Thinking about the CSA
During my childhood in Dallas, the Civil War was less than a century in the past. It seemed that a lot of people did not want to let go—as if that were such a wonderful and glorious time. The Confederate States of...
A mysterious event in southern Illinois
In the spring of 1977, I had decided to leave Texas—at least for a while. Behind the wheel of a blue Ford station wagon, I headed in a northeasterly direction. I spent a couple of days in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was a nice...
Fooled again
I was nine years old and excited if not perplexed when, on April 1, 1962, I opened the sports section of the Dallas Morning News. It contained an article with an accompanying photo which pleased me greatly. Of course, I knew that Roger Maris...
My 10-year running streak
When I was a sophomore at UT (1972), I occasionally ran a few laps around the track at Memorial Stadium and I did so again during a semester at Stephen F. Austin State University (1975). My first race took place four years later in Denton, and...
T. Wiley did a good job
I did not like Dr. T. Wiley Hodges. Nonetheless, after more than four decades of spinal health I am forced to admit he was highly adept as a surgeon. The circumstances under which I met him were as follows. In the summer of 1969, Don...
High Drama in the Hexter Spelling Bee
During my final two years at Hexter Elementary School, I was a member of the “accelerated class.” This is where teachers—using criteria of which I was not aware—determined who the smart kids were and put them...
In-Sung’s wedding day
“My duties as a father are just about done.” Those words were spoken by my boss, Kyu-Pal Choi, as we sat in his office on Friday afternoon, March 18, 2011. He said them because his daughter, In-Sung, would be tying the knot on...
Niagara Falls Trip, September 2001
Since I grew up in Texas, in the south-central part of the United States, I could only dream of visiting such distant and exotic places as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Easter Island in the South Pacific, Machu Picchu in Peru, the Taj Mahal in...
A Luddite or not, I read
A couple of years ago, one of my brothers admitted with only the slightest embarrassment that he had not read a book since graduating from high school. His diploma was bestowed in 1976. In spite of that fact, he has done well. He lives in a...
Man of hope, man of faith, Christian disciple
The following article appeared in the Austin American-Statesman on December 23, 2006 under the headline “Religious identity is no mystery.” The newspaper was then running a series in which readers were asked to contribute...
Babs’ mis-step
In February 2011, I was back in Texas for the second time since moving to Korea. At the baggage pickup area of the Austin airport, I saw an imposing statue of Barbara Jordan. When the facility opened in 1999, the passenger terminal was...
Brian Ullom, M.D.
I met Brian Ullom in 1982 under circumstances that seemed to bode poorly for both of us. I was a dishwasher at the Capital Oyster Bar, and he worked for a small company that did cleanup of several establishments in central Austin. Perhaps five...