whether the setting was a fictitious place or a real location is not known to me. If “Walton’s Mountain“ was a fictitious place, the circumstances, life styles and conditions were real and not unlike my life in west central Texas.

My maternal grandparents lived in the rural Truby community of Jones County, Texas. Truby was very much like Walton’s Mountain in many ways. My grandparents lived in this community throughout most of my childhood and into the years I was in the U.S. Air Force. For most of this time they lived on the Spurgeon Reeves place. The house was within 200 yards of Bitter Creek. The Clear fork of the Brazos River was located about 3 miles north on a gravel road. Steel overhead framed wooden bridges spanned both Bitter Creek and the Clear fork.

Unlike Walton’s Mountain,” there were no mountains and no pine trees. The property on which the house was located joined a mesquite pasture. I spent a lot of time roaming and exploring in that pasture and other area mesquite pastures along with my Uncle, Mack Sterling. Mack was a couple of years younger than me. He was and is more like a brother than an uncle. This was farm and ranch country. Everything was cultivated fields or mesquite pasture.

Not far from the Clear fork of the Brazos River was the Truby General Store. It was much like Ike Godsey’s store in the Walton’s shows. As best as I can remember there were two gasoline pumps in front of the store. One was for regular gasoline and the other was for Ethyl gasoline. The Godsey store only had one gasoline pump. These were hand pump, gravity feed devices. There was a glass cylinder at the top. Inside the cylinder were markers to indicate the number of gallons. The desired number of gallons was pumped up into the cylinder by hand. Gasoline was then gravity fed through a hose and nozzle into the gas tank of the motor vehicle. In those days, no one filled the car’s gas tank because no one could afford to do so. For the most part, people pumped from one to five gallons. Often it was “one dollar’s worth.” I no longer remember the price of gasoline in those days, but by the time I had joined the U.S. Air Force in 1951, gasoline was 19 cents per gallon. Oh for a return to those gasoline prices.

I sure enjoyed the trips to that store, just as the Walton children did on the TV series. I no longer remember the name of the owner of the store at Truby. Groceries could be purchased. The stock was mostly canned goods, but occasionally there was some fresh produce from one of the local farms. Sometimes there were bolts of cloth and always there was candy. Most candy bars came in two sizes. There was the penny size and the nickel size. Most often the penny size was all my uncle and I could afford. The nickel sizes were as big as or maybe bigger than a candy bar that cost 75 cents or up to more than a dollar today. My grandparents maintained a running tab at the store. The owner had a little book for each family. Things that were purchased were recorded along with the price.

When my Grandfather could find temporary work, the bill was paid. He was a carpenter. Sometimes he got work from one of two Government agencies repairing the numerous wooden bridges that dotted the dirt and gravel county roads. There were three Government Agencies designed to provide jobs to unemployed people in those hard times. One was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Another other was the Public Works Administration (PWA). I always got these two agencies mixed up. A third agency was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCP). This agency did construction jobs in National and State Parks and military camps. I do not remember if the CCC came into play in the Walton’s T.V. series.

Truby had a rural schoolhouse not unlike that on the Walton’s T.V. series. Classes in the Truby School went from the First Grade through High School.

I remember the show when John Boy Walton was given a gray mule named Blue. He acquired the mule from a Black woman who lived high on Walton’s Mountain. The mule remained a part of the show for many years. I noticed that the same mule was not always used throughout the series. The original Blue was a little mule weighing about 700 pounds. In later shows a larger mule played the part of Blue. In one episode, John Boy won an annual horse race to the top of the mountain and back riding Blue. He won the race by cutting across through steep terrain that the horses could not climb. John Boy used a McClellan saddle for the horse race. Today there is no better saddle for use on mules and donkeys than the McClellan.

On one episode, the Walton family sold Blue for $15.00. When the Waltons started to grind Sugar Cain, they regretted selling the mule. They first attempted to use the family milk cow, Chance, to power the mill. This was not very successful and they were later able to buy Blue back for the same price of $15.00 and successfully were able to grind the Sugar Cain with the aid of mule power.

The Walton family had one thing that my grandparents did not have, that was electricity. Our light was from kerosene ( we called it coal oil) lamps. The Walton Family would gather around the radio at night to listen Fibber Magee and Molly, Amos and Andy and other radio shows that I was very familiar with. There was often a lot of static and poor reception, but that did not deter the family.

The radio at my grandparent’s home was battery powered. There was a wind charger mounted on top of the house to charge the radio battery. If there was no wind, the radio battery did not charge. There were three 15 minute afternoon country music shows that I liked to listen to. They were Sheb Wooly, Dale Dunbar and Big Bill Lister. We also liked to listen to the afternoon Lum and Abner Show from Pine Ridge, Arkansas. The Jottem down Store and Library that was the home of the Lum and Abner radio show is still open at Pine Ridge Arkansas. It serves as the Post Office, general store, as well as a museum of this famous old radio show.

These shows were about all we could listed to in the afternoon as my grandfather rationed the amount of day time radio that we could listen to in order to ensure sufficient battery power for the evening and night shows that the entire family listened to. My granddad loved to listen to boxing matches. No radio program could interfere with these prize fights.

My Daddy purchased a farm in the Potosi community of Taylor County, Texas in late 1947 or early 1948 or 49. The parallels to the Walton show continued. There was a Country store at Potosi. This store was much like the country store at Truby and Ike Godsey’s Store on the Waltons show. About a mile further south on a gravel road was an old country school house, also not unlike the one at Truby and the school on the Walton’s show. The School building at Potosi was no longer used as a School, but was used as a Community Center. It was the focal point of all community activities.

When we moved to Potosi, the telephones in the area were still the old crank phones hanging on the wall. Our nearest neighbor had one of these phones, but we did not have one. When there was an emergency, we would go there to use the phone. If some of our relatives believed there was an emergency, they would call these neighbors. One of the kids from the neighbor family would deliver the message to us in person. There was no privacy. It was a party line. If anyone’s phone rang, everyone on the line would pick up their phone to catch up on the latest gossip.

Every time I see a rerun of one of the old Walton TV shows, I relive those early days of my youth at Truby and at Potosi. I think it would be nice if we could slow the hectic pace of our daily lives down a little. I do enjoy things like having electricity, central heat and air conditioning, television, a cell phone, and other modern conveniences. Looking back, however, it often seems that those days from the past were in fact, “the good old days.”

O2-03, JBW



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