Rubber Guns

About the Book

Rubber Guns

‘Bout a Little Boy in a Texas ‘20s Town

This is the story of my adventures and escapades as a little Texas boy in the 1920’s. The most vivid and some of the most pleasant recollections of my boyhood are about rubber guns - thus the title of this story. If you don’t know what a rubber gun is, I feel sorry for you, but read on.

The story of my boyhood is the story of all the games we played. Ten-Step (on rocky, school-yard dirt), Hully-Gully (with pecans), Crackers (pecans again), Tree-Tag (with our rings, trapeze, swings, and trees), Marbles (in circles in the dirt), Kick-The-Can (more circles in the dirt), Sow-Belly(still more dirt and circles), Pass-Tag (on more dirt), Thing-of-a-Jigs (home-made), and Rubber Guns. I don’t know if we had more fun playing with toys we made ourselves, or if we just didn’t have the money to buy “store” toys, but I can’t remember any except the home-made variety. And our Rubber-Guns were the best. They shot rubber bands cut from tire inner-tubes. And they were 10 Shot Automatics. I’ve never seen any like them except on Vincent Street in Brownwood, Texas. It was organized warfare. In addition to the manuscript, this book has 25 photographs of me and my family, and a dimensioned sketch of a rubber gun. You can make one for yourself!

About the Author

Bill Ellis is a 3rd generation Texan, who graduated from high school in Brownwood in 1936, exactly 100 years after Texas won her independence from Mexico, and  has been fascinated by Texas history ever since.  This is the first book he has sought to have published. Educated as a chemical engineer at Texas A & M University, Bill spent 47 years with Coca-Cola.  He had a great career on the West Coast, in New England, St. Louis, Southern Illinois, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, & West Texas.  His first wife of 52 years, Mary Lou and he moved to the lovely Hill Country of Texas in 1980, and a year after her death, he married a long time dear friend, Ginny.  Bill Ellis passed away August 2005.