(Nope, this photo ain’t from Texas, but bear with me a bit…) Yesterday I checked “drive through Atlanta on I-85 during rush hour” off my bucket list. Granted, it was down toward the bottom of the list, right around “get stung by a dozen marauding cow killers”, “burn a scented candle that smells like a …
Margie and I extend our deepest condolences to Jane Martens and the family of the Rev. Dr. Ray Martens+, who passed away on Saturday, October 5. Much of what I know about the history of the Missouri Synod in Lee County (and Texas) comes from the writings of his grandfather, the Rev. Gotthilf Birkmann, who …
Here’s the newest little Lone Star Back Roads roadtripper. His name is James Mighell Crowell Clifton (after Margie’s maternal grandfather, her father, and my maternal grandfather respectively) and he’s a whopping 10 pounds 13 ounces (no doubt due to the fantastic Texas BBQ his mother has been eating). We’re all doing well, and he’s ready …
There’s been no small amount of discussion of baptismal sponsors in our home over the last few days, partly because, God willing, our soon-to-be-born child will be baptized at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Thorndale in early October, but also because of my post from a few days back about Pr. Kilian baptizing the firstborn …
My wife, Margie, taught at St. Paul Lutheran School in Austin for sixteen years until the school closed at the end of the 2016-17 academic year. For several years (and up until the school closed), the chairman of the school board was Charles Whitsel, who was from Dime Box. Charles and his wife Irene (who …
How Folks From Dime Box and Thorndale Changed My Life Read More »
I will return to our regularly scheduled programming soon – things are a bit hectic around here; Margie’s father is visiting us and has had to be hospitalized unexpectedly. Over the weekend, we were talking with the folks we were staying with, and the wife told us a story about her encounter with her neighbor’s …
My children’s great-grandfather, Leonard Groeschel, was the first person I knew who was from Serbin. It was always interesting to hear him tell stories of his childhood about going to the store in town (I tried to imagine what it might have looked like), etc. Because of my conversations with him, I learned about “Texas …