JANUARY 2016
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JANUARY
Explore what's inside this issue!
10 From the Publisher
24 Then & now 28 LIFE
12 Calendar
The one diet everybody must try before you die
14 TROUBADOUR
Publisher Benjamin D. Schooley ben@hillcountryexplore.com
36 Spiritual I’m ANgry
Operations Manager Michelle Hans michelle@smvtexas.vom
40 COMMUNITY
Hollywood Comes to
After new orleans & the stars
20 History
Creative Director Benjamin N. Weber ben.weber@smvtexas.com Assistant Creative Director Kayla Davisson kayla@smvtexas.com
History of boerne Chapter 10
ADVERTISING SALES 210-507-5250 sales@hillcountryexplore.com
44 OUTDOORS 32 Charity
no longer walking the road alone
RAIN
46 OLD TIMER
Predictions for 2016
EXPLORE magazine is published by Schooley Media Ventures in Boerne, TX. EXPLORE Magazine and Schooley Media Ventures are not responsible for any inaccuracies, erroneous information, or typographical errors contained in this publication submitted by advertisers. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinions of EXPLORE and/or Schooley Media Ventures. Copyright 2015 Schooley Media Ventures, 930 E. Blanco, Ste. 200, Boerne, TX 78006
Contributing Writers
8
Marjorie Hagy History
Rene Villanueva Music
Kendall D. Aaron Spiritual
Old Timer Just Old Timer
Paul Wilson Life & Living
MARJORIE is a bibliophile, a history nut and an insomniac, among several other conditions, both diagnosed and otherwise. When she's not working tirelessly to avoid getting a real job, she nurses an obsession with her grandson and is involved in passing legislation restricting the wearing of socks with sandals. She is an aspiring pet hoarder who enjoys vicious games of Scrabble, reading Agatha Christie, and sitting around doing nothing while claiming to be thinking deeply. Marjorie has five grown children, a poodle to whom she is inordinately devoted in spite of his breath, and holds an Explore record for never having submitted an article on time. She's been writing for us for five years now.
Rene Villanueva is the lead singer/bass player for the band Hacienda. Having toured worldwide, hacienda has also been featured on several late night shows, including Late Show with David Letterman. Rene and his wife Rachel live in Boerne, TX and just welcomed thier first child.
I’m just a normal guy. I’m not a theology student, I don’t preach in church, and I’ve never written a book. I’m just a normal guy that thinks, and feels, and is on a never-ending journey attempting to be the best person I can be. I fail frequently at this quest, yet each day, the quest continues. I’ve lived in Boerne since the late ‘80s, I’ve got a most beautiful wife, three wonderful children, and just really, really love God. Thanks for going on my spiritual journey with me.
The Old Timer tells us he's been a resident of Boerne since about 1965. He enjoys telling people what he doesn't like. When not bust'n punks he can be found feeding the ducks just off Main St. or wandering aimlessly in the newly expanded HEB. Despite his rough and sometimes brash persona, Old Timer is really a wise and thoughtful individual. If you can sort through the BS.
An insatiable curiosity for life and an incurable fascination with human behavior has forged in Paul Wilson a keen interest in helping people think about wise living. As a Life Coach, Paul offers professional mentoring to clients seeking greater personal fulfillment in their life. He currently serves as the Lead Pastor of Cibolo Creek Community Church in Fair Oaks Ranch, a faith community he began in 1996 to serve people who didn’t really like church. As artistowner of The Paul Wilson Studio, he also creates bronze sculptures for private and corporate collections. Paul and his wife, Charlotte, who make their home in Fair Oaks Ranch, are the proud parents of two teenage sons. If you’re interested in receiving daily thought-provoking insights about life and living, follow Paul on Twitter at @paulwilsonTX or Facebook at facebook.com/ paulwilsonTX.
