Preserving the Heart of Sanger: A Historical Reflection with Tona Batis and the Sanger Area Historical Society

Embark on a historical adventure as we sit down with Tona Batis, the dedicated president of the Sanger Area Historical Society, and uncover the evolution of Sanger, Texas. Our guest brings the past to life, revealing how the Sanger brothers and the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad were instrumental in transforming the town from a humble cattle stop into a thriving hub of activity. We'll hear how a devastating fire became a catalyst for architectural innovation and delve into the stories of influential figures like Mr. Reddy, who served not only as the postmaster but as a cornerstone of the community.

The narrative tapestry of Sanger is rich with the legacies of its residents, and this episode is no exception. Listen closely as we recount the tale of a local girl who left an indelible mark on the world of country music and celebrates the life of Sanger's own Perle Mesta, whose social grace charmed dignitaries across five presidential terms. We'll also explore the vibrant community spirit through enduring traditions like the weekly Saturday drawing and the cherished first bale of cotton, showcasing how these rituals bind the townspeople together even as the world changes around them.

As Sanger marches toward the future, the Sanger Area Historical Society stands guard over its history. In our dialogue with Tona, we confront the challenges of preserving this invaluable heritage while embracing the town's growth. We emphasize the importance of intergenerational collaboration, like the Sangaropoly game creation with local students, and outline ways the community can contribute to keeping Sanger's story alive. For those with historical photos or a piece of Sanger's history to share, we extend an invitation to join us in safeguarding these memories for generations to come.

You have been listening to The 266 Express, the official podcast of Sanger, TX. IF you have comments or suggestions, please send them to dgreen@sangertexas.org

Transcript

John Noblitt: 0:01

Welcome to the 266 Express. I'm John Noblitt, with my co-host, Donna Green,Donna, who we got today.

Donna Green: 0:12

Today we have here Ms Tona, and Tona, give us a little bit of your title. What do we officially call you Other than Sanger's historian?

Tona Batis: 0:22

For sure other than Sanger's historian for sure. Well, I'm Tona Batis, and I'm the president of the Sanger Area Historical Society. I was born and raised in Sanger, lived here until I graduated, went off to school, came back a couple of years, lived here a couple of years, and then left again. But I'm probably almost here more than I am at my home.

John Noblitt: 0:49

Well, you know, not a lot of people know that Sanger has a historical society. Can you tell us a little bit about the organization, what you guys do, what your goals and objectives are?

Tona Batis: 1:01

We. There were a group of I believe it was seven people, some from Bolivar, some from Sanger's first and only mayor, female mayor rather. She was the president of the group and in 2010, I got a call saying would you be on the board? And I had been coming up helping them out but was told well, you can't be on the board because you don't live in Sanger. But then Nell wanted to retire and so they asked me if I would be on the board. Little did I know that at the meeting everybody was going to vote for me to be the president. That night driving home, I thought I feel so honored. But then what did I just get into? And here we are, 14 years later. I'm still the president, but Sanger's just so near and dear to me that it's really, as they say, a labor of love. It's really, as they say, a labor of love, awesome.

Tona Batis: 2:31

So how did Sanger get the name Sanger? This is very interesting. For years in my life outside of Sanger, I somehow always got Sanger into the conversation and somebody would say is that Sanger, like related to Sanger Harris, the department store? And I'm like no, no, no. But it was years later I found out the Sanger brothers. There were seven of them. They lived in Waco and three of them they had a store in Waco. It was like a dry goods store and they decided to go to Dallas and open a store there, and it was Sanger Brothers, and one of the brothers, my understanding is he went on to Chicago and did something else, but these two brothers rode the train every day from Waco to Dallas to their store and then rode it back home every night. So they were great customers of the Gulf, colorado and Santa Fe Railroad.

