My Life
and Times,
Per Year.
Here’s a fast walk through all my born days…
This page holds little snippets, little vignettes, from my life. For longer pieces there’ll be links.
I was born Hubert James Gresham on August 29, 1957, in Lufkin, Texas. My dad’s name was E.C. and my mom’s name was Ilene. Dad worked for KTRE radio when I was born. Mom was always and forever a housewife. I had two older siblings, a brother named Bobby (Robert James), 8 years my senior and a sister named Vickie Jean, 9 years older than me. We lived a lower-middle-class life. The family lived in a small rental house a few miles out Highway 103 West.
We moved to the only family home I can remember, a small two bedroom frame house located on a dirt road off Highway 103 not far from town. The radio station’s “transmitter building” and radio towers were just a quarter mile on down the road past out house.
My sister Rebecca Virginia (Becky) was born in June of 1960. The two of us were called mom and dad’s “second family” since we were so much younger than our own siblings. We had a happy life, I think, through those years. We played a lot, went to Murfreesboro, Arkansas (my parent’s home town) very often, and spent a lot of time on a lake or river. I played around in the yard and learned to fish. My mother played games with us and taught us handcrafts.
I have no memory of those years, with one exception…
Some time before I started to school we were all out behind the house in our garden. There were some old logs burning. My sister and I were just playing around the edge of the fire while my brother kept chopping the wood. I walked behind him once as he swung back with that ld double-bit ax. I was too close. He hit me in the head on the left side. It looked like he’d hit me in the eye. My wife was frightened out of her mind, of course. She grabbed me up and ran to get some transportation. My dad had the car at work.
She got a neighbor to carry me to the hospital. I only have a slight memory of being hit and then of being lugged by my screaming mother as she ran along the old road looking for help. It turned out that I did not have a damaged eye. The ax struck my forehead just above my left eye. I remember later on lying in bed trying to sleep with my eye so swollen I could not close it. The scar was visible for a very long time.
September 1963 – Starting School
I began school at Hudson, ISD. At the time it was a small school with the entire school at the same place. It’s located on State Highway 94, a few miles west of Lufkin. In the era when African American citizens were fighting for equality and schools were becoming integrated, Hudson was an all-white school. For a very long time black people would not dare live in the Hudson district. Black students didn’t appear on the Hudson campus until long after I left. Hudson was such a wonderful school, not
My first teacher’s name was Ms. Butler. I remember that because we always made fun of it, calling her Miss Butt. Not to her face, of course. Life was mostly normal for my first two years. The only significant event during those years was when Kennedy was shot. That day we did not know what happened but I remember teaching stopped and teachers were walking around with little radios at their ear and most were crying. School was out for several days. I sat at home watching the TV show the news and the funeral of J.F.K. I have no other memories of those two years.
Third Grade – 1966 – 67
Third grade was a horrible experience. My teacher did not like me. Maybe because of how she treated me. or something else. I can’t remember, But this was also the year people decided I was the class joke. From that year, life sucked at school. It’s a long story. Read about it here.
Random Memories
KTRE
My dad worked for KTRE Radio, 1490 AM, a very popular station in the sixties. It was owned by the same people who owned KTRE TV. Both stations were operated from an office in downtown Lufkin when I was a kid. The station played swing and pop music. (That must be where I got my love for swing.) I have lots of great memories about the station, too many to catalog here. Read the full story here!
The years from 1970 to 1975 so such a tremendous change in my life. I became a teenager in 1970. Thirteen. Junior High.
Once upon a time Jesus came to School. How different my life was for a short period of time. Then he left and I returned to being the butt of jokes again.