My journey in early Texas art began during the summer of 1986 while I was a graduate student studying art history at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas. I had volunteered in the registrar’s department at the old Meadows Museum, and I was charged with locating and cataloguing SMU’s University Art Collection, which by default fell under the jurisdiction of the Meadows and was scattered all over campus in offices, closets, and less-than-ideal situations.
Whether you’re an experienced outdoorsman or a parent taking your kids camping for the first time, there’s nothing like a relaxing trip to a state park—the ideal campsite, the hike to a dramatic overlook, the stories told around a crackling fire, the trip into town for barbecue and shopping. From the Piney Woods to the Caprock Canyons to the Davis Mountains, our parks are filled with iconic places that remind us of Texas’s rugged beauty.
One morning this past September, Mrs. Mary Scott walked out of her tiny brick house, one hand clutching a plastic tub of birdseed, the other holding on to the front door in case she lost her balance. Taking her time, she stepped off the front stoop and onto a pebbled sidewalk that her husband, Walter, dead now for a decade, had laid down one weekend in the mid-sixties. From out of nowhere, half a dozen doves arrived, soon followed by half a dozen more. “Look at the one that’s all white,” Mrs. Scott said.
I have asked dozens of astronauts what it feels like to blast off, and words always fail them. A roller coaster is the standard analogy, with adjectives piled on to suggest that it’s something more thrilling and terrible, something inexpressible. Often their eyes clamp shut at the memory and sometimes they shiver. No one has ever answered with a smile.
On April 12, NASA commemorated the fifteenth anniversary of the inaugural flight of the space shuttle with a party at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Agency administrators made speeches. Russian dignitaries schmoozed with engineers.
Houston Ship Channel, Houston | March 1966
51 | Donald Chambers founds the Bandidos
Houston Ship Channel, Houston | March 1966
52 | Sam Houston defeats Santa Anna
Along Independence Parkway, La Porte | April 21, 1836
53 | The Houston Stone Walls beat the Galveston Robert E. Lees—in baseball
Along Independence Parkway, La Porte | April 21, 1867
54 | Gilley’s opens
4500 Spencer Highway, Pasadena | 1971
Q: How many Gulf oysters does it take for a person to see results from the aphrodisiac qualities that they are said to possess? My wife and I were recently visiting Galveston and shared three dozen to no avail.
Name Withheld
John O’Quinn wanted to be the best lawyer who ever lived. And for a while, it looked as if that was going to happen. He certainly was one of the most successful—and one of the richest. But the power he wielded and the money he spent didn’t lead to happiness. That changed when the Houston trial lawyer began seeing Darla Lexington, who friends say transformed his life for the better.
