This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, February 2, 2023.                 Both my grandmothers wore elegant black dresses for their weddings. At many funerals, such as the recent service for Queen Elizabeth II, all ladies attending wore black dresses as a sign of mourning.                After recently looking at

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