Stories from the Slow Lane
A December to Remember
Here in Fayette County, Texas, familiar sights all around us announce that Christmas 2021 could well be a December to remember. Let me share several observations with you. At the Hostyn Hill Greenhouses, Kathy is brightening the season, one poinsettia at a time....
10 Better-Safe-than-Sorry Superstitions
It’s my thought that it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to adhering to superstitions that were passed down to Granny and she passed down to me. I first heard the following 10 folklore beliefs in my early childhood when I spent time with my grandmother who...
Charlie’s More than a Name at the Menin Gate
Kassy Matchett went on a search for the name Charles Magrath Fendall at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium, several years ago. She was excited to find her fourth cousin listed on the wall alongside more than 54,000 other World War I casualties who died on...
The Lowdown on 25 of My Special Texas Friends
In the pages of my new book, Stories I’ve Been Told, you’ll meet 25 of my special Texas friends. Most of these personality profiles first appeared in my monthly column in our local paper, The Fayette County Record. Now they’ve morphed into volume one of a new book...
PROTECTING WHAT’S HIS: A Tomcat’s Tribulations
Jumper ‘Jaws’ Thomas is my name and ruling the roost is my game. I’m a rescue cat with a bone to pick. Some weeks ago, when the new dog around these parts wrote in this space, readers heaped favorable comments on my black and white archrival. If your words had been...
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,...
Other Stories I've Saved
