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Letter From The Hill Family

01.27.12

Last week, one of our VIP members wrote us about finding Messina Hof wine in a very small town in the Panhandle named Alanreed, Texas! The post card reads, “Population: 30 people, 2 skunks, 88 cats, 104 dogs, a few snakes and a pet roadrunner” with their motto, “big enough to serve, small enough to care.”

The Hill family wrote, “…nothing there but one building—combined post office, convenience store and liquor store. To my surprise they had Messina Hof wine!” The post office that the Hill’s wrote about wasn’t always located in Alanreed, either! In 1886 a post office, which was named Eldridge at the time, was located six miles north of the small town and was moved to Alanreed later in 1902.

Also referred to as “old route 66 town”, Alanreed wasn’t always this small of a town. In 1927 a reported 500 people lived there, but with schools consolidating with towns nearby, the town’s population continued to decrease over time.

Alanreed is located east of Amarillo off of I-40 and Route 66 and is in Gray County. The little town got its name from the local contracting firm, named Alan and Reed. The town was laid out by surveyors who marked the town of Choctaw, Oklahoma and the Texas railroad in 1900.

We would like to give a special thanks to the Hill family for sending us this remarkable letter! This reminds us how much we appreciate our VIP members always looking for Messina Hof wines, even in a town where they would least expect it!