Texas Rangers bought their own badges

 

 Texas Ranger talk

“Riding Lucifer’s Line: Ranger Deaths along the Texas-Mexico Border,” is Bob Alexander’s telling of  the rough and rowdy history of a set of Texas icons. He opens with the Frontier Battalion era of 1874-1901 and notes that many a Ranger over the ages was appointed for a time of crisis, and then returned to the fields. If he wanted a badge, it was ordered from a jewelry catalogue or hammered from a coin.

A new Ranger reported for duty with a personally-owned six-shooter, “Army size,” and a horse, which meant a gelding, not a temperamental, sexually cycling mare or an easily aroused and sometimes hard to manage hormonally stirred-up stallion,” the author writes in this University of North Texas releae.

The photo gallery includes a  1917 letter from Great Southern Life Insurance Company, asking detail of an applicant’s duties. It reads “If this man is subject to call for service on the Border for instance, we would not be able to offer him insurance.

CHSEL art up at TAM

Arnulfo Hernandez started the kids off with animals and still life acrylic paintings, then they went on to boats, until he got tired of them. Then his young Christian Home School Enrichment Labs students, aged 8-18, wanted to move on to angels. A sampling of all these topics is up at Texas Artists Museum in May. CHSEL meets in the First Baptist Church of Groves Family Life Center during the school year on Fridays.

Attic on the Avenue

Mae Terro of United Board of Missions knows I’m a big fan of the resale shops. She made sure I knew about the new Attic on the Avenue on Port Neches Avenue and I couldn’t wait to find myself in that neighborhood. I just did, but not between the hours of 11 and 4:30 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.

Seven Sisters Resale is next door, and was also closed when I cruised by. I will look forward to crossing both their doors.

Put a shade on it

I hope you hear it here first: lampshades for your wineglasses are “in.” Di Potter’s collection of translucent shades come flat in an envelope. You fold and tuck them into a shade, get you’re your wine glass and pop in a battery-operated candle and slip your shade on. Classy, fun and a safer than real flames. You now have lighting for your patio, dining room and any where else you party. I’ve impressed guests with blue designs that show off a gentle glow. Smart stuff.

ddoiron@panews.com