DALE and BONNIE STRINGER

By Arvord Abernethy

Have you met the Dale Stringers yet? I met Dale recently at the Hamilton National Bank where he has been serving as Executive Vice-President since the first of 1980.

Dale became a bank examiner in 1969 and has worked the banks here in Hamilton several times. While on business here, he fell in love with this area of the state and with the people here. He was about to be transferred to Washington D. C. when this position opened up, so he readily took it.

Dale said that he had always wanted to live in a smaller town, a place that would give him that back-to-the-country feeling. The Stringers also felt that this would be a better place to rear their children as they could give them more freedom to be away from the house without the parents worrying about them as they did in Dallas .

They also wanted to live in a place where they could “put down roots”. The work he is doing here gives them time and opportunity to be involved in civic and church life. Dale has been helping Ewald Wulf coach the Pony League baseball team.

The Stringers attend the First United Methodist Church .

I dropped by their home last week and met Mrs. Stringer, Bonnie, and their daughters, Bonnie Sue and Dusty. Bonnie Sue will be in the eighth grade next fall and Dusty will be in the first grade. Both were in school here some last spring and liked it real well and made many friends.

One son Tom, is a sophomore at McLennan Community College in Waco and David will be a sophomore at Hamilton High School . David has been helping coach a baseball team here this summer. The Stringers’ three month old poodle, Cricket, was real easy to get acquainted with.

Bonnie grew up in Crown Point , Indiana , but has been in Texas long enough to become a real Texan. Dale grew up at Judson Grove which is just outside of Longview , but the family moved into Longview when he was in High School, so he is a dyed-in-the-wool Texan.

The Stringers had a desire for some time to restore an old home, so when they came to Hamilton and found what is known as the Barkley home at 522 E. Leslie for sale, they knew that it was exactly what they wanted.

This home was built in 1904 by the grandparents of Mrs. Brents Witty, the Holmes. In June 1920 it was sold to W. W. Barkley and is where Guffie and Mavis had their apartment. I think that Bill was born there. You have heard how the laughter of children would ring through the halls of such a stately home. I wonder if other sounds rang through the halls while Bill lived there.

As I walked up on the large front porch and looked at those large white post that lead to the high ceiling and then at the beautiful wrought iron balcony, I could feel the warm hospitality and the old charm which the old home has.

The Stringers give former owners credit for many improvements that have been made, but since this house is just what they had looked for, they have gone all out to make it their dream home. One of the first things they did was to take the old paint off right down to the beautiful oak wood. The family did much of this work themselves. Bonnie voiced her appreciation of how friends would drop by and pick up a piece of sandpaper and go to work. They also expressed their appreciation for the fine cooperation and assistance they got from local merchants.

As we walked through the house there was that homey, lived-in look everywhere. In Dale’s study, it didn’t take long to see that he was a perpetual reader as his large library contains books on nearly every subject. His stereo and accessories are housed in a beautiful cabinet made of Scotch yew pine, a light colored wood. It came from Scotland and was originally an armoire-that is what we old country boys called a wardrobe.

Another item Dale is proud of is the coat-of-arms or emblem of Scotland that he has. His father was sent to Scotland by an American company that had bought the John Brown Ship Yard of Glasgow, Scotland. The company took down the old front doors that had been cast in 1750 with the coat-of-arms on them and the emblem was given to Mr. Stringer. He also has the coat-of-arms of his mother’s people who came from Scotland ; their name being Hamilton .

As we went through other rooms, there were pieces of fine antique furniture that had been brought over from England or Scotland . David’s room is furnished with the bedroom suite that Bonnie’s parents bought soon after their marriage; a beautiful mahogany group.

The Stringers have extended the kitchen on out to the west to make a breakfast room. They used some stained glass windows in it that came from England . The main dining room is furnished in massive furniture in keeping with the house.

A section that once served as a double garage was made into a patio and now makes a good place for the children to skate and play and is also a good place for outdoor eating.

Music instruments of different kinds, trophies from different events, handmade work and other things reveal that this is an active family.

I had two purposes in dropping by and visiting with you today. First, I wanted you to meet the Stringer family and get acquainted with them. Then I wanted us to look around and just notice the number of older homes that have been redone over the last three or four years. Don’t they call it urban renewal? Think what it has meant to our town to have such work done. Instead of having a lot of old run-down, decaying houses as eyesores, we have neat repainted homes that we are proud of. They haven’t all been large homes, but all have meant as much in keeping Hamilton an attractive place in which to live. Several of out newcomers have told me that the neatness of Hamilton was one of the reasons they chose it for a place to call home.

I hope I can visit some day with others who have redone their homes

Shared by Roy Ables

ACROSS THE FENCE