Pull Tight

DRIVING LESSONS Probably, later this week I will take Austin for his learners permit. We are going to home school for Driver’s Education. We will enjoy the driving time together as we usually do when I am driving. We both become philosophers when in the front seat of a car. We have already solved several of the world’s problems on the way to school or the batting cages. One of my earliest recollections is driving. When I was 4 or 5 Dad used to let me steer the old Ford pick up truck in the hay fields. He would pull the hand throttle out slightly and get the truck moving very slowly. My job was to steer the truck between 2 rows of hay bales without running over any. Dad or Dad and a hired hand would load the hay as we slowly moved down the row. When the truck was loaded, Dad would step onto the running board, open the door, slide me over and stop the truck. Most of the time I think I did pretty good but I do remember a couple of very big slow bumps as I ran over th...

There is a new book about the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 when so many people died. It turns out, the flu from 1918 was Bird Flu. Scientists have exhumed and taken tissue samples from the bodies of flu victims in the permafrost above the Arctic Circle. It is now proven that this great epidemic was bird flu. Most significant flu epidemics have come from either pigs or birds. The book is supposed to be quite interesting, I plan to read it soon. When Austin was in kindergarten and Lauren was in 3rd grade, they took piano lessons from the same music teacher. Ms. Elizabeth Few was a retired music teacher from the Fort Worth ISD. She had about 40 students, held 2 private recitals per year, and played the piano and organ in church. One day when I took the kids for their lesson, Ms. Few asked about my wife Nancy. I told her Nancy was home in bed with the flu. Ms. Few said, “Yes, I had the flu and I thought I was going to die”. I am thinking at this point Ms. Few must be lik...

 

You teach me baseball and I’ll teach you relativity…No we must not, you will learn about relativity faster than I learn baseball. Albert Einstein I am writing today about one pitch in one baseball game from the 1920s. But, before retelling what I remember of the story, I am going to share my memories of the catcher in this game. As you have obviously observed, this game took place 20-30 years before I was born. The only record was the memory of the catcher who died 30 years ago and the pitcher who verified the story for me a few years ago. In his 90s now, maybe I should go see the pitcher once more so we can relive this play again.  The pitcher, John Crowell and his wife Lois were always at the Save the Paluxy fish fry fundraisers. Lois makes a Green Grape Cobbler from wild mustang grapes that is even more legendary than this baseball play. They were two of the very strongest supporters and hardest workers for saving the Paluxy River. That the river still flows free is in large ...

Grandpa(2nd from left) and his baseball team - Taken about 1904