Bruce and Jean were born in 1933 and were classmates since the first grade. Bruce readily announces that he's older, born in January, and Jean chuckles, admitting that she was born in August. They graduated in 1950, still look forward to their high school reunions and keep close contact with the other members of their graduating class.They were born during the Great Depression and in a far different time than now. Bruce's family lived on a farm and had no running water or indoor facilities. Radios were few and far between because the rural communities had no stations. It was a time when everyone was involved in the war effort in some way. Food was rationed and those who could raised Victory Gardens to supplement what the ration stamps wouldn't cover. Gasoline was also rationed, with cars bearing an even/odd designation fueled on different days.

There were no telephones in Blooming Grove in those days and Bruce would run to the wall outside of Sissom's Dry Goods store to see the latest news of the big war. He had a special interest in the war as his German Shepard name "Snitch" had been registered and drafted into the Army to do sentry duty. The primary means of communication was by word of mouth or newspapers, but Bruce also received letters from "Snitch's" handler.

News of the war came in drips and drabs. A star by a posted name designated that person was killed in action. Current estimates of combined casualties stemming from WWII are upwards of 60 million.Although the little boy has matured into a man, Bruce has never forgotten the effects of the war on his boyhood. He also didn't forget the malfunctioning coke machine at Blooming Grove high school."Everyday we would race to the Coke machine to get one of the first five bottles.

The machine was broken and froze the first five bottles into really cold slush. If you were the sixth person to arrive, you didn't get a cold, slushy coke."After a three-year career as an officer in the Air Force, Bruce took his brother up on an offer of employment with McClain Distributors, in Dallas, TX. Eventually, Mr. McClain had to leave the prosperous restaurant equipment business for health reasons and the company became Lane and McClain Distributors. Bruce retained the McClain name out of respect and admiration for the original owner.

He married and had five children.In 1964, Bruce remembered the slushy Cokes from the broken machine and, through trial and error, designed a machine that became known first as the Koolie, and finally nationally known as 7-11's Slurpee.Jean remained in Navarro County, also married and raised a family. Eventually, Jean would become a banker with Prosperity Bank first in Blooming Grove and then in Corsicana. She is now retired and fills in only occasionally.Jean loves her community and says, "I've lived here most of my life.

I made a mistake one time and moved to Frost, but quickly moved back to Blooming Grove."Bruce and Jean, active in the Blooming Grove High School Ex-Students Association, collaborated once again and, with others, established the World War II Veterans Memorial in a corner of A. L. Doc Garrison Park. Blooming Grove saw 324 of its citizens serve during WWII, of which 37 held the rank of officer.The ground was broken for the memorial in 1999, and dedicated by then-Congressman Martin Frost. Frost also entered into the House Of Representative’s Record the establishment of the memorial on October 20, 1999. 

The alumnus association has added onto the memorial, not stopping with the World War II veterans.   Because the memorial is an ongoing project, monuments listing the Korean and Viet Nam Veterans that served from the Blooming Grove School District have been added. Recently two polished stone benches were added: Bruce Lane donated one bench, and (Brother) Thomas Sheppard and Jean Hinkle donated the other. The remarkable sentry dogs, "Snitch" Lane and "Jack" Garrison are both remembered by foot stones near the sidewalk.

There are also plans to erect monuments to WWI veterans and to continue backward until the Civil War."Mrs. Ramsey taught us that once you achieve one goal, you should set another," explains Bruce. "She also taught us that there isn't anything we can't do.""Oh, yes she did," says Jean. "We never told Mrs. Ramsey "no" about anything."There is no memorial to the much-celebrated and oft-quoted teacher Mrs. Ramsey on the premises except for the presence of Bruce and Jean.   Mrs. Ramsey would much prefer these living memorials who, rarely if ever take "no for an answer." Perhaps she would smile approvingly at their individual contributions to their own generation and well into the next.

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