Office of the Mayor of Munday, Texas


July 1, 2009

Dear Munday Citizen,
In my weekly column “Inside City Hall” in the Munday Courier I have asked for citizen input. I have received no input. I realize that everyone doesn’t read the Courier, so I am trying the direct mail approach with this letter.

I need to hear from the citizens of Munday: to know how the city is doing for you. People can have concerns but hesitate to say anything because they don’t think it would do any good. One thing is certain, no one can be helped if the city doesn’t know what the needs are. We want to hear from the citizens of Munday.

Now then, I would like to do something new: a citizen’s advisory council. At one time Munday operated on the alderman/ward system of representation. Different areas of town were represented on the city council. Today our council members are all elected at large. That doesn’t mean that any area of town is not represented. Not at all.

I would like to divide the city into four or six areas and appoint at least two people from each area. I would also like to appoint three people from the group of business owners who may live outside the city limits. That would give us a council of around 15 people to advise the mayor and city council on all sorts of things.

What do I need from you? Names. I need for you to give me names of those you think would be good for your area of town. These people do not need prior experience on the city council. They need to be people who love Munday and want to see it prosper. We need people who think for themselves, who are not puppets of someone else. We need people who are not afraid to speak up in a group setting.

This council will be different from anything anyone has seen before in Munday. I guarantee it. It won’t be a power thing, no one on the advisory council will have a vote at city council. But they will have input. This council will meet once a month, no boxing gloves allowed either.

At the meetings we will talk about every concern raised from every area of town. If anyone has a vision for Munday, we will certainly hear that.

This is your opportunity to be in on something that can make a difference in Munday. Remember, it takes the whole village to raise up a good mayor. I want to be your good mayor. This is my hometown, I’m proud of it, I love it and I want to see it become again like it was when I was growing up here. Really I want to see it become better.

Sincerely,



Buddy (Bunny) Norville

Inside city hall, 7-1-09

The Munday Farmer’s Market got underway last Saturday morning. Clarence and Etta Searcy became the first gardeners to bring their produce to market. I tip my black-eyed pea basket to the Searcys. It was a brave move on their part to step out and be the first. It was also a big move. The garden gate is open, let the produce flow through the gates of Munday.

Who will come out and join us before and after the parade? This weekend will be a great time to have produce to sell. Mark my word, there will be a crowd in town for the parade. It doesn’t matter if you only have a little to bring, your presence will mean a lot to the Farmer’s Market idea. Remember, this is the beginning of something that will become big. So, think big, even if you have a little. The Farmer’s Market in Las Angeles began with one man and his pickup and homegrown vegetables and today it is huge. I imagine the one in Dallas started the same way. The one in Munday has started the same way: Clarence and Etta took a huge step forward for all of us. Thank you Clarence and Etta.

I hope you have noticed how the parade fever has struck in Munday. Every where I go I hear people talking about their float or another one. This kind of excitement has been missing in Munday for too long. So let’s fan the breeze and work it up to hurricane pitch, then hold on for the ride.

In just the past week I have been introduced to some great ideas, some big dreams for Munday. In time we will share these ideas and ask for input on how to accomplish them. They are all too big for one person to accomplish, so we need partners who are ready to jump on board and go with the flow. Let’s get back on track and back to the future.

With this edition I would like to introduce the Mayor’s “Atta Boy Honor Roll”, and the idea of “volunteerism”. I am aware of certain individuals who have given themselves to Munday in big blocks of time and energy. In the weeks ahead I will be recognizing these folks and naming them to the Honor Roll. The Munday Courier will also recognize them by running a story and photo of each honoree. These are people who have the volunteer spirit and a love for Munday with a desire to see Munday look good and be good.

So before we even begin naming names I’m asking you, the public, for suggestions and nominations for future honorees. We want to recognize everyone who has this spirit and this love for Munday. These people do not mind working, sweating, freezing, whatever it takes to put Munday ahead. You know someone like this, so let us hear from you, write to us at Honor Roll, Drawer 39, Munday, TX 76371.

These folks would never ask to be included in something like this. In fact, some of them will be embarrassed. But some of them have been doing things for this city for years and have never been recognized for their work. It’s time we honored them, this is only a token of what they deserve.

In the weeks and months ahead we will be working on a master list of volunteer projects in Munday. This will be a list of things that just don’t get done around town. There’s a lot of things that fall under the city’s jurisdiction that are way down on the list. Well, a lot of them never get done. They are things that volunteers can do. I’m asking you to put aside ideas that are so prevalent around town: things like “why should someone have to volunteer to do things that the city boys are paid to do?” If you think that way, we don’t want you on our volunteer team. You would be like a rotten apple in the bag, and your spirit would spoil the whole bag. We need to change the way we think and the way we talk. We is me, and we is you. Think about it and take it to heart. Put Munday first.

Market Munday every chance you get.

The class of 1959 as they look in 2009

Munday classes celebrate 50-51-year reunion

The Munday High School classes of ‘58 and ‘59 reunited over the past weekend in Wichita Falls. The class of ‘58 counted 14 former classmates and 23 represented the class of ‘59. Several spouses came along to see if their mates really did, in fact, graduate from Mogul High School.

