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Note: *********NOTE ONE***********
Occupations:
U.S. Border Patrol Trooper, Texas State Hwy Dept. Engineer, Salesman, Entrepreneur - owner Shamrock Service Station in Cross Plains, Callahan County, Texas.
********END NOTE ONE********** *********NOTE TWO*************
INTERVIEW OF GUY STROUD BT JR STROUD 1994 Education:
Entered 1st grade at Chico, Texas in September 1919. Mrs Flowers was his first teacher and has the dubious distinction of giving Guy his first and only whipping in school, at the time of this interview seventy-five years later, Guy still feels that Mrs. Flowers was wrong, jrs
Entered High School at Lubbock, Texas in 1927. Graduated at Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas in 1931.
Guy said, " I enjoyed Spanish most in High School........besides Elsie Margret."Guy went out for and lettered in all athletics while in school. But never though of himself as an athlete, but remembers Science and Language classes much more fondly.
Completed the International Correspondence School of High Way Engineering in 1932.
First automobile:
1928 Model A Ford coupe. Bought in Post, Texas in 1932 while living in Tahoka, Texas.
First job:
Was working on Northwest Hiway #199 out of Jacksboro, Texas for 30 cents and hour.
Marriage:
They eloped and was married by a Methodist preacher in Terral, Jefferson County, Oklahoma. They spent their first night in Elsie's grandparents house, Guy in the front guest room and Elsie in a back bedroom. Nobody knew they were married and they did not tell until the next day.
Residences:
A three room apartment in a big old house located in the northwest quarter of town---address is forgotten. Remembered that it had the prettiest windows and drapes. Their first apartment was in the old Wilson Mansion next door to the Knox house in Jacksboro, Texas for ten or fifteen dollars a month,
Birth of Joe Bob:
Born on December 1, 1932 at 7:45pm. delivered by Dr. Serman at Elsie's mothers house, She had a hard delivery, Guy witnessed the birth said he never felt so helpless for the pain that Elsie endured or so thrilled at his sons birth. Joe Bob was named after the son of A,E, Morgan. Morgan was a contractor out of Dallas that Guy had admired very much and count as his best friend. Elsie also had a brother who was named Bob which made it work out even better.
I ask Guy if he could use just one word, how would he describe himself?
He said, "Curious, I always wanted to know how things worked, I was eager...I enjoyed learning new things. I believe I inherited this from Pop."
Comments from Oct 1994 interview with Guy Stroud:
A BORDER INCIDENT 1940 "Guy Stroud said that in 1940 he was working for the hiway department at Tahoka, Texas when he read an article in Liberty magazine about the U.S. Border Patrol. After discussing the article with Elise they decided that the job in Tahoka was turning into a dead end and that a career change was in order. After a lengthy selection process Guy was one of three out of 500 applicants to go to Border Patrol School in El Paso, Texas. Guy had been Hwy Supervisor in Tahoka being paid 120 dollars a month and he quit to take a job in a strange land, as a Border Patrol agent at 200 dollars a month. Guy said that he did not know how strange until Elise and he decided to drive down to Presidio on the way to El Paso to see where they might soon be living. In those days the road to Presidio was ninety percent dirt and gravel going up and down every mountain and cliff in the Big Bend. He was pulling a trailer behind a car, and wouldn't you know, whose brakes were getting weaker by the mile. By the the time they got to Presidio Elsie was exhausted from holding the dash and pressing the floor board. Presidio looked like a wild border town right from a movie set, filled with swarthy Mexicans and unpaved streets. Elsie sit in the car and would not get out, even to get in the trailer. She insisted they could not spend the night in Presidio. When Guy explained that it would be a 100 mile trip to Marfa over the same roads that had just scared her half to death that afternoon, only now it would be in the dark, this caused considerable gnashing of teeth but Elsie said that she had to go. Guy said that they made it twenty miles back To Shafter, Texas where the brakes went completely out. They spent a fretful night in the car. They went on to El Paso, El Paso County, Texas the next day.
Guy remembers that all the way to El Paso from Marfa it was raining, which made El Paso look beautiful and exotic with the low hanging clouds and a cool breeze blowing off Mt. Franklin on the north edge of town. As they drove into town along the Rio Grand river valley from the southeast, after their adventure in the Big Bend, everything was so green and clean . It was as if El Paso had dressed up for them. He knew that Elsie had been having second thoughts about the decision to come to El Paso, however, after a month of living in El Paso he knew everything was going to be alright, when Elsie began shopping on both sides of the river in El Paso or Juarez. He knew that Elsie had her feet on the ground and would never be afraid of strange places again.
While waiting for his Border Patrol School class to make up. He got assigned to a drug raid that was to raid a house in the Chamizal Island area of El Paso, Texas. It had been reported to be a center for drug smuggling operations. They staked the house out and about mid-night a bunch of people arrived at the house. Guy was assigned to the back door into the kitchen area by himself because nothing was suppose to happen at the back of the house. When the signal came (a blast on the car horn) he was to rush in and arrest anyone that might be in the kitchen, but he was mainly to keep anyone from sneaking out the back door. They had assured him that no one would be in the kitchen. Before the raid they had issued him an old single action .45cal long Colt, it was as big and crooked as a large dogs hind leg. Will when the signal went off Guy rushed in and there stood four of the biggest Mexicans he had ever seen. Standing there looking at him. He hollered for everyone to hit the floor, three of them did but the fourth grabbed an ice-pick from atop the ice-box and rushed at him. Guy said that he didn't even think about shooting, it had really never dawned on him that he could. So instead, he hit the guy in the head with his pistol as hard as he could and when he did the pistol completely fell apart leaving him standing there with just the pistol grip in his hand and that's how his pardnors found him-- standing over four Mexicans pointing a pistol grip at them. "Everyone thought it was funny but it was several months before I could see the humor of the situation!" as told by GLStroud to compiler by JRStroud.
Guy's first station, after Border Patrol School, was in Alpine, Brewster County, Texas. He worked for four years all along our Southwestern border for the Patrol. In 1944 at Nogales, Santa Cruz County, Arizona after attaining the rank of immigration inspector he resigned from the Patrol in order to go into the Hiway construction business."
Any or All anecdotal notes, tracts, or stories are wanted and needed about Guy & Elise and their families. Please contribute! Thanks. Compiler Jim Stroud. 1994
**********END NOTE TWO*********
**********NOTE THREE*********
Residence's during Census years:
1920 Chico, Wise County, Texas
1930 Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas
1940 Tahoka, Lynn/Alpine, Brewster County, Texas
1950 Odessa, Ector County, Texas, 804 East 36th Street.
1960 Irving, Dallas County, Texas
1970 Cross Plains, Callahan County, Texas
1980 " " " " "
1990 " " " " "
************END NOTE THREE************
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ref. Material:
Ector County Library; U.S. Census; Wise County, Texas, U.S.A., Precinct #7, January 26, 1920, Sheet #13A, District #168. MF11778m Roll #186
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