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
PUBLISHER
to find it interesting that I don’t care about houses or cars or gadgets. I really don’t. I’ve had money, and I’ve lost it all (twice). Know what? I don’t really care, and that’s a very good thing. Some people struggle to believe me when I tell them this, but it’s the truth – money means very little to me, and this comes from the fact that it didn’t matter to my parents, either. CARE FOR ANIMALS My folks and I were driving in the Corpus area when I was a kid, and my dad throws the brakes on as we zoomed down a lonely road. Perplexed, mom and I jumped out with him and proceeded to watch my old man free a goat that had stuck his head through a fence and gotten his horns tangled. It was a zillion degrees outside and the goat was exhausted. He wrestled him free, and we all returned to the car hot and sweaty. From then on, I took notice of the way my family treated horses, dogs, pigs, cats, and any other animal we owned. No matter what our latest “pet” was, it was part of the family and treated as such. This meant a lot to me and softened my heart to the world around me. YOU HAVE THE LATITUDE TO BE AN IDIOT I got on my bike as a 9 year old and zoomed down the hill toward the 4’x8’ piece of plywood I had propped up against my mom’s car. I had assured myself that I was simply going to jump up the ramp and completely over the car. Yes, brilliant. I hit the wood, which instantly split, and I plunged face first into the side of my mom’s Oldsmobile. As I laid on the ground, spitting blood, my dad’s face appeared over the top of me and he said, “What are you? An idiot?” He helped me up, told me to clean up the broken plywood, and didn’t say another word. Lesson: It’s ok to be stupid – but clean up your own mess. ENJOY THE OUTDOORS I spent a lot of my early years in Boerne on a 12 acre property off of School Street. My parents would load a backpack full of snacks, hand me a .22 rifle and I had strict instructions to not be home until sundown. Sitting at the base of a majestic oak as a 12 year old with a small .22 rifle, eating a PB&J your mom made was the equivalent to climbing Everest. Isolation in nature is very good for kids. RAISING KIDS IS HARD WORK I asked my dad once if he would do something with me on a Sunday afternoon. He was busy doing work around the house. “Nope – too busy” he said. I argued, “But it’s Sunday!” He looked up and said, “There will come a day when you go back to work on Monday just so you can get some rest.” I thought that was about the stupidest thing I ever heard. I have come to understand the truth in it, and I remember this sometimes when I’m beyond exhausted. We ALL get tired raising kids, and that’s just fine. In fact, if you don’t yearn for the solace AWAY from your kids, you’re probably doing something wrong.
DEAREST EXPLORE READER, As we turn the corner into 2016, I’ve been doing what many people do: turning around and reviewing the past. Isn’t that strange the way that we do that? Sure, we look forward to the New Year and set all these great goals (that we may or may not keep), but often, we kind of pause and review the past year(s) and take a little inventory. I’m a single dad of 3 young kids, which means that I stay up at night staring at the ceiling assuring myself that I’m failing at almost every part of parenting. Single parents don’t just do this – I know that all parents are guilty of this. Our pursuit to raise our children into wonderfully mature, successful adults means that each time they fail (or we fail), we are certain that we have just experienced a pivotal moment that will negatively impact the rest of their days. I suppose the fear never ceases, even when they are adults, as evidenced by my own parents who still fret and give me mountains of advice I didn’t seek.
LIMITS ARE ONES YOU CREATE my Mom has held some really fancy titles such as CEO and President of some very fancy, large corporations. I won’t list some of her successes as it would embarrass her, but the woman has crushed the corporate world. She has done this with no college degree. She has had a lot of people tell her that she can only advance so far without her degree, and yet, I have watched her smash through every ceiling she has encountered. It bugs her to this day that she doesn’t have it, but I pray that she’ll wear it like the badge of honor that it is. Don’t let anyone tell you what you’re capable of – decide that for yourself. MAKE KIDS DO THINGS WITH YOU my mother and my grandmother used to make me go clothes shopping with them. UGH. I swear, they had to touch every single piece of clothing in the store. It was excruciating. Awful. Terrible. My grandmother would hold the most ridiculous clothes up against me and then make me try them on. Sheesh, it was the most hated activity I knew. But you know what? I learned that I might as well endure it, behave, and do as asked so that it would be over quicker. Kids (my own included) should be taught this: they’ll be in meetings someday where they want to jab a pencil in their eye, but instead, smile politely and keep the boss happy.
As I was having a moment of reviewing the past, I got to thinking about things that I learned from my parents that they probably don’t even remember happening. Little moments that actually DID have a large impact on me and turn me into who I am today. Here goes a few examples:
I could go on and on. I suppose my point is that often times it’s not what we TELL our children, but what we SHOW them. I am just like all of you out there, and I can only pray that I’m doing ok in this regard, but I probably won’t know for some years. Kids nowadays have such a different childhood than I had because of technology, but I suppose mine was wildly different than my parent’s childhood as well. The important lessons we all learn as kids are perhaps timeless ones of kindness, gratitude and perseverance. Humility, respect, and dedication. Things that kids won’t learn on Facebook or Youtube videos, but instead, can only be replicated based on the actions they witness from……YOU.
“FINE, DON’T LISTEN TO ME.” My folks would give me advice on a lot of things, and like many kids, I ignored it all. I would attempt a task, chore, or project and they would tell me how to do it correctly. I would grumble and do it my way. They didn’t jump in to help, they just shrugged and moved on. While I ultimately accomplished what I wanted (whether it was done properly or not), I learned that no matter what it is, I can figure it out eventually, even if I ultimately had to call in help. Don’t be scared to fail, and don’t be afraid to tackle things you don’t understand.
As I close the door on 2015 and move forward into 2016, I suppose I’m just working to let go of my own expectations of “parenting” and what that is supposed to look like. I picture myself having heart-to-hearts with each of my children as we fish by the creek, but that rarely happens. Instead, in the chaos of life, real parenting happens. When I am laughing at my 9 year old son as he gets shot in the eye during a Nerf gun fight, I hope he recognizes the lesson of proper protection, the importance of his friends, and the necessity of a better hiding spot. Or better yet