Less concern about weather does not mean ignore the skies. West Texas is hot, windy and dry in summer, and it is cold, windy and dry in winter. Spring and fall can be delightfully pleasant; what rain does fall around Andrews, Texas comes in the spring, April mainly, and in the fall, October. When the cattle need water in summer or winter, pumps and wells pull water from the ground. The same is true of the feed grains and grass the Coltsfoot ranch grows. No rain in spring and fall mean less water from the ground in summer and winter. In Andrews, Texas a close eye on the weather is still second nature, even when you own a dozen producing oil wells.
The Poteet family were neighbors of the Coltsfoot family. They lived about three miles down the ranch road, and their land closely matched the Coltsfoot property. They only had five producing wells; still enough to live comfortably. The Poteet's had children close in age, close enough to ride the same school buses, to the Coltsfoot kids. One difference about the Poteet family though, their children were all girls.
The eldest of the Poteet girls was April Beth. Two years younger was May Beth. When a third daughter was born three years later, the sire of the Poteet family, Lance Roan Poteet, put his foot down when it came to a name.
"Dammit Mary Beth, we ain't having no calendar; you can't name this child June Beth."
The youngest Poteet broke the mold as to naming. Sue Beth was the apple of her father's eye. Sue Beth became the apple of other male eyes as she matured; she gave every indication of having cheerleader cute looks and figure as young as ten years old.
Sue Beth Poteet had known Rayne Allen Coltsfoot almost her entire life. She could vaguely remember going to each other's third birthday parties. Rayne Allen was just one of her classmates, play friends, just another boy, until that one special day. First day of fifth grade, late August in Andrews, Texas would not normally be a special day. The weather forecast called for sunny skies and ninety-eight degrees, nothing unusual at all about the weather. Sue Beth knew everyone in Mrs. Baker's class; she had been going to school with them for the last four years. Many also went to her Sunday school and church. Rayne Allen Coltsfoot looked into Sue Beth Poteet's blue eyes at the exact moment she raised hers and saw him. They smiled and from that instant Sue Beth and Rayne Allen were a paired couple. They became that paired couple for life, just like the Whooping Cranes that winter at the Aransas Wildlife Refuge on the gulf coast of Texas.
As a pair the two just naturally did things together. They sat together on school bus rides, they ate lunch at the same table every day, and they studied and did homework assignments together when they could. As they moved on in school to junior high, Sue Beth did become a cheerleader. On days when he had no afternoon chores at the ranch, Rayne Allen stayed after school and watched Sue Beth practice so they could ride the late bus home together.
When they moved on to high school monthly Saturday dances provided some of their first dates. Rayne Allen was shy and awkward as many boys are at that age, but Sue Beth remained persistent, teaching him dancing and social manners. Even though Sue Beth was only five feet - six inches tall, she was taller than her boyfriend until the start of eleventh grade. Rayne Allen always wore western boots with two inch dogger heels to compensate for their height difference.
The western boots with dogger heels were more than an ornament for Rayne Allen. He competed in junior rodeos around West Texas, won several, and he had an impressive collection of belt buckles to prove his skill. Buffalo always wanted Rayne Allen to be the cowboy of his sons, and eventually assume management of Coltsfoot Ranch operations for the family. Rayne Allen enjoyed riding his favorite horse, and rodeoing was fun, but he roped and wrestled calves to impress Sue Beth, not his father. Sue Beth was always in the crowd, often rode beside her boyfriend in parade ceremonies, but she was wholly content to cheer for Rayne Allen from the sidelines rather than race around the barrels on her horse.
The logistics of dating improved when Rayne Allen finally got his driver's license four days after his sixteenth birthday. He had been driving pickup trucks and tractors around the ranch since he was thirteen, so his driving skills matured before the State of Texas judged his age sufficient to get a license. Buffalo Coltsfoot rewarded his son with a new Ford F-150 Crew Cab pickup truck that had been waiting at the Andrews Ford dealer for two weeks until Rayne Allen finally was legal to drive.
One freedom his new pickup truck gave the young couple was opportunity for private time together. Family outings were fun, and they often went together on First Baptist Church sponsored trips and activities with their friends. Church events were fully chaperoned, of course. Sue Beth took advantage of the freedom boyfriend's truck gave them to find private space and time so they both could learn, and practice to perfection, kissing and make-out skills they both enjoyed. The local drive in movie theater became a favorite Friday night date location until Marlena Coltsfoot and Mary Beth Poteet compared notes and suggested to their children the movie theater in town would be more appropriate. Sue Beth was the one who first suggested the park northeast of Andrews, Texas as a fun spot they could visit.
