S. R. Adair Jr. ( Ron ) has worked with the Gideon's International for 39 years. He has lead music in church for ten years. He was born in Houston, TX. raised in Alvin, and Algoa, TX. Started working with Pops in Adair & Sons dump truck and tractor work before first grade. Graduated from Santa Fe High School. Was manager of two businesses, and owner of another before going on active duty in the U.S. Seabees. Served two tours of duty in Viet Nam as Equipment Operator, E-5. Loves TX., had bluebonnets growing in Viet Nam with seeds sent to him from home. Now retired, and living in Lufkin, TX.

In "ANOTHER TRUE TEXAN SURVIVOR" Ron Adair has written from his heart about the many situations, hurts, opportunities, challenges, developments, Worry, FEARS, and "Blessings". These come our way, and how we react, will determine the outcome. A.N.D.E. is one chapter ( # 38 ) on Another Near Death Experience, with tales of true situations that did happen. Hit by falling tire from the sky...in Ho. TX; held up at gun point...in Henderson, TX

In "ANOTHER TRUE TEXAN SURVIVOR" Ron Adair has written from his heart about the many situations, hurts, opportunities, challenges, developments, Worry, FEARS, and "Blessings". These come our way, and how we react, will determine the outcome. A.N.D.E. is one chapter ( # 38 ) on Another Near Death Experience, with tales of true situations that did happen. Hit by falling tire from the sky...in Ho. TX; held up at gun point...in Henderson, TX

To those who have gone on ahead of me: my brother Larry Adair; Mom, & Pops;
Huntington Police Officer John Edward Logan, Jr. E.O.W. March 14, 2004 Gone But Not Forgotten, very good friend;
David M. Smith; Dave Winfrey, Jim Reagan; and Vernon Horton, to name a few.

true, texas, true texas, survivor, Near Death Experience

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In "ANOTHER TRUE TEXAN SURVIVOR" Ron Adair has written from his heart about the many situations, hurts, opportunities, challenges, developments, and blessings.

Another Texan is Born
At my request, my mother wrote about her childhood and early life before and after I was born. Here’s our story from her perspective.
My life Ollie Mabel Scott Adair Springer
DOB 9-17-1919 today is 8-18-2005
My mother, Maude Isabel Blacklock was a school teacher before she married my father, James Madison Monroe Scott in the early 1900's. They moved to Texas. My dad was an inspector of crossties for the railroad, so we had to follow construction.
I was born in Montgomery County, Texas, on September 17, 1919. I was the youngest of 5 children. My oldest sister, Edith, died after a few months. When I was almost 6, we moved to Alvin, Texas, making the trip in a covered wagon. We camped out the first night by a water tower just across from Aylor's garage and service station. Bud Aylor would be one of our treasured friends and neighbors in Algoa years later.
The next day we settled in the Mustang community south of Alvin. We moved into a large two-story house with the living quarters being on the second story level. The bottom level was completely empty as a basement.
We had apple boxes nailed onto trees for the hens to lay eggs. Occasionally, a chicken snake would be in with the eggs, so I learned to look inside before putting my hand in to reach for eggs!