Tona Batis: 3:34

So Sanger began in 1886 and the railroad was coming through. They were building it from Cleburne up to Purcell, oklahoma, and the railroad approached a lady by the name of Elizabeth Hewling who owned a lot of land and her piece of land out by the railroad tracks had water on it, so they bought that from her for the water for the steam engines. So when Sanger began it was because the railroad was coming through and the Chisholm Trail was where they herded all the cattle up to Kansas. And when the train came through they said, well, we'll just load them on the railroad and send them, and so they started driving them down the old Bolivar Road into Sanger and they loaded them on the train there, and so Sanger couldn't figure out what to name themselves and they thought about New Bolivar, and the post office rejected it.

Tona Batis: 4:45

They said you're too close to Bolivar, the mail will get confused, and I haven't been able to find any history how big a concern this was and how long it took. But the postal service actually named it Sanger. Well, no, I take that back. The railroad suggested naming it Sanger in honor of the Sanger brothers and as far as we know, neither one ever came to Sanger Well, they were missing out.

Tona Batis: 5:18

Yeah, they're missing out.

John Noblitt: 5:20

Yeah, we do understand. The railroad does play a significant part of all Texas cities and we know, you know, of course there was the push a while back and we talked about that, sanger, where the trail meets the rail and some of those things. Can you tell us a little more about how the railroad impacted our growth?

Tona Batis: 5:40

Well, you know, people had started moving into this area. There was a Mr Reddy that was moving his family from Aubrey. He had his little trailer loaded and it was he and his wife and his daughter and there was a snowstorm and he arrived in the Sanger area and they stopped because of the snow and they liked it and they decided and they knew the railroad was coming through and so Mr Reddy built a little hotel. We don't have any pictures of it. We have a picture of a boarding house that belonged to someone else but we suspect it was probably very similar and they called it a hotel. But it could have been more like a boarding house back then.

Tona Batis: 6:36

But Mr Reddy, he was very progressive. He decided he wanted to be the postmaster. So he applied and males started coming to Sanger and his wife cooked for the. It was mainly the men herding the cattle into town. That was the biggest draw. And then saloons popped up for the old cowboys and Sanger was a very thriving young town. Back then. At some point and I forget the date, but it was the late 1800s Most all the buildings were little, just wooden buildings thrown together, and one of the boys said you know, we're having these rats in our building, so I'm going to smoke them out. And he started a little fire and the whole town burned down.

Tona Batis: 7:37

But he, I don't know where the rats went, but he burned the downtown. But there were a lot of businesses back then and then over time, you know, they started building more permanent structures.

Donna Green: 7:51

Wow. So can you tell me about some of Sanger's prominent early businesses or industries?

Tona Batis: 7:59

Okay, the lumber yard which is vacant. The lumberyard which is vacant. The man that owned it during 30s, 40s, 50s he probably I think he passed away maybe late 70s. His father started that. I believe his name was AW Wilson. He and his brother started the lumber yard. And then there was the silk finish.

Tona Batis: 8:36

Well, silk finish flour was a product of the Sanger Mill and Elevator Company and it built close to the railroad track and there was a side track that went over to where their mill was and they produced silk finish flour and I think I read where they produced like a hundred pounds a day, which was a lot way back then, and they shipped it all over Texas. And when I got involved with the historic group there were several ladies that were quite a bit older that have now passed, but they were a wealth of information. I said why did they call it silk finish? And they said what they had was they spread silk over these bins and then they dropped the flour down on top and it sifted it through silk, so it took out all the chaff, everything and it was such a fine, fine flour and a little interesting story about that.

Tona Batis: 9:38

The man that was running the mill was also on the board at the bank and the guy that ran the bank. He really didn't like what he was doing, so they just switched jobs. The guy at the bank went down and started running the mill and the guy from the mill went to the bank.

John Noblitt: 10:03

I want to find that swap. Yeah me too. Those are many bank and I want to find that swap. Yeah me too. Those are many days. I would love to find that swap.

Tona Batis: 10:08

And then there was a blacksmith shop. It was right down there, right behind the lumber yard, and the mill was behind that. So it was all right there in the area of the railroad, all right there in the area of the railroad.

John Noblitt: 10:26

So over the years, of course, when we started talking about this, you were a wealth of knowledge about the area. So, again, I was super ecstatic about today and I told you earlier I'm going to learn something today. What are some of the changes from the foundations up to maybe even the present that you've seen through your research into the history of Sanger? How have we changed?