The park had a small lake, man made of course, and the two lovers found a small copse of trees that became their personal picnic spot. They first found the shaded place on a Sunday, after church. The small cluster of trees gave just enough privacy to practice serious kissing and fondling for almost an hour, yet it was far too public to go too far with the kissing and get into serious trouble. In broad daylight, their special place in the park had enough privacy for limited pleasure learning adult skills with each other.
They first visited their favorite place in the evening during spring break of their senior year in high school. Sue Beth pondered her plan for several weeks beforehand; she was ready. She had every intention of dancing the night away at her senior prom with her chosen life partner as a complete and fulfilled woman. Eighteen years of life was long enough to wait; Rayne Allen agreed. Sue Beth Poteet and Rayne Allen Coltsfoot gave each other their virginity that spring evening; it was a Tuesday night of passion in the stand of trees by the lake. Fumbling and tentative as it was, both would remember the night forever and share the anniversary as a special date in their lives together.
Miss Marlena Coltsfoot and Mary Beth Poteet compared notes about their children's appearance and demeanor the Wednesday following. It was clear to both women that their children had advanced their relationship to an adult level. They agreed to speak to them about adult responsibilities.
"I guess I best take Sue Beth to my doctor as soon as possible. I still remember when I was young; the first time just wasn't enough."
"Good idea, Mary Beth, we aren't ready to be grandmothers yet. I will definitely talk to Rayne Allen."
> > > - - < < <
About the time Sue Beth Poteet and Rayne Allen Coltsfoot professed their adult love for one another beside the lake, Lincoln Burnside Schylur mustered out of the U. S. Army at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas. Lincoln Burnside Schylur grew up in the piney woods of East Texas, Nacogdoches, Texas specifically. He enlisted in the army after high school; he served his initial tour plus one more. He was twenty-six years old, he had completed almost two years of college credit when he mustered out, and he was ready to finish his education and get on with life.
Just as Sue Beth Poteet acquired her name from her mother, with her father's initial guidance, so did Lincoln Burnside Schylur. "My grandmother was a slave, and Mr. Lincoln freed the slaves. I want my son to be a Mr. Lincoln"
Lincoln's father had no argument with Lincoln as a name for his boy. Lincoln's mother was a history teacher with a sense of the history of slavery and its end in the United States.
"There was a union general in the freedom war whose name I have always liked, Ambrose Burnside. Can we name our son Lincoln Ambrose?"
Lincoln's father thought on the proposed name; he thought hard and tried to look into the future his son would face. "Both Lincoln and Ambrose might sound a little prissy to his friends when he grows up. What if we use the last name of that general? We can name him Lincoln Burnside Schylur. Yes, I like that name; it is distinguished, the name has some history to it."
No one called Lincoln Burnside Schylur by his full name. His fellow soldiers tried the nickname Linc, but that didn't fit his self image.
"Just call me what the guys in school called me, Burn."
By the time Lincoln Burnside Schylur graduated from Stephen F. Austin University two years later, he was firmly established as Burn. Mostly, he wasn't even Burn Schylur; he was just plain Burn.
Burn tried living and working in Houston after graduation, but Houston wasn't the right place for him. Houston was too unstructured for a personality shaped by eight years of military life. After two years in Houston, Burn decided to try Dallas and see if he fit in there any better than in Houston. In Dallas, Texas he found his niche. He acquired a wife, a house, and eventually a real estate and insurance agency.
Three years after moving to Dallas and joining a small real estate agency, Burn was ready to set out on his own. He leased a small building just off the corner of Scyene Road and Second Avenue in the Fair Park section of South Dallas and hung out his shingle: Burn Real Estate and Insurance. At about the same time, Sue Beth and Rayne Allen Coltsfoot, now married and formally coupled, moved to Dallas. Rayne Allen deemphasized the two first names he used in West Texas and just called himself Rayne when he began working with one of the major oil firms in Dallas. In the coming years, the stories of the Coltsfoot family and the Schylur family would merge to tell the story that would become M and M Coltsfoot.
