Category: Other Things

  • MERRY CHRISTMASES

    When I was young, the excitement of the Christmas season usually started with a tree being brought into the house to be decorated.  In rural areas the tree was often a cedar tree cut on a family’s personal property.  City folks bought their trees from Christmas tree lots which sprang up around town.  Lights were…

  • OBNOXIOUS CEDAR TREES

    As a child I heard occasional comments about a cedar tree in the country cemetery at Necessity, Texas.  It was obscuring my grandfather’s tombstone.  I began to notice it more and more after my grandmother’s death in 1950.  My grandfather had died seventeen years earlier, and the family had placed a double stone at his…

  • FAVORITE HORSES

    When I hear the term kid horse, I automatically think of an old horse.  My first horse was old, and those we have had for the children and grandchildren have been old. They have passed the stage of being too frisky for an inexperienced rider. Flood waters around the state in the past few weeks…

  • A GOOD STORY

    There is a grave in the middle of a farm road in southeast Stephens County near the community of Necessity.  My maternal grandfather, Gus Haskins, owned the farm adjacent to the grave at one time. One day manly years ago, an elderly cousin went to the Necessity cemetery to place some flowers.  There were some…

  • WORDS

    We have all heard the expression that begins “from the mouths of babes,” which comes from a reference to Psalm 8:2. Children’s honesty and insight often astound us as parents or whenever we work with children.  I did my share of boring my family members with the cute bits of wisdom that came from the…

  • A PUPPY FOR CHRISTMAS

    Puppies and children naturally go together. Few things please a child more at Christmastime than a warm, furry puppy.  Parents cherish the look on a child’s face when they receive a puppy at Christmas or another time My young adult children, for whatever reason and without their Dad’s knowledge, decided to turn the tables and…

  • THANKSGIVING PRAYER REQUEST

    We will gather this week with family and friends to give thanks for our many blessings. Ken and I are thankful for the wonderful young people in our family.  Our two youngest granddaughters are beauties, both inside and out.  They are conscientious, studious, hard working girls.  A grandson will graduate from Southwest Texas State in…

  • TEEN MISCHIEF

    The parents of my generation dismissed mischief with a shrug and said, “Kids will be kids.”   The pranks were not intended to hurt anyone.  The fun was in not getting caught.  If the prankster got caught, the punishment was meted out by parents or a teacher or principal. Ken outgrew most of the misdeeds he…

  • NAMES

    Do you like your name?  Our pastor asked this question a few weeks ago.  This prompted some discussion and reflection about the names in our family. I did not realize that my name was unusual until I was in elementary school.  My mother, Ethel, was the only one in the family whose name was not…

  • CHERISHED MEMORIES

    William E. Bullard, Jr. October 2, 1919 – September 14, 2015 We have been blessed with wonderful friends throughout our lives. We have known members of Bill Bullard’s family for over fifty years. This excerpt from his obituary written by his daughter, Linda, is a tribute to a hero of the Great Generation. Our last…