BIRTH
I was born on January 31, 1971 in Bryan, TX. I was born in the old St. Joseph Hospital off of Sims Avenue.
I have 1 older sister, Michelle, and 1 younger brother, Britt.
I was raised off of Tanglewood Street, until we moved out in the country to Hollow Heights. That’s where I lived until I moved out of my parents house when I turned 16 years old. I didn’t have the best relationship with my mom or dad, and fought all the time.
CHURCH
My aunt Corena started taking me to Reliance Baptist Church when I was 6 years old. It’s a Southern Baptist Church. I still go to that church today.
UNCLE NORMAN AND AUNT CORENA
Because I didn’t really have a relationship with my parents, I spent a LOT of time with my aunt and uncle. Uncle Norman was the father figure in my life until he passed. He passed away when I was 9 years old, so I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with him, but I always made the most of the time that I did have with him. There are several stories that come to mind when I think about him.
The first one is his bull that he had. It was a bottle-raised Hereford bull. He weighed probably close to 1800#, but if he caught you sitting on the steps to the feed barn, he would try to climb in your lap and lay down.
The second story is when he had a momma cow down, and she was pregnant. It was getting close to time for her to calve, but she couldn’t stand up without the possibility of miscarriage. So, we would take hay and water down to her to make sure that she ate and drank. As she was eating one of the times that we went down there, I was sitting on my heels, kneeling down watching uncle Norman. I proceeded to ask him while she eats, if the hay that she was eating was going down and getting on the calves head. He just smiled at me, and proceeded to tell me how everything worked.
He was the one that taught me how to live my life. He taught me my manners, how Christian relationships work by putting Jesus in the center of the relationship, and how to treat other people. I still live by all of the things that he taught me to this day. I treat everyone the same way that I want them to treat me. He taught me that women aren’t to be hit, they are to be loved and respected. A woman’s purse, and everything in it, belongs to her. The men are not supposed to be going through a woman’s purse. Even though I was married for almost 23 years, I never went into Joni’s purse. It would make her so mad. She would tell me to go get something out of her purse, and I would go get it for her and hand it to her to get whatever she needed out of it herself.
MARRIAGE
I met Joni at the Bryan Christmas parade, back in 1991. She started following me, so when I noticed, I turned around and followed her for a while. She thought that going into the women’s section of Beall’s department store would throw me off, and that I wouldn’t follow her into it. Boy, was she mistaken. I followed her into there, and got her phone number.
We were married for close to 23 years, and got divorced back in 2013. She is still a good friend to this day. It wasn’t that we had a lot of problems, just had some that couldn’t be overlooked and led to divorce.
SINGLE LIFE
I started back into the single life, not knowing what I was going to do. Pretty much all my life, I was married, and trying to figure out dating and how it was to be done in the new age really threw me off. I had 1 girlfriend for around 6 months through my divorced single life. Everything was working good, or so I thought, but the only real bad thing was her drinking. I am not a drinker, so I couldn’t deal with it anymore.
SOCIAL & HIGH SCHOOL LIFE
My social life was pretty cool growing up. My cousin, BJ, taught me how to two-step and waltz when I was 6 years old. I don’t know how many people I have taught to dance since then.
When I was in high school, I was part of the “kickers” crowd. I wore my cowboy hat to school, my Justin Ropers, and my Wrangler 13MWZs. I still wear those clothes to this day. My kids keep trying to get me to try the new fad jeans, but I just can’t do it. I like how my Wrangler 13MWZs feel, and won’t change. I have tried other kinds of jeans, but they just don’t fit like my Wranglers.
They also try to get me to start wearing the square-toed boots. I don’t like how they feel either. Give me my Justin Ropers, and I will be happy.
A lot of my friends in high school were either roping or riding bulls. I tried roping, heeling, but never got really good at it. But, bull riding I loved. Nothing like the adrenaline rush you feel when you climb on the back of that bull, feeling the muscles ripple under your butt as he bucked, trying everything in him to get you off. I saw a lot of my friends get hurt, so I decided that I would quit riding bulls, and just went to breaking horses. Still a lot of fun, but still had the thrill of getting bucked off.
