Columns/Opinions

By Dr. Don Newbury

My Uncle Mort’s Sad Scene…

He stood there, gazing at the Salvation Army kettle on the town square. It was Christmas Eve, and my Uncle Mort--106 and counting--solemnly offered a “mental salute” to the woman as she joyfully rang her bell. Frail of body and warmed only by a tattered coat given to the Army last year, she seemed resolved to help the less fortunate.

Perhaps minding the kettle for last-minute shoppers as they joined the fray for final purchases was the noblest thing she could do.

Mort choked up as he described the scene. The kettleminder’s ringing set him to thinking about moments in 2018 when he blew his stack, usually because he didn’t have all the facts. And when he did, they were somewhat dyslexic--backwards at best in his “fire/aim/ready” life.…

My Use Of Being Adorable

Well hello there dear San Saba friends, so very happy to see you! Now if you say to yourself, Herman, you are a bit loco in your dachshund head because you are writing to us and not able to see us at all…you would be wrong about that as I imagine you as I write. Yep, mom told me when I began writing, it is always important to imagine your audience and so I do. Oh, I see ranchers, shopkeepers, school teachers, students, caregivers, doctors, lawyers, housewives and everyone! You are so real to me that one time I got too close to a rancher’s spurs and could actually smell the cows! Ha ha ha! Now you know I am teasing but isn’t that just fun to imagine? Anywho, I do write as if I am right there with you.

When most people think of the winter landscape, they tend to think of brown, dead-looking foliage. While a lot of our trees, shrubs and perennials do in fact lose their leaves in the winter, we in the Hill Country have greener winters than folks in many other parts of the country.

Most of the greenery we see in the winter is due to our two most common woody plants, juniper and live oaks, and since these two species make up so much of our landscape, our winters are not as dreary as some other places. Mexican white oak, which is not locally native but grows in Val Verde county and into Mexico, and is commonly planted in this area, has leaves that persist into the spring like live oaks.

But, those are not the only evergreens we have, so sprinkled among the junipers and live oaks are many other green shrubs. Here are some of them.

In the midst of decorating for Christmas, I discovered I was covered in glitter.

A lot of folks get sad at Christmas. People get stressed and angry and fed up and exhausted—at Christmas and the rest of the year, for that matter. I don’t get depressed during the holidays, but I understand how it could happen.

I was married for many years to a man who was grumpy a great deal. When Christmas came, efforts to keep his grumpiness under wraps were quickly exhausted and he became pretty much intolerable.

“Christmas!’ he exploded on one infamous occasion. “What a fiasco!”

To be fair, my ex-husband laughed when I later put a picture of Santa Claus on our refrigerator and drew a caption bubble over his head saying, “Christmas! What a fiasco!” But, in the moment, I’m sure he did think Christmas was a fiasco and I will tell you frankly, I found his attitude hard to handle.

‘Tis a puzzlement. Can anyone on the planet engage us to the degree that a 20th century icon did?

More specifically, can anyone “grab” us visually the way he did--that prolific author, painter and illustrator who reached Americans’innermost cockles with a paint brush and canvas?

That icon re-defined sentimentality with engaging covers on The Saturday Evening Post 321 times during the publication’s 66 years of weekly magazines. His name was Norman Rockwell. Some well-known critics refused to take his works seriously, even failing to call him an artist. Rockwell agreed, but still turned out more than 4,000 original works, capturing the hearts of a grateful nation, up to and including U.S. presidents….

“Have you seen Rockwell’s Post cover this week?” was a question heard often from border to border and from shore to shore. His covers sparked convivial conversation across backyard fences, in barber and beauty shops and thousands of other places across the land.

I get tired of hearing myself saying it, but where in the world is all the time going? I feel as if we just started November, and here it is December and the holiday rush has already swept me away. My gate decorations are not up, my house is bare, fall cleaning was missed, and the end of the first semester is lurking around the corner. I know time goes faster as you get older, but the kids are singing the same song. I can’t seem to find a way to slow it all down.

Our native woody plants (trees and shrubs) fall into two categories: evergreen and deciduous, the latter means they lose their leaves in the winter and then put on new growth on last year's stems. The majority of our woody species are in fact deciduous, but that doesn't mean they all behave the same.

The timing of leaf drop and of growing back new leaves varies from species to species, as well as with the length of daylight, temperature and moisture. Even within those conditions, there is some variation among individual plants. Some examples of species differences: Buckeyes (Texas and yellow) usually lose their leaves in August or early September. Walnuts start losing their leaves in September and are bare before most of our other trees begin to lose leaves. Then in the spring, elbowbush usually blooms in February and puts out leaves shortly after that, which is why it is also called Spring herald.

Still having some cool mornings, but up in the day it warms up, no rain. Have had several mornings of heavy frost.

People are gathering what pecan crop they have. It seems the pecans are not filled out as good as they could be. The pecan show is in the process; volunteers are busy shelling the pecans to put in the show.

Leon Eckhoff reported that he and Mebbie spent Thanksgiving in Hawley with son, Robbie, Amy and sons, Ethan and Ory. Leon and Robbie were in Kentucky last week attending the Rambouillet sheep show. Robbie is the secretary and has to attend all the shows.

Jane Clark reported on all of the Thanksgiving news of this past week.

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