February 15, 2021 - Although James Cannon and I were both from the Shelbyville, Texas area, I first met him in 1970 when I became pastor of Fletcher Emanuel Baptist Church in Lumberton, Texas. James was our Youth Sunday School teacher, a member of the Lumberton tax equalization Board, and was highly respected resident in the fastest growing town in Texas. We became close friends and often hunted together.

January 25, 2021 - Before Toledo Bend Reservoir was ever built, the Bayou Seipe near Huxley, Texas was a ten-mile “no boat” creek- fisherman’s paradise and when my friend Hollis Peavy and I heard about it, we were soon addicted to it. Busy little Harris Branch … spring-fed and ever-flowing … intersected the Bayou Seipe on its ten-mile run to the Sabine River. And this gorgeous branch/creek stretch of water became a favorite for Hollis and me.

January 4, 2021 - "My cup runneth over…." Psalms 23:5  

"Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 1 Peter 1:8

 When I was five years old, we moved to a house on the Henrietta Road north of Center, Texas. My memories about it are few:  bitter weeds, bitter cow milk…. roasting hickory nuts in the fireplace…. our dog "Nellie"… and the yellow jackets that covered my brother Bill and me with stings.

November 30, 2020 - Pam and I got into a discussion about hot peppers yesterday. I was telling her how my Dad could “chew up and swallow” the hottest peppers without batting an eye. “Since he grew up around Louisiana Cajuns, he ate the hot ones just like they did” I said. But Pam would not be outdone. “My daddy (Oley Ledoux) could best your daddy any day,” she said, “because he didn’t just grow up around Cajuns. He was a Cajun.”

November 9, 2020 - Many families who lived in the Post WWII days (in the mid-forties) lived in rent houses and were no exceptions. We had lived in a total of seven rent houses in my hometown of Center, Texas before I left for college in 1950. One of our rent houses was located in East Center and Daddy told all eight of us that it was very old and “needs a lot of work."