Bill Brown

(article written in 2004)

"Christmas at Boys Ranch"

If you are over 65 years of age, please consider the following question. Can you remember where you were in August, 1939? Bill Brown vividly remembers. “I know what I was doing,” he recently said. “I was 11 years old and I was sitting in the Potter County Courthouse jail in Amarillo, Texas.”

Bill describes the younger version of himself as a juvenile delinquent. He said that he was the product of a broken home. His mother had married and divorced several times. HIs family was extremely poor and the Depression had them hard. Bill’s mother earned money sewing curtains for Cal Farley’s business. So when Bill got into trouble and found himself in jail, she turned to Mr. Farley for help. “He talked her into letting me go out to Boys Ranch, but he wouldn’t take me unless my little brother could go.”

In 1939, Boys Ranch was extremely isolated and remote. Alton Weeks, Boys Ranch’s first superintendent, drove Bill and his brother to the Ranch in an old panel van. Bill remembers that Mr. Weeks was an exceptional ventriloquist. As the van traveled past Old Tascosa’s Boot Hill cemetery, Mr. Weeks convinced the boys that the voices of long dead cowboys buried in Boot Hill were calling their names.

Soon after Bill’s arrival, Mr. Weeks christened him with the nickname of Speck. His red hair and freckles stood out in the crowd of boys. According to Bill, the nickname caused him all kinds of grief and he claims that protecting his honor with his fists was a weekly occurrence.

At the time, all of the boys, Mr. Weeks and his family lived in the former Oldham County Courthouse. The boys lived upstairs where former jail cells were used as bedrooms. Bill can still recall waking up during the middle of his first night at the Ranch. Still in the fog of sleep, he woke up and stared at the bars on the doors, and for a few moments he believed that he was still in the Potter County Jail. The main room downstairs was used for a variety of social gatherings. Mr. Weeks held a church service each Sunday morning there. And at night, the boys would circle around the radio where they were entertained and informed by the many popular radio programs.

The first six months at the Ranch were tough for Bill. He wasn’t used to rules and he was set in doing things his own way. But finally, after six months, he began to accept what the Ranch had to offer him. He liked knowing that there would always be food on the table. He enjoyed playing with the other boys and his favorite pastimes were riding horses and swimming.

Bill’s first Christmas at Boys Ranch was rough, though. He was unable to go home for the holidays and he was homesick. “It seemed like I was at the end of the world,” he said. “It seemed like my whole family abandoned me.” But there were some bright spots. “There in the main room of the courthouse we set up a Christmas tree in the corner,” he said. “It was an old cedar, or salt cedar, we’d cut down from a pasture. We didn’t have too much in the way of decorations. We had to make our own popcorn strings and stuff like that.”

Mr. Weeks dressed up like Santa Claus and handed out simple gifts. “Most of the stuff we had as gifts were donated by the Maverick Club and individuals. Most of it was clothes. We needed clothes more than anything else.” Bill still feels a sense of gratitude to the people of Amarillo and the surrounding communities. “It seemed like the people of Amarillo and other places just went out of their way to give clothes and other things. I remember getting a pump action .22 rifle that was broken. I worked on it and fixed it, and finally got it to work.”

In 1940, bad weather allowed Bill to spend the entire Christmas holidays at home with his mom. Bill’s mother had been sick and he and his brother traveled into to town to be with her. “We couldn’t get back to the Ranch because the weather was so bad.” He didn’t get back to the Ranch until after New Year’s Day, 1941.

Bill admits that the Christmas he remembers most occurred in 1941. The morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 is etched forever in his memory. On that morning, Mr. Weeks conducted his regular Sunday church service. But later in the day, the radio news announced that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Bill remembers the description of the horrible attack, as well as President Roosevelt’s famous “Day of Infamy” speech delivered the following day.

The country was at war. “There wasn’t any real Christmas celebration,” he recalled. “We all wanted to join up and fight.” But Bill and his Ranch buddies were too young. The only one old enough to join was Mr. Weeks’ son, Donald. He subsequently joined the Navy and trained to be a pilot. Sometime in 1942 Donald returned to Boys Ranch. “I remember him coming back. Well, he didn’t come back on the ground. He flew an SNJ, the Navy’s version of an old Army trainer. He came flying over Boys Ranch in that plane and you could see him sitting up there in the cockpit.” Bill and the other boys were amazed at the sight and talked about Donald’s Boys Ranch flyover for months. From that day forward, Bill wanted to learn to fly.

The Christmas of 1942 was Bill’s best at Boys Ranch. “We all got new clothes,” he said. “We all got new coats and new boots. It was one of the best Christmases I remember.”

The following year, Bill’s mother took him out of Boys Ranch. But Bill didn’t want to leave. Boys Ranch had become his home. But he didn’t have a choice. He spent the next two years with his mother. But he never gave up his dream to fly an airplane. So he joined the Navy in 1945. Unfortunately, the Navy required applicants in the flying program to have a high school diploma. Once again, Bill was disappointed.

Bill completed boot camp in 1945. “I was on a troop ship headed for Japan when they dropped the atomic bomb.” The war ended and his battalion never fought. Bill believes that if the war had not ended when it did, he probably wouldn’t be alive today, because the casualties in Japan would have almost certainly included his group.

Bill returned to Amarillo after his Navy stint was up. Then he fell in love and got married. Bill and Toncy are still married after 55 years together. Bill spent his career working for Dallas Power and Light. His free time was spent coaching sports, umpiring softball and baseball, and refereeing high school and college football games. He also earned a pilot’s license and enjoyed his primary hobby of flying airplanes. Since his retirement, Bill has served on the Jefferson, Texas, city council, and he enjoys golfing, fishing, and operating an antique store with his wife.

Bill still credits Cal Farley with giving him a second chance. “Both Mr. Weeks and Cal Farley were father figures to me. To this day I know that I would not have survived if I hadn’t gone to Boys Ranch. I probably would have wound up a hardened criminal because I was headed that way. The opportunity to go to Boys Ranch was enough to turn my life around. It was a period of my life I cherish. And Boys Ranch is still my home.”

Bill continues to enjoy all of the blessings of the Christmas holiday season. “I have always handed out all the presents to my kids,” he said with a smile. “And I still do it, even with my grandkids!”

Bill hopes that there are Boys Ranch alumni and staff still around who may remember him. He said he’d love to hear from any of the old gang.