by
Maryann Miller
Even before there was Autumn Trails in Winnsboro, people gathered to go on a trail ride together. "There were about thirteen of us on that first organized ride fifty years ago," Wayne Redding says. "Then the next year, Autumn Trails started and the trail ride has been part of it ever since."
Some of those "pioneers" served as the Grand Marshals of the 49th Annual Trail Ride Welcome Parade in downtown Winnsboro on October 19th. (L-R: Wayne Redding, Barbara Redding, Charles Winkle, Lanell Winkle, Joe Darby, Fern Darby, and Margie (Saxon) Matlock. One other of the original 13 who is still alive is June Darcy Calloway. She was unable to ride in the parade.
The folks enjoyed visiting and reminiscing about past rides. They were trying to remember what year it was when Lone Star Steel was on strike and someone blew up the gas pipes, so there was no heat anywhere. It was cold that year, and Margie joked that they about froze to death on the ride. "I had the best horse," she said. "It was so much fun."
Wayne said that in the hay-day of trail rides they would have as many as 4,000 riders, but "not near as many now. Probably a few hundred."
While lots of folks ride horses, others come in wagons pulled by horses or mules. Ronald Stringer (below right) from Naples 
Texas has been driving his wagon to Winnsboro for the event for about 43 years. He drives back and forth, camping in his wagon along the way. "I've gone for as long as five or six days on the road," he said. "I stay on country roads and it is usually a nice trip."
Ronald came with two other wagons, driven by folks from near Texarkana. Bill Waggoner, drove all the way from Texarkana and brought some friends from Cheyenne, Wyoming, Glen & Gladys Tucker. "I made a trip in the wagon to Cheyenne in '97," Bill said. 
"And I met these folks there. We've been friends ever since, and I feel real honored that they they came down to make this ride with me."
Bill hasn't gone as far as Cheyenne in his wagon in a while, but he still enjoys spending several days on the road. It took him six days to make it from Texarkana to Winnsboro.
Lloyd Dale Borden (below right)and his grandson, Cason Borden came from Harlton to be in the parade. Lloyd has been riding since 1987 and this 
is his third year to be at the trail ride in Winnsboro. He will be leading the horse that his grandson is riding. "I have an older horse at home that he can ride by himself," Lloyd said. "But for this, I just feel better if I am leading him."
The Colors were carried by Debra Poston and Gene Berry from Scroggins. Debra works for the Wood County Sheriff's Department, and she said she has ridden in quite a few parades and trail rides for Autumn Trails. She was mounted on a pretty buckskin named, "Buck."
"I guess I could come up with a more original name," she joked.
Gene was riding "Mac," and said his first Autumn Trails ride was, "about the second one we ever had."
They both seemed quite honored to be carrying the flags.
Also in the parade was Queen Autumn Trails and her court. (L-R) Kaitlyn Jones, Autumn Princess; Kasi Geraci, First Runner Up; Rachel Sparks, 
granddaughter of Larry and LeeAnn Sparks; Stephanie Hamilton, Second Runner Up; Little Miss Autumn Trails, Alyssa Mitchell, and Queen Autumn Trails, Shayla Henson.
The parade started promptly at 4 and people lined Broadway and Main Streets in Winnsboro to say "Howdy" to the riders.
Saturday morning, while the trail riders were off on their adventure, a group of people gathered at the Senior Citizen's Center in Winnsboro for the annual 42 Tournament. Attendance was off from past years, according to Clara Ziegler, who has been coordinating the event for nearly twenty years, but people still enjoy it. "It's a way to come together to do something they like, and have some good, healthy competition," she said. "They will play all day, starting at 9 in the morning until mid afternoon. Lunch is provided by Subway, and we provide drinks and snacks."
Clara is pictured here on the right next to Carl Talbert, who was the Director of the Tournament that day. He timed each round and kept records of the scores. Next to him was Grady May from Winnsboro, who has been coming to the tournament for 11 years.
Players compete as a team of two, and each team must play the other teams once. There are trophies for first, second and third place, and players are pretty serious about winning. The people come from cities in about a 40 mile radius of Winnsboro. Seated at this first table are 
Mary T. McLemore from Winnsboro, Peggy Long from Quitman, Lillian Beard from Winnsboro, and Jerelyn Carver from Quitman.
The ladies had only 30 minutes to complete their round, so they were not able to give an interview, but Earnest & LaJuana Young from Pine Forest, were sitting out that round. Because there were 13 teams, one team would have a 'by".
Earnest has been playing in tournaments for about 15 years. "Maybe more than that," he said. "I started playing dominos when I was 14."
He used to play in the tournaments with LaJuana's father, Noble Bain, until he stopped tournaments in about 2001. 
"I remember he told me that he would like to play in one more tournament, but he sure would like to win. So we went to this tournament and we were doing pretty well, but not winning. Then the last hand I got dealt a lay-down. So I told him, 'Go get that trophy. It's yours.' That was about eight years ago. But I'll tell you, that man can still play."
When Mr. Bain stopped playing in tournaments, LaJuana learned the game so she could be Earnest's partner. "Actually, I knew the game," she said. "I just had to get better at it."
She obviously did, because they have won several tournaments since they have been partners, so winning must run in the family.