My family lived many years in San Antonio Texas. If anyone ever asks me where I’m from, I say San Antonio, regardless of the fact that I spent more years in Houston than I spent in San Antonio. San Antonio and the surrounding hill country hold the best memories for me and were the best years of my life. If you grew up in the hill country, you can easily take its beauty for granted and don’t realize what a fabulous place it is until you move to a big city like Houston. But that’s another story for another time.

I was eight years old the first time I remember choosing to be someone I really wasn’t.Akid in my third-grade class showed up one day with a cast on his arm, and I was amazed—maybe even a little jealous—at all the attention he got. The next morning, I snuck into our medicine cabinet, pulled out an ace bandage, and wrapped it around my own arm—not because I was hurt, but because I was pretty sure I had discovered something. I came up with a story about how I had injured it, and that day at school, I got exactly what I was looking for. The girls showed me sympathy, the boys thought I was tough, and I got to sit out during P.E. It felt like I had unlocked a secret: if I could control what people believed about me—even if it wasn’t true—I could get what I wanted.

A longtime friend has died and I didn’t get to say goodbye. Janetta Morris strolled into the La Grange Area Chamber of Commerce office on a fall day in November 1994 to introduce herself as the new owner of the RV and mobile home park, Colorado Landing, nestled along the banks of the Colorado River at the southern end of Main Street.

To the Editor: The LCRA Fayette Power Plant has once again given public notice of its application to relax pollution monitoring requirements. This proposed change would reduce how often samples are collected and decrease the number of sampling locations.

To the Editor: The recent outbursts and actions against ICE and other agencies is un-american and illegal. The enforcement of all laws is very important to keeping our country safe from all who wish to harm us.

To the Editor: The Heritage Foundation’s report entitled “Fertility in the United States Is Below Replacement” dated March 4, 2025 stated: “The total fertility rate in the U.S. has been below replacement for the past half-century.

To the Editor: I recently received a recording of my 3-year-old granddaughter reporting new words she learned at day care. The words were “inappropriate” and “dangerous.” I can only imagine these words were used to correct bad behavior.

I started harvesting some cushaw squash last week, and boy, are they big. This type of squash is a member of a somewhat lesser- known species, Cucurbita argyrosperma.

The year was 1950. One of my daily chores was to make sure the milk cow was in the pen each evening so my Mom could milk her.

C Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday he’s likely to instruct the Texas Legislature to investigate early warning systems and other governmental responses to July 4 flash flooding that killed at least 82 people in the Hill Country.