The Alternative Right

Bae95b0ed3b20d706d5b8853286257f485ck when I was in high school my mother encountered a man who had once lived across the street from her family home. He and his brother had rented rooms there. Mama said that she had developed a crush on this man’s brother mostly because he was a student at Rice University and she always had a thing for highly intelligent men. Nothing ever came of her fantasies and she moved on into adulthood only to one day have a chance meeting with the old neighbor. She learned that the man was a widower, having lost his wife to cancer. He was lonely and raising children much like Mama. I suppose it was inevitable that he would eventually ask her out on a date. It seemed as though they had much in common but nothing might have been further from the truth.

After their first outing together my mom came home and insisted that she was never going to see this guy again. He was totally not her type even though he was quite handsome. He had not been particularly successful in life, never even attending college and constantly moving from one dead end job to another. Mama saw no future for them and that seemed to be the end of that. Unfortunately the man was quite persistent and my mama was far too kind to keep putting him off. Before she was even able to explain what had happened he had become a constant fixture around our house and not a particularly welcome one. In fact, I disliked him intensely mostly because of his politics. Continue reading “The Alternative Right”

Where Dreams May Come True

160404233945-villanova-celebrates-large-169The annual frenzy known as March Madness is now over and a new national championship team wears the crown. The tournament comes by its frenetic name quite naturally because year after year virtually anything might happen as one college battles another. Unlike football that has become somewhat predictable and mostly the domain of universities with large amounts of money to spend, basketball is a sport that is still open to even small somewhat unknown schools. Whether public or private, it doesn’t seem to matter because as the minutes on the clock tick down nothing about the ending is ever certain. More than one Cinderella team has scored a victory in the final seconds making the game  of round ball perhaps the most exciting sport on the planet.

Last night Villanova proved once again that all it takes is one sensational play just before the buzzer to humble giants. In an historic victory the team surprised North Carolina by scoring the first ever three point buzzer beater to become the national championship team in the men’s Division I with a score of 77 to 74. Ironically another Villanova team had won the national title way back in 1985 in another stunning upset over then ten point favorite, Georgetown University. It was not their first time to be a spoiler. Continue reading “Where Dreams May Come True”

Finding Fairness

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Throughout history there have been people who have felt that the powerful have held unfair sway over them. In virtually every corner of the world there are stories of anger, revolt, change. As humans we want justice and equality but don’t always feel that we have it. We often forget that our own country was founded by lawbreakers, traitors, men who had grown weary of what they saw as tyranny from the British government. Had they eventually lost the Revolutionary War they might have gone down in history merely as trouble makers, rabble. Even with their win, most of the world was not quite yet ready for them. Oddsmakers gave them little chance of ultimate success. Their laws were radical for the times but they also made the mistake of being too exclusive in their delineation of rights. By leaving women and slaves out of their equation for democracy they had already laid the foundation for eventual problems. It is always among those who feel left out that the push for change begins and with enough effort and belief their anger topples those who would hold them down.  Continue reading “Finding Fairness”

Personal Memories

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Back in my college days I took a Folklore class. I’m sorry if that isn’t the exact name of the course. It’s been a long time since I took it and I didn’t save a class schedule so that I might verify my memory. One of the things that I learned in what would ultimately be one of my all time favorite lectures is that oral history and memoirs are often thought to be part of the folklore genre. The reason for this is obvious. Such sources of information are based solely on the often inaccurate memories of individuals. The writers generally do no research to compile what they believe happened to them. Instead they simply outline their histories with their world views continuously affecting what they pick and choose to tell and what stood out most. Such historical artifacts should never be viewed in the same way as a scholarly study of an era or an individual. Instead they give insight into the thinking and personality of the person telling the story. They are valuable in that they reveal a highly personal point of view of a particular event, time, or era.   Continue reading “Personal Memories”

The Haunted Magnolia Hotel

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What better way to begin Halloween week than with a dark rainy weekend and a visit to a haunted hotel! In the middle of old downtown Seguin on South Crockett Street sits a two story structure that resembles a box, something created without much thought of architectural loveliness. It is the Magnolia Hotel, an establishment that began as a stage coach stop with a couple of rooms and evolved into a full fledged hotel when a second story was added. Opened in the eighteen forties, the hotel has a colorful history that is the stuff of dark secrets and rumors. Although it was at one time a gathering place for parties and other celebrations it was also the site of some of Seguin’s most tragic moments and thus over the years the stories of ghosts and hauntings in the place grew. By the nineteen nineties the Magnolia Hotel had been abandoned and boarded up. Only critters and drifters inhabited its rooms and, some say, a long dead tortured soul or two.  Continue reading “The Haunted Magnolia Hotel”