When I was growing up Coleman, Texas had about 6000 people with another four or five thousand in rural areas of Coleman County or in other little towns in the County including Silver Valley, Burkett, Valera, Whon, Echo and Santa Anna with the latter being the largest of these little towns.

Then law enforcement rested in the hands of Les Taylor the Chief of Police and George Roby the Sheriff.  Sometimes there was a constable in Santa Anna. I think my Grandfather Bilbrey may have been a constable at one time in Santa Anna.  Although the population of Coleman has not changed, it now has probably about 20 policemen and several auxiliary police and possibly seven or eight police cars.

I remember as a very little boy sitting in my father’s lap and steering as he drove.  We all learned to drive at an early age.

The main street in Coleman was Commercial Avenue which ran north and south.  The main east to west street was College Avenue.  Les Taylor frequently sat in his car parked at College and Commercial.  In fact there was a telephone on a pole there which rang when the police were called.  One day my father and I were walking across College and stopped to talk to Les Taylor.  After talking for a few minutes Les looked at my father and stated, "Didn’t he think it was about time I got a driver’s license."  I must have been about 14 and had been driving alone for at least a year.  I took my tests and  got a license the next day.

Back then if a young man got in trouble it was not unusual he would not be charged or arrested but a judge would give the offender a choice of jail or to enlist in the armed forces.  In 1945 there was a break-in at one of the two hardware stores in town.  No one was ever arrested but three or four days after the break-in several high school senior dropped out of school and joined the Army.

Coleman must have had twenty churches when I was growing up.  There was a Catholic church in town.  I think all its members were Mexican then.  Other churches were the Nazarene, Church of Christ, Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, and several Baptist.  It was not too unusual for a riff to occur in a Baptist congregation causing some members to break away and form another Baptist church.  I was raised a Baptist but converted to Catholicism when I was 22.

On reflection, some of the Baptist ministers were relatively  uneducated.  Too, many of them preached only fire and brimstone.  Some of the congregations were very strict.  Consumption of alcohol was forbidden.  When I was growing up there was never any beer, wine or liquor in our house.  Dancing was an instrument of the Devil.  My wife, Maudine played piano at her church from the time she was about 12.  When we graduated from high school, the Prom was held at the Country Club on a Saturday night.  A photographer took some pictures including one showing Maudine dancing.  There were two weekly newspapers in Coleman – the Chronicle and the Democrat-Voice.  One published on Tuesday and the other on Thursday.  That picture appeared in the paper on Tuesday.  That same day the pastor and the elders of Maudine’s church came to her house, condemned her as going straight to hell and demanded that she publicly apologize to the congregation.  She did not apologize.  She was fired as church pianist.

Revivals were common.  A church would raise a tent, rent folding chairs from the funeral home and a visiting preacher would hold services every night for a week.  Today signs on the highways entering Coleman welcoming visitors and proclaiming Coleman as “A City of Churches.”

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on January 16, 1920.  That amendment prohibited the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages.  Shortly thereafter came the era of speakeasies (places where alcohol was sold for consumption) and bootleggers (those who sold bottles to individuals although it was illegal).  It also saw the rise of mobsters such as Al Capone who were active in the manufacture and sale of alcohol.  Stills are used to make alcohol.  Those who operated (and in some places still do) were called moonshiners.  The 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment which was ratified on December 5, 1933.  The period in which the 18th Amendment was in effect was called Prohibition.  I often heard that during prohibition a still was operated in the attic of the Coleman County Courthouse.

After the 21st Amendment to this day Texas has a system called “Local Option.”  Under that residents may vote whether their area will permit alcoholic beverages thus being “wet” or prohibiting such, thus being “dry.”  When I was growing up Coleman was dry.

Coleman had one hotel.  Off the lobby on one side was a pharmacy.  On the other side was a barbershop.  In the barbershop was a shoeshine stand.  The black man who shined shoes was called by his nickname “Shine.”  You may think that was ONLY because he shined shoes.  You would be wrong.  He also sold moonshine.

It was only in the past few years that alcohol could be sold legally in Coleman.  Even today the north side of town is “wet” and the south side “dry.”  Even on the “wet” side alcohol by the drink can not be sold except in “private” clubs.  To buy a drink you have to be a member of that “private” club.  Of course, membership can be purchased for varying periods of time such as one day for $1.00.  This arrangement of private clubs is common in parts of Texas and Arkansas and perhaps other places.

The Coleman County is bordered by Callahan County on the north, McCulloch on the south, Brown on the east and Runnels on the west.  For the most part that entire area of Texas was “:dry.”  The city of San Angelo is about 66 miles southwest of Coleman.  Between Coleman and San Angelo just  after leaving Coleman County was a crossroads community called Lowake.  Lowake was “wet.”  There was a great deal of traffic from surrounding counties to Lowake.  The owner of the liquor store at Lowake even built his own landing strip so people could fly in to make purchases.