Tona Batis: 10:55

What I see more present day is so many young families moving to town and they all seem so excited. Families moving to town and they all seem so excited. A lot of them come into the museum and they'll say we just moved into this house over on so-and-so street. What's the history on it? Well, that's one area we're very lacking in Now. I believe the young people moving here.

Tona Batis: 11:29

People moving here is why Sanger's growing, because when I was growing up, all the families had their children. The children stayed here and they had children and they stayed here. But that's no longer the case. The old-time families there are a few remaining relatives that live here, but it's primarily newer people and for that it hurts us a little bit because we have so much history to tell. But you know, we're naming families which they don't know about and so we need to be able to identify, for instance, a house that they live in and they want to know. There's one on Bolivar Street that the couple moved there two years ago and they came to the museum wanting information and I knew who had lived there for many years because they were my relatives. So that's just been in the back of my mind. I need to find out exactly where that house came from.

Tona Batis: 12:34

And I was reading an article online and there was this little tidbit and Mr Wilfong of the Wilfong building, he built that house. And I called a lady that is a member of ours she just turned 100. But I mean she's still sharp on most days and I asked her. I said where did the Will Fongs live? And she knew exactly where they lived. And she said my mother used to go visit Mrs Wilfong. So I was thrilled. I called the owners of that house and told them. I said just go downtown and see the Wilfong building and that's where it started. So we try to get you know little tidbits of information like that.

Donna Green: 13:22

So are there any notable historical figures associated with Sanger and, if so, how have they really influenced the development of Sanger?

Tona Batis: 13:31

Well, I don't think any of our main historical figures really contributed to Sanger present day, but James Hollingsworth he was a three-star general. He served in World War II, korea, vietnam, all the little ones in between we have. There was a lady named Mary John Melson and where the current library is, there used to be a strip center there and on the very south end of that was the very best bakery and her father was a baker. He made bread and pies and donuts but he was quite a musician and the stories are and I've heard this firsthand from people that at night Sanger would be so quiet and these men would gather in the back of the bakery and they would open that side door facing Bolivar Street and they were playing their fiddles and their guitars.

Tona Batis: 14:41

And Mary John was his daughter. She was a very young little girl and when she graduated from high school she went to college, got a music degree, ended up moving to Nashville. She helped Chris Christopherson in his career. Her and Lefty Frizzell co-wrote Long Black Veil and she wrote One Day at a Time. She wrote that Her husband died overseas and there's a big story about it. But after he passed away she wrote One Day at a Time and several country stars have recorded it. And then we have pearly maista.

Tona Batis: 15:30

She was a scurvin and her father was. He built the scurvin hotel in oklahoma city and his wife died when his children were very young. I I think there were three of them, but he used to ride the train to Dallas to go shopping and they would come through Sanger on the way back and they'd get off the train and spend the night here. So as she became older she ended up going to Washington DC and I believe she was there for five president terms and became known as the hostess with the mostest.

Tona Batis: 16:12

I don't think that term is familiar to a lot of people now, but when I was a kid I can remember it she rented a duplex here in Sangre I think it's at Elm and 8th Street, and I had a friend that lived in the other side and every once in a while I'd see this older lady and I said, who is she? And well, we don't know. She's not here all the time. No one ever knew, except the people that owned the duplex, who she was. But we I mean we had a famous lady from DC that resides. She loved Sanger.

Donna Green: 16:49

Awesome, so you live in our hearing.

Tona Batis: 16:51

Yeah.

Donna Green: 16:51

Plain sight.

John Noblitt: 16:52

Yeah Right, and that's exciting because, you know, the city has tried to take an effort to tie some of our history back to some of the things we're doing. I mean, the Songwriter Festival is something that came up due to some of those facts that you just mentioned, of course, the church and the city's maintenance of the old church there. Are there other landmarks in Sanger that were important to you? You mentioned the Willifong building. Are there some other landmarks here?

