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“The Dance” 
It was May 1969 and just about every school had completed their graduations. Senior tripswere outdated for most schools. They would give the senior class a “Senior Day” for a day tripto some lake usually in Oklahoma. There was one family living west of Trenton on what wecalled “the County Line Road.” We called it that because it was on the County Line dividingFannin County from Grayson County. Most of the people in the Trenton school system didn’tknow the kids who lived there because the kids went to school in Leonard. That was another town in north Texas much like Trenton except it was larger and the school had a football team. Ithink that may have played a role in why the kids went to school there.County Line Road was a white rock road, which was about five miles long. It was as straightas an arrow with the only curves at each end. On the north, it was about four miles fromHighway 121, which connected Bonham to Ft. Worth. On the south was where it also connectedto Highway 121.The main attraction for County Line Road back then was the rock pit. The rock pit was wherewe did a lot of swimming and partying. On the north, side of the rock pit was a perfect place todive into the water. The way the rock was cut from the earth made it perfect because you couldchoose how high you wanted to do your dive. If you were not willing to dive from about tenfeet into the water, you could climb down a few feet and still do a pretty good dive. It wasalways more impressive to the girls around if you dove from the bank instead of the lower  place.My favorite dive was to dive from the bank headfirst, stay underwater as long as I could, thenslowly rise to the top. I held my arms out a little to the side and my face down in the water. Iwas doing my “David dove into the water and he is not moving so something must be wrongand why isn’t someone trying to help him” dive. Thanks to my previous training with RickyGlasscock, my brother Jimmie and the rest of the gang at the stock tank, I could hold my breathfor just over two minutes. Yes, when we were playing around at the stock tank we had spentmany hours timing ourselves to see who could hold their breath longer. Think back and I amsure you will remember doing the same thing. Anyway, the dive worked well the first time Iused it but it didn’t take long for it to lose its effect, from then on it was just style. Get into thewater and try to look good while doing so.Located about one hundred yards north of the rock pit was the house where the people I didn’tknow lived. The house was a double wide with a porch that was the length of the house andabout eight to ten feet deep. The house was set back from the road at least sixty feet or more.That gave them a very large front yard, when you live on a white rock road that could beimportant. Now the stage is set and we all know exactly where we are for now. We have aswimming hole for an afternoon of swimming. A house located about one hundred yards awaywith someone who just graduated from Leonard High School. Add a family who wasn’tsatisfied with their child only having a “Senior Day”, and there was a popular kid in his/her school who had lots of friends who also had lots of friends. I think I am beginning to smell a party!In small towns separated by only five or six miles it doesn’t take long for word to get aroundabout a party. A party that it seemed everyone who could or wanted to attend was invited. The
 
 party was a topic of conversation everywhere we went to hang out. I know when I was invitedthe first thing I said was I don’t even know those people. In fact, I’m not even sure the personwho invited me knew who they were. Everyone was welcome to the party. There would be alive band playing music. The band members setup their equipment on the porch, which was a perfect spot for them. The family had strung some lights around the front lawn to provideenough light to make it a perfect outdoor dance party. It was a perfect evening for a party andeveryone there was having a good time.I had some doubts about going to the party because I am not a dancer. The only time I ever danced in public was after our Junior/Senior Prom Kathy and I danced at an after prom party atthe home of the Snow sisters. That was a small crowd and we only danced to the slow songs.They played plenty of them for us. This dance was not exactly my domain. Susan and I talkedabout it for a few days until we decided to stop by there for just a few minutes.I drove my ’57 Chevy from the north down County Line Road. As we reached the house therewere cars lined both sides of the little white rock road. There was barely enough room for mylittle Chevy to make it to the south end of the line of cars. I ended up parking close to the rock  pit. We parked and walked back north to the house not knowing what we would do after gettingthere. We just walked up and started looking for someone we knew. It didn’t take long to findsome Trenton folks. We were standing around enjoying the band and talking to some peoplewhen someone offered me a cold beer. I thought it would help me loosen up some so I acceptedthe offer. Gary Holt saw Susan and me standing around and he came over and asked if I mindedhim dancing with Susan. I wasn’t going to so I agreed to them dancing. While they weredancing to the music being provided by the band, two girls and a guy I didn’t know approachedme. They introduced themselves and offered me a beer. Since Susan was dancing with Gary, Ithought why not. They led me over to a cooler and got us all a cold beer from someone’s cooler.It wasn’t their cooler but they said they all knew who it belonged to, everybody was there toshare and to enjoy the night and the music. It was one of those all for one and one for all sort of a thing.The parents of the lucky graduate came out and the Dad took one of the microphones andwelcomed everyone to the party. He knew there was beer floating around and he asked us to beresponsible and not to over indulge and just have a good time without any trouble. He also pointed out that there were trash cans around for us to use. All he asked of us was just to bemature enough to respect his property. He wanted everyone to have a good time but no trouble.This was becoming the best party ever seen around Trenton. The best one I was ever invitedto anyway. It was the best until around 11:00 when suddenly out of the north came flashing redlights of the Fannin County Sheriff’s Department and the Constable of our precinct, WadeMorris. As soon as I saw those flashing lights, I took Susan by the hand and we made our waythrough the crowd to my old ’57. I thought since I had such a hard time getting my car past therow of cars there would be no way for them to get their larger cars passed them to chase me.My plan was a good one and it almost worked. Almost being the key word in this sentence.I rushed Susan to the car, we got in, and I started the car. I had made our escape about ten feetwhen the shots rang out, a voice ordered me to stop and I hit the brake pedal. I think there weretwo shots from either a 357 Magnum or a 45. I don’t know which but at the time it seemed likea good idea to stop and do as I was told. Wade Morris walked up to the car and told me to park the car and get out. “Yes sir” was my shaky reply. I parked the car and Susan and I got out of 
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