There is a “falls” in Marble Falls, Texas, but no “marble”; the rock quarried near there is “granite,” which was used to build the present State Capitol in Austin, begun in 1882 and completed in 1888. I remember my high school Texas History teacher telling our class the fascinating story about building that grand old edifice in Austin. I’m not sure the history books included some of the things she told. Her accounts triggered my interest in granite.

Helping to make molasses out of sugarcane the old-timey way in the 1940’s was my first experience with the tall grass known as “sugarcane.” Since there are three types of sugar cane, — chewing cane, crystal cane, and syrup cane, — I’m guessing my father’s cousins in Carmine, Texas, were using “syrup” canes for making their strong, thick molasses. I was a pre-teen at the time, and my job was to carry bundles of sugarcane to the area where a poor old horse, attached to a pole, went around and around on a device that crushed and squeezed the sugarcane stalks. My job was easier than the horse’s.

Recently, while going through my closet, I came across a small, “Indian” arrowhead that I had found as a child growing up in Dime Box, Texas. We called such artifacts, “Indian” arrowheads back then. Today, however, “Native Americans” is the preferred term, although anthropologists and archeologists use the word, “Amerindians.” I remember how many, many Amerindian artifacts people would find in the 1940’s. Most of my young friends had a collection, though I never got past my one arrowhead.

Although he was born in Carmine, Texas, my father grew up in Dime Box, married, and raised his family there (which included me). Daddy was an avid fisherman! Fresh water! I don’t think he had ever been to the Gulf of Mexico until much later in life. But the creeks in Dime Box in those days were clear and unpolluted, and fish were abundant, and the Colorado River was only about 38 miles away, whether in the direction of Bastrop or LaGrange. My father and my uncle would take the women and the kids to the small creeks to fish, but only the men would risk fishing on the big Colorado River, and even they were afraid of it.

After losing the war with the squirrels and birds over the figs for many years, we are declaring total victory this year! Victory came only with the daily help of our daughter and granddaughters, armed with buckets and bowls.

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for June 25, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             One advantage of living in Wharton (I lived there in the mid and late 1960’s) over East Bernard was the quick trip to the County courthouse for your license plate renewal. No thirty-minute drive to

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for June 18, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             One of the items on my younger granddaughter’s Birthday Wish List last week was “a hammock.” This did not surprise me, considering that my older granddaughter and her tennis teammates all had hammocks which they

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for June 11, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.                      June 4, 2020 started out as a normal day until mid-morning, when a strange odor, like rotting garlic in vinegar, filled the kitchen and breakfast room. Soon after, our central AC caused the stench to

This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for June 4, 2020, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.             When I retired from my second career as pastor, and began working full-time as a free lance writer, a friend suggested that I create a “Page” on Facebook. Not having the foggiest idea of what