Bill Hannon
an email from his son Robert Hannon

Although I was not born until 1955, all my life I heard my dad, Bill Hannon, talk about the New London School Explosion.

At the time of the explosion in March, 1937, he was 19 years old and lived in one of the oil company camps outside of Arp, that were so prevalent in the Texas oil fields. His dad was employed as an crude oil tank builder by the Prairie Oil & Gas Company, which was the predecessor to what eventually became Arco.

My dad said that when the explosion occurred, the windows rattled in the house they lived in. He did not say how far it was from New London but when word came down about the explosion, he took his Boy Scout troop to New London, where they pulled bodies out and helped move debris.

Hindsight wishes I would have quizzed him more about the explosion and his role in the recovery effort, but unfortunately, he passed away in July, 1992. It would have been interesting to learn more about the explosion and subsequent activities from his perspective.

According to my mom, my dad's sister, Margaret Hannon Scimeca, who was attending public school in either Arp or Troup, was supposed to have been at a scheduled ball game at the time of the explosion. However, the game had been postponed till later that afternoon because the gym was occupied. (I believe the PTA was meeting in the gym.) My aunt is still alive and we are sending her a copy of the Dallas Observer article. I would like to see what she has to say about it.

I have not yet been to the museum in New London, but 4 or 5 years ago, on the local news, I saw a film clip from 1937 in which news personnel were interviewing people. It looked like it was for a newsreel clip that used to be shown at the movies. Anyway, one of the people they interviewed appeared to have on a Scout uniform and it appeared to be my dad. So hopefully, when I do finally get to the museum, I will be able to locate copies of newsreels from that time period and will be able to review that clip. The clip was on for just a few moments, so I did not get as good a look as I would have wished.