When the bishop calls you up and asks you to take on another Mission church you don't say, "No, bishop Iker, I'm awfully sorry but I can't be priest in charge of Slap Out, aka Hubbard." On the contrary, you say "of course, I'd be glad to help out."
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| was a train station - now a church hall |
So now I get to go to a third church on Sundays and I don't mind that at all. I especially like the congregation, who have good spirit, and the parish hall, which used to be Malone's railway station. The church bought it in the early 1950s, put it on a truck and drove it to Slap Out.
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| slap out of business |
Why was Hubbard called Slap Out? Because, back in the 1860s, customers would go to the General Store only to be told that it was "slap out" of whatever they wanted.
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| protestant work ethic |
Slap Out's less basic now but it could do with a butcher, a pub, a bakery, and a gun/tack shop, maybe even some kind of book shop, for those of us who like to read. Why is that too much to ask? As it goes, the town has a couple of cafes, a masonic lodge, a feed shop and a pharmacy. It has a war memorial too, in the form of an attack helicopter.
I never in a thousand years would've thought I'd have a cure of souls in Hubbard. Why? I never knew it existed, but now I do and I'm not complaining.
I like these small Texas towns.
LSP