Tona Batis: 17:24

Well, the Senior Citizen Center, that was the first permanent structure in downtown and it was always known as the Rock Building. And when I was growing up until 1959, that was City Hall and the Fire Department. And right next door to it I think there's where the candy shop is. That was where the Sanger Courier was published. I mean, mr Toon had the equipment back there as a kid I'd go in and he'd be printing the paper and he'd say get out of here, you're going to get hurt. But you know, there's a lot of history right there in those two small buildings.

Tona Batis: 18:09

And then Mr Wilson, who owned the lumber yard he was mayor for many years the post office needed a new post office. So he told the city. The post office told the mayor, we're going to build a new post office and we're going to build it big enough that we'll rent half of it to you, the city, for your city hall. And Mr Wilson said no, I tell you what. We'll build it and then we'll rent you half of it for the post office. And the city paid cash for it. It opened in. I believe it was August of 59. And I just always thought that was very cool that you know, he just turned it around to make money for Sanger.

John Noblitt: 18:53

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Donna Green: 18:56

Are there any unique traditions or celebrations in Sanger that have historical roots?

Tona Batis: 19:02

I've been thinking about this and this popped into my head and it's so little but it was so big. When I was young the first bale of cotton was a big deal and you know, most of Sanger was cotton fields and farming. And when they would get the cotton and put it in a bale, the man that got the first bale, he would bring it down and set it right outside in front of the old first National Bank building, in front of the old First National Bank building, right there on the corner, and he would bring—I happened to be in town one day, I was probably about seven or eight years old, and I saw this man putting a bale of cotton up there and I asked my mom about it and she said, oh, that's Mr So-and-so. I don't remember who it was, but anyway, the news just spread throughout town. The first bale of cotton goes to, you know, farmer, whoever, and it's just such a small thing, but it's just such a part of our history. You know those type of things.

Tona Batis: 20:14

And then, of course, the celebration I think we figured out it started in 76, I believe, and that's always been a big one and the Saturday drawing. Oh, my goodness, we've got a picture in the museum from 1927, of all the people downtown you could not drive a car off of Fifth Street, down Bolivar. I mean, it was just packed with people. And what was so funny about it? Even though people that lived in town that could go to the grocery store, they waited until Saturday. And then my grandmother lived four blocks from downtown and Saturday they got in their car, they drove downtown and bought their groceries and put them in the back seat and waited on the drawing and you know it was just such a fun time. Kids just ran loose and you know your parents would give you a nickel or a dime and you'd go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of penny candy and it was just a great time. You know, those are the only things that I can think of that, besides the celebration, that are really still relevant today.

Tona Batis: 21:25

What was the drawing? What was it? Well, all the merchants would put in money. I found something like some would put in a quarter or some 50 cents weekly and everybody put their name. It was a great big bucket and it had a big cutout in the top and usually in the wintertime it was at 2 o'clock and I think in the summer it was at 3. But people would just it was like ants moving around in town, you know and were waiting on.

Tona Batis: 22:01

Bill Carter was the constable then and he always had the drawings and he would. I don't even know where he kept that bucket, but he would come out with it and he would pick one of the kids to draw. And third place it changed over the years but, for instance, third place might be a dollar, second place was $2.50, and then first place was $5. And you wanted to be the kid that got to draw for first place, because if somebody got the $5, maybe they'd give you a tip, but not always but you had to be there for first place to win it. Well, actually you had to be there for all of them, I guess. And if no one won first place, then next week they added to it, so you could have maybe $10 or $15, and that was a lot of money.

Tona Batis: 22:57

And and this this is kind of a funny story we were working on our book and this man I had gone to him for pictures and he said do you remember the time that they had the birds in the building for the drawing? And I said no, he's a little bit older than me. Well, they took a bunch of pigeons and they tagged their legs with prizes and they were at the top of the Wilfong building and after the drawing they let these birds go. Well, people were screaming and kids were yelling and the birds made a mess, and so they decided they weren't going to do that anymore, and some of them flew off before they could get the tag off to see what their prize was.

Tona Batis: 23:48

But anyway, it happened one time, and that was it.

