This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for February 11, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Music had always been very important to my mother’s Wendish family for generations, so naturally an almost reverence for it continued into my lifetime. Born in Dime Box, Texas, I first encountered the pump organ […]

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for February 4, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             It’s hard to believe that East Bernard, Texas, was incorporated twenty years ago! Of course, that would not impress a resident of Wharton, Texas, as their town (small city) was incorporated 118 years ago. I

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for January 28, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Growing up in the small, rural Texas town of Dime Box, we didn’t have many of the “amenities” found in larger towns and cities that were available in the 1940’s, such as fine restaurants and

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for January 21, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             While working in my studio on Monday, I had a rare urge for tidiness, so I picked up the old feather duster and began dusting the bookshelves with it. Suddenly, I realized there were thousands

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for January 14, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Christmas was a bright ending to the difficult, dark days of 2020, most folks wanting it to last longer, at least through Twelfth Night. After all, I still haven’t eaten up all the Mexican Christmas

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for January 7, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Winter caps are a fascinating type of headgear to observe this time of year. Wikipedia lists over 60 different kinds of “caps,” and caps are considered winter headgear. When I was a child in the

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for December 17, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             When I was born in 1934, the 1934 edition of children’s poems, entitled The Christopher Robin Verses: ‘When We Were Very Young’ and ‘Now We are Six,’ was published by E. P. Dutton and Co.,

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for December 10, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Many years ago, I read an article suggesting that people, especially men, and their automobiles are like turtles and their shells. Turtles cannot live without their shells, because the shells are fused to their bones.

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for December 3, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Happy New Year! Advent began a few days ago for many Christians who celebrate the Church Seasons, and it begins the New Church Year. Most of us who observe Advent do so by lighting the

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for November 26, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             By now, everybody has read about or watched on one of the news channels the poignant story about the little saw-whet owl that was found in the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree after the bright-eyed, feathered