Country Lifestyles
“Mr. Telephone” – Gordon Holmes
By Judy Wade
Are you old enough to remember the first telephone in your home—a big wooden box on the wall with a mouthpiece and a crank to summon an operator? It came with a party line and at least one nosy neighbor. Next we updated to the candlestick and then the black desk phone. Colors came later at an extra charge. Following that was the rotary dial when most people were finally free of the party line. Pushbuttons came next and then the wall phone with a 25 foot cord to reach all over the house.
Cordless phones gave us more freedom, and then the bag phone or brick phone let us take the phone with us anywhere. Small flip phones soon followed and now the smart phone allows the owner to access almost anyone and anything anywhere in the world.
Since Alexander Graham Bell said, “Mr. Watson, come here. I need you,” on March 10, 1876, we have been fascinated with the telephone and now feel we can’t live without it.
Gordon Holmes of Byers, affectionately known as “Mr. Telephone,” is a walking encyclopedia on the development of the telephone and was directly involved in it for the majority of his life. “I was born in a telephone office,” he laughs. “My mother was the business manager for the Iowa Park phone system where she operated the switchboard in our home, supervised three or four girls, did all the hiring and firing and took care of all the bills and was paid $200 a month. That’s where I was born,” he explained.
After second grade, the Holmes’ family moved to Eliasville where his dad took over the phone company there. With the oil boom in the Kamay area, they moved there where his dad set up a phone system. Holmes attended Valley View School, graduating there.
He worked for his dad in the phone business until the day before his 18th birthday in 1946 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. During his two-year enlistment he visited the Panama Canal and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Holmes was also sent to electrician’s school in Great Lakes, Ill. and movie operator school in California before his ship returned to Norfolk, Virginia.
To read more pick up a copy of the May 2017 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
By: Martha Crump
Most cattle producers can tell you quite a lot about balancing cattle diets for energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals based on the specific needs for their herd and type of operation.
A key factor, and one that is often overlooked, is that how your animals perform is also directly affected by their water intake.
Now many of you may already be thinking “well of course water is necessary, anybody knows that!”
In many years, as September marches into October, we are beginning to experience some return of rainfall. But as many of us know, that is not always the case. Often we are still experiencing hot and dry weather, and water supplies are dwindling.
When we find ourselves experiencing those types of fall conditions, it is critical to not only understand the daily water requirements for cattle, but also the impact that the quality of water can have on herd health and development.
To read more, pick up a copy of the October edition of North Texas Farm & Ranch magazine, available digitally and in print. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By: Annette Bridges
A friend and I were recently talking about our husbands. She made a comment that I felt also perfectly described me and my hubby.
“He slows me and I hurry him. I’m sure that is why we do well together,” she said.
“Precisely!” I thought. Why?
Because when two different worlds collide, it can be magical.
No matter what those two different worlds are- a man and a woman with very different personalities, beliefs, or backgrounds, two partners with contrasting passions, strengths, or talents, or when a country boy marries a city girl.
To read more, pick up a copy of the October edition of North Texas Farm & Ranch magazine, available digitally and in print. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
Watauga, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, is known for its rich history as a railroad stop, but over the course of the last year, one teen girl has put it on the map for agriculture as well. Emma Harvey has lived in Tarrant County her entire life. Despite being highly involved in her local 4-H chapter, she still felt there was more she could do. In the spring of 2023, she stepped up to the plate to take over the title of Tarrant County Teen Miss Agriculture USA.
“It all started when I put in an application for the teen title here in Tarrant County,” explained Harvey.
The Miss Agriculture USA program is a national non-profit, age-inclusive pageant program that offers both competition and non-competition titles to women dedicated to the promotion of agriculture.
Read more in the October issue of North Texas Farm & Ranch magazine, available online and in print. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive NTFR in your inbox each week.
Photo by Hannah Claxton.
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