Wikipedia, Texas State Historical Assoc (TSHA) and Texas Almanac all have very little to say about the little town I grew up in during the '60s but each include the following:
Highlands in the 1960s. The town had a population of 4,336 in the early 1960s, when it also reported eighty-two businesses. W. O. Hutson built the Double Trouble Youth Rodeo Arena there in 1965.
The double trouble was about 3/4 of a mile from our house up Jones Rd, and W.O. was a friend of my father's. W.O. was not a handsome fellow. He had jumped off onto a steer in his younger days and got ahead of him and the steer, the hazer and his own horse had run over him and broke his jaw and eye socket. It showed prominently the rest of his life. By today's standards, it wasn't much of a youth Arena, but it was covered roof and 1/2 way down the sides and one end. I spent most Tuesday and Thursday nights there starting when I was 16. Those were practice nights. It cost $2.50 each bull ride and $4 for a buckin horse. I had bought a bullrope at the only western wear place (Anderson's) over in Baytown, and spurs of course. Try as I might, along with most of my friends from school, I just never was very good at bulls and only got talked into getting on one bareback one Thursday night. There were no pickup riders on practice nights. You either backed off or bailed off on your own. I did ride him, but he was a runaway mostly and when I got off, he made one big buck and pissed all over me. That was the end of my bareback attempts.
But, I still liked gettin on a bull and did so most weeks right up until I went in the Marines in '69. That was the end of any activity that might damage govt property. When I came back from overseas the 1st time, I found rats had had their way with my rigging and spur straps anyway.
My father always viewed me going there with a wink and a knowing eye but my mother absolutely hated it. One day she woke me up and said "You get that dang rope and those dirty boots out of this room right now and put 'em out in the garage, you got 1/2 the house smelling like cow s**t and rosin!!"
"Youth" Arena was kind of a misnomer. If mama knew the things I learned there, she woulda beat me 1/2 to death. Girls mostly. (I didn't drink) And, It could be a rough place, especially Sat afternoon and into the night. Upstairs above the roping chute, there was a concession stand and a place for a few tables. The adults sat up there, drank booze and played poker. Us kids could go up the stairs as far as the concession stand but weren't allowed to stand around the card players. But, there was a steel ladder leading up from the roping chute area and you pushed up a wooden trap door and.. there you was. I went up it one time on a Saturday afternoon late and found myself in the biggest drunken brawl ya ever saw.
While I was overseas, a bunch of stored hay and lumber under the stands had caught fire and the roof trusses gave way but about 10 years ago, I took wife by there to show her where I spent my mis-spent youth and found it had been repaired & turned into a horse boarding/riding stables business.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/almost-heaven-riding-stables-highlands
Today: Looking back toward what used to be the rough stock bucking chutes
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