Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 Source: Tulia Herald (TX) Copyright: 2003 Tulia Herald Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1506 Author: Christene Horn Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/tulia.htm (Tulia, Texas) Note: Title by mapinc editor TULIA STORY This is a congratulations and thanks, follow up of the letter from Bill Neeley. I too went to school at Tulia 10 1/2 years, but graduated from Happy. My parents uprooted me and I thought broke my heart because of employment, which took us to Happy for the next three years. But I survived and love Happy very much. Now I want to write a small story in regard to the letter Bill wrote on the slam that was given to Tulia on the drug bust, I married in 1942 when World War n was going full blast. I moved to Big Spring, where I still reside. My husband was a medically retired Marine, stationed in Peking, China, when the Japanese invaded the American embassy and pulled the American flag down. That is another story. There was literally no housing to be found in Big Spring because it was a bombadier base, and then a jet base, and every nook and cranny was turned into apartments, or crammed housing for the military. We lived in a one-room apartment and shared the bath with 16 other families also living in one-room apartments that my mother-law owned. The families and people were of every kind living there and sharing facilities. Being from the small town of Tulia, raised to be free and friendly, I had a hard time adjusting to the customs of a busy city. There were four apartments in the old house where I lived. Next door to me were two women. I could not figure out why my husband said I could speak to them, but not walk up town with them to Woolworths, or join them when they asked if I wanted go to the nearby drug store for a soda. I thought he was being very unjust and unkind. He kindly explained that I was not the same kind of people, and if they went up town and got arrested, I would also be arrested. I protested. How in the world would I be arrested if I had not done anything? Needless to say, he stood his ground and forbade me to do more than speak and visit on the front porch in the cool of the evening when they were not out and were busy elsewhere. Now the reason for this story is that when you associate with people who are breaking the law or doing things that are not quite on the level, you get arrested whether you are doing the same thing or not. And all these people who were arrested in the bust might have been unjustly pulled in. I happen to know the people on the law force there in Tulia, and I know they probably knew a lot more about what was going on than all the protestors, out of town news people and the slammers did. I do not accuse anyone in the drug bust. I do not say they were breaking the law, or innocent, or guilty of anything wrong. I just say, my husband knew that I would be arrested with two prostitutes for walking to a drug store or to Woolworths, and he was right and kept me out of harms way. It is a possibility a bunch of people were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and justice will be served. And being only 18 years of age, a small town girl who knew nothing of big city and war ways, I could have been in the same predicament. I am grateful to a husband who loved me and taught me right from wrong. I was married to him 43 years, before he was called away to a higher judge than we have on this earth. And if these people are as innocent as they claim, they will come out the better from having learned a hard lesson. Big Spring also integrated without force or civil rights uprising. I drove a schoo1 bus here for 30 years, and my first year were a11 black children. I am respected, and loved by these people, their children and grandchildren to this day. So it is not racial that lawbreakers get their neck stuck in a noose. My ancestors were Indian; prejudice was high, and some of my ancestors were slave holders, But times have changed and the few who still hold grudges and malice, would hold it if you were speckled or polka dotted. Religion and politics have a hard time standing on even ground, and you have to train yourself to be tolerant and forgiving. You are not born that way. Sincerely, Christene Horn Big Spring - --- MAP posted-by: Josh