“I just moved into an apartment. Just got a new car. Just got this dog. It all happened in one month. It’s exciting. It’s the next step, the next chapter for me.

“The dog was kind of a surprise. But I had been planning the apartment and the car. I’ve been saving up. It’s me and my girlfriend in the apartment, so we put our money together.

“I work at Walmart. I’ve been there for four years. Now I’m just waiting to transfer to the distribution center.

“One day we plan to have a family. My goal is to keep saving so that my kids don’t have to struggle, so they can have a future.

“I don’t like the fact that some people have to struggle in life. I wouldn’t want my family to go through that. So I keep working hard and keep saving.”

— Yannick Matthew

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“It’s a 1966 Impala. My great-granddad, who lived in Waco at the time, drove to Dallas and bought it from Johnson Chevrolet at the end of 1965. He went up there to buy a Caprice, which was more of a luxury car. But when he saw this, he fell in love with the muscle.

“He wanted to keep the miles off the engine driving it back home, so he paid to have it towed. The whole family was excited about the brand new car. It was like a parade coming home. Everybody was there. It was their first major car because back then, it was all trucks for farm use.

“When great-granddad died, he passed it along to my granddad. Then granddad passed it to my father. Now I’ve got it. Everything on this car is original except the battery and engine. I still have the original engine at the house. It’s a 283, and it runs fine. I just like to go faster, so we put a 396 in there. It moves pretty quick.

“The family drove this car until the late 70s. Then it just got parked in the garage, and nobody touched it. I started spending a lot more time with granddad when I was in college. I rebuilt the engine, the original 283 inside his garage, and got it running again. It’s been going ever since.

“It’s priceless. Had a guy offer $45,000 for it a few weeks ago. Sorry. You can’t put a price on my whole family having been in this car. It’s a beautiful thing.

“There’s a song by Lee Brice, ‘I Drive Your Truck,’ about driving around after his dad passes. It’s about reminiscing on certain things. And that’s how this is for me. When I drive it, I can feel them sitting right next to me. When I go around corners, I’ve got my granddad yelling at me and my dad cheering me on. It just feels good.

“My wife is pregnant now. This will be our first. Don’t know yet if it’s a boy or girl. But when our child is old enough, this will be the car that he or she uses to learn how to drive. Keep that family tradition going. Can’t wait.”

— Tyler Huber

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Roger: “I hadn’t seen my two brothers in Michigan in quite a while, so I went up there to visit. One day while I was driving to the park, I noticed a woman whose car was broke down on the side of the road. It was where three busy highways came together. Somehow I was able to go from the far left-hand lane all the way across to where she was before any other cars came by.”

Pat: “I was a single mom. I had three kids. I had bought a cheap car, and I needed to put an exhaust system on it. I didn’t have anybody to help me, so I learned how to do it myself. Every once in a while, it would come loose. We were on our way to a picnic when it happened again. I was getting under there to tighten it up when he came by. I kind of hid behind my car at first. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. He said he had some better tools than I had. When he opened his trunk and I saw the tools, I was a little relieved.”

Roger: “Growing up, I watched my dad do everything. He said I needed to learn how to fix things. So I started working on cars and building race cars. I became a mechanic. I was head mechanic at a lot of garages through the years. So it took maybe 10-15 minutes to fix her up.”

Pat: “He asked for my phone number. I thought, well, I’m not telling him where I live, but I guess I’ll give him my number. I figured he’d never call me. How many guys are going to call a woman with three kids? I just kind of laughed it off. But he did call a few days later. We just started talking, and he asked me to a show at the drive-in. Then he started taking me and the kids fishing and different things. He had to come back to Texas, and he was down here for probably six months when he called and asked if I wanted to join him. So I did. I moved down with my kids, two boys and a girl. It just felt right. I don’t know how else to explain it. We started living together. And then five years later, we got married. We met on June 23, 1980, and we got married on June 23, 1985. We did it on the same day on purpose. We both had gone through a bad divorce. So we just wanted to make it something special that hopefully would last. And so far, it has.”

