by Elaine Thomas | Mar 19, 2021 | Family, Tips and Ideas
When the fierce February winter storm of 2021 named Uri spread a pristine coat of snow across San Antonio, Texas, a grand Victorian home on Guenther Street never looked more striking. Three years before, however, the house didn’t glow in the sunshine. Back then, the...
by Elaine Thomas | Feb 19, 2021 | Family, Old Times, Rural Life, Saving Stories, Western Canada
I was in the second grade that long-ago February morning in the Alberta foothills when Old Man Winter had such a fierce grip. To walk the quarter-mile uphill from our farmhouse to the main road where we’d catch the school bus, Mom had wrapped me in multiple layers...
by Elaine Thomas | Jan 15, 2021 | Family, Saving Stories
My sister Shirley and I love cats and always have. Years before she married Harvey, he and his mother gave Shirley a tabby kitten. Furious at being trapped and relocated, the little guy earned the name of Yowler. He’d been born and lived quite comfortably in Harvey’s...
by Elaine Thomas | Nov 20, 2020 | Family, Saving Stories
Thanksgiving is a holiday that’s woven together with memories of special people, fun celebrations and, of course, great food. I asked two outstanding Texas cooks, Elizabeth (Liz) Ripple of Fayetteville and Linda Harris of Conroe, to each share a favorite Thanksgiving...
by Elaine Thomas | Oct 16, 2020 | Family, Rural Life, Rural Texas
The delicious aroma of homegrown peanuts slowly roasting in the kitchen on a chilly afternoon transports Joyce Hanzelka and Beverly Freeman back in time. The Texas natives, one who still lives on a farm and the other now an urban dweller, recall treasured autumn...
by Elaine Thomas | Oct 2, 2020 | Family, Tips and Ideas
Carol MacKay can’t bring herself to walk past a bin of vintage portraits gathering dust in an antique store or thrift shop. She feels compelled to stop and look through the stack of discarded images. Then she carefully scrutinizes the front and the back of each...
