DIBOLL, TEXAS — I recently spent a day in this logging town just south of Lufkin, once home to the corporate headquarters of Temple-Inland, a community whose fortunes have risen and fallen as that company’s have done the same. I was here to research back copies of the Diboll Free Press in the History Center for a book project I’ve begun.
First, a word about the Diboll History Center. It is a jewel of a facility, beautifully constructed out of yellow-pine beams and decking. It is a valuable repository of the area’s rough drafts of history. The staff is friendly and helpful. I have a special...
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Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most: that people are basically good. That honor, courage and virtue mean everything, that money and power mean nothing — that good always triumphs over evil. And I want you to remember this: that love — true love — never dies. I want you to remember that, Boy. Doesn’t matter if they’re true or not, you see. A man should believe in those things because those are the things worth believing in.
— Robert Duvall in “Secondhand Lions”
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Douglassville, Texas — Brad Teel lived...
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The view from the office window at times was like watching a silent movie. That allowed me to fill in the subtitles. For the first few months I was there, a few dozen homeless people slept in the church parking lot each night. About the time I arrived each morning at 7:30, they were rolling up their sleeping bags under the direction of a burly fellow who apparently served as the unofficial straw boss. Slabs of cardboard that served as a thin buffer between the asphalt and bedrolls were collected and deposited in the recycling dumpster across the alley. Cigarette butts and other litter were meticulously...
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Col
According to a recent poll conducted by a blog site whose credentials are likely suspect but anecdotally ring true enough, the New England Patriots — playing in their fifth Super Bowl in 11 years — are the most hated NFL team in America. In fact, of the top dozen disliked sports team — both professional and collegiate — three of them are Boston teams — the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics. The Boston Bruins didn’t make the list, probably because too few people watch hockey these days to affect a survey. All four comprise my favorite pro teams. It is an inherited trait, because I grew...
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