Texas Inventions

I had no idea Zebco fishing reels were invented by a Texan.  Check this out.  My brother fished with a Zebco when he was growing up.  I've used them as an adult.  We have one or two in the garage right now.

I knew the domino game '42' was invented by two young Texan boys, but I didn't know they were barely in their teens.  Here's the story from the Handbook of Texas.  Both sides of my family were game players, especially my father's side.  We played some sort of game at nearly every family gathering: Moon, 42, Bridge, Aggravation, Pig ... the list goes on and on.

Sisters Vic Kelly & Nelle Harman playing Bridge with brothers Bruce & Chuck Kelly in July 1964 at Landa Park in New Braunfels.  (Vic Kelly is our grandmother.)

A Bridge game at the kitchen table in my Kelly grandparents' home on Brooks St.  My father is in the background pouring a cup of coffee.  Tom Salter, my grandmother Kelly's brother, is on the left with the cigarette.  (I think I'm behind him.) I think that's my grandmother's sister, Louise Dunkerly, whose face is obscured.  A third sister, Nelle Harman, is facing the camera.  My mother, Sally Kelly, is on the right about to play a card.  Albert McIlveen, nephew to my grandmother & her siblings, has his back to the camera.