Like the song says, “Beautiful Texas where the bluebonnets grow….” In early spring the flower grows wild in fields, on Facebook, as well as beside the highway. State Highway Department sows the seeds along the highway. Winter moisture and Texas abundance of sunshine create shows that slow admiring drivers. Artists cover canvases with blue flowers showing a little bit of white. At age 65, surrounded by Russian snow, I decided to teach myself how to
Russian Cucumbers
Read how Ukraine war sanctions will affect Russian families. Wall Street Journal: Axey Furnosov, an auditor, lost money when the Russian stock market plunged at the start of the war and has been watching rising prices hit his pocketbook. He now says he will plant the entire garden at his dacha in Vladimir, a historic city near Moscow, this year with potatoes and zucchini for his young child, plus tomatoes and cucumbers to marinate for
Seagoing Watches
This Old Man’s sleeping concerns have daughters’ attention. Oldest child even sent historical references to sleeping habits of yesteryears. Back when work habits set most sleep schedules. What Sheryl didn’t include was the four-hours-on, four- hours-off ‘watch’ time employed when sailing offshore. This skipper tried to assign watch duties when we four men sailed 36-foot Makaleka from Cape May, New Jersey to Block Island, Rhode Island. Two men on deck driving, two sleeping—except this skipper
Texan in Russia
In 1995, February to May, I learned enough Russian language to answer the telephone in our Yekaterinburg two-room flat. If the caller spoke only Russian, I learned to answer in their language: “I don’t understand. I am American.” Then I hung up. If today, as you read and hear about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and you want to understand more about Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, I suggest a book of 687 pages: Never Speak
Red Would Tell Joe
Thanks to my red-headed Daddy–who forsook Kentucky hills in the 1920s, surveyed in the Florida Land Boom, and then worked in West Texas oilfields—I learned: No legislative body, dictator, or president ever repealed the Law of Supply and Demand. Dad’s wisdom reminded me of when I spent a 1930s week with Aunt Muriel and Uncle W.R. Lacy. They owned a grocery store and gasoline station in West Texas Peyote. In those days you pumped gasoline
Conjuration
Peanuts and Crackerjacks fans are fretting because the baseball moguls can’t get the major-league game started this month. Not to worry. I know an ‘Old Scotchman’ solution. His name was Gordon McClendon. He operated an Oak Cliff radio station. Oak Cliff exists between a one-time flooded Monkey Ward building in Fort Worth and Neiman Markup in Big-D Dallas. Over the air the Old Scotchman recreated his announcement of games by conjuring up baseball diamond descriptions. All
Curling
Winter Olympics over, members of the family voted for favorite events. The daughters chose figure skating, no surprise. But this Dad’s last choice. My remembrance of my one jump and spin was horizontal instead of vertical. I still feel the first—and last—time I tried to skate on ice. Makes my tailbone ache. Skiing also made my tailbone hurt, plus I had to scrape lots of snow off my rump. That ski and shoot event looked
PT-109
This Naval Reserve officer on temporary active duty and his family from Texas, plus some eight thousand others including The Secretary of Defense, Jacqueline Kennedy and her two children, the late President John F. Kennedy’s Mother Rose and some 40 other Kennedy family, national press, and numerous admirals were aboard that 7 September 1968 for the commissioning ceremony of USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier. The Kennedy was scheduled for diplomatic visits to foreign ports. The
Triple E Mining
“There’s gold in those hills” has sent many a prospector to the mountains of Arizona. Including the three Elams. Dad explained to this nine-year-old that I was staying in a Wickenberg ‘tourist court’ most of the summer because “Dickie” was the third member of the Triple E Mining Company. “Winnie” was the second member. And “Red” was the developer with some knowledge of mining from his years near Kentucky coal mines. Mom got a golden nugget
Super Bowl I
Whenever the National Football League Super Bowl arrives, I remember when I wasn’t far from that initial game while performing my Naval Reserve duty. Reservists do two weeks of active duty each year. I was performing my press relation duties ( PAO, public affairs officer ) at the San Diego Naval base. That was my first, and only, command of the small ( four people ) PAO office near the harbor. Friday afternoon and the