August 28, 2017 - In 1981 while I was living in Orange, Texas, I was invited to preach at the Hillcrest Baptist in my hometown of Center, Texas. On the Saturday evening preceding my Sunday appointment I went out to warm up the car (it was 24 degrees in Orange), and the car wouldn’t start!
August 21, 2017 - Back in the fifties, I became pastor of the Bonaldo Baptist Church in Nacogdoches County (Texas). Located near the Angelina River, the church had an old log cabin parsonage (inhabited mainly with rats and snakes) and their ancient water well was filled with years of “dinner on the ground” leftovers. So I asked Buddy Pratt, a college friend, to help me clean it out.
July 31, 2017 - When I was in the 5th grade, Daddy and Mother moved our family of six children to an old rent house owned by Mr. Jim Booth. All of Center, Texas’ grocery stores were at that time privately owned and small. Our “new” rent house on Shelbyville Street was located across the tracks in East Center near three of these small stores: Barnette’s, Hagler’s and the Pete Dellinger store.
July 17, 2017 - “Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts over again.”
After working in the garden and piddling in my gun shop today, I came in to check my email. As I was reading it, I noticed a fly had flown into my half-filled glass of water. He was one of the bad ones (the green ones)…the kind that hang around carcasses and filth.
July 10, 2017 - In the fall of 1962 I became Pastor of The First Baptist Church of Mauriceville, Texas. On my first Sunday at the church, Deacon Thamar Dickerson walked into my study and as he held his thumb in front of my face, said, “Brother Doug, my name is Thum-mar Dickerson”…and for an obvious reason, I never forgot his name. I never forgot his squirrel dog “Yeller’s” name, either. “She can’t bark, he said. “But she’s the best squirrel dog in the State of Texas.” And after a few hunting trips with Thamar, there was no doubt that he was right.
June 19, 2017 - My nephew Dale Fincher has Eastern Screech Owls nesting in a water bucket on the porch of his shack near Ironosa Creek. We went out last week to photograph the mother and her babies. The mother is about 8 1/2 inches tall and her babies are white and fuzzy.