Sunday, September 1, 2024
Robert Lee “Uncle Bob” Saunders was an early-day resident of Gatesville and the son of one of Gatesville’s early business pioneers.
Born in 1880 in Gatesville, Uncle Bob had many memories and stories from his childhood which, later in life, he put in writing during the 1940s and 1950s for The Gatesville Messenger in a weekly column titled “Down Memory Lane.”
According to John Frank Post, editor of the Gatesville Messenger from 1946-1978, “Mr. Saunders composed his Down Memory Lane columns from his West Main Street home in the shadow of the county courthouse dome. Deadline time would find him hunched square-shouldered over his small desk pecking away at his typewriter.” Post continued, “disdaining the rules of grammar and political correctness, he wrote like he talked – straight and plain-speaking. He was spared any tedious research, as his gifted memory supplied him with facts that he could weave into his own inimitable embroidery, using colorful anecdotes, local history, and happenings. Yes, Uncle Bob knew how to juice up a story.”
Post recalled that the “Down Memory Lane” column was a hit with the readers of the newspaper from the beginning. Post said that Uncle Bob’s close friends felt he viewed his writing as a “gift to his generation and a legacy to generations to come.”
The following is an excerpt of Uncle Bob’s Down Memory Lane column that appeared in the July 9, 1948, edition of The Gatesville Messenger:
Airships in Gatesville
The first airplane that came to Gatesville attempted to take off from the south side of the public square. If my memory serves me right, it was back in 1915 or 1916 when Gatesville folks was on their toes, entertaining their trade territory with reunions and free barbeque and last, but not least, an airplane flight off the square. Don’t remember whose crazy idea it was.
I don’t know whose idea it was, sending this feller flying off the square where there was lots of light and telephone wires for him to git his ship over. Could a been the flyer’s own proposition to take off from the square. Them fellers that flew them old crates was all daredevils and, I guess, hungry all the time, and were willing to take all kinds of chances for a little money. I kinder think John R. Hill headed the hard-boiled committee that ram-rodded this exhibition flight.
Walter Hollingsworth cleared all the vehicles off the street in order that the airplane could have room to take off to the west down Leon Street. Course they was a big crowd of people over there, but when them fellers started up that motor and that propeller begun to whirl around, they all jumped back from that thing and the feller that was going to ride had plenty of room to take off. The crowd was sorter divided in their opinion as to whether he could fly or not.
The feller finally got his motor revved up jist right and he took off to the west toward the river. He got his plane off the ground and about as high as the buildings, but he didn’t have enough steam to clear the wires that went across the street from the county jail to the Sloan Hotel. Guess he seed he was up agin it, for he cut to the left and landed in the treetops down by Doctor Haynes’ home. When that plane finally hit the ground, the treetops had sheared off the wings and it was a badly damaged airplane. The feller wasn’t killed, but he shore was scared nearly to death and his plane was wrecked.
Course the crowd was highly entertained, even if they wasn’t nobody got killed. A good time was had by all, and that’s the first and last time we ever had an airplane flight from the public square.
