By BARBARA GREEN
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When Tom Cate picked up his first brick from an old downtown building site the “King. B” brick just caught his eye. He thought it was unique so he took it home. Six years later he has nearly 400 bricks in an unusual collection that decorates his back yard.
Folks around Bowie may be familiar with Cate and his frisky brown and white dog Ginger as they make lengthy daily walks throughout the downtown.
“When I saw the King. B six years ago I thought it may be fun to see how many different bricks I could find. I’d heard of Palmer, Farris, Acme, but there are so many as I found in the research. That’s when it started for me. I looked down allies, at old buildings that were torn down, visited small towns and I began finding more. I got excited by the different ones,” explains Cate.
The collector came to Bowie in 2004 and remodeled a home on the southside of town. He retired from Coca Cola Bottling Company in Dallas after 35 years of servicing the equipment. While he had been living in Ennis, a divorce as he retired led him to explore other possibilities.

He moved to Van Alystyne and was doing some remodeling jobs when his niece in Chico asked him to come help her for a few months at her trophy shop. He worked during the week and went home on the weekend. He ended up staying four years also helping her and her husband out when she was diagnosed with a serious illness.
“I liked it up here and enjoyed riding my motorcycle. It all happened for a reason and came to together that I was able to help them. I liked Bowie and found this house that reminded me of where I grew up. It has a large corner lot and a shop in the back. I remodeled and have been here ever since,” explains Cate.

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