I remember breaking one horse, and will never forget her to this day. She was always a crow-hopper, so I decided one day to take her and ride her in the tank for a while, and hopefully I could break her of that bad habit. Everything was going good, she was walking around the lake, no crow-hopping to try to get me off of her back. Then, I don’t know to this day what got into her, but she just laid down in the tank, trapping my left leg under her. Joni and BJ were standing on the tank shore watching me. They said that all that could be seen of me was my right leg. They were about to run into the tank to force her to get up, but then I started kicking her, and she decided to stand back up. When she came back up, I was still in the saddle. After that day, she never gave me any more problems, and was one of the best riding horses I have ever had.
But, the bull riding and horse breaking finally got the best of me. Back in around 2008, I had to have back surgery and had my L5-S1 fused with 2 artificial discs, a plastic cage wrapping my spine, and a titanium plate with 4 titanium screws put in to hold everything together.
Do I miss breaking horses? I do… But, I like my life, and don’t want to break my back, so I don’t do it anymore.
BAD TIME IN MY LIFE
As everything was unfolding with Joni and I, I decided that I didn’t want to be here anymore. I had everything worked out. I always told myself that no one would miss me, and my presence wasn’t needed here anymore. I loaded my pistol, and walked to the back pasture where it would just be me, and no one knew that I was going down there. To my surprise, my oldest daughter, Kara, who was pregnant at the time with my oldest grandson, Raylan. She caught me just in time. I had the gun to my head, about to pull the trigger. She talked to me, and got me to put the gun on the ground. To this day, I still don’t know how she knew that I was going down into the pasture, and where on the 50 acres I would be. I say to this day that it was divine intervention. I wasn’t supposed to do that, as my job on this here Earth wasn’t finished yet. That is what really got me back into the Christian lifestyle, and brought me a LOT closer to Jesus Christ, my Lord, Savior and Redeemer.
Back in February of 2022, my brother Britt was diagnosed with Sarcoma cancer. I would drive him back and forth to Houston for him to receive his cancer treatments. Even though we used to always fight, I wish that I would have gotten to spend a lot more time with him. I really miss him, as he passed away and with our Lord, back on December 22, 2022. That phone call nearly broke me.
Back in March of 2025, I lost my dad to blood cancer. We started getting a lot closer later in life, as I was taking care of him and helping him with his daily life.
Back in March of 2026, I lost my mom to natural causes. She had really bad Alzheimer’s disease, and there at the end, she didn’t even know who I was. That hurt, but, I know that she is in a much better place with her 4 sisters and brother, her mom and dad, and especially with my younger brother Britt.
WHAT AM I PLANNING FOR MY LIFE
As of right now, I am living in my dad’s condo, but going to be moving soon. I am wanting to move up to the Tyler area, and start a life up there closer to the best bass fishing lakes in Texas. I know that I am tired of living in a college town, so I won’t be living in Tyler, but there are several smaller towns around it that I would be interested in moving to.
As of right now, I don’t have a running boat, but after I get settled up in the area, I plan on getting another boat to get out onto the lakes and go to the better fishing spots. You just can’t catch good fish from the shore. I am really looking forward to getting back on the lake, feeling the wind blowing through my hair (what little I have left), gong 60 MPH…
For everyone that knows me, you know that I used to fish in local bass tournaments. I was never in any of the big tournaments, but, being a lifetime member of BASS has some perks. Moving up to that area of Texas, when BASS comes to Lake Fork, I will get to sit in the lifetime member area, and if I want to fish in the tournaments, I can. Mainly just looking to fish in the local area tournaments again, as there is a lot less fisherman that will wax my clock… LOL
I mainly want to fish in tournaments like the “Fishers of Men” Christian bass fishing tournaments.
FUTURE RELATIONSHIPS
As of right now, I am not in a relationship, but I am really looking forward to getting into one. I have been praying that God would put a soulmate in my life that I am going to spend the rest of my life with here on Earth. Someone who will have a shoulder to cry on, and know that I have a shoulder if needed. Someone who will be with me when I take my last breath here on this place called Earth.
I am talking to a beautiful nurse up in the Tyler area. I really enjoy talking to her, and maybe find out if she is the one that God has chosen for me. Whatever is in His will is going to happen in my life. I trust Him with my life and my heart… He knows what is best for me… I just have to have the patience for Him to show me what I am supposed to be doing, and where I am supposed to be going in my life…
Bradley Watson Personal Blog 