CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — My fascination with astronauts and the space program was launched when Mercury astronaut Alan Shepherd rode on the back of a red convertible in a parade through downtown Pembroke, N.H. in 1961. He had just become the second person and the first American to reach outer space, as it was quaintly called then. The United States and the Soviet Union were on a race to the moon. I was hooked on all things to do with rockets, launches and splashdowns, and especially the brave men who were strapped in to tiny capsules and sent soaring into the heavens. (Women wouldn’t get their...
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COCOA BEACH, FLA. — Finally, the day of the wedding arrived, though it still seemed as if the appointed hour might never come. My son-in-law Matt and I spent a few fascinating hours touring the Kennedy Space Center visitor’s complex at Cape Canaveral, driving over in the Mustang convertible he rented. My Beautiful Mystery Companion, daughter Abbie and I got dressed well ahead of time, in casual attire (though the women, of course, looked stunning), and then walked over to the pier on which the ceremony would take place. At 4 p.m. my oldest daughter Kasey would marry Jeff Willett and take his last...
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COCOA BEACH, FLA. — Winter is loath to leave this year, beating back spring’s attempts to pop up in its customary time frame, which is generally by late February in East Texas. The result has been a confusion of blooming trees knocked back by ice storms and below-freezing weather, pollen falling and daffodils blooming while rooftops glisten with frost.
Just last week another ice storm swept through, delaying and canceling school. The dogs freak out when forced to go outside to do their business on a carpet of ice and snow. Rosie and Sam look at me like I have lost my mind when I suggest...
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AUSTIN — For the first time in 16 years, Susan Combs’ name was not on a statewide ballot in the Republican primary held a few days ago. After two terms as agriculture commissioner and two more as state comptroller, Combs elected not to run this time. That opened the floodgates for a bevy of candidates, since she was widely expected to run for lieutenant governor — especially if David Dewhurst didn’t run. As it turned out, the Republican primary had a crowded field of folks — most of who vied to prove they were Tea Party aficionados before that was cool in the Grand Old Party. Dewhurst...
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The email landed in my work inbox the other day. Kilgore College will host the 51st annual East Texas Regional Science Fair starting Friday. Project are available for public viewing right after lunch. I plan on moseying over there to take a look. After all, my science fair project has a lot to do with me becoming a newspaper photographer in high school — a step up from working in the mailroom stuffing circulars into the papers. That had been the second rung on the career ladder from being a paperboy, as described in last week’s piece.
For my tenth-grade science project, I decided to demonstrate...
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Nearly every Thursday afternoon when college is in session, I run a short delivery route for the student newspaper, of which I’m the adviser. I deliver papers to three locations at the Longview center before heading home, while a student worker covers the considerably larger Kilgore College campus.
The first time I did this last August, it occurred to me that I had come full circle.
Forty-five years ago, I began peddling newspapers downtown for the afternoon edition of the Longview paper. As soon as I got out of school at nearby Foster Junior High, I rode my banana-seat bike to the office...
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Our little piece of the Pine Curtain recently experienced a semi-snow day. A mild ice storm earlier this week prompted the administration to close the college campus at 3 p.m., cancel night classes and delay opening the next day until 10 a.m.
I reckon, at least looking at the 10-day forecast, this is as close as I will get to reliving the childhood indulgence of a snow day.
This winter I have jealously observed as cities to the south and west — places where I used to live, such as Lufkin, Nacogdoches and even normally arid Austin — have been whacked with winter storms that closed schools...
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Identify theft is a hot topic lately, with cyber crooks swiping millions of credit card numbers from Target and other retail outlets. Certainly one can’t be too careful when most of us conduct much of our business online, relying on passwords to access bank accounts, credit cards and even Netflix. I am quite cautious, using several passwords and never having the same one for, say, the bank account and my email. I have a mental image of this army of unshaven weasels hiding in dark rooms, hunched over screens trying to break into my account so they can run up a tab with amazon.com and cost me untold...
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I bought my first Pete Seeger album in 1971, when I was 16, most likely at the Howard’s store on Mobberly Avenue in Longview. That is where I bought most of my records as a teen, in this discount store that was precursor and later victim to Walmart. From our house on South Twelfth Street it was an easy hike through the Letourneau University campus to the store, where I would flip through the record bin to spend some of my paycheck from the Longview News-Journal. I had recently been promoted to part-time photographer. I don’t recall that meant a raise in pay, but it did increase my hours.
I...
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For years I’ve been collecting snatches of conversations I’ve overheard here Behind the Pine Curtain, phrases and expressions that mark this place as somewhere unique. Sometimes I think the language is all that is left to distinguish one region from another in this age of commercial homogeneity. One can be plopped down in a shopping district of a mid-sized town in Iowa, Georgia, Texas or Colorado, and — except for the weather and the accent — not notice any difference. You will see a Home Depot or Lowe’s, a Target, Wal-Mart, a smattering of food chains, a dozen or so clothing franchises,...
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