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GINGER IS A TRUE DYNAMITE DAME

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The rodeo announcer’s voice sounds over the arena sound system: “We welcome the reigning North American Trick Riding Champions. They are the Dynamite Dames.” The music swells and the 3 women individually go through about 5 minutes of death-defying acrobatic stunts while their horse is going full speed over the red dirt. “Because our horses run so fast it keeps the audience engaged,” says Ginger Duke of Austin, who organized the group and both rides and teaches the sport. “The spectators are saying, ‘Omigosh she’s upside and dragging the ground. Is she supposed to do that?’ We try to keep the audience guessing as to what’s coming next.” The group has been together since 2015. Ginger was with another group when she first started out. “I was about 20 years old. It was actually a drill team that also did trick riding. A girl had quit to go to college and I got to fill in her place. I grew up doing gymnastics and cheerleading so riding a horse was just the icing on the cake and now look at me. I’m 39 years old and I’m still trick riding.”

Disaster Declaration Follows Nicholas

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Seventeen Southeast Texas counties have been declared disaster areas after Hurricane Nicholas came ashore, dumping more than a foot of rain and cutting off power to a half-million customers in Texas, according to poweroutage.us. That number had been reduced to about 4,200 as of Sunday.

Counties included in Gov. Greg Abbott’s declaration are Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Matagorda, Montgomery, Newton, Nueces, Orange, Refugio, San Patricio, and Victoria.

Thinking Out Loud: The Risks and the Rewards of the Great Comeback

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It’s a big weekend in Seminole, with the “Great Comeback” all-school reunion that has, every third year, become a fixture on the local landscape. While we’re often too busy for such things -- we’re focused on marriage, family, and career during our early years -- it is an event that takes on new meaning, if not some urgency, for many of us as we grow older.

Or maybe it’s just something we have on our bucket list.

Thinking Out Loud: Shorts

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Biden Restricts Aerial Coverage of Border Crisis

FUGLER’S IS A TEXAS LANDMARK

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Fugler’s (sounds like buglers) in Marshall is many things to many people. “It’s a grocery store, meat market, washateria and café,” says Bubba Fugler. “My friends down the road call it the Fugler Mall. My family has a little shop next door where we process deer and wild hogs and everything like that.”

Thinking Out Loud: A deadly breach of trust, pt. 2

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Take an average, ordinary guy, put a graying G.I. haircut and a square jaw on him, and throw in some heavy eyebrows and bags under his eyes -- evidence of a lot of sleepless nights while he strategizes how to inspire his men to win those dadgum foreign wars. Now slap a green Army dress uniform on him and fill his chest with medals and his shoulders with four stars, and you’ve got a bona fide leader, a military man, straight out of central casting.

Thinking Out Loud: Shorts

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The obvious “what if” question is “what if California Gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder had been a Democrat, instead of a black Republican, and his gorilla mask-wearing attacker had been a right-winger?” And why didn’t the media give it the round-the-clock coverage that it would have if he had a (D) after his name?

It’s a no-brainer, of course. I’ll just let Larry answer that one.

MUSIC AND PIE IN OLD GLORY

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The Double Mountain Chronicle in Rotan had such a good article about the Old Glory Musicals I just had to go experience one. I’m glad I went. I was impressed with the caliber of musicians and the taste of the pie (coconut and chocolate). Like so many small town musicals, it is a display of Americana. At Old Glory, the musicals take place the last Saturday of each month and draw a respectable crowd from a wide area. The old school is gone, but the lunchroom/auditorium remains. “It’s called a cafetorium,” says Mittie Dunham, who organizes the rotation of musicians.

Musings by Marilou: “No papers or fancy names required”

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Before anyone screams, “Oh, no! She’s writing about those three dogs again,” let me explain something. It’s come to my attention that I do not have three canines; Oliver has made it quite clear that he is not a member of that group. He’s not one of those “dogs.”

State Capitol Highlights

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Gov. Greg Abbott has called a third special legislative session to deal with redistricting, to decide how to spend billions of dollars in pandemic funding from the federal government and to determine to whether state or local governments can mandate COVID-19 vaccines, as well as some pet issues of the governor that failed to pass recent sessions.