Rushing's Ramblings

Dating in my late 60s is fraught with missteps, misconnections, and misery. My partner died almost three years ago, and I only started dating in the past five months. What in the world was I thinking? The romantic notion of having someone with whom to share my life, attend events, and travel together led me on a journey to find a partner. When one has experienced great love and death comes knocking, it's next to impossible to replace that feeling. Oh, it's not possible to replace anyone with someone new. If the expectation is to find compatibility and anything else is the icing on the cake, it's not asking much. Or is it? One of the first men I dated was the quintessential lady's man. We met at a party, and sparks flew between us. It was the first time I had even thought about dating in a long time. He was quite a few years older than I was, but when he walked into a room, his aura filled every inch of airspace, and the years seemed to melt away. We engaged in c

Stephen Harrigan has written a new book entitled Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas. Excerpts of Harrigan's book are in the September edition of Texas Monthly. Harrigan's approach to Texas's history is udifferent from what I've read in the past. The thoroughness of his research from a fresh perspective will likely captivate any reader brave enough to read all 900+ pages. As I read one of the sections, I almost fell out of my chair from astonishment upon learning something new about one of my ancestors. My great,great grandfather, Colonel William Young, moved from Tennessee to Red River County as a young man in 1837. In 1844, Sam Houston appointed Young as the district attorney.  Young also led expeditions against the Indians and served as a Colonel in the Mexican War. Beginning in 1851, he practiced law in Grayson County. The Texas Legislature honored his service by naming a new county after him in 1856. Jefferson Davis appointed him Commander of a unit cha

When you're a 17-year-old kid growing up in the 1950s in a town located in Indiana with a population of less than 50,000, you never expect to meet anyone famous.  Mike Maine had a dream fulfilled.  Indiana has always been well-known for basketball, but it is also a state that has generated famous musicians from Butler University.  Mike attended the only high school in Anderson, where he was one of over 600 students in his class.  The school had a large music department, which consisted of marching, stage, and concert bands, and a choir. The department also had its own composer/arranger.  The music director decided to form a jazz quartet, and Maine became one of the members of the quartet called The Jaguars. Their idols, The Four Freshman, were a world-renowned group at the time. The school's composer would listen to The Four Freshmen records and create arrangements for The Jaguars. The group kept busy performing at clubs and events around town.    The Four Freshmen wer