by Elaine Thomas | Aug 6, 2021 | Old Times, Rural Texas, Saving Stories, World War II
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,...
by Elaine Thomas | Jun 11, 2021 | Old Times, Rural Life, Rural Texas
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...
by Elaine Thomas | May 7, 2021 | Old Times, Rural Texas
The story of model airplane pioneers Victor and Joe Stanzel is a heartwarming saga about two reserved rural Texas bachelor brothers. Against all odds, they built a 20th-century business that flourished for 70 years on nothing but ambition, creativity and hard work....
by Elaine Thomas | Mar 5, 2021 | Old Times, Rural Life, Western Canada
When I was a child, Daddy would occasionally load up and haul a few weaner pigs or several skim milk calves to MacLean’s Auction Mart on a Saturday morning. I was always thrilled when he invited me to tag along as he transacted business at that time-honored...
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 | Dec 4, 2020 | Old Times, Saving Stories
What gifts they were! Bob Odum, sisters Leah Zapalac Tietjen and Lestell Zapalac Villanueva and I remember childhood Christmas presents that made our hearts flip in excitement. Here are our memories. Hop on the bike, Bob Bob Odum of Katy, Texas, and his older brother,...
