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^ FHOAY, APfflL 25, 1960
Small town postmaster lives ‘Happy^ly
n ofArtbif
r manoftlie
attempted
speaker of j
,to quit tli,
tor the BaJ.
I’-a«t Press International
.ppyJcary Reckling fits right
I jA the 672 residents of Happy,
^Town Without a Frown.”
1 Lkline the town s 45-year-old
l JSer is a native of Centralia,
\fZ he came to this Panhandle
omunity two years ago after beat-
four local applicants for the job.
I*, jgeply religious man, Reckling
I Jrried for a time that he might be
*!^a as an outsider by the folks in
Eov but that’s no longer the case.
Tuitok I ve overcome ab tbe ob '
Ldes,” he said. /
Letters from throughout the na
tion arrive regularly at the tiny, buff-
colored brick building located just
west of the railroad tracks.
Correspondents curious about the
origin of Happy s name direct their
inquiries to the quiet Swisher Coun
ty town’s post office, where locals
exercise the building’s front double
doors scores of times every day.
Reckling handles each inquiry
carefully, often tucking a pen-and-
ink Happy postcard and a page of
town history he typed himself into
the return letters.
lender son GOP
bid may suffer
United Press International
AUSTIN — Democrats will be fair
I ome but John Anderson, R-Ill., will
have to be careful about soliciting
Republicans for the 40,719 signa
tures he needs to get on the ballot in
Texas as an independent candidate
for president.
J A quirk in Texas law resulting from
I last year’s celebrated “Killer Bee”
episode makes any Democratic voter
eligible to sign a ballot petition for an
independent presidential candidate
but bars Republicans from signing if
they vote in the May 3 GOP pres
idential primary.
Anderson must collect the 40,719
equired signatures between May 4
jd July 14 to win a spot on the Nov.
4 general election ballot.
Gov. Bill Clements said he doubts
Anderson’s candidacy will have
much impact even if he is on the
ballot.
"I don’t think that Mr. Anderson
would draw much water in Texas,”
the Republican governor said. “I do
not think his candidacy in Texas will
have any substantial effect on our
Texas election process.”
Anderson’s difficulties in getting
on the ballot were considerably les
sened by the secretary of state’s dis
covery of the quirk in provisions of
the election code intended to pre
vent primary election voters from
signing petitions to nominate inde
pendent candidates.
Democrats’ signatures will count
even if they vote in their May 3 prim
ary, Strake said, because the Demo
cratic Party is not holding a presiden
tial primary, but only a “beauty con
test” between President Carter and
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.
“We discovered this fluke the
Houston port cargo
increases in ’79
United Press International
HOUSTON — Cargo moved
through the Port of Houston in
creased 12 percent in 1979, officials
said Thursday, although imports of
foreign oil and autos declined.
Ship channel refiners received
31.02 million tons of foreign oil in
1979 compared to 33.04 million tons
in 1978. Oil is the port’s top com
modity. The 6 percent decrease was
the first after years of steady in
creases.
Auto imports, also up steadily dur
ing the 1970s, fell 8.7 percent, from
219,472 units to 200,441.
PLITT Southern 'TZtoftrj
I try to respond just as quick as I
can, he said, “because it’s important
to them.”
Some people say Happy got its
name before the Anglos populated
the area in the late 19th century. In
those days, the story goes, it was
known as the “ Happy Hunting
Ground of Plains Indians.
Others say cowboys who drove
their cattle to market railed it “Hap
py Draw,” because it was a re
freshing oasis, replete with water
and grass, for their tired stock.
The Hugh Currie family settled
just east of the present site of Happy
in 1891. Currie became the town’s
first postmaster and a roadside his
torical marker says the Curries built
their home — known as “Happy Hol
low” — nearby.
In 1906, the railroad pushed
through and a well was drilled to
supply trains with water. Not long
afterward, the post office was moved
alongside.
Some local historians claim the lit
tle community, 33 miles south of
Amarillo, was named for the emotion
a man and his son, lost in a blizzard,
felt when they spotted the Currie
home.
Chavae Mooney wrote Reckling
on March 10, asking for some details
of Happy’s heritage.
“My name is Chavae and I am in
the second grade in Greenwood,
Missouri. We are learning about let
ter writing and the postal service. I
like the name of your town since I
like to be happy. Would you please
send me something with your post
mark on it? I will be watching the
mail.”
The same day, hundreds of miles
away in the Houston suburb of Pear
land, Gina Lambeth printed her let
ter to Reckling.
“Dear Postmaster,
"I am in the second grade. We are
learning to write letters, ” she wrote.
“I like the name of your town. Could
you please send me something with
your postmark on it?”
Reckling also receives mail from
adults, including a man in Margaret-
ville, N. Y., and a Fort Worth woman
who suffers from rheumatoid
arthritis.
