Stories from the Slow Lane
It’s Springtime in Tillie and Mason’s Garden
Grandma Tillie tenderly passes on her passion for gardening to her young grandson in a plot across from the railroad tracks in Smithville, Texas. She wears an old-fashioned sunbonnet and a dress with a long skirt. An apron is tied around her waist. Mason is clad in a...
What’s a miniature donkey to do?
Back in 2006, Hansl was in big trouble. The miniature donkey had broken out of his Fayette County, Texas, pasture once too often. His owner, who already had given the scallywag several second chances, was out of patience. Hansl had to go. ‘Go where?’ Hansl must...
Texas Newspaperman Leon Hale Lives Up to His Legend
Leon Hale wandered South and Central Texas writing about his adventures for Houston newspapers for 60 years.
Be My (Vintage) Valentine
I’m glad I’m not the only one who is sentimental about old valentines. Here are four sweet samples! 1. Denise Woodyard of La Grange, Texas, prizes the elaborate over-sized valentine her 19-year-old dad, Jack, sent his mother from Fort Knox, Kentucky, in 1944, years...
Canadian World War II Prisoner of War Recalls Stalag VIIIB
World War II veteran Winston Parker was shot down over Germany in 1942. The aviator then spent three years as a prisoner of war in Stalag VIIIB near Lamsdorf, Germany. Born in Calgary, Canada, in 1918, Parker had grown up on a farm. After England declared war on...
Rag Rug Redemption
"You don’t wash handmade braided rag rugs, you beat them,” I explained to my husband. Emil still turned up his nose at the once-handsome rug sticking out of the plastic sack on top of my luggage. “I don’t care,” he replied. “It’s filthy. It smells, and it’s not...
Great Galloping Guineas!
You, too, can have organic pest control with surround sound. “Just how long do guineas live?” asked my husband, Emil, as we watched Wilda the Widow slip by the south side of the house on her way to check the grasshopper-free perimeter. At six years of age, Wilda was...
Other Stories I've Saved
