By BRENT ZWERNEMAN, COLLEGE STATION BUREAU
Courtesy of The Houston Chronicle
Updated 01:40 a.m., Wednesday, November 23, 2011
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DIME BOX - Harold Hannes, his face smudged with grease and his worn Longhorns baseball cap cockeyed from working on a truck Tuesday, pondered the gravity of Thanksgiving night's last scheduled Texas-Texas A&M football game.
"I never much liked the Aggies," he finally said.
Then Harold glanced over his shoulder toward his brother,Alvin Hannes, who was laboring inside Alvin's Service Center along Highway 21.
"My brother's an Aggie," he said, grinning.
He likes Alvin, Harold reassured his visitor, and "I've got some good friends who are Aggies." But, he reminded, this is the time of year when typically tight family members draw lines in the sand over the state's grandest rivalry game. And as for Alvin? He can't believe the 118th meeting between the Longhorns and Aggies is the last on tap for the foreseeable future.
"This game is part of the holiday season," Alvin said, shaking his head. "You've got to know who's going to have bragging rights for another year. Everybody around here is either an Aggie or a tea-sipper, and it can get heated around Thanksgiving."
Texas A&M is leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference next year, but has indicated that it would like to keep playing the Longhorns as a non-conference opponent. UT has countered that it no longer has room for A&M on its schedule if the Aggies don't care to be in the same conference.
"I guess everybody moves on at some point," said Troy Els, a train conductor from Ledbetter who gave a speech at the Dime Box School on Tuesday. "But that game is one tradition I sure hoped would stick around."
Halfway, either way
If Aggieland is heaven for Aggies, and Longhorns believe Austin to be paradise, this stretch of farming and ranching community smack between the two could be considered the purgatory of the state's flagship universities. Instead, it's proudly dubbed Dime Box.
Well, Old Dime Box and New Dime Box, depending on whether a traveler exits the "Old" and heads up Farm Road 141 toward the school, railroad tracks and Dime Box Heritage Societytucked next to Prosperity Bank and across from Dime Box Lumber, among other downtown gems.
The town's few hundred residents were in a fine mood Tuesday after a heavy rain had Yegua Creek flowing again and stock tanks long dry from the drought finally holding a little water.
Patty melts and pies
"This is a little town with a big fight," said Erwin Iselt, who was cracking pecans with a pair of pliers while sitting in Iselt's Concrete and Pump Shop.
It's also the midpoint between Austin and Aggieland, one the schools' dignitaries enjoy on their drive from one ivory tower to the other.
"I love the Elm Creek Cafe and stop there any chance I get," Bill Byrne, A&M athletic director, said of the Highway 21 eatery on the Austin side of Dime Box. "I love the patty melts and any of their pies."
The Dime Box Longhorns (yes, that is correct) don't play football - the school is too small - but make no mistake: The town loves the sport. Especially the brand played about 60 miles away in Austin and about 50 miles away in College Station.
"My family is all a bunch of Aggie fans," said Erin Jatzlau, who works in Barefootz Grocery in the downtown area. "So I root for UT."
So why do her relatives pull for the Aggies?
"Because they're nuts," Jatzlau said, chuckling.
In many ways, the Thanksgiving showdown, with nutty fans on both sides, is a celebration of small towns across the state. A&M players hail from the likes of Marlin, Hutto, Roscoe and Lexington, the last a Hail Mary pass from Dime Box. UT players hail from the likes of Elysian Fields, Kermit, Bellville and Cameron, the last a Hail Mary pass from Dime Box.
Rural leanings?
"This is a very special game, with former Texas high school football players going against each other," A&M coach Mike Sherman said.
So which way does Dime Box truly lean when it comes to the Aggies and Longhorns? It depends on whom you ask.
"People tend to go for the Aggies because College Station is a little closer," said Susan Lombardo, who runs Barefootz Grocery. "They're our home team here in Dime Box."
She paused and smiled. "Of course, you're going to talk to people who say 'No way' to that," she added.
Dorothy Rackel, who was visiting the downtown bank, said there's another reason Dime Box might lean slightly toward the Aggies.
"A&M is more of a country school," she said. "And the kids fit in better there than they do at UT."
No more lines in sand
Thomas Jatzlau, president of the Lee County Banking Centers, agreed with that line of reasoning.
"A&M is a better fit for here because it's a rural area," he said. "Now, it's not a rural college, but it is more agriculturally oriented."
Then Jatzlau, one of the family members whom Erin Jatzlau had good-naturedly admonished, couldn't help himself.
"Plus," he said, grinning widely, "Texas is just too arrogant."
The Jatzlaus, like so many other families in Dime Box and countless other small towns across the state, will gather late in the day Thursday to take in the state's grandest game. On Friday, they'll brush out that line in the sand.
"I've got six grandkids," said Charles Butler Jr., working at Shows Hardware and Lumber in Dime Box. "Half are for UT, and half are for A&M."
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