FLEETING MOMENTS IMPACT FUTURE
“Our attending university was important to our parents, so that’s exactly what I did after I graduated, because that’s what was expected of me. I did not graduate, I went for two years at what was Southwest Texas State University, now Texas State University. That was in the early 80s when the economy started tanking, inflation and interest rates went through the roof and my parents were starting to get into money trouble. They didn’t have the money for me to continue in school and in my mind I knew all along what I was going to do whether I went to college or not. I don’t think my time was wasted in school, God knows what He’s doing and allows all things for a reason. Growing up in a small town, there were no strangers. We were a big family in the area and our family was a big part of what was going on in the agricultural community here. All the families were, I’m not saying we were more prominent, but we were part of it. When I get to San Marcos, I’m a small fish in a great big pond,” he said with a laugh. “I was pretty shy and introverted, because I was a product of my environment. At home I didn’t need to be extroverted, I didn’t need to go out and meet people, everybody knew us, but when I got to school, I did if I wanted to be a part of everything there. So that was a big culture shock to me. While I was there, I met a girl and we dated for a few weeks. She didn’t come back after the first semester, and I thought she had transferred to another school. I never saw her again, but it was a meeting that would forever change my life in later years,” noted Richie.
DIVINE DETOUR
“I came home from college and started farming in 1983-84. There were some programs the USDA had, they are FSA now, for young farmers. I believe it was a guaranteed loan where the USDA would guarantee a young farmers loan if he couldn’t pay it back. I did that for a couple of years and did very well, I was able to pay off all my debt. In the meantime, in 1987, I met Wendy, who would later become my wife. She was going to school at UT in Austin at the time. My cousin, Dean Devillier, and myself, and my best friend, Brett Swope were supposed to be going deer hunting and we ended up in Austin,” he exclaimed with smiling eyes. “We went out to a dance hall and that’s where I met who would become my wife. That was part of the “people God puts in your path” kind of thing. We dated for a number of years and got married in ’92.”
“When we got married, I was actually farming on the Boyt ranch where the Schwertner’s live now. We were living where their ranch foreman lives now. We moved in after David Barrow lived there and lived there a few months before I was able to talk my aunt into leasing and eventually selling us the family ranch place where we live now. A few years after that I was able to buy a section of land near FM 1941 from Jo Rella Meaux, one of Jamie White’s daughters. We farmed that for several years, loved that piece of property, wish I still had it. We were also purchasing land around our house from mom and dad whenever we had the money. Mom and Dad got into money trouble, and we ended up having to sell the place down south to buy the land from them. Like I said, I wish I still had the Seabreeze land too, but it all worked out. Taylor and Cody Wilcox bought it from us. I quit farming rice about 2002-03 and just focused on cattle and that’s what we’ve been doing since.”