The Texas Tennis Coaches Association announced Friday night, December 11th at its annual banquet that the winner of the 2015 Region IV Regional Coach of the Year for Jr High was Mason's own Tammi Pinter. This is a great honor as it encompasses approximately 1300 1A through 6A Jr High Schools.
Tammi was presented the award by former Texas A&M coach and TTCA Hall of Fame President, Bobby Kleinecke.
The new year always holds a promise of new rewards and new challenges. For the staff at The Mason County News, for the first time in memory, it also means that we will spend our weekdays without the company of Tom Kent.
In early December, Tom made the decision to fully retire, after 28 years of working at the News.
Prior to serving as our delivery coordinator, and being in charge of managing our in-house print services, Tom and his wife Frances owned their own business in Rising Star.
Christmas is here! Or, at least it will be by the time you read this.
One year ago, my family was rearranging its celebration of Christmas to accommodate the recent arrival of my new great-nephew, Jameson Stockbridge. This year, the only shuffling of schedules is due to dealing with the many variations of schedules of "the kids"
The Mason City Commission only had three action items on Monday night's agenda; but, the first one dominated most of the meeting - consideration of the Interlocal Agreement for Law Enforcement with Mason County.
Sheriff Buster Nixon was in attendance at the meeting, along with Chief Deputy Dean Stringer, to answer any questions the group might have about the details of the agreement.
Most of the questions passed between the Commission and the Sheriff had to do with measuring and evaluating perf ...
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
All around the town.
Lights and decorations adorn the Courthouse and square.
Get all your gifts right here.
From north to south.
And east to west.
Mason Re-Sale Barn.
Mason Thrift Store.
Cherokee Rose Antiques & Books.
Schooley's Saddlery.
Beaty's Embroidery & Signs.
Mason Monograms.
Country Collectibles.
On the square, there's Chica Chula Boutique.
The Thing Is Boutique.
Market Square.
Reigning Cats & Dogs.
Red Door Antiques.
Hinckley's ...
It has been awhile since I actually wrote the column. Two weeks ago, I wrote two weeks of columns and packed up and drove to Michigan. We loaded a U-Haul trailer with our daughter Tina's stuff, and drove back to Texas. We welcome our daughter Tina and grandchildren Amber and John back to the community and our home.
We now have just a week until time runs out before Christmas, so I hope that you have managed to get yourself and your household ready for the holidays. There are lights glowing every night all around town and the downtown area is always remarkably beautiful and serene with the outline lights and the store windows lit at night.
Since we are in the Thanksgiving and Christmas Season, I am going to try to describe what Christmas was like and how we celebrated the Christmas Season here in the Hill Country during the later days of 1929 thru 1940, during the Great Depression. At the time, I thought that our families were sort of at the low end of the totem pole as for as wealth was concerned but as I got older, I discovered that about 95% of the area population suffered the same hard times.
Thanksgiving and Christmas was al ...
I know this time of year some of you all are like our family we have an abundance of deer meat. This recipe youalso substitute ground beef or turkey.
1 pound ground venison
1 can Rotel undrained
½ finely chopped bell pepper
1 jalapeño finely chopped
½ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup long grain converted rice
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
8 slices American cheese
Brown ground beef; drain and transfer to slow cooker.
Column #656 for Release Saturday, December 12, 2015, or Later
Craig Murphy chased dreams for a quarter-century--partly behind the wheel of "big rigs," but mostly in the 1991 Chevrolet pick-up he bought new and still drives despite an odometer north of 263,000 miles.
Some were short-lived pursuits, including automotive school and master mechanic certification, training to drive 18-wheelers across the country and a police academy program for a short stint in law enforcement.