Several exes who for one reason or another did not graduate with the core classes came out for this occasion. It was the 51st and 50th reunions for the classes. Everyone had a great time guessing the identities of others as they came through the door. Someone lamented, “What are we going to look like in another 50 years?” As the group picture shows, the classes of ‘58 and ‘59 are a nice-looking bunch.

The whole group spent several hours just getting reacquainted and making discoveries at every table. This was not a cookie-cutter batch of graduates. One had built an aerospace company, another had his Ph.D.. There were nurses, policemen, farmers, missionaries, career military people, real estate people, housewives, and many other careers represented. There was not a dunce in either class. Never was.

Highlighting the entire weekend was the auction on Saturday evening. Newly-elected class president, Gaylon Allred, acted as the auctioneer. Allred, a retired bank executive, treated each piece as a work of art mounted in solid gold. As a result every item sold for a lot more than it was worth, bringing in over $1,500 for the next class reunion in two years.

One of the items had sentimental value to one person: A name plate that had formerly indicated the residence of Staff Sergeant David Rister at Carswell A.F.B. housing. At some time in the intervening years the name plate came to Munday came to rest at the home of David’s parents. Somehow the plate fell to the floor and eventually worked its way beneath the house, where it stayed for several years. A year or so ago it showed up. Dorothy Myers moved in next door to the, by this time dilapidated house. As the floor was being removed, there it was, laying in the dirt as good as new.

Recently Dorothy gave the sign to Jackie Lowrance in hopes she could return it to David. Imagine the look on David’s face when he saw the sign among the items to be sold at auction. The weekend was in fact a re-union of the sign and David. It was a great weekend for all.

Inside city hall, 6-24-09

Munday will have a Farmer’s Market. Maybe not this month, but it will happen. Gardeners, farmers, plumbers, builders, bring forth your produce. Please. There is plenty of space around the square. First one there gets the shade.

Thursday evening at the Church of Christ the Community Garden/Farmer’s Market Council will meet at 7 p.m. There is always something interesting to talk about. So come on out and join in.

Everyone loves a parade, especially on the Fourth of July. Munday folks are putting together a colossal and colorful collection of entries. I asked the Air Force Chief of Staff if he could arrange a flyover of the Thunderbirds at 10:00. He was sort of noncommittal, but he will try. Who knows, maybe they will airdrop a shipment of fresh produce from Maryland. Don’t hold your breath.

Did you know the first parade floats were decorated barges towed along canals with ropes held by parade marchers on the shore? Now you know where the name came from. Floats were occasionally propelled from within by concealed oarsmen, but the practice was abandoned because of the high incidence of drowning when the lightweight and unstable frames capsized. Strikingly, among the first uses of grounded floats, towed by horses, was a ceremony in memory of recently drowned parade oarsmen.

No barges afloat here, but there will be all kinds of vehicles and animals in our parade. It is rumored that the mayor has an entry and will be pulling a custom-made trailer. This we gotta see.

If you haven’t entered your barge do so soon at the chamber office. Decorate them something along the lines of Freedom Fest, since this is an Independence Day Parade. Display the colors with pride: WE ARE AMERICANS! And we are proud of it. If you are not, stay at home. Better yet, leave the country.

Don’t forget to enter your little miss in the pageant, too. I’m sure there will be more about it in the Courier.

These events are small steps forward. Old Japanese proverb say, “Journey of a thousand miles begin with first step (forward).” We are not planning a destination, an end to our planning. We will build one step, then build on that step, with no end in sight. We keep building, and enjoying the journey.

This kind of journey requires people of vision, dreamers, those who think outside the box. There are many people stuck in their little boxes who want out, but don’t know how to get out. It’s as easy as changing the way they think. Remember the little steam engine who said, “I think I can, I think I can . . .” I have watched people react to a request to do something out-of-the ordinary. Without thinking they will say, “Oh, I can’t do that.”

If I come to your house with a match and say, “I’m going to burn your house down.” How would you react? Probably you would say, “Like hell you are!” At least I hope you would react that way. Listen, our homes are in danger. Our town is in danger of disappearing. And if we don’t get out of our boxes and start thinking of ways of save our town, our society, and our culture we will be moving to Dallas or some other city. We have a much better life in Munday than we ever would in a big city.

There are those who say it is inevitable, towns like Munday are fading away. People who say those things are paid to think that way. These are the same people who could think of ways to save our small towns, but they would have to change the way they think. They only bet on sure things: small towns must die. Don’t believe a word of it. We the people control our own destiny: and we will not allow Munday to die.

If you look fast you can see Richard Albus and Steven Smith zipping around town on two shiny, new John Deere lawn mowers. Keeping Munday Beautiful bought one of the mowers and the other one was a gift to Munday. Albus and Smith voluntarily mow many lots and yards around town. They could use some other volunteer help: cleaning debris off the lots before they mow and following after them with weed eaters. The pay is the same, but these guys will not give up the Deeres: you could say they are attached to the mowers, as in joined at the hip.