John Noblitt: 23:55

So how is the community here? I know you talked about the historical society. You talked about the makeup of the society itself. What are some things that we're doing to preserve the Sanger's historical character and what are some things that we can do to help the historical society moving forward to continue to be able to draw on this heritage?

Tona Batis: 24:22

that we have. Well, I mean, we so greatly appreciate the city's help in us maintaining our museum. We appreciate anybody that puts information out about us Blake Lemons at the Sanger News. He is such a great source for us. I mean, we have something and I can send it last minute and it's in the paper and you know that's our voice. We have no other way to get the information out outside of the Sanger Sentinel, which we have truly enjoyed doing that and getting the articles out.

John Noblitt: 25:07

And thank you for that, by the way.

Tona Batis: 25:09

And you know we have people I've got a binder set up with all of our articles and I ran across someone not long ago that doesn't live here and I was telling them about it and they're like, oh, we're so interested in that, but they don't have a computer. So I'm just gonna make her a copy of all the articles and send to her. But uh, we we just appreciate the city's support that we are a part of Sanger and we're not very big but we have a lot of information. I had a man come in a week ago, saturday, and he said I've only got 15 minutes and I took him in the South room where we have our binders and he went wow, he said I really want to go through that. He went wow, he said I really want to go through that. He said what days are you open? I said well, just Saturday. And he said, well, sometimes I'm busy. And I said I tell you what. Let me know and I'll come up here and I've always got things to do and you can sit in a comfy chair and read the books. So we're very available for, you know, field trips. I've had people call me that say my aunt from Kansas is coming to town and she wants to see it and I'll run up here or get one of the other board members and we have a new. We have a new man on our board. He's a young guy, just graduated with his master's degree and he's so progressive in his thinking and what we're doing.

Tona Batis: 26:47

We have a really good supply of all the years, of the Sanger annuals, high school annuals, and we've got them scanned, I think through 2016, and we have these fancy little flash drives that we're loading all these annuals on, and we were meeting Monday and he showed me put it on the computer.

Tona Batis: 27:15

You can actually do a search so you can put your name in there and do a search and every annual that you're in it's going to pop up and the resolution of these pictures are just amazing. People will be able to download these families. I've had people contact me and say you know, my brother died very young, like early 20s, and we don't have anything from his high school annuals and I go pull it out and scan it and make copies for him, and so our intention is we're going to sell these flash drives, make that available. He is now setting up well, it's already on facebook our web, our facebook account and he's posting things to that which we've had so many views lately that I'm I'm not real computer savvy. I don't know how it's getting out there to people, but we've had a lot of people from Sanger, california that are on there looking, you know we're kind of like a sister city.

Tona Batis: 28:27

But anyway, this Devin, he's very progressive in his thoughts and that's what we need is somebody young that understands it.

John Noblitt: 28:38

Does society, society? Do you all look for volunteers, people that can provide information? Maybe somebody listening to the podcast has some information about Sanger that we don't have. What's the best way for them to get in contact with the Historical Society?

Tona Batis: 28:57

Well, they can get on Facebook, the Sanger Area Historical Society. They can contact me. I don't know if y'all would be up for it if they contacted the city to find out how to get in touch with me.

Tona Batis: 29:14

We'd be absolutely fine with that they can always contact me and they can put a note on our door. Eventually we're going to have a website. Devin is setting up a separate website so we'll have contact information there and emails. But as far as volunteers, we were wanting volunteers to help us run the museum, but so many people they're not committed to doing it, you know, on a regular basis. And one lady said, well, call me on Friday and I'll let you know if I can do it Saturday. Well, that just doesn't work. We kind of need to know ahead of time. But we would love to have volunteers come up. We have so much information that was given to us during COVID. People were cleaning out and they're like this sounds like something for the museum and I would come up during the week and we'd have boxes sitting at the front door. You know, we wouldn't even know who donated it. But we would love to have volunteers come in and help us catalog items, because we do have a large collection of history that's in binders and it's by category. We have like churches and cemeteries and schools and city government. We have two books for city government. So we have a lot of information and, yes, we would love volunteers. We would really like to have.