— Pat and Roger Williamson

Helping others, like his future wife 41 years ago, is nothing new for Roger. At 75, he continues lending a hand to friends and strangers alike. He helped several people with plumbing issues during the recent winter storm. Also an avid fisherman, Roger has been known to catch and donate hundreds of pounds of catfish to support various fundraising efforts.

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“I’ve always been into cars. It’s always been my hobby. I’ve had five or six different cars over the years that have just kind of been toys to play with. Right now, I have an ’89 Mustang that I’m completely redoing. I’m not going full-blown race car with it. It’s just something that I can take to the track to play with, but also still drive on the street.

“Both my grandfathers used to race, so that was something in my life growing up. My grandfather on my dad’s side has a ’66 Mustang that he’s taken to the drag strip for a long time. Ever since I was a kid, I’d go with him to help check the tire pressure, cool it down, prep for the track.

“He doesn’t compete like he used to. He’s getting older and can’t do it as much. He’s been trying to get my dad to take over and get into it. But my father’s afraid of it. He doesn’t want to break the car or anything like that. My grandpa told me, ‘This car was meant to be driven.’ I mean, it’s racing. You build it, race it, break it, fix it. Then repeat.

“It becomes a real love-hate relationship. It can break the bank. And it can become a strenuous task at points. If you’re not passionate about it, you’ll fall out of it easily.

“It’s been a strong bonding thing for us. Most of the time I’m with my grandpa, all we talk about is cars. A lot of people go fishing with their grandpas. For me, it’s always been at the track. I have a lot of great memories.”

— Ryan Nugent

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“I had just washed my car and was finishing waxing it under a big oak tree in my yard. It was so shiny, a 1982 Pontiac Grand Prix LJ model, fully loaded. It was a classic. Two white guys and a white girl had moved in across from my house. They were renting an upstairs garage apartment. At the time, they were in the street tossing a 5-gallon bucket cover like a Frisbee. It didn’t bother me. Until, with my back turned, that big, old thing hit the side of my car and scratched it. The cover landed in my yard, and those guys didn’t come to get it. I turned around and looked at them, and they looked at me. I wasn’t real happy, but I was polite about it. I picked up the cover, walked over to them, and said, ‘Look, fellas. I just finished waxing my car, and this lid just put a mark on it. I don’t care if y’all play in the street. But let’s see to it that it doesn’t come and damage my car again.’ They didn’t say a thing. I guess they didn’t like what I said.

“Around 2:30 the next morning, me, my wife and our three kids were asleep. But I guess I wasn’t sleeping that heavy because I woke up and saw this reflection in the window. I got up, pulled the blind, and saw this big cross lit up across the street, facing our house. It was one of those Ku Klux Klan crosses, about 7 feet tall. I figured it was those people who did it. So I put on some clothes, grabbed my rifle, and headed out the front door. I leaned the rifle up against the house, so I didn’t have far to go if I needed it. I walked to the corner, and all three of them were right there with that cross. I said, ‘Don’t y’all know that you can’t be doing this?’ And they just looked at me and didn’t say a word. So I thought, you know what, I’ve got to go down to the police station. I’ve got to report this right now.

“They were trying to scare me, get me to move or something. Only problem was, some of us have it in us, we don’t have that fear. I didn’t have that fear in me. I was good and strong, and I wasn’t scared. I’ve faced other situations before, growing up in Louisiana and after moving to Texas. I’ve always known I’m not invincible. I’ve known I could get hurt or even die. I can’t eat bullets. I ain’t Superman. But as I’ve evolved through the years, I’ve stood up to a lot of people. Sometimes I’ve gotten hurt and sometimes I’ve hurt others defending myself. But the thing is, I didn’t run. I chose not to run. I chose to stand up for myself.”

— Albert Jack

According to Albert, although the burning cross was dismantled by the time the police arrived on the scene, remnants of it were still visible. The people behind the incident were not arrested, but their landlord evicted them from the apartment.

