Sometime it is hard to turn loose of a column when information keeps trickling in.

Riverside Park and Flagpole Hill are two of those topics that we've covered in the last couple of weeks.

A phone call this week from Bud Young added more, new information to the story. Bud, who will be 90 his next birthday now lives in an assisted living facility. He was born in Denison in the area known as Dago Hill in the northeast part of town.

He has a brother, Bob, a writer, who lives in California and has written many stories about his hometown of Denison in its earliest days. Their niece, Laurel Goodman, who lives across Red River near Carpenter's Bluff, recently gave me a copy of one of Bob's stories titled "Captain Lee Hall, the Gate City's First Marshal." It's a great read.

Bob and Bud talk by phone often. Bud hasn't written a lot of history, but with his camera he has documented through original photographs and copies of others, a lot of history around this area and in Oklahoma. Through the years he has entrusted me with many of those photographs.

Bob called earlier in the week after reading a column about Flagpole Hill and Bud called a few days later. While Bob has been in California for many years, he still takes the Herald-Democrat and keeps up with what's happening in his hometown. Bud also reads the newspaper every day.

Bud had an interesting take on Flagpole Hill. He said that there never was a flagpole atop the hill that many remember as Flagpole Hill. In fact, he says there is no one Flagpole Hill, but several tall hills from where Denison can be seen.

The Flagpole, Bud says, was on the lower ground. This is where the story gets interesting and may be close to the start of the rivalry between Denison and Sherman - especially about football.

Evidentially pranks before Denison and Sherman football games every fall were more prevalent in the earlier days although during my high school days and more recent times there have been rivalry pranks perpetrated.

Bud said there was a Denisonian named Beverly Powers, a high school senior at the time, who lived out on Dago Hill too. About 80 years ago when Bud was a young boy, some Sherman students kidnapped Beverly and took him to the Flagpole Hill area, tied him up and left him there. They also chopped the flagpole down and burned it.

Bud's family lived in the 600 block East Washington and as a youngster and roamed over the area between his house and the river. His dad, Robert Young, dug a pit across the creek that was used by the National Guard for target practice for a long time. There was a campground in the area and several cabins where people would spend the weekend or holidays or for hunting and fishing. He knew the hermit mentioned earlier as "Squirrely Bob."

Bud said that the cabins were located where the Annie P. landed. This was before Bud's time, but some of the cabins remained there for many years. History was made in 1890 in Denison when the Annie P. steamed up Red River from Shreveport, LA in a climax to years of effort to promote navigation of the Red.

Bud's interest in Denison's history reminds me of another elderly friend who frequently stopped by the Denison Herald to tell me a story or two. Frank McCune was older than Bud and he passed away a number of years ago.

Frank had a phenomenal memory. He would stop by my office and say, "I have a story to tell you." I would start typing as he talked and he would tell me great stories complete with dates of events even before Frank was born. He always said he had been told the stories by his family members and he was generally correct down to the exact date when I went to the Microfilm to check out the details of his stories.

One story that took quite a while to tell me and that I have elaborated on with a lot of research through the years was of Denison's Night of Terror in 1892 when several women were killed on the same night in different locations around town. Several times I've written about the events, the last time in a three part series in 2006.

It's people like Bud Young and his brother, Bob, and Frank McCune who keep events of Denison's colorful history alive for those of us who came along in later years.

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Another topic I've received information about from several people is Carl's Restaurant in Downtown Denison in years that I can remember well because I frequented Peggy's restaurant every chance I got too

Shirley Clark of Sherman said that when her daughters were small Carl's was where she and husband, Elton, went out to eat. They loved it, especially the attention from "Miss Peggy" who came by the table to check on them several times during the meal. She always told the girls that if they didn't eat their food there would be no dessert.

Her desserts were wonderful and the girls always picked their favorite on the way to their table because they were displayed in the center of the café. The girls didn't particularly like strawberries, but they always wanted the dessert piled high with big red juicy strawberries. Elton always said the coconut pie was almost as good as his mom made.

Once they had some of her biscuits, Elton told Peggy he had almost forgotten how biscuits tasted because they didn't have them at their house. As they were leaving Peggy brought him a pan of biscuits and told Shirley had to bake them. She reminded her to bring the pan back. The service there made everyone feel "right at home." Shirley said.

Elayne Vick gets her newspaper through the mail so she got the column a little late. She also remembered the Green Gables and their banana fried pies and a diner around the corner from Carl's on Woodard that had a stainless steel front. Then there was the Saratoga on Main Street where he dad liked to eat, and the Eat Well was an institution.

John Crawford remembers that Peggy had a list of people's favorite foods that were not on the daily menu. She phoned them to tell them when the dishes would be available.

He said that Claud Easterly got a call whenever she was serving brains and eggs, one of his favorites. Crawford went over a couple of times with him for lunch because he also had liked the dish, something they sometimes had on hog killing days down on the farm when he was a kid. "Needless to say, however, that was a rather short list," Crawford said.

Donna Hunt is former editor of The Denison Herald. She lives in Denison and can be contacted at d.hunt_903@yahoo.com.