User:Tomthumb1939

OLD MEMORIES OF “THE CHICKEN RANCH” IN LaGRANGE, TEXAS Being a semi-retired attorney, now aged at 71 years, I have been requested to represent a client in a divorce action in Fayette County, Texas in which the contested issue is the nature of my client’s interest in a real chicken ranch operation which he owns. I have not handled contested divorces in years and was reluctant to handle this case, but never having tried a case in the county seat situated in LaGrange at their old historic and beautiful courthouse caused me to accept this challenge. This case has brought back a lot of old memories of “The Chicken Ranch.” As a student at the University of Texas from 1957 to 1961, I visited the ranch on “a few” occasions, including a trip in 1958 to gather autographs of the girls on a scavenger hunt initiated by my fraternity on our pledge class. My last visit was around 1972, during a deer hunting trip in Cameron County. after I began practicing law in Houston. The location was on Highway 71 east of town, and the first thing you noticed going down the gravel driveway were highway signs posting such humorous things as “curves ahead.” Upon entering a living room setting and meeting the girls, you would not expect any of them being a prostitute as they were neatly and modestly dressed, no high heels, light makeup and all looking like a girl next door. In 1973, after my hunting trip, I and a few of my old classmates from law school were sitting in the basement cafeteria of the Civil Courts Building of Harris County discussing my hunting trip when Marvin Zindler, with his “pancake” makeup and blue sunglasses, came to our table, and our conversation turned to my side trip to Edna’s place in LaGrange and the fact that it was one of the oldest on-going institutions in the state, dating prior to Texas joining the Union. To this day I have regretted this topic of conversation as it was not two weeks later Marvin Zindler was making a big issue of this in the news.