West Texas Cosmopolitan

In San Angelo there were people from all walks of life. There was another school for the African Americans. There were a few students of Mexican American descent.

In the early 30s there was also an Oriental family who lived beside the Concho River on the way to San Angelo from Tankersly. They irrigated garden produce and sold fresh green veggies long before they were available anywhere else.

The family had small children, too young for school. One day we drove by and noticed that the “fruit stand” was gone and the people were gone. We never knew what happened to them.

The "rich" students at our school drove their cars to school, and dashed out between each class to smoke their cigarettes. I drove to school, but of course I wasn't rich and didn't smoke. I stayed in the building all day too.

Beth Ann and her friends began smoking when they were young teenagers [at right: a Chesterfield cigarette ad from 1934]. Moselle, my cousin , younger than I smoked also. None of the other women did.

One Christmas when we went to Commerce, I played with a cigarette with Beth Ann and her friends, though. It tasted terrible, and I didn't want to use my money to buy them. I hated the smell, and I knew that Mother would murder me if she knew I had smoked one.