Phone book delivery ends with ambulance ride

Above Photo: NUMBER PLEASE-soon you will be able to call anyone in the- greater Titus, Camp, Franklin, Morris counties area. Members of local scout troops spent time Friday stuffing the area phone books at the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. From left, around table, Bobby Alexander, Bo Rester, Edwin Stockinger, Bill Gohmert, Ronny Rolf, Danny Paul Richardson, Howard Pundt, Randy Ellis, John Stockinger, Mike Wright, Robert Wilson, and Greg Blackstone.

Ed’s note: This 1975 photo shot by Mt. Pleasant Daily Tribune Editor Robert S. Long triggered Bo Rester’s memory of falling off the running board of a pickup the scout masters were operating while throwing the phonebooks they’re pictured bagging for delivery.

By BO RESTER

I remember this photo – infamously…..due to having put those phone books in the back of either Bobby or Claude Alexander’s step side pick-up, the following Saturday – we stuffed the bed of the truck full for maximum delivery efficiencies because we could ride on the running board and hold and not be in the back of the truck taking up available phone book space!

Ronny Rolf manned one “step” or running board on the side of the old chevy and I manned the other – we were delivering in the government housing addition on a Saturday morning after an unusually severe cold front had hit overnight – there was sleet on the ground but the roads were ok – just bitterly cold that day – making the once thought exhilarating duty of running board phone book delivery more a test of cold durability – when, somehow, I evidently lost my grip…..there’s a loss of 24 hours’ worth of memory after being found lying in the street…..out cold!

The Alexander Brother, obviously focused on the task, had lost focus on his occupants and the fact that one had ejected.

Ronny Rolf said that he had his head turned and was in mid story of something important to tell when he heard a horn honking – only to look back and suddenly think, “what is Bo doing lying in the road blocking traffic?!?!”

I got a free ambulance ride with Buck Weems at the wheel!

It was a station wagon equipped with one light and a stretcher.  Unfortunately I had no awareness of my stardom or going through the 12th street redlight without stopping!!  Both of which, I would have relished.

I came to only momentarily in the next 24 hours – and that was when the somewhat long gray-haired x-ray attendant at the then known Titus County Memorial Hospital was taking x-rays of the cranial area.

Startled I began to attempt to rise up when he abruptly mashed my head back to the table and exclaimed, “BE STILL!”

I complied, for another 22 hours or so……………………..as I’ve been told.