May 17, 2023 - One of the most intriguing artifacts held in the collection of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum is a “mad stone” donated to the Museum in 1978. The question is, “What is a mad stone, and how was it used?”
April 18, 2023 - Unidentified Flying Objects have been around for a long time now, the most notorious of these being the Roswell, New Mexico event. On July 7, 1947, a UFO crashed northwest of Roswell on a cattle ranch, scattering debris over a wide area. Several bodies of extraterrestrial beings were reportedly recovered and autopsied. The event was explained by the military as a weather balloon crash, there were no beings, and thus began the most notable cover up in American history.
April 3, 2023 - When I was in high school during the 1950s, the game of washer pitching (Texas horseshoes) was a favorite pastime of us students. Before school, during the lunch break, and even after school one could see boys pitching washers. Occasionally a girl would participate, but it was mostly a masculine game. I loved to play and got reasonably good at it.
January 30, 2023 - Character actor Ned Beatty’s first film was released in 1972, and was entitled “Deliverance”. It was the story of four male friends from Georgia who went on a weekend outing of boating and fishing in the mountains, and encountered trouble with mountain people.
January 2, 2023 - The lowly broom has been around our civilization for centuries. It is said that Benjamin Franklin introduced broomcorn to the United States in 1725. He is said to have picked a single broomcorn seed of a Philadelphia lady, planted it, and grew the first broom corn in the United States.
December 19, 2022 - The tradition of the Christmas Pickle has to be one of the strangest modern Christmas customs in the world. It is no wonder that no one is quite sure why it exists at all. In fact, there are two traditions that seem to indicate that the custom originated in Germany.
December 9, 2022 - In the late 1960s, our family lived in Houston, Texas. It was about a three-and-a-half drive north to our parent’s home in San Augustine. Christmastime was always a hectic time for all of us. My parents lived about twenty miles away from my wife’s parents. We, therefore, had to share time with both sets of grandparents when we would make the drive up north.
December 2, 2022 - Mistletoe makes its annual appearance each December as millions of Americans hang a sprig of it in their doorways during the holiday season. According to custom, if a woman is caught standing under the mistletoe, a man may kiss her. So what is it about this little plant that gives it power to make people pucker up?
December 1, 2022 - Clara Murphy will present her Christmas Piano Recital Thursday, December 15, 2022 at 7pm at First Baptist Church, San Augustine, Texas.
Participating students are: Joy Bailey, Lake McDaniel, Bonnie Consford, Grace McReynolds, Makenna Tanner, Rylie Todd, Brooklyn Elliott and Braeleigh Elliott.
October 31, 2022 - Jobs were hard to find in 1958, the year I was married. I was classified “1A” by the Selective Service System, which meant that I was facing being drafted into the army. No company wanted to hire me, only to have me leave within a year. After spending three months in the Golden Triangle area of Beaumont, Orange, and Port Arthur without finding work, my new bride and I decided to move back home and await the inevitable “Greetings” letter from Uncle Sam.
December 19, 2022 - The tradition of the Christmas Pickle has to be one of the strangest modern Christmas customs in the world. It is no wonder that no one is quite sure why it exists at all. In fact, there are two traditions that seem to indicate that the custom originated in Germany.
