“Wake the neighbors! Get the word out! Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout! This is life we’ve been given, made to be lived out … so live out loud.” +++ more

I grew up in a bubble. All of my friends were white. The majority of them were Christians, predominantly Southern Baptists who were very involved in their churches. Most of my friends’ families looked just like mine: happily married parents, a sibling or two, a dog, all living under the roof of a three bedroom two bath house. When they were involved in recitals or football games, their parents came to cheer them on, usually arriving in a sensible used car. Basically, Whitehouse used to look like a scene straight out of Southern more

As the preparations have already begun for a new school year, it won’t be long until the humid morning air will share its space with the sound of the Tiger Marching Band. It is almost time for band camp and Troup bands will see two new leaders in Bobby Castillo and Ryan McInturff. more

Authorities usually offer specifics when asked about origins of expressions. “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” however, is not one of them. Attempts to pinpoint its first use are baffling to some and invite “waffling” for others. Most linguists agree that the idiom began as a French expression in the mid-19th century. Hardliners maintain that its genesis is biblical, birthed by the scripture about “nothing being new under the sun.” more

“Wake the neighbors! Get the word out! Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout! This is life we’ve been given, made to be lived out … so live out loud.” +++ more

When I was a kid, my mom did not buy too many sweet things. Don’t misunderstand. We ate plenty of sweets, but they were almost always homemade. To this day, it is rare to walk into my mom’s kitchen and not find a Tupperware cake cover that holds a plate of cookies, a pie, some sort of brownies or a cake. Store bought cookies, cakes, pies and the like were few and far between when I was young. The one exception to this rule was ice cream. While we did make homemade ice cream occasionally, we usually had store bought in the freezer nearly all the time. more

I remain a fan of the Trinity Railway Express, provider of commuter rail service between Fort Worth and Dallas. (I deserved a recent TRE tongue-lashing that resulted from my poor judgment. Further, I failed to follow my own lectern-dispensed admonitions across the years about the importance of knowing when to run.) “If you’re running to catch a train, don’t. There’ll be another one soon,” I’ve advised. “But, if you are running to avoid getting hit by a train, run like the wind.” more

By day, Justin Northcutt of Troup calls on plant farms and nurseries all around East Texas encouraging them to use Texas Organic compost. He knows how natural ingredients work in the soil and don’t have the negative effects of chemicals especially when it comes to our food supply. more

“Wake the neighbors! Get the word out! Come on, crank up the music, climb a mountain and shout! This is life we’ve been given, made to be lived out … so live out loud.” +++ more

What feels like just a few weeks ago, I gave birth to a little boy. He was a nine-pound bundle of joy. Although I had several nephews by that time, I had never lived with any little boys. I knew they were loud and rambunctious and tended to be climbers. I knew that they were dirty and liked to make (and joke about) body noises. I knew they liked to use your face as target practice during diaper changes. I knew they liked to play with cars and toy guns. more