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• Farm-worker family had their share of challenges

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“My first wife and I had a very nice home on four acres. Then she got pancreatic cancer. She died six months after she was diagnosed. It was a beautiful home. But it just wasn’t … It was not a happy time for me. I was lonely and lost. I don’t know how I came up with the idea to build a barndominium. It would have been difficult then for a married person to build a home like this. But it was perfect for me. My wife passed away 15 years ago, and I built it shortly after that. Then Cindy came along. She had been single quite a few years. It was obvious that a man hadn’t lived in her house and a woman hadn’t lived here. So she’s domesticated it somewhat, the best she can.”

“I did have my own house, and I had it fixed exactly the way I wanted. We talked about him moving in with me. But when I saw all this stuff out here in his shop I said, ‘I don’t have any room for it.’ So the best choice was for me to come here. It’s still a little hard because I feel like I’m running out of house. But it’s all good. It’s comfortable. Plus, we have a second home in Goliad. It’s an older home that I got to remodel. That house has sort of allowed me to stay here as long as I have. When we get in the car on Fridays to head down there I think, ‘I’m going to my happy place now.’”

— Cindy and Ron Fehring

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• Second time around, they have an ‘instant family’

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“You can become anything you want to be if you have the work ethic to do it. As a young man I attended the Gulf Coast Trades Center, where I started the journey that led me to the automotive industry. Being at this school gave me the opportunity to surround myself with a lot of positive people. I was able to keep to the path that I wanted to follow to get my life where it needed to be.

“I’ve been working on cars since 1995 or ‘96. It really saved me from the streets. If I hadn’t found the automotive industry, I would have been, maybe, in the penitentiary or worse. I have come from the bottom, from an environment that did not encourage me. I was always being told that I wasn’t ever going to do anything and that I would never be anything. “

“I understand struggle in all its forms from my own life experiences, so I try to help everyone that I can no matter their race, religion or where they come from. Being that one positive person in someone’s life that says, ‘Yes you can,’ or lending a helping hand when it is needed is important to me.”

— Chris Townsend

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“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always had a thing for cars. As I grew older, I realized just how amazing cars really are.

“I knew I wanted a Camaro after my uncle got one. He has the exact same version as mine.

“This is my first car. I had to save to buy it, and my dad got it off the lot for me. I was pretty excited when I got it. I went out driving a lot with a bunch of friends. Now I’m going to car meets where you see a lot of exotics, tuners, muscles. It’s all pretty cool.”

How fast can your car go?
“Well, it says 160 on the speedometer, but you never really listen to that. It keeps going.”

— Jose Garcia

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“We call it the Share Your Christmas Toy Drive and Car Show. My wife and I decided to make it an annual event about eight years ago. It was a way to start teaching our kids how lucky they are to have what they have, and how others in the community aren’t as fortunate.

“I grew up in that type of environment, so I know the feeling. We didn’t have much when I was young. Now, while I might not have a lot, I have enough so that my kids can have a good Christmas.

“Through the toy drive, I can show them that it’s about more than receiving. You’ve got to give back as well. Hopefully, as the years go by, they’ll help keep this tradition alive.”

— Josel Aceves

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“We’ve been together for 10 years and get along really well. Ever since we met, it’s like a connection that you can’t break. And that’s important because, trust me, we’ve struggled. We’re struggling right now.

“He got laid off from his construction job and his vehicle got repoed. Then he got two other job possibilities, but the vehicle was taken the day before those came along. It’s hard for either of us to work without reliable transportation. Now we’re having to sell stuff to help pay off bills so we don’t lose the house. It seems like we’re constantly trying to catch up.”

What’s been the hardest part?
“We have two kids, a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old, who are having to live with our families. We’re not financially stable enough to have them stay with us. You can’t believe how difficult that is. But we’re determined to have a home and get our children back. That’s the number one thing, absolutely. We just really could use a break right now.”

— Katrina

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