This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for March 25, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Can three lines say it all?             Not everybody agrees with what makes up good writing. Years ago, when I taught English, the motto I shared with students was, “Don’t say in twelve words what […]

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for March 18, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Springtime triggers memories of my parents who were excellent gardeners. If they were still alive, they would not like my referring to them as “excellent gardeners”; they would think calling them “gardeners” was too “highfalutin,”

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for March 4, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             Since two of my newspaper columns, one about accordion music and polka bands and the other one mentioning New Braunfels accordionist, Isaak Klaus, I have received overwhelmingly positive responses, including phone calls, from my readers.

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for February 25, 2021, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             When I first began writing my column some thirty years ago for the old East Bernard Tribune (now, Express), I decided to call it “Images,” for several reasons. Ideas came to me in the form

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