Mom's Perspective of Her Life
My two sisters went to the small school house about 2 miles from home. The following year, (approx. Summer of 1926) my brother Howard, was due to start school, so we moved to Alvin. About 3 miles west on Davis Bend Road we were offered a house rent free because we had no money for rent.
My two sisters, Essie 12 and Gladys 10, talked to our dad about letting them quit school and getting jobs so we would not have to keep moving. Howard, age 7, could now start school without us having to be on the move. Dad, meanwhile left us there and went on to his next job, which was always out of town. Over the next six years our dad came to visit from time to time, but the times got farther and farther apart.
Essie and Gladys took jobs working in different homes, doing chores to earn money to support us. I started school with a four to five mile walk each way with my brother Howard and the neighbors.
The Lord always provided us with a house rent free, hand-me-down clothes, and garden veggies. My mother was a good seamstress and altered clothes to fit me. When I graduated from Grammar school, I made a pretty white dress from lace curtains given to us!
We walked to church every Sunday morning and night, plus Wednesday night for prayer meetings. When I was Ten years old, our church had a revival service. Our pastor, George W. Springfield, preached like I was the only one there, and at the end of the service the Holy Spirit carried me on air (I don't remember walking) to the altar in front where I knelt down and asked the Lord to be my SAVIOR AND LORD OF MY LIFE!!
Jesus has been my Savior, Guide, Friend, Provider, Peace-giver, you name it, and He has always been there for me. I will be 86 years old this next month, today being August 19, 2005.
My sisters got jobs with the telephone company. We were living just two blocks from school when the new high school building started being built. We walked home each day for lunch, taking a friend to eat with us. Those were the depression years. My sisters were making enough money to finally pay rent, so we moved three miles toward downtown just four blocks from the main part of town. So now, Howard and I had to walk farther to and from school each day.
We finally had electricity, running water, and inside plumbing. It was so nice to have fans for hot weather and a fridge for milk. We had a cow several times before, but this time I learned how to milk it.
As a freshman, I was honored to be the only one in my class to be asked to join the school choir. I had been shy all of my life so our Spanish teacher, Miss Verna Browning, took me under her wings and got me started into our debating class, teaming me with one of my favorite classmates, Alberta Mc Cown.
To my surprise, we went to County meet in Angleton and won third place. Miss Browning was the daughter of one of our local bankers and had traveled worldwide, but was so "down to earth" she never put down any of us or showed any favoritism. Maude Benson was another Gem of a teacher.
Jack O'Neill had a friend who would come to school to pick him up and passed me by as I walked home carrying books. I knew him as Raymond White, who worked in the oilfield and rented a room from an elderly lady who had bought Aylor’s Garage and Service Station. He helped work with a tool pusher, so he was nicknamed TOOLIE. She talked him into quitting and going to work for her, running her service station. Jack and Raymond never stopped to flirt or pick up anyone on the road, including me.
All in all, my school years were happy ones. In 1936, Howard graduated and I graduated in 1937, 4th from the top. While I was a senior, I took the job at the telephone company as night operator, so I went to school an hour later than the rest. Back in those days, lots of folks didn't have phones so when a family got a long-distance call, they would pay for a messenger to go to their home with a message to go to the phone office. Guess who walked the miles to get those people word to go to the office? Me or my mother.
After graduation, I got the day time job at the phone company, going to businesses with pay phones. My job was to "rob" the change boxes, count the money and get the manager to sign my copy and give them a receipt. When I got to Mrs. Walton's service station, there was RAYMOND WHITE. I did not know he had left home, following his younger brother Bob.
