On A Quest To Preserve History in Pelham, Texas

Dave Tarrant (paywall): PELHAM – The 50-year-old tree growing near Catherine Porter's front porch sags from the weight of pecans the size of golf balls. The clusters of green husks are so heavy, they're breaking the branches that are brittle from lack of rain.

The drought has been as wicked as any she's seen, including the Texas drought of the '50s and the Dust Bowl of the '30s.

At least $100 worth of pecans are ripe for the picking. All she has to do is gather them in a barrel and take them to Corsicana, 25 miles away. Just climb a ladder and knock them down with a stick. But Catherine is 93, and she's not getting around as easily since her hip started bothering her. Her husband, J.B, a year older, doesn't stir much from his easy chair these days.

There was a time when Pelham, a rural enclave just a 90-minute drive south from Dallas, seemed nearly to burst with people – brothers and sisters, cousins, neighbors, and everywhere you looked, boys and girls sprinting here and there like jackrabbits.