people were good people. There were not
as many stop lights on [Texas] 174 at that
time as there are now.”
He and his wife raised four children
and said they were active in the commu-
nity and with Joshua ISD.
“It’s been a good community to raise
children because it has everything a young
family would want,” he said. “I think
more and more people are figuring that
out now with all the people who are mov-
ing here. A lot of that has to do with the
strong school system.”
The community is growing, he said, but
there’s still a small town atmosphere resi-
dents seem to enjoy.
“We continue to have the personalties of
a small town community,” he said. “There
are very personable people here. That
comes with a small community, I think.”
He’s currently semi-retired and a physi-
cian at Joshua Family Medicine Associates.
Kevin Lee, 35, of Joshua describes
growing up in Joshua as a great and safe
place where a child could ride their bike to
the gas station without any worries. He’s
is currently the branch president at Pinna-
cle Bank by Mountain Valley in Burleson.
“We picked blackberries on the side of
the road and ate them,” Lee said. “After
baseball and football games, you would
meet up at Dairy Queen to get ice-cream,
and you probably rode there in the bed of
your dad’s truck.”
He said he and his friends enjoyed rid-
ing ATV vehicles and fishing in the Moun-
tain Valley ditches with a string and bacon.
He also remembers the old baseball fields
when residents had to park in the dirt.
“If you brought a foul ball to the con-
cession stand, you got a free drink,” he
said. “It seemed like everyone from Joshua
was there for game nights. You always
wanted your home run to hit a cow or a
car but were scared to go get the ball after-
wards.”
Joshua in terms of square miles seems
smaller now compared to when he was a
child, he said, but with more people now.
“Mainly because of how big Burleson
and Cleburne have gotten,” he said. “The
roads are busier, and people move faster. I
don’t see as many crawdad holes or ber-
ries on the side of the road. We ride our
bikes with our kids instead of just letting
them go off alone. The grocery store has
moved, and we have a few more food
places.”
The biggest change, he said, is the
school district.
“It has really grown and become a de-
sired school district,” he said. “My wife is
a teacher at [Joshua ISD], and we are
thankful to have our kids receive a quality
education.”
Joshua, he said, is still a place where ev-
eryone knows your name.
“Many people leave but end up coming
back, myself included,” he said. “It’s still a
great place to raise a family and drive
down back roads to avoid the traffic. I re-
member telling my wife when we were
deciding on Joshua schools for our kids
and that I wanted them to go to a school
where people knew their name. I think one
of the greatest things about Joshua is how
our community pulls together in times of
tragedy and loss.”
Information in this article came from
“Joshua: As it was and is 1853-1976.”
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Joshua Community Guide 7