Potholes pave way for Howardwick friendships

Thanks to bad roads and potholes, community activism recently gripped the City of Howardwick and brought volunteer workers out in droves.

The little town on the north side of Greenbelt Lake, made up largely of retirees, has been plagued by deteriorating roads and limited resources with which to fix them. The main road entering Howardwick from State Hwy. 70 was paved three decades ago and was in bad enough shape before the ice storms hit this past winter.

City Alderman Nancy Davis said the road got so rough that it prompted the Associated Ambulance Authority and the Clarendon Independent School District to write letters to the city warning of the hazardous conditions and the toll that was being taken on ambulances and school buses.

So the city ordered three loads of coal mix and some RAP (Recycled Asphalt Pavement) and set about filling in some of the potholes with the help of a small band of volunteers on April 3. No one realized how quickly the project would grow.

Since the city doesn’t have any “Men at Work” signs, Davis began flagging cars down, warning the drivers to watch for the workers.

“People would stop and ask us what was going on,” Davis recalls. “When I told them what we were doing, they would say, ‘I’m going home to change clothes and I’ll be back to help.’”

And they did come back. Over the course of the next several days, 23 men joined the volunteer road crew. More than 90 percent of the men were retirees in ages ranging from 65 to 84. Private trucks and trailers were also donated to the cause.

The others in the community did their part also. If they couldn’t work, they donated money to the cause, bought soft drinks, or prepared food for the workers. Dorothy Arnold became the food chairman for the project and accepted help from 39 ladies before she finally had to start turning them away.

“It just ballooned,” Davis said.

Arrangements were made for several more loads of asphalt, and when the trucks arrived, Davis said, the men were thrilled.

“All these old men started clapping and cheering if you can believe that.”

The work continued through April 11 with half a dozen workers being brought in from the Clements correctional facility in Amarillo. The retirees came back day after day with some putting in more than 35 hours overall. Davis said they had to stop some of the men from working for fear they would get too hot or injure themselves.

The retirees soon became known as TOMs, an acronym which stood for Tired Old Men.

Dorothy Arnold said the women put in 62 hours serving meals at the community center, not counting the time they spent at home.

“It was wonderful,” Davis said. “People who used to just say ‘hello’ to each other at the post office are now the best of friends.”

“There was no bickering at all,” Arnold said. “There were just jokes all the time.”

Even the community’s stray dogs got in to the act, following the men around. One dog, nicknamed Duke, was very committed, riding in the back of trailers and joining the men for meals at the community center.

Davis estimates eight to ten miles of road were repaired.

“It’s still rough,” she said, “but it’s better than it was.”

Perhaps more important than the road, the community is closer than it was before and has benefited from a spirit of cooperation. In fact, at press time, the community was planning to form a Garden Club dedicated to beautifying Howardwick.

“You can’t describe the feeling that’s out here right now,” Davis said. “I’m so proud of this community.”