Stories from the Slow Lane
The Day Schulenburg, Texas, Welcomed a Flying Bull
Only 26 years after the Wright Brothers made their first flight, Schulenburg, Texas, welcomed Carnation Badger the Flying Bull. The dairy yearling reached the Central Texas town after a 1,232-mile journey from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on April 3, 1929. That audacious...
Peter Macklin’s Backroads School Bus Saga
Peter Macklin, a recent arrival to Western Canada back in September 1960, and I share fond memories of our first day of school. Peter was beginning his job as a full-time bus driver and I was finally old enough to start grade one. Although I couldn’t wait to climb...
FOUND: A Rescue Dog’s Forever Home
I’ve found my forever home so I’m one lucky dog. Bow “Tip” Thomas is my name and the pursuit of happiness is my game. I’m a rescue. That’s a polite way of saying that somebody who professed to like me (or tolerated me for a year or so) one day threw me out like a...
Lessons Learned at a Texas Country School
The lessons that Florence Hertel Farek learned at a two-room country school in Freyburg, Texas, still make her smile. In the 1930s, the Schulenburg, Texas, resident, who turns 95 tomorrow, lived on a farm in the rural South Central Texas community. Most of the kids,...
David Koether is One Happy Knapper
David Koether shapes small pieces of solid rock to create arrowheads which makes him a knapper. After finding a couple of arrowheads on land that he and his wife, Gesine, own northeast of La Grange, Texas, he had the urge to search for others. However, most property...
Bob’s Vintage Farm Tractors Have Tales to Tell
If vintage farm tractors could talk, they’d tell great tales, according to Bob Taylor of Black Diamond, Alberta. He prizes every one of the 140 models he has collected and knows some of their stories. Let’s start at the beginning. (Full disclosure: Bob is my oldest...
Mysteries at the Arnim Museum
The E.A. Arnim Museum and Archives in Flatonia, Texas, has some unusual artifacts. Here are some of curator Judy Pate’s favorites and one that she needs your help to identify. How many of the 12 antiques pictured in this story do you recognize? The answers appear...
Leon Hale’s Classic Commentary Lives On
Let's pay tribute to the late Leon Hale, who would have turned 100 today, May 30, 2021. Several generations of Texans looked up to the late, great newspaper columnist for The Houston Post and The Houston Chronicle. From downtown Houston boardrooms to domino games in...
Victor & Joe Stanzel: Farm Boys Turned Model Airplane Pioneers
The story of model airplane pioneers Victor and Joe Stanzel is a heartwarming saga about two reserved bachelor brothers from rural Texas. Against all odds, they built a 20th-century business that flourished for 70 years on nothing but dreams. Victor was in the back...
Stories I've Saved
