July 11, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Thursday, July 11.

On this day in 1960, a book was published.  It was by an unknown author, her first book. The publishers predicted that, if they were lucky, it might sell three thousand copies. To date, it has sold 30 million. The young author won the Pulitzer Prize.  The book was turned into a movie that won the Academy Award. It has become standard curriculum in many schools. It is my favorite novel - "To Kill a Mockingbird".

July 10, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Wednesday, July 10.

My six-year-old granddaughter is visiting us this week. We started the morning by sitting for a while on the porch. Here's a devotion from three years ago, when she was three.

Today I'm focusing on an essential spiritual doctrine - the doctrine of the Front Porch. I searched the Bible for some scriptural background but came up empty. This was surprising, since it is such an important religious truth.

Periwinkles needs bright sun, good drainage, and limited irrigation to avoid periwinkle blight.

July 9, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Tuesday, July 9.

It was a stormy Monday for many people. I hope that you and yours made it through Hurricane Beryl unscathed. Our prayers today are with those who are still without power, those who are digging out from under wind damage, those who are cleaning out from flooding.

There's an old saying, "the calm before the storm". It's inspired by an actual weather phenomenon where a storm cell draws warm, moist air out of the atmosphere for fuel. The birds go quiet, the wind dies down... and then the fireworks begin!

July 8, 2024 - I have been thinking recently about the disappearance of barbershops in our town. I can recall that during the 1930’s and 1940’s there were three barbershops in our small town, perhaps even into the 1950’s.

The first barbershop of record in San Augustine was the Lockhart Barber Shop located at 112 North Harrison. In a three story building, the facility was also a tailor shop and a storage house for furniture owned by C. J. Childers. The building was owned by city mayor Lamar Blount, and was a total loss when it burned in October of 1919.