October 5, 2026 - Teenagers growing up in East Texas during the 1940s and 1950s were accustomed to being surrounded by towering pine trees, and sturdy oaks. I was one of those kids being reared in about the deepest part of East Texas.
September 24, 2026 - The computer age has thrown me for a loop. I made better grades in school with my courses that involved words and their meaning. This has continued into my adulthood. I purchased a rather large Webster's dictionary many years ago. It is large, containing two volumes with thousands of words therein. Anytime that I need to find the correct spelling of a word, I consult it. I have used it for many years.
July 13, 2026 - My grandmother, Mary, decided that this would be a great question to send in to the Crazy Water Crystal Program - “What is the horizon?” My grandmother listened faithfully to this radio program which was broadcast from the lobby of the Crazy Water Hotel in Mineral Wells, Texas from 1935 through 1941.
July 6, 2026 - We all know that someday we will die. Our journey on this earth will be over. God chose not to reveal the date of our death to each of us, which is a good thing. There is an interesting verse in the New Testament book of Hebrews, written by the Apostle Paul, that touches on the subject of death. It reads as follows, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
May 1, 2026 - The lowly chicken has provoked a number of interesting questions in the past, such as: Why did the chicken cross the road, and which came first – the chicken or the egg? These two questions have been pondered for many years, and every person must come to their own personal conclusion. I have decided that the real reason that the chicken crossed the road was because she wanted to get to the other side. Others have stated that she crossed the road to prove to armadillos that it COULD be done.
April 20, 2026 - The summer of 1956 was an interesting one for me. I was out of classes from Baylor University for the summer. I had purchased my first car, a 1950 Chevrolet two-door sedan. My future wife and I were courting pretty often, and I found a much-needed job.
March 30, 2026 - Being a born and bred native Texan, I sometimes have to stop and consider some of the idioms or sayings that I use routinely without even a second thought. Folk who are not from around here sometime have a difficult time with the sayings that we natives all use. As one northerner once put it, “My brain hurts, but I get it now.”
March 12, 2026 - When one drives around the small town of San Augustine, Texas, one will note many older church buildings scattered all around the area. Some are constructed of wood, some brick, and some even stone.
March 10, 2026 - “Why did the chicken cross the road?” My pet chicken told me that it was to show armadillos everywhere that it could be done. When I was a teenage boy back in the early 1950s, I had a pet chicken. She was the most unusual pet that I ever had.
February 11, 2026 - I have used the expression “dead as a doornail” many times, and I am sure that you have, too. We are not alone. Since the 14th century people have declared things to be dead as doornails. It makes sense that inanimate objects are dead, but then so are diamonds, doughnuts, and doorknobs. So, why do we use the expression “dead as a doornail”? What are doornails, and why are they so dead?