Opinion

Texas’ first- and third-largest cities could be in daily commuting distance from each other via the high-speed Texas Central Railroad.

What happens to a bank vault when the walls of a bank have disintegrated over several decades to nearly a century of time, but left the sturdily intact bank vault behind amid a growth of cacti and weeds? That is what has happened to the old vault that once upon a time resided either within the General Store and then within an attached bank building or at a second bank at Necessity. During the oil boom era in Stephens County, the small town of Necessity sported two banks. As the decades went by, the building closed as did the bank and the walls around the building slipped into oblivion. The plank siding wasted away and then the block walls disintegrated, which left the sturdily built bank vault exposed to the elements of wind, rain and the blaring sun. Now what remains is the strange-looking bank vault with a huge cactus growing from within and out through all the crevices to the wind and blaring sun above.

Like most of us, I have a few questions to ask God when I get the chance. Oh, I’ve asked him several times, but I guess he’s busy what with the Covid19 pandemic, the Greek alphabet hurricanes, and football starting back up. Anyway, I don’t have to have the answers. It will give me something to worry about, complain about, and speculate on during the next thirty years … until I get up there. But if I don’t get the answers … it will be Hell.

While scientists race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is urging everyone to get a flu shot.

Another story about Cotton Plant (Necessity) was the reason the town couldn’t get a U.S. Post Office was because there already was a town named Cotton Plant in Texas. Therefore, out of necessity, the town name had to change to Necessity.

We are totally flooded with choices when it comes to nighttime entertainment. Most of us still hold onto that cable or satellite dish to connect us to “regular television.” Whereas the younger, more hip generation is going its own way. They have cut the cord (or cable) and have filled their evenings with a plethora of internet-based television shows.

Even during a pandemic, it’s best to not mess with Texas.

The Necessity history cannot be told without explaining the ‘Grave in the middle of the road.’

A norther came through this last week. Most of us were enjoying the heat of summer when the sky turned dark, the wind began to blow, and the temperature dropped fifty degrees in less than an hour. This is Texas, after all, so we weren’t so surprised. But with the world getting warmer, the rest of the world is going to have to join us in celebrating “weird weather.”

Trees are almost as old as dirt in the construction industry, but they’re new to Texas in the form of the state’s first mass timber office building.