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Thanksgivings are such a special time of the year. For most of us. For me it getting to see my loved ones. Sharing a big Thanksgiving meal and being thankful for one another. This year we planned a biggie. All four of my kids and most of their kids were to show up. All brought food. Lots of it. One grandchild even brought her kid (no we didn’t eat him), greatgrandson named Iggy from Austin, Texas. We were all pretty thrilled with the idea of it all. I don’t really know who all showed up, such is the size of my family, but it was a good crowd.
Read morePreparing is important. I had been told to prepare for the future. Other than preparing for my everlasting soul I thought of other things too. I had consulted a financial advisor several years back and he devised a savings plan and all.
Read moreThanksgiving? Here again? It’s almost stylish these days to say: “Thankful for what?” Well, let’s just look back a bit. One in particular noteworthy year in my life was 1963. Fresh out of college and my military service behind me, things never looked any better. I was glad to have my military service behind me. The hard times of working my way through college had left Pat and me with sighs of relief. A new and first baby boy in our family was for sure a joy. And I was living and working in Ada. How could it get better?
Read moreI was surprised to see that one of my favorite quarterbacks has come down with Covid. I was pretty sure (to myself) last week that I wasn’t going to say anymore about this world-wide pandemic and the number of people who won’t take the shots or wear the masks. Nothing I can do about it, I said to myself. Then comes along Aaron. Well, he really let me down on this.
Read moreI had a lot of company last weekend. A lot of family from across the plain gathered at my house to celebrate the life of my late sister-inlaw, Freda Harry. Freda passed away recently in a Dallas Care Center and remains will be interred in Allen Cemetery at a later date. We loved and we all will surely miss this remarkable lady. Freda’s obituary was published in last week’s Advocate.
Read moreMy mother sometimes got onto me for daydreaming so much. I had a teacher or two over at Stonewall that agreed with her too. She always admonished me to quit my daydreaming. As though one could. Like most people I think I was meant to travel. Go places. Someplace where they speak different languages. Dress funny. Eat weird foods. Places so far away you might need to get on an airplane or a ship to get there. But to get on an airplane means going through x-rays, being patted down. Getting a passport. Well sure. Pat and I, being the forever optimists, renewed our passports some time back. I guess we did want to be squeezed into an uncomfortable seat and be hurtled at speeds at nearly the speed of sound to one of these strange places.
Read moreSometimes this old Shakespearean quote applies to us. It sure did to people in Allen in 1938—a tough year for people here in Mustang land. I know it was for the Bullard’s. The business dad worked at in Allen was shuttered and gone. Whipped away by the dusty winds of the Great Depression. Finally, he found a job in Centrahoma. My brother Gerald said, “It had to be the poorest place I’ve ever seen.”
Read moreTexas has a lot going for it. One of the things -- there is a lot of wealth and pride residing south of the Red River and the growth of North Texas continues unchecked. I remember back in the 1950s when I lived in a Dallas suburb and worked for a company called Chance Vaught, building jet airplanes. Each morning the routine was to check in then stand at attention while someone played a scratchy version of our National Anthem on the loudspeakers followed by the song “The Eyes of Texas.” Me? I was pretty finished when the National Anthem was. Ready to get to work. But the Texans there just stood there. Their hands over their hearts with perhaps a little tear in their eye. Then and only then were they ready for work time.
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