Tona Batis: 30:52

You know, young people volunteer. We worked with the sixth-grade gifted and talented that just did the Sangaropoly game and they came to the museum one day and oh, it was so rewarding to see those kids just grasp this history. And the day they presented the board to Valerie Foster, we were invited to attend and Ms Donaldson asked each student you know what did you get from this? And I think there were about 15 of the students there that day and I think there were six or seven of them that said I don't know. Did you know that in the WOW building there was an opera and a wrestling match? You know they all remembered these things that I had talked to them about and they included on their board game. I think one of their chance cards was you won the Sanger drawing this Saturday.

Donna Green: 31:54

You know, collect $200.

Tona Batis: 31:56

Well, we never had $200 drawings, but that shows the sign of the times.

Donna Green: 32:03

So what do you say? What excites you most about Sanger's future?

Tona Batis: 32:07

Oh, my goodness, I just love Sanger so much. I don't know why I don't live here, but I think it was. I knew it was coming when the freeway opened in 59. I lived three doors from it and at the time I was a sixth grader and I thought you know, this is really going to change the town. And it didn't. The only thing it changed is the highway was not going through downtown Sanger any longer and we lost all our red lights except the one blinking red light. But I'm excited about it, that Sanger's growing. My only concern is downtown. That's our history and I really hope that the downtown is never changed from what it is now. I mean, there's, you know, a couple of vacant lots that could be built on, but these buildings are historic and we need to keep them.

John Noblitt: 33:12

Yeah, so the in order. We realize that in order for for those things to happen and preservation to happen, people need to be educated. And so what are outside the museum and maybe the location of the museum, which we haven't talked about, but what other resources would you recommend the listeners of the podcast tap into to kind of learn more about the history, because, as you mentioned, we have a lot of new faces coming into the community. What resources can we use to get them tapped into the history of Sanger? Because I believe that's really important. If you can educate early and get somebody bought into what you're doing, I think it has an impact on how you develop over time.

Tona Batis: 34:01

Okay, we've got a couple of new board members, and this one he's very progressive and he's doing so many things and prior to COVID we would have one public meeting a year, one public meeting a year and we would draw probably anywhere from 40 to 80 people for these meetings. And so I had asked my board members okay, covid's over, we need to start thinking about a public meeting again. And a couple of them suggested let's tell the people what we're doing. A couple of them suggested let's tell the people what we're doing, and I think that's a very good idea, that we tell them what we have in the museum. We tell them some of the history of town, what the resources are. We just got onto YouTube.

Tona Batis: 35:05

If you look Sanger Area Historical Society on YouTube, we have some videos on there. We had some film at the museum that we had nothing to play it on. And our new board member he has all this equipment and he has loaded it all on there and there's one video and I think it was probably done in the 80s. I think it says on there but somebody went out and filmed like the city limit sign. Now they showed the city limit sign for probably at least 45 seconds, I'm thinking that's a little long. But then they went around town and they showed some of the buildings. They showed some of the old houses, the big two-story Nicholson house and so that kind of shows what Sanger was back in the 80s.

Tona Batis: 35:53

And then some of our public meetings which were held at the library meeting room. We had speakers there and I think I haven't looked at all of them, but I think there's three or four of those, and so what we can do with a public meeting is get the word out, and when we get ready to do this it's going to be blasted everywhere. If I have to go door to door and put it on their door.

Tona Batis: 36:24

that's what I'm going to do. We want a big turnout for this because, you know, on Facebook somebody will mention something about the museum and I'm amazed at people that go Sanger has a museum. Well, do you ever go downtown and you stop at the four-way red light? I mean, we're right there. We do need to get a new sign, maybe flashy or something. But yeah, we do have plans of getting all this information out and about the school annuals being available, and we're going to have a website. We're going to do this public meeting, so we're really starting to think ahead to build this up and get the information out.

Donna Green: 37:09

It's fantastic yeah, for sure.

John Noblitt: 37:13

I want to hear a favorite story.

Donna Green: 37:14

Oh yeah.

