Opinion

This week we have had nice rains in our area. My gauge measured about 2 inches total. 

The temperature has been nice also, cool and not windy. Of course I am so old that cool is cold to me and I have trouble keeping warm. 

My fall garden has been producing a lot of tomatoes and some squash and okra and I have a watermelon that will be ready to pick in about a week if the freezing weather holds off that long.

Santa Claus is coming to town

Residents of Jacksboro,

The Jacksboro Volunteer Fire Department has a Christmas tradition that is more than 50 years strong. On Christmas Eve, we will have Santa Claus with us once again spreading Christmas cheer and delivering a Christmas stocking to everyone.

We love doing this and look forward to it every year. This long-standing tradition comes with a cost and we need your help to be sure that it continues. Over the next few weeks, we will be partnering with local businesses to raise funds to cover these costs.

There’s never been a justifiable basis for Aggie jokes — then or now. Most Texas A&M University students and former students have always known such jokes are that, and nothing more. And a majority of the rest of us agree.

In truth, Texas A&M is, was--and no doubt always will be--one of the nation’s most distinguished institutions. Its growth and many successes are evident, and recent years have marked additions of many programs, including both law and dental schools.

His final term nearly complete, the governor spoke in Rockdale, reflecting on his accomplishments and on his state of mind.

The first native-born Texas governor, James Stephen Hogg had moved from typesetting to newspaper editing to practicing law. First elected to office as a justice of the peace in Quitman, by 1886 he was state attorney general and in 1890 became governor.

Halloween is behind us, but the scariest day of the year is yet to come. Tuesday is Election Day and I am terrified.

It is almost over, this presidential race that seems like the Cuban Missile Crisis of elections.

I don’t think my fear will be abated even if my chosen candidate wins — they both scare the heck out of me.

For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the news … and who would blame you with all the nasty political stuff going on … I just wanted to announce that North Texas is not at war with Oklahoma or Isis. You would think that we were on full alert. Men, women, and little children are all over town dressed in camouflage from head to toe. Pickups are loaded to the limit with backpacks, pop-up tents and boxes of beer. Guns, polished to a shine, fill the gun racks, hide in the floorboards, and hang out the windows of most pickups driving through town. 

Two successful football figures who seem “unperturbable” are TV sports analyst Tony Dungy and Kansas State University Coach Bill Snyder. At ages 61 and 77, respectively, they remain vibrant, respected and poised. (Someone said when common sense, values and fairness were handed out, these two men may have gone through the line twice.)

No argument here. They are great by any measure. At K-State--where Snyder has been head coach twice-- games are played in “Bill Snyder Family Stadium.” (You can be sure he had a hand in the decision to add “family” to the name.)