Welcome to Banquet

By R Morgan

Juan is a senior in high school and has to conduct a interview with ihis grandmother. This is part of a school project he must do to graduate. The objective is to better know his elders and town. Juan finds out more then what he bargained for. Family secrets and town mysteries are just the beginning. Take a journey thru the Coastal Plains of South Texas. Welcome to Banquet

• Language: English
• Publisher: R Morgan
• Release date: Dec 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005503727

R Morgan

R. Morgan is set debut his book Welcome to Banquet . Living in South Texas all his life, he looks to bring local legends and mythology to life. He spent all his life as a truck driver in Texas area. Driving around the area he has heard many stories and seen many things.This unknown author hopes to entrain as many people as possible.

Book preview

Welcome to Banquet

By R. Morgan

Copyright 2022 R. Morgan

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support

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To Mia

            CHAPTER

1

            Welcome to Banquet Texas. A small town in the Coastal Plains of South Texas. It's located on the intersection of Texas Highway 44 and Farm Road 666. To the north on Farm Road 666 about 17 miles is Lake Town. Around 16 miles to the south of 666 is the town of Royal Town, home of the largest Ranch in Texas. 12 miles to the west of Texas Highway 44 is Cotton Town and 10 miles east of Highway 44 is Candy Water. Banquet was named after a four day feast honoring the completion of the road linking Lake Town to Moros, Mexico. Banquet is also a stop on the Texas Mexican railway. There was a hundred or so people that  lived in the area when it was first settled. by the 1980s it was up to 1000. Today more three thousand people are living here. Today we are surrounded by farmland owned by individual people and what we call corporate farmers. There are three different companies that have grain elevators. We also have one gas station store and a General store that has a little bit of everything. Not to mention the railroad tracks that run from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the Mexican border. Also here in Banquet we have several oilfield companies that have been here for  as long as I can remember. Of course there’s the school with all grade levels under one roof and are proud football field.

      Hopefully everything was covered on the intro. My name is Juan Santos. I am writing this story for my senior project. I am supposed to interview the oldest person in my family and write a report on how life was for them back in their day. This project counts toward my final grade and it's key to my graduation. the project seems to be easy. The oldest person in my family during this time is my Wela Anita. She is 73, Wela is Spanish for grandmother, she is a kind lady. Me and my dad visit her every Sunday. She still lives in her house that she had it since she was a kid, it's a couple of blocks from our house. our cousin Lucy is her home provider. When I told her about the project she was happy and excited. she had no problem doing it. She told me to come over on Tuesdays and Thursdays with my Sunday visits to.

Six months to work on the project is plenty of time to conduct the interviews and piece everything together. At first I thought this was going to be easy. I figured the interviews would just be about some boring life in a crappy small town. As Always I was wrong. I had no idea about our town, and quite frankly I still don't believe what has happened. I'm going to tell you what my Wela Ann told me about life in this town and how her experiences had been.

So we begin the interview with my grandmother. Hello Wela Ann are you ready to start the interview

Yes she replied

Ok I said

Let's start as far back as you can remember Wela tell me what you can.

Wela began her story.

        I was born in 1948 here in banquet to my father Rudy, mother Emma and older brother Armando. I can remember as if it were yesterday. I was six years old and at the time banquet was a different place. Might be hard to imagine that this town was much smaller than what it is now. about 500 people were living here during that period. Dad work out on the rigs. he was good at his job and made it all the way to Forman.

          My brother Mando was 16. He worked out in the cotton fields. Mom stayed home and took care of the house and me. This was around the time of May in 1954, although it didn't matter what month or day it was for work as in Daddy was always working unless it was Sunday or bad weather but something changed. that year in June of 1954. A town meeting was called. It was announced that a large company was coming to Banquet and will create many high paying jobs. More stores would be built and more people would begin to live in the area. It was an exciting time. Everyone in town was happy. I remember my dad was probably the most happiest he had been for the potential for more money and less work. My mom asked what company it was and what exactly what will they be doing. It was then announced that a private company from up north called United Nuclear Research. They want to build what was called a supercollider in our town.

            They told us that they wanted to build one near Dallas but that the city rejected the project. Banquet and  everyone  wanted it. They welcomed them with open arms. Wasting no time in July of 1954 they began to dig and what was called boring. They want to make a 56 mile circle to put the collider in. Dads company stopped drilling rigs and was contracted to help with the boring process.

All was going well from July to October non-stop work digging and boring all day and all night. My dad and brother were both part of the work. They got double if not triple the money they had before. Midway through October of that year all had changed. A  Town meeting was called by the company. Unfortunately they had bad news, the company was stopping all operations and terminating all personnel. this came as a shock to all of us here in banquet. The mayor asked what would happen to all the holes and tunnels that were around the town. the company responded by saying they will seal off all excavated land. The company had completed a 50-mile stretch which was located two miles north of town. Although the tunnels have been completed the facility itself was going