By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com

It might have been an act of God or serendipitous coincidence. Maybe the planets aligned.

Whatever the cause, events that coalesced in Cleburne helped one Cleburne man stumble across a barely remembered piece of family history and reunited an Odessa woman with a ring she never dreamed she would see again.

Starenjaka and Starecek

Inclement weather led to a change of plans and a surprising discovery for Burleson residents William and Carole Slavik one recent Saturday.

“If the car show in Temple hadn’t have got rained out, we wouldn’t have gone to Antique Alley,” Carole Slavik said.

Antique Alley, a huge flea market of sorts, occurs twice yearly and stretches from Cleburne to Grandview and on into Ellis County.

“If we wouldn’t have gone to pick up friends who live in Grandview, we wouldn’t have been [in the Grandview section of Antique Alley] either,” Slavik said.

The couple had never traveled that far down Farm-to-Market Road 4 to peruse the event.

“Usually, when we go, we just start at the first table in Cleburne, walk about a mile or so and then get tired,” said William Slavik.

While walking past the first sales table, William glanced over and noticed a large, convex, oval piece of glass from a picture frame sticking out of a cardboard box.

“It was just the glass,” William Slavik said. “We found out later it had been in a plaster frame, which had been broken. It was the odd shape that caught my eye. Probably never would have noticed if it had been a regular flat-frame piece of glass.”

Intrigued, William paced a couple of steps closer and did a double take.

“I looked and thought, ‘Man, that looks like kinfolk,’ ” William Slavik said.

Not quite believing what he saw, William turned to his wife.

“He said, ‘Carole, I think this is starenjaka and starecek,’” Carole Slavik said, Czech words that mean old woman and old man but more commonly are used as terms of affection for a grandmother and grandfather, William Slavik said.

The picture was Mike and Mary Ondreas, William’s grandparents.

Behind that picture was a picture of Joe Ondreas, William’s great uncle, all of whom lived in Texas but none in this area, William Slavik said.

“When I first realized who they were, I was wondering how in the world these pictures got to Johnson County,” William Slavik said. “I have aunts that live in West Texas and San Angelo. I figured they would have this stuff.”

Things became clearer after William asked Sheila Hynd, the seller, where she obtained the pictures.

“She said from a house she’d bought about two miles west of Grandview,” William Slavik said. “Then it dawned on me, well dad gum, my uncle used to live there.”

William’s uncle died about 10 years ago, he said.

“He had moved from west Fort Worth to Grandview for about the last 10 years of his life,” William Slavik said. “We saw each other, but I don’t remember visiting him that much at [the Grandview house].”

A woman the uncle married late in life didn’t get on with the family, the Slaviks said.

After he died, she apparently inherited the house and his possessions.

The Slaviks said they don’t know whatever became of the woman. Hynd purchased the house from a bank in December.

Shortly after, Hynd’s boyfriend found the pictures wrapped in newspaper.

“We were going through an outbuilding and found them in the bottom of a trash can,” Hynd said. “Of course we had no idea who the people in the pictures were.”

Hynd had already planned to sell odds and ends she collected in the house at Antique Alley.

She said she checked with friends at Pop and Gran’s Antiques in Grandview to see if they recognized the people in the pictures.

“I decided to sell them at Antique Alley mainly because I thought someone might recognize them,” Hynd said. “I was a little surprised [when Slavik came along] but thought Grandview’s a pretty small town. Still, it’s just weird.”

Slavik said he’s not sure he recalls ever having seen those specific pictures and said even if he had, it would’ve been more than 50 years ago.

“I might’ve seen them hanging on the wall when they lived in their house,” Slavik said. “That would’ve been when I was 10, 12 years old.”

Hynd intended to sell the pictures for $45 each.

“But she told us she just couldn’t charge us because it’s such a great story,” Carole Slavik said.

The parties compromised with the Slaviks buying Hynd dinner.

Slavik said he intends to have the pictures cleaned and refurbished and hang them in his home or Cleburne business.

Return to sender

A 1969 Odessa High School class ring found in 1982 finally made its way back to its owner in 2009, but not for lack of trying.

Cleburne resident Gary Little, then a senior at Snyder High School, found the ring in 1982.

“I was with friends watching a game at the football stadium,” Little said. “I noticed something along the edge of the dirt.”

It was a 1969 Odessa High School ring with no other clues except the initials BPC along the inner band.

“I called Odessa High School to see if they could help me contact the owner,” Little said. “They didn’t know who it belonged to but said I should send it to them. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t feel secure doing that, so I put it away.”

Little said he thought about the ring from time to time, but somewhere along the way he misplaced it.

“We’ve been married 21 years,” Cathy Little said. “Gary told me about finding the ring several times, but I’d never seen it.”

While “going through some stuff” recently, Gary inexplicably ran across the ring.

“I tallied up the years and figured they would be having their 40th reunion sometime this year,” Little said. “So we looked and found an Internet site for their reunion.”

Little contacted Carol Medlock, a 1969 OHS graduate and organizer of the 40th reunion scheduled for June.

Medlock initially thought the ring might belong to a certain classmate but determined it didn’t. Then it dawned on her.

“She and I were babies together,” Medlock said. “When they first gave me the initials it didn’t click because I call her Patrice, but everyone else calls her Barbara.”

The “she” turned out to be Barbara Patrice Alldredge, Medlock’s friend since childhood.

“She played in band,” Medlock. “I guess that’s how it came to be in Snyder.”

With Medlock’s help, the Littles located Alldredge and returned her ring.

“I joked that it’s kind of odd that I had your senior ring longer than you did,” Gary Little said.

Alldredge said she was totally shocked and excited by the news.

“It’s just been so many years, I never expected to see it again,” Alldredge said. “I have no idea how it wound up in Snyder.”

Alldredge said she lost the ring about 1969 or 1970. Alldredge and Medlock joked that Alldredge replaced the ring with a new one, which she also lost.

“So 40 years later, I’m getting my class ring,” Alldredge said. “There’s still another one out there, but you never know. Once this story gets around, maybe it will turn up.”

Either way, Alldredge said she has an unbelievable story to share with her former class mates at her reunion come June.