January 7, 2025 - 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.”
November 20, 2024 - I must admit that I love the taste of licorice. I always have. Now I know that most people don’t and it is difficult to find any who can “take it or leave it." You either love it or hate it. My wife is in the latter category. I have had to limit my intake of the sweet, black, chewy, delicacy since our marriage.
November 13, 2024 - As a young lad I can recall my mother saying to me, “Neal, I will give you a Yankee dime if you will take out the trash for me”. I never did get a “Yankee dime” that I can recall because I did not know what a Yankee dime was. I vaguely remember it, in my young mind, to be a kiss on the cheek. So, what message does this saying really mean? A little research revealed the following:
November 5, 2024 - It was an ordinary school day in 1948. My classmates and I were in our second grade class room at Hemphill Elementary School in Hemphill, Texas. Since I was in the second grade, I probably had on a dress that was made from chicken feed bags sewed together by my maternal grandmother, Mam Howell. Had I a clue that this would be a special event day, I probably would have worn a “church” dress. Our teacher was Verna Thedford on this particular day.
July 29, 2024 - Many of you have no doubt heard a person say that he didn’t know someone else from Adam’s off ox, but you may not have stopped to consider the peculiar aptness of this folk expression. I recall my grandparents and parents would use the phrase quite often but I never thought to delve into what the words truly meant. What is an “off ox”, and who was Adam? What did this have to do with not knowing somebody?
July 24, 2024 - On June 6,1958. I became a changed man. Around 8:30 pm. I was pronounced “married” by a minister, who happened to be my new father-in-law. So, I was magically changed from a single man to one who now had a father-in-law, a mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and, yes, a bride.
May 31, 2024 - I haven’t thought of fender skirts in years until recently. I was examining a few items in my toy car collection when I looked at my 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air which had rear fender skirts. I always liked the look on most of the 1940 and 1950 model cars which sported the skirts.
April 26, 2024 - The spittoon has just about disappeared from the scene. In the late 19th century United States, spittoons were a very common feature in pubs, brothels, saloons, hotels, stores, banks, court rooms, and other places where people gathered.
March 30, 2024 - The phone call was received around dusk that summer afternoon in 1963. The caller was a neighbor who explained to my wife, Clara, that she was looking at a man on the roof of our house. I was watching television when my wife ran into the living room and announced that there was a man on top of our house. “What?”, I questioned, “someone on our roof?” All kinds of questions popped into my mind. This was our newly purchased house and why would someone want to get on my roof?
March 21, 2024 - I have often stated that I wish I knew what “scratch” was because I keep hearing people say that they made something from “scratch.” If I knew what it was I could bundle it, can it, or bottle it for sale and make a lot of money. I hear the term “made from scratch” mostly in the world of cooking, as women say with pride that they made that wonderful cake from scratch.
April 26, 2024 - The spittoon has just about disappeared from the scene. In the late 19th century United States, spittoons were a very common feature in pubs, brothels, saloons, hotels, stores, banks, court rooms, and other places where people gathered.