John Noblitt: 37:15

I mean, that was all we have a list. Just to pull back the curtain a little bit. We have a list here, and the one question on here that I'm most interested in is do you have a favorite fact or story about Sanger that you'd like to share?

Tona Batis: 37:34

Let me think, probably the sit, spit and whittle benches and that that when I I can remember I was probably three or four years old and the bench set right between the first National Bank and Acker Drugstore and the men sat out there. It was just a little wooden bench and, you know, they had their chaw of tobacco and some of them had their little pocket knives out. I don't know if they ever whittled anything of interest, they just sat there. And you, they ever whittled anything of interest, they just sat there and whittled away. But we always laughed and said that's where all the problems of the world were solved.

Tona Batis: 38:28

But there were two gentlemen Charlie Henderson, he was, oh, he'd been in Sanger since its inception. He came from a big family out of Valley View and where the current Church of Christ church is now was where their home was. It was a big, big home and he had three daughters and he had a garage built out to the side of the house and he had this old car but I mean it was a new but it was old to me and he got where he wasn't doing too good driving. He was an older man, I mean, I remember him, he had a head full of gray hair. Well, when you'd walk by that bench he would say something to you and he'd reach out and he'd give you a nickel or maybe a dime.

Tona Batis: 39:27

But he got where he couldn't drive very well. So one day he pulled his car in the garage and one of his daughters had called a gentleman in town that was a contractor and he came down there and he boarded the entrance to that garage up and so Mr Henderson was never able to drive again because his car, he couldn't get to his car. And then there was another man probably people remember him Soccer Morris. He was a character. If you walked by he would reach out and grab your ankle and you knew what was going to happen and you'd try to get to the edge of the sidewalk but, boy, he'd jump out and grab your ankle and say I'm not going to let go of you. You know just little things like that. And the drawing, and Sanger had a movie theater and you know we went to the show every Saturday afternoon and we'd get through in time for the drawing.

Donna Green: 40:29

Yeah, maybe we need to put that bench back. It solves all the problems. I'm liking the drawings too. That's right, you're going to have to have a conversation with the chamber, aren't we?

John Noblitt: 40:38

Yeah, I'm going to need a drawing.

Donna Green: 40:39

That's right, you're going to have to have a conversation with the chamber, aren't we? Yeah, I'll make you a drawing.

John Noblitt: 40:42

Well, thank you so much for coming in today and sharing with us Again. Not everybody I know when I first came here, even though I grew up just down the road. You know Sanger has a wealth of history that we're just not informed on, and I really appreciate your dedication to the community for continuing to gather that information and disseminate that, because I do believe that that's important to our future. We can never you can never become disconnected from your path or your past.

John Noblitt: 41:14

I'm sorry because you, that's that. That is. That is part of what creates community.

Tona Batis: 41:22

That's right and we're lucky. We had some great historians that kept this alive for us current day.

Donna Green: 41:31

You're doing a great job and I really appreciate all the stuff that you're giving us to put out in the Sentinel. The stories are great, so hopefully that's helping get out some of the history of Singer I love doing those.

Tona Batis: 41:43

I think, well, I need to hurry up and get this done, so I'm going to make this quick, and then it ends up in two or three days of work. Look, I want pictures and that's my biggest issue, but I love doing it.

Donna Green: 41:57

I appreciate it very much, thank you.

John Noblitt: 42:00

I enjoy reading them as well. Well, if anybody listening again, if you know anything about Sanger from her past, or maybe you have photographs or any additional information you could get with Donna here at the city and she'll put her email link, I guess in the links. Yes, so that we can get that information over to you, because, again, we hope that maybe there's some people out there that may have more information than we have.

Donna Green: 42:24

Yeah, and I'm happy to pass it along to you guys, for sure, okay.

Tona Batis: 42:30

Our museum is located at 211 North 5th Street. It's on the southwest corner of Bolivar and 5th Street.

Donna Green: 42:39

Thank you. Thank you. Well, you've been listening to the 266 Express. It's the official podcast of Sanger Texas. We thank you for joining us.