January 2023

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, January 26, 2023.                 I wasn’t surprised when my wife came back from the grocery store the other day and reported that the pasture-raised eggs we usually buy were selling for $7 per dozen. I had been seeing posts on Facebook satirizing […]

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, January 19, 2023.                Remembering my hometown of Dime Box in the 1930s and 1940s, I must conclude that the most popular “business places” for men in town were beer joints, filling stations, the blacksmith shop, and the auto repair shop (though

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, January 12, 2023.                Beginning sometime after I was ten years old, I suffered from what folks have come to call the “After-Christmas Blues.”                It was my mother’s sister giving birth to my two cousins in Houston that caused the syndrome

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, January 5, 2023.                My family celebrated New Year’s Eve together on Saturday, and my youngest daughter and youngest granddaughter flew back to New York on New Year’s Day, a bittersweet ending to a wonderful visit.                 As a child, I looked

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, December 22, 2022.                “Bottle of Pearl, please,” shrieked Shakespeare, my parakeet.                 As long as I had Shakespeare while going to college, he shrieked, “To be, or not to be.” After I gave him to my parents, he switched to “Bottle

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, December 15, 2022.                 The old English adage by Daniel Defoe modified by Americans, “If the shoe fits, wear it,” wasn’t really about shoes. So let me modify it further by saying, “If the shoe fits, wear it, but if it doesn’t

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, December 8, 2022.                 “’Tis the season to be jolly!” So goes the old 16th century Christmas carol.                Even though the world is as bad as always, during the month of December (which includes Advent and Christmas), people in general seem

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, December 1, 2022.                We put up our Christmas tree on Black Friday. Quick and easy because it’s an artificial tree. Until a few years ago, we always put up a “real” tree, bought at Walmart, or a tree farm, or even

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, November 24, 2022.                You can go back to the special places and things of long ago, and often they are still there, sometimes just as they used to be. The same gate and fence, a house, a bridge, an old beer

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, November 17, 2022.                One of my granddaughters shared with me that the East Bernard High School Brahmarettes will begin their State Volleyball Playoffs against Buchland in Garland, Texas, the day this column will come out. If they win, they will play