RSS 2.0 NEWS FEEDSThe Subject of Forgiveness
Posted 10.11.07 at 2:43 PMThanks to Deborah K. Archer, the daughter of Melba K. Bunch, for bringing Melba’s collection of school yearsbooks to the archives at Paris Junior College. They include The Texan (Travis Middle School) from 1969-1980. We have a fine collection of Paris High School Owls and Paris Junior College Galleons, but very few yearbooks from the other Paris schools. Donations are appreciated and used by researchers.
Thanks, also, to Jimmye Hancock, who donated a photograph of the old Palace Drug Store, dated 1923. It brings back memories, not that I date back that far myself, but I instantly remembered the old checkered tile floor and the soda fountain. In the foreground are generous displays of cigars, fountain pens and eyeglasses.
Finally, for this day’s offerings, I want to post a student response to an Aug. 29, 2007, Dallas Morning News article by James Ragland, “Game of Forgiveness Gets Harder,” which poses the question of whether or not Michael Vick should be forgiven and allowed to resume his NFL career and whether or not a certain high school football player should be forgiven his legal problems and allowed to play.
Comments: 0 | Article Continues ... Continue Reading & Comment »Local Authors, Part Two
Posted 09.20.07 at 10:49 AMAmong the historians in the past, we have to honor Ed H. McCuistion, whose Loose Leaves of Lamar County History was published in The Paris News. His scrapbook of articles is a valuable source of local history.
A.W. Neville, a former editor of The Paris News, wrote The History of Lamar County, also printed first in serial and later in book form. J.J. Cunningham authored a history of the Paris Masonic Lodge. As for ministers, Rev. John H. McLean’s Reminiscences is a valuable resource, along with B.F. Fuller’s History of Texas Baptists. Finally, Mrs. S.J. Wright is the author of San Antonio de Bexar and other volumes about the Alamo and the Spanish governor’s palace.
Editors of verse anthologies include Eleanor Stell Easley, daughter of Dr. W.W. Stell, Love - From Shakespeare; Nina Isabel Jennings of Denison, Latch Strings to Happiness; and Mrs. J.W. Wood, Friendship Greetings.
Our poets include Marie Barton, author of South Wind Calling; Mary F. Canfield, Mosaics; Daisy V. Johnson, Poems; P.E. Witherspoon, Sparks; E. Louise Mally of New York (niece of Mrs. Henry P. Mayer), Dedications.
Comments: 0 | Article Continues ... Continue Reading & Comment »Grandparents
Posted 09.20.07 at 9:47 AMOne of the gifts of the season (for me) has been the winning of awards and prizes by seven of my freshman English students at Paris Junior College. The two classes which I teach entered their essays, written on their second class day and without any instruction or effort on my part except a “pep talk,” in the Grandparents Day Essay Contest sponsored by Sterling House of Paris.
Winning in the category for ages 19+ were Cattlin Day, 1st; Jennifer Adams, 2nd; Ryan McClendon, 3rd; and Rory Butkovich, 3rd. Winning in the category for ages 14-18 were Matthew Hanley, 1st; Lance Morehouse, 2nd; and Kristyn Phillips, 3rd.
First place winners were given a Newsom photography package. Other prizes consisted of lunches for two in a nice restaurant and bouquets of “forget-me-nots.” Dwight Chaney, Dean of Academic Studies, said that he was pleased to learn that students, in this day of broken and extended families, still have great respect for their grandparents and their family heritage. It’s nice to know, isn’t it?
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Letters From Paris 9-7-41
Posted 09.07.07 at 12:58 PMToday is Friday, Sept. 7, 2007, and in 1941, Sept. 7 was on a Sunday. I was thinking about my big brother, J.B., who was born on Sept. 6 (but not in 1941; he was 76 years old yesterday), but for some reason, I often seem stuck in time back in the year 1941, which was the countdown to Pearl Harbor.
I like to think what it would have been like to have been here in Paris in 1941, and been old enough to know anything, and what Paris was like then. I looked back on our Paris News microfilm and couldn’t find an edition for Sept. 6, but it would have been a Saturday, and then, as now, we didn’t have a Saturday edition, so the 7th was as close as I could come to it.
The raging headline of the day featured a picture of the destroyer USS Greer, which had been attacked by a submarine and had “answered” with depth bombs. According to the major headline, “German-American Relations Critical as Navy Refutes Nazi Claim Greer Was Aggressor.”
Life in Paris continued, though, as right under the word “Refutes,” it was reported that an “Estimated 30,000 Persons Attended Fair This Year.” The 31st fair had closed on Saturday, my brother’s birthday. I wonder if our parents had taken him to the fair to celebrate. “According to Harry Baker, Fair Association secretary, “There is a strong possibility that the dairy and hog show will be the highlight of the Fair next year.”
Comments: 0 | Article Continues ... Continue Reading & Comment »Texas Top 10 Reading Lists
Posted 09.05.07 at 2:03 PMInteresting article in the Dallas Morning News on Sept. 2, 2007, on “The Top 10 Books on Texas” by Judy Alter. Thanks to Dwight Chaney for sharing it with me.
Jim Lee, professor emeritus and former chair of the English department at the University of North Texas, submitted this list:
» A Woman of the People by Benjamin Capps
» Leaving Cheyenne by Larry McMurtry
» Hold Autumn in Your Hand by George Sessions Perry
» This Stubborn Soil by William Owens
» Farther Off From Heaven by William Humphrey
» Collected Stories by Katherine Ann Porter
» The Great Plains by Walter Prescott Webb
» Interwoven by Sallie Reynolds Matthews
» A Personal Country by A.C. Greene
» The Good Old Boys by Elmer Kelton