September 22, 2023 - I sometimes wonder about the thought, or lack of it, that goes into the making of signs these days.  I have seen road signs and even warnings on medicines that don’t seem to make sense or just state the obvious. I think the fear of frivolous law suits has contributed greatly to all of this unnecessary information.

I have pondered the following signs over the past few years and settled on my own conclusions. Do you agree?

September 1, 2023 - Anyone who has camped out in East Texas has probably had this experience: You’ve spent the evening sitting around the campfire after a satisfying dinner. A nice gentle breeze cools the evening air as you settle down for a night of blissful sleep. Then, it starts - “Whip-poor-will, Whip-poor-will”, the sound of a bashful bird serenading you.

August 23, 2023 - When is a bicycle path not a bicycle path? That is the question that my wife had to decide a number of years ago in Colorado. I had taken a new job in 1974 with an insurance company whose home office was Littleton, Colorado. We moved there in January of that year, native Texans in a foreign country, whom the natives teased about our “accent.” I never felt that we had any detectible accent, but the Colorado citizens felt differently.

August 8, 2023 - You are walking down the sidewalk downtown and you meet a friend – “How’s it going, John?” you ask. “Fair to middling,” he responds. I know you have heard that phrase for a long time, but do you know for sure what it actually means? Or, from where did it originate?

I have always understood it to mean “about average” – you’ve been better, and you’ve been worse. I did a little research on this phrase and offer the following:

July 23, 2023 - Some time prior to 1940 the town of San Augustine, Texas purchased a fire siren, and placed it atop the city hall building. This building, which still stands, housed two fire trucks. The purpose of the siren was to alert the citizens and the volunteer firemen of an emergency, usually a fire. It said to everyone that somebody needed help.

When the people in town heard the siren, it told them that there’s an emergency going on somewhere. It also warned the people to be alert for volunteers responding to the firehouse, and to watch out for fire trucks.