"She wanted me to mail some
wedding invitations to Fort Worth,”
Reckling recalled. “So I fixed ’em up
to give her a Happy postmark. It just
thrilled her to death. I enjoy helping
someone if I can.”
Reckling plans to visit her on his
next trip to Fort Worth, where he
once lived with his wife and attended
Southwestern Theological Semi
nary.
Last year Reckling served as cha
plain for the state association of post
masters and has spent 13 years with
the postal service as a carrier, letter
clerk and now postmaster.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
;°S, h SKYWAY TWIN ££
other day, said Austin Bray, an
attorney in the secretary of state’s
office. “We had been telling people
the petitions had to be signed by
qualified voters who did not vote in
the primary election of either party.
But the law says any qualified voter
can sign who did not vote in the gen
eral primary election of any political
party that held a presidential
primary.”
The celebrated flight of the “Killer
Bees” — 12 senators who eluded a
statewide manhunt by Texas Ran
gers for five days last year to block
approval of a presidential primary
bill — may thus have given Ander
son’s campaign a big boost in Texas.
Strake said Anderson’s Washing
ton lawyers contacted his office last
week about the requirements for
getting on the Texas ballot as an in
dependent.
In addition to the petition, Ander
son will have to submit before July 14
a formal application to be on the bal
lot, designate his vice presidential
running mate and file a list of his
electors for the Nov. 3 election.
The secretary of state’s office —
headed by a Republican for the first
time in 100 years — declined to spe
culate publicly on how Anderson’s
campaign would affect the GOP
nominee’s propsects.
Strake said he has not heard many
Republicans complaining about the
prospect of an independent bid by
Anderson, however.
GOP strategists predict Ander
son’s independent bid would hurt
Carter much more than Reagan in
Texas.
“In Texas it’ll be a critical factor,”
one insider said.
I MANOR EAST 3 I
t MIDNIGHT MOVIE *
t FRIDAY — SATURDAY *
7:30 WEST
GEORGE HAMILTON
The
. Human
Adventure
Is Just
Beginning.
11:00
SUSAN ST. JAMES
LOVE AT FIRST BITE
ALSO AT 9:15
6-PACK ANNIE
7:30 EAST 11:05 •
KILL OR BE KILLED
ALSO AT 9:15
BUCKSTONE COUNTY PRISON
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Along the way, he found time to
earn a degree in psychology from
West Texas State University at Ca
nyon, 15 miles up U.S. 87.
You’ve been waiting •
all year. I
•
And now the music *
has come... •
•
Peter Frampton J
The Bee Gees •
Coming May 2
PIRANHACON I •
A presentation of MSC Aggie Cinema #
energy]
saverl
.yZMSC AGGIE CINEMAiimm®W;.
ii See TOGA CONTEST AD!
It was the Deltas
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the rules lost! ^
ftfaitmlYluw Presents A GBtflOBBENBEfWftaluclai A HOBBT WH F*n STAR THK—T)€ MOTDN HCTIK
Stsmng WUIAM SHATTER LEONARD MMOY OrfOREST KEUEY Presentrs PERSE KHAMBAHA and Slamng STEPHEN COLINS as Decker
Muse by JERRY GOLDSMITH Screenctey by HAROLO UVWGSION Story by ALAN DEAN FOSTER ftatuced by GENE ROOOENBERRY
Greeted bv ROBERT WBE Copynght O MCMLXXIX by Pwrwnw* Pictures Corporation Aj'Ptghts Reserved
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DOLBY STEREO
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooo
§ MANOR EAST 3
MANOR EAST MALL
823-8300
All cargo moved through the port
totaled 122.3 million tons and port
officials said the figure should assure
Houston was again the second
busiest U.S. port in foreign trade and
third in total tonnage behind New
York and New Orleans.
Despite the reduction in oil and
autos, the port’s overall foreign trade
tonnage, including exports, in
creased almost 4 percent to 64.8 mil
lion tons. Container freight jumped
more than 30 percent.
Officials said more than 5,500
ships from 66 countries called at the
port during the year.
FRANCIS HUUT COPPOl.A
%
MWL0N8RAND0 ROBERTO/m MWNSI££N.Af>aAJPS£NCW
FREDERIC FORREST ALBERT HALL SAMSOTTOMS LARPY f»«URNE « OENfC HOPPER
FRANCIS COPPOLA
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5S1 AN OMN20ETROPETROOUCRON United Artists
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ANIMAL mU9C
A comedy from Universal Pictures
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FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
APRIL 25 & 26
7:30 & MIDNIGHT
THE GROVE
$1.25 WITH TAMU ID
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PRODUCED By Si0*Ky BiCMRMXS DrtlCTIOBYBXl PI«S»» * PARAMOUNT
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SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS
SUNDAY APRIL 27
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MONDAY-FRIDAY 9 A.M. TO 4 P.M.
TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE
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