When he was introduced to others it was as Raymond White. Their dad's name was Andrew White Adair, Sr. The youngest son was Andrew White Adair, Jr., who was nicknamed Tony by Raymond White whose real name was Seth Raymond Adair. It wasn't until after we started dating a year and got serious with each other that he told me his real name. My mother was so sure that I had befriended a crook, she was leery of my getting involved with him, but I had no fears. He started going to church with us and on Sundays when I would be working, he'd go with her. He had never gone to church, so it was all new to him. Weeks passed by and on a Sunday in Sept.1938, he made a public profession of faith and was due for baptism next Sunday on my birthday.
Two days later, however, the company he was working for transferred him to Bunkie, La. Weeks went by but I started making plans to follow him as soon as possible. Our phone system was the old crank type but was being replaced with a more modern dial system. I was asked to stay on and train someone to take my place and was offered a nice wedding OVER THE PHONE AS THE FIRST LONG DISTANCE CALL, plus all sorts of nice gifts from advertisers etc. But I talked to Raymond and we both declined the offer, agreeing that we wanted to be holding hands when we took our oaths. We could not be bought!
On Feb. 7, 1940 I with my suitcase and trunk headed out of Alvin via a bus for Bunkie, La. Seth's landlady picked me up, as Raymond had to work until midnight. The next day he was given 1/2 day off to get married so early the next morning, we headed for Alexandria, La.
After getting the marriage license, we found a nice brick church, went in and asked the colored man cleaning the floors to call the minister as we wanted to get married. He smiled broadly and said "I's he"... then pointed to a church down the road so we ended up in Pineville's Baptist church where Dr. Knight was pastor and ladies in his office were our witnesses.
We grabbed a quick lunch and hurried back to Bunkie so he could go back to work. On his day off, we'd go riding around sight-seeing. Out in the country, we'd stop at the end of a row in a field being plowed and ask where that road would lead us to and usually the farmer would shrink his shoulders or shake his head and say he didn't really know. After staying in his room, renting, I went apartment hunting and found one in the home of the local postmaster and his family, the Couvillions (Coo-ve-yon), a nice French family whose daughter, Martha, was our translator.
That summer a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast, bringing rains and a lot of flooding. Emergency calls went out for phone operators, electricians, etc. Raymond agreed I should offer my help at the phone service. I stayed on after service was restored until that October, when we were transferred back to Texas, moving to Richmond just 2 blocks from the courthouse. We were living there when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941.
James Sanders and the welding company he worked for needed extra help and talked Raymond into trying out for welding, which he took to easily. He asked to be called Raymond instead of Seth, which we all did. Jobs were getting farther and farther away, so that fall of '42, he quit and we moved to a two-story duplex at 1569 Telephone Road in Houston. He got a job welding at the Houston Shipyard. I had been praying for a child, and the Lord had finally answered me. I was pregnant when we moved to Houston.
Raymond’s brother Tony moved in with us. He walked the streets near our house every afternoon with me so I had company getting my daily exercise. I found a good doctor about 1/2 mile from where we lived. Come to find out, he had moved to Houston from Tyler, Texas. where he had been the doctor for Smith county. He knew Tony and all the Adair family, having treated some of them while most of the kiddoes were growing up when the family lived in Noonday, a small town near Tyler.
Ron is Born
Dr. Homer Gryce really turned out to be a good home delivery doctor, as that was how I wanted it to be for me. On Feb. 9th, three years and one day after we were married, I gave birth to our first son, who weighed 13 and a half pounds. Two hours earlier, our neighbors across the hallway had been over for coffee. Now, Raymond walked over and told them to come see our beautiful perfect son, Seth Raymond Jr.

