• Some Things You Just Can’t Explain

    Author Unknown . A farmer is sitting in the neighborhood bar getting soused. A man comes in and asks the farmer, “Hey, why are you sitting here on this beautiful day getting drunk?” Farmer: “Some things you just can’t explain.” Man: “So what happened that’s so horrible?” Farmer: “Well, today I was sitting by my…

  • Jack Hays and The Wild Texas Rangers

    by Julia Robb In 1840, Texas Ranger Captain Jack Hays and twenty of his men tracked down two hundred Comanches herding stolen horses. Hays said, “Yonder are the Indians, boys, and yonder are our horses. The Indians are pretty strong. But we can whip them. What do you say?” The Rangers charged, killed the Comanche…

  • Farmer Brown Goes to Court

    Farmer Brown decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company (responsible for the accident) to court. In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning Farmer Brown. “Didn’t you say, at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine’?” asked the lawyer. .. Farmer Brown responded, “Well I’ll tell you…

  • Letter From Basic Training

    A Texas Farm boy joins the Army, and this is his first letter home from Basic Training: . . . Dear Ma and Pa: . Am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Army beats working for old man Minch. Tell them to join up quick before all the places are…

  • When Congressmen Carried Guns

    by Julia Robb In 1832, Sam Houston stood in the U.S. of Representatives, on trial for attacking Ohio Representative William Stanbery. It was a headline trial. Sam Houston, a six-foot-two, good-looking Tennessean, was already famous. While Houston defended himself, a woman in the balcony threw him a bouquet of flowers and cried “I would rather…

  • Kountze ISD Rejects Court’s Decision, Appeals

    Remember the cheerleaders that won the court case against the school district that was trying to prevent them from painting Bible verses and patriotic sayings on “run-through” signs at home then bringing them to football games for the team to run through? Well, the school district lost in court. Appealed. Lost again. Now they’re back…

  • Texas Feuds flourished on the lawless frontier: The Regulators and the Moderators and The Mason County War.

    On Nov. 13, 1843, Peter Whetstone walked from a store located on the square in Marshall, Texas and met his death. Whetstone donated the land Marshall was built on. Didn’t help. A “Regulator” leader who believed Whetstone was a “Moderator,” followed him outside and shot him in the back. Whetstone–one of my multiple-great uncles–entered the…

  • The Niceties of Texas

    by Philip M Cruts . The State of Texas has always been known for her friendly people. I never knew anywhere else was different until I went to New England to see my wife. I walked into a store and asked the clerk how she was doing and I received the strangest look. I could…

  • Big Trees Have Emotional Benefits

    by Boyd Taylor . There is finally an explanation why people who live in older neighborhoods with large trees have less stress than those in new subdivisions, and it is not because people in the older areas tend to be wealthier and their neighborhoods more expensive. A City of Austin arborist says big trees have…

  • CSCOPE or C-SCAM?

    By Peggy Venable . CSCOPE is among the most controversial topics in the Lone Star State. Surprisingly, many Texans have never heard of it. . CSCOPE is a curriculum management system that has been sold to more than 850 Texas public, private and charter schools. It was developed by a division of the Texas Education…

  • HOW TEXAS WENT DOWN IN FLAMES

    by Julia Robb . Sam Houston told us not to do it. And Houston was the sitting governor when he opposed Texas joining the Confederacy, as well as hero of San Jacinto, twice President of the Republic of Texas and a former U.S. (TX) senator. Joining the Confederacy would ruin the state, Houston warned, then…