None of my novels or short stories were very successful finically ….I am not sure that I have covered my cost writing and in presenting the writings to you folks to read here on hesterbooks.com. But to me, the success was in getting it done. In seeing some of my works in print, on the posting of this site or really just me enjoying reading my own words, I enjoy them. I suppose that may sound crazy, but it fulfilled a life long dream to write and another dream to paint. I am so glad God gave me the chance to do this. In 1997,  when I had my bypass surgery  I spoke to God about me having some time left to fulfill this dream. He heard my prayers and helped me get it done. At times, as my fingers seemed to fly across the keyboard, I felt like I was just hanging on and He was doing it all. I’m not sure how all that works when God jumps in to help us, or take charge, but I know now that He does. I’m thankful and to God be the glory for what appears on these pages….the short stores, the novels and the postings. To those of you reading this and wanting to write, to paint or do others things with your life……Listen, you just got to trust, turn loose and do it….Pray first and God will bless you….You’ll see….As to the failure or fear of failure in my writing or painting,  I never even thought about it at the time I was going for it….Good or bad, I can’t say…… Failure? Never!     Pete Hester

I went to get on my Facebook page the other day and they said, “who are you?” My e-mail had been changed , which I had changed but did not tell the FB police….My password did not match, which I had changed when I changed  the e-mail, so they had no idea who I am/was, but they did offer to set me up a new account…..I had a bunch of kin and pals on my list and no way to tell them all “I’m gone”….Hopefully they will read this or maybe some of my kinfolks will tell the other kinfolks and pals about why I disappeared from the FB pages…..The FB police  are getting real picky about what you can put on your postings anymore, especially if you want to go public with some stuff….I reckon that’s ok, Mr. Zuckerberg has been getting in hot water, well, maybe the wording is not great but anyway Congress had him on the hot seat for a while….So maybe he is being a little tougher on his posting and has his police force watching a little more. Anyway, I did not want to set up another account…..and I had already pulled hesterbooks.com from Facebook as they thought I was a money making business…..no, no, no….no money here. I pay my own way, let every one read my writings for free and pay for the site out of my pocket. So, hesterbooks.com is not on FB either.  Really, I ain’t mad at you Mr. Zuckerberg or your police force, I’m just going to post on hesterbooks.com for a while….So far, I can post whatever I wish here and other than some, er, well, bad review comments from time to time, I can tell it like I “sees” it. …..And the comments are open, even for Mr. Zuckerberg, here at hesterbooks.com. The hesterbooks.com police ain’t nearly as tough as the FB police….

Who watches Saturday Night Live anymore?  And one other question for the few that do watch is WHY? Insults and poor acting in a lot of peoples opinion. And why do we support the advertisers who support that blarney. I say it’s time for them to close up shop. I certainly don’t waste my time watching….Do you?

Activities around the southern border is getting a little more extensive every day. Illegals are coming through, asylum seekers are demanding more agents help them, legal truck transportation needs agent to get them inspected in a timely fashion so they can get across the border with factory goods, border patrol  check points are having to be shut down due to not enough agents to man them and the democrats don’t think there is a need for more help down there. Somewhere in the accounting system of the United States Government there is a system overload and no one is watching or someone it watching and not reporting,  or someone is watching  and reporting and the reports are not going to higher level supervisors. Anyway, as the Fram Filter guy used to say, “you can pay me now or pay me later” but pay we will. Really this needs to stop. Someone needs to listen to Trump on the southern border issues…..PLEASE

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Big Alabama Football Fan by Dan Hall

Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 13-01-2016

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Big Alabama Football Fan

I was watching Alabama play in the national championship game Monday night and got to thinking about one of the biggest Alabama football fan I grew up with, Pop loved the Tide. He talked about listening to the 1925 & 1926 Rose Bowl games on the radio & then going to Tuscaloosa to see them get off the train after winning the National Championship games. He talked about listening when Johnny Mack Brown made that great catch in the 1931 Rose Bowl. I guess between him and my uncles Sam & Pete, they are the reasons I love football & especially ALABAMA football so much.
Back in the early 1960’s Alabama football was not on the TV every weekend, maybe once or twice a year. But they were on the radio, and at the time the best radio Pop had was in the car, so he and I would get in and listen ( him letting me start it up very 15 to 20 minutes to keep the battery charged) to the Tide Roll. Now Pop loved Bama winning but he didn’t like for Bama to lose, as none of Bear Bryant’s teams didn’t lose many times. If Alabama did get behind, Pop would get out of the car saying something about Bear Bryant needing to do better. He would be gone about 15 minutes, come by and ask me ” how they doing now ?”, if we were still losing he would leave again, only to come back again in another 15 to 20 minutes. But if they were back ahead or driving for a score, he would get back in the car to listen some more. We talked a lot listening to those games, about many things but mostly football, Alabama Football.  I really enjoyed listening to those games with him, and watching one on TV was great, he would talk to the coaches & players about what he thought they needed to be doing.
He would love it now that they are on TV every week, and the way Coach Saban has them winning games and National Championships.
Pop got to listen to or see the first 12 of Alabama 16 national championships……
He loved football, Pickens County High School football and Alabama football. He saw his brother-in-laws, sons, nephews, and grandson play for the Tornadoes.  I don’t know about the earlier games, but Uncle Pete’s and my games at PCHS, he was always standing by the fence in the north end zone. I bet at the other games he was in that spot.
And yes, Uncle Pete I was young but I remember going to your games at PCHS…”.

 Dan Hall is writing about his Grandpa and my Dad, D. W. Hester and he was a big fan…He did not take Bama losing very well at all. Thanks, Dan, good story….