PAGE 8 Ollie & Ron
All the time we were expecting him, we had been calling him RONNY for Ronald, the middle name he had chosen instead of Raymond being the oldest of eight children he had never had anything of just his, always having to share. When he saw that little fat white creature, perfect with all ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, two ears, and one nose, he came to the bed, knelt down beside me and he just burst into tears.
We both thanked God for our gift and promised to raise him according to the Bible. So, his name is Seth Raymond Adair, Jr., but is still called "Ronny". Valerie and Wesley Adams walked across the hallway, amazed at how fast that baby had arrived. My mother was there, and helped out a lot.
We had prayed for another son, so that in case Raymond did not survive his tour of duty, Ronny would have a playmate. Nine months later, being very pregnant with (hopefully) Ronny's little brother and buddy, I was washing my hair when I had a pain. Knowing how I'd Ronny in such a hurry, I called Al Martin, our good friend who had promised Raymond to get me to the doctor whenever I needed to. I dried my hair with a towel, and off we went to Dr. Merz's clinic. Our second son, another beautiful, big, perfect human being with a full head of dark hair was placed into my arms. My mother named him Lawrence James Adair.
When I brought him home and placed him in the crib built into a side of our bedroom. I went into my mother's house and sat down and hugged Ronny. He went to get a toy and came running back to get me and go see what he had found in the crib a little baby! Oh, how proud he was of that little fellow. They are still very close after all these years, living close to each other and being there for each other.
Raymond had a job in Houston in construction working 7 days straight. Then he was hired by Phillips Petroleum Co. driving a truck, moving drilling rigs from Texas to La. plus delivering parts to and from various places where drilling was going on. He got his forty hours in by Wednesdays, usually, with nothing to do the rest of the week. He bought a good used dump truck, taking orders of different materials to be delivered on Thursdays or Fridays or even Saturdays. A few orders started coming in for delivery sooner, so I got my license to help get the orders onto the truck for him to deliver ASAP. As it got busier, I started making a few deliveries ahead of his getting his forty hours in.
I had always wanted a little red headed girl, so on February 23, 1948, I went to Dr. Merz's clinic to have a beautiful auburn haired perfect little doll. She is grown up now, but still a beautiful person. The boys liked their little sister and really didn't want her to be punished for anything. Time passed quickly, school days for Ronny started and the next year Larry started to school. We started Adair and Sons dump truck and tractor work before the boys ever started school. The boys took to operating any part of equipment needed, being a great help to their dad.
Our church in Algoa was a mission out of South Main Baptist in Houston. Bob Walker and wife Bessie came out from Houston as Bob was our pastor. They would stop by our house for coffee and usually picked up Lola Joyce, our little 18-month doll and we'd not get her back until after church services that night when she and Bessie both cried, not wanting to part.
Roger Neal was born 10:55 am March 9, 1952
Our kiddoes were the greatest ever! Skating became important to the family and our four became champions on skates, playing leap frog over each other, winning races around the rink, doing figure 8's, and playing various games with others. They were competitive in roller hockey with other roller rinks from Houston. When Alvin had a parade, there were several skaters who skated among the floats passing out candy to kiddoes, always ahead of the last horseback riders.
Ronny and Larry were active with scouting, also. I enjoyed taking them and their camping gear out to Camp Mohawk near Liverpool or Camp Karankawa near West Columbia on Friday nights, returning the next afternoon to bring them home. They became Eagle Scouts, earned life guard status plus Ron achieved the God and Country award. Both achieved Order of the Arrow. Ron went on later to become a Scout Master.
Raymond leased a ten-acre piece of land that kept the boys busy in spare times plowing and cultivating. On Saturday nights our boys would bring home an extra boy or two for the weekend. I never knew how many were upstairs asleep until I went up to check things out. One boy, Donald Smith, asked to move in as he had left home and quit school. I had gone to school with his mother and knew his dad so we contacted them. The idea suited them just fine, as he had given them some problems. We let him stay but with our own rules and discipline he would follow or else. He lived with us and helped the boys with their part of the workload.
We bought a dark green new GMC dump truck in 1960 that Ronny drove to school. A few weeks later, Tommy Hooper came home from skating, asked to move in with us, as his mother died when he was just 18 months old and he had been living with his elderly grandmother. After talking it over with the family, he moved in with his shoebox of clothes. Our three boys agreed to take their turns with new clothes, so that was no problem.
Foster Children
A few weeks later, one of our church members asked me to consider taking one of her nephews for a few weeks to see if we could help him overcome his walking in his sleep and having nightmares. So, we got Donald Parker added to our brood. Sure enough, I would hear him upstairs crying. I'd go up and find him scratching the wall of the bedroom and crying. I'd sit him down in my lap, cradle his head on my shoulder and sing him to sleep like a baby, then lay him down on his pallet to sleep the rest of the night. Just a few weeks and he was as normal as the others, sleeping all night with no problems. Prayers and some TLC is all he needed. About a year later he went back to Houston to live with his own mother.
Mom's Dump Truck
The two-story building that housed our boys was built earlier out of tile blocks brought from Houston in my dump truck and constructed by our good neighbor Joe Norris and Whiz White. 4 bedrooms and bath with stair-steps built out of 4”x18”x4’ bridge timbers, so they were very sturdy. Downstairs was the two-car garage, room for tools, etc., a large laundry room with two washers, two dryers, and a shower for the boys plus storage shelves underneath the stairs. It really served the purpose well.
We had also contracted with Abe Johnson to build a large truck barn big enough to hold four dump trucks with the concrete floor strong enough to support loaded trucks in at night ready for early deliveries next morning. A welding machine, electric and portable, air compressor, belts of all sizes, storage bins for tires, plows, box-blades, we had it all!!! The kiddoes nick named Raymond POPS which he seemed to like, as a compliment.
In all the years of hauling, I never did wear pants or jeans. Always a nice dress with matching necklace and earrings. Nothing gaudy, so when I had a job delivering a load of gravel to an off-shore drilling rig, I met a barge in Liverpool at the inter-coastal canal pier, drove onto a floating bridge onto the barge, and shut my motor off.
A tug hand asked if I'd like to get out and ride in the tug and sip on a cup of coffee. When we got to the oil rig, I fired up, drove off and up to the rig. I got out of my truck, and all hands stood still and just GAZED at me, not believing what they saw...a WOMAN dressed like she was going to church or somewhere besides a drilling rig off shore!
I smiled, dumped the gravel where the crew showed me, I got my copy signed, and then thanked them for making my day.