My 60th high school reunion was this month down in Victoria where I grew up. It was held at the recently-renovated Club Westerner, a favorite dance hall for generations, where we as teens went for live music and two-stepping almost every weekend throughout the year—… Read More
I was out shopping this weekend, and oh my! Traffic was outrageous, stores jammed, and check-out lines ridiculously long. How could I have possibly forgotten about the commercial bonanza of Mother’s Day, when floral sales alone almost eclipse those of #1 Valentine’s Day. Even… Read More
“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” My Mother loved ice cream. Of course, living in South Texas with the unbearable, unrelenting heat, who wouldn’t? But for her, a member of the post-War generation, the sudden ready availability and popularity… Read More
Citizen protests, some quiet and peaceful and some not so much, have a long history in this country beginning in the 18th century. As you may remember from school days, the Stamp Act Rebellion (1765), the Boston Tea Party (1773), and the effective boycott of… Read More
Growing up, I went to a Catholic girls’ school K through 12. The whole school was housed in one giant brick building with a huge playground on a full city block. The first floor housed the elementary school and extended out into a large gymnasium;… Read More
It’s what I have come to call “That time of year” again — the late fall days in November between holidays when daylight savings time ends and the twinkle of Christmas lights begin to illuminate the darkness. The year is winding down, the New Year… Read More
All Hallows’ Eve is an old-fashioned term for Halloween. You seldom hear it these days, perhaps only in old New England towns or in some isolated ethnic communities. It brings to mind ancient history, Puritan superstitions, Celtic mysticism — all the myths and legends and… Read More
The romance inspired by moonlight was first given voice back in 1908 when the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth debuted Shine On, Harvest Moon in the Ziegfeld Follies. It was one of several moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era, but… Read More
Fall officially arrives this week, though you might be hard-pressed to know that in South Texas. Yes, some pumpkin patches are popping up and garlands of faux autumn leaves are for sale in Michael’s, but temperatures here this week will still be in… Read More
When you think of deserts, no doubt you picture the great exodus scene in The Ten Commandments when Moses (Charlton Heston) leads his people out from Egypt onto the wide sands of the Sahara. Certainly, the Sahara is the quintessential desert, the largest… Read More
the narrative thread 