Posted April 9, 2019  This is one of my favorite articles written by my nephew Dan Hall. I just wanted to share it least one more time…..Alabama just keeps on winning National Championships…I’m pretty sure Dad is watching with a lots of other Alabama fans from Heaven….(well, I don’t really know that,  but if they can, they are…..)

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Some of the most beautiful sand you will see anywhere is in the White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo,  NM. It is a wonderful place to take your family and play in the sand or just drive thru the park taking the tour. You will be glad you did. Many years ago my youngest son’s cousin came to visit him from Alabama. He wanted to see the White Sands and we agreed to take him. Only thing was, it was March during spring break, and the wind was having its way with everything not tied down in New Mexico on that particular day. He loved it. He had studied the old desert fox, Rommel, and thought the day was wonderful that he got to experience the winds that sting your face and eyes and makes you struggle to walk against it. I figured he would hate it, but what did I know. Seeing how much he enjoyed it, made me enjoy it even more. It’s windy around New Mexico nowadays….wan’na come out and play?

ps…if you double click the picture I think it will take you to more pictures of White Sands Park…..

Mueller has spoken….. No collusion with the Russians….The democrats and the media goes wild….The media more so than the democrats….Trump and the rest of us already knew there was no collusion.

You may have never heard of the Bisti Badlands of New Mexico. It is a strangely beautiful and sometimes very eerie place. Enter Bisti Badlands into your Bing or Google search engine and see some of the sights for yourself. It is truly amazing. You may even want to visit in person but at least look at some of the photos and videos you will find online. I have driven through there from time to time and was always amazed by the formations near the highway. Tour New Mexico and take a good look.

I read an article in the Albuquerque Journal Newspaper this morning, March 15, 2019, about human and drug smugglers comings through New Mexico’s southern border’s boot heel, taking back roads to bypass the Border Patrol check points and taking their paid clients on to Albuquerque  for 1500.oo US and then on to Birmingham, Al for another 1500.00. One of the cartels are handling all of this and it is a pretty elaborate scheme. These people come into our country along with those seeking asylum. They have to have a sponsor and at least one of the sponsors called was reportedly  a billiard parlor in Nashville, Tn.

Nancy, maybe you should listen to your President. He is getting information you are not. Does the information collected by the Homeland Security folks and ICE ever reach your desk? If so, do you simply think that it is more propaganda spread by the GOP? If you don’t to believe them, well,  you might try reading the paper.

The American people are getting fed up with you people not listening to “We the People”. I think that soon, even the American people of California will go to listening to Trump, especially those without ties to the cartel or with kinfolks south of the border. You see them at all the rallies, don’t you? They are the one waving the Mexican flag and burning and stomping on the American Flag. Lately, these folks have been coming on up with those from Central America. It does not matter which of the countries beyond our southern border, it just needs to be closed. Wise up, Mrs. Pelosi, and help our president right some wrongs and close the southern border to all illegals.

Legal entry is ok.

Update: Ok, I’ll admit, I’m dreaming to think that  Nancy Pelosi would ever read this site with her “pass it, then read it” attitude. But would some of you guys tell her to read a newspaper ever once in a while. Or maybe, listen to her duly elected President for a change.

Pickens County High School, Reform, Al circa 1953

Today Otis Vaughn is boxing for his health…and he says it is helping his Parkinson’s. I am so glad that it is. He puts in a lot of time making it so and there are dedicated people aiding him in making it happen. I think it is a wonderful story about how his PD has gotten much better. (see the postings below about that). I hope it will continue improving. His only boxing experience has been with his older brother….oh, and me. I told you that he is my best friend, and he is, but he wasn’t always my best friend. So, let me tell you our story.

I attended the Pickens County Alabama school system for all of my 12 years of elementary, middle school and high school years. Otis moved into our school system about his sophomore year of school as I recall. I knew him a little our sophomore year, but really it was our junior year when the fireworks started.

Now, Otis does not really remember all of this because most of it was taking place in my mind. I thought he was making a play for my girlfriend and I also thought he was trying to get the right half back position on the football team….my position. So, I started objecting to every thing Otis did. But Otis did push back so the bickering started.

I did not think our coach noticed such going on between players, but he certainly did notice.

One day during PE Coach had had enough. He pulled a set of boxing gloves out of the gym that I did not even know existed and told the guys in PE that day to gather round and make a circle. And he told Otis and me to fight and to keep fighting until we could not fight any more. They were big heavy gloves. Thinking back on it I’m pretty sure they were 10 ounce gloves….10 ounces when we started….by the time we finished they must have weighted a ton. I cannot say today just how long we fought, but it seemed like forever. I had fought my cousin Cecil several times and we both boxed, jabbed and threw upper cuts, etc…Otis on the other hand threw haymakers, lots of haymakers…..I could see them coming and jab Otis two or three times with my puny jabs and try to block those haymakers…blocking did not help as they would jar me down to my eye teeth and not all of them were blocked, the ones not block took it’s toll on my body. If we strayed away from the center of the ring, some of our good buddies would push us back to the center of the circle. The fight seemed to go on forever. I thought the boy would never get tired. Finally, when both our arms were hanging down by our sides and we literally could not lift our arms, coach stepped in….”Boys, lets take these gloves off and you two shake hands.” I was ready, believe me.

Now, I can’t really speak for Otis, but as for me, I came away from that day with a new respect for Otis Vaughn. I don’t think either of us was a victor in that battle on that day but I really know that we both won….FRIENDS FOR LIFE….Thank you Coach H. C. Elmore for a very valuable lesson. And thank you Otis Vaughn for being my friend.  Pete Hester