I took an actual walk down memory lane last Sunday morning, while our “fancy car,” a 2021 Toyota 4-Runner, was being detailed for the first time since we bought it used two-and-a-half years ago. Usually, I run it through a car wash that has hard-working folks at the front to spray and scrub it before it runs through the automated wash, then a woman at the end who quickly towels it off. I take advantage of the free vacuum service after that.
However, we learned days earlier that our new puppy Daisy May, whom we acquired from an animal shelter a few hours away, gets carsick easily. She is just...
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O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
One of my earliest childhood memories is visiting the Eastern Township of Quebec, where my great-grandmother, a tiny woman we called MéMé, lived near Sherbrooke. MéMé spoke only French. Among the visiting cousins, the theory was that she knew English but refused...
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GILMER, TEXAS — A young boy, maybe 6 years old, is pulling a rusty red wagon with two rabbits in a cage. He is wearing a straw hat that nearly swallows his face, a Western shirt with images of a bronc rider, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. He is adorable. The little cowpoke is peering intently into a cage filled with white geese. He is surrounded by folks looking at cages and pens filled with all kinds of poultry, waterfowl, goats, rabbits, and dogs. This is the first of three annual East Texas Poultry Trades Day events held at the Yamboree Livestock Pavilion in Gilmer. Exhibitors have filled three...
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But your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore
They’re already overcrowded from your dirty little war
Now Jesus don’t like killin’, no matter what the reason’s for
And your flag decal won’t get you into Heaven anymore
— John Prine
Beloved troubadour John Prine wrote Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War. At a live concert I listened to on Spotify, he said the song’s idea came to him while he was a mail carrier in Chicago. Back then, Reader’s Digest was highly popular. Prine said mail carriers hated the magazine...
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There is not much I find heartening these days, what with a needless war, a president whose Easter “greeting” was to use the F-bomb in a demented post, gasoline prices skyrocketing, and a feeling of dread that is hard to shake. One of my first thoughts each morning, besides “Man, I really need to pee,” is “What fresh hell awaits us this morning?” As I told a friend the other day, when I think it could not get any worse, it does. I do count my many blessings — good health and a loving family are highest on the list.
What I find truly special lately is the Artemis II mission, which...
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PHILADELPHIA — The City of Brotherly Love also seems to be the City of Light-Fingered Gloves. Walk into almost any pharmacy, and you'll see expensive items locked up. Customers must press a button on each display to summon an employee with a key to retrieve, for example, a bottle of Tylenol. My Beautiful Mystery Companion and I noticed this on a recent visit to an academic conference where we both gave presentations.
We had just left the famous Reading Terminal Market, one of the country’s oldest and largest public markets. It’s a great place to stroll and enjoy locally sourced produce,...
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I cast my first ballot here in Gregg County at the age of 18 in November 1973. It was an off-year election. I do not recall what was on that ballot, but research indicates there were five proposed amendments to the much-amended Texas Constitution. There does not appear to have been any local races decided that November. I voted simply because I could.
In 1972, I was too young to vote, meaning I missed out on casting a ballot in the presidential election. Not that it would have made a difference, since Richard Nixon overwhelmingly defeated Sen. George McGovern in Texas and nearly everywhere else....
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NACOGDOCHES — We decided to head to the Oldest Town in Texas on a glorious day during Spring Break, to take in the beauty of the Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden — 11 acres containing more than 7,000 azaleas, majestic camellias, Japanese maples and other plants and trees on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University. My Beautiful Mystery Companion and I are both alums of SFA, though we did not know each other at the time. I ended up returning in 1990 as managing editor, then editor and publisher of The Daily Sentinel and lived in Nac on this second stint for 13 years. It remains one of my favorite...
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I have learned that living an active life at age 70 (and counting) involves a series of workarounds. Here are some recent examples:
Our shiny new orange tractor’s fuel tank fills from the top of the engine cover. The tank on the older tractor it replaced was behind the seat, meaning I could stand on the bushhog at the rear and leverage a five-gallon can of diesel up against my leg to pour it into the tank.
I can’t do this with Orange Crush. I first tried climbing a stepladder next to it and lifting the can high enough to pour diesel into the tank. Five gallons of diesel weigh about...
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I skipped the gym a few days ago and went walking down the street across the county road from Three Geese Farm. My Beautiful Mystery Companion devised a 3-mile route not long after we moved out here nearly five years ago. When we first started walking this route;5, there were only three houses in this one-road rural subdivision. Four more have been built since, but there still is very little traffic. Canada geese were honking and flapping around on this breezy, warm morning. As always, buzzards circled overhead, biding their time. A couple of killdeers took turns hopping ahead of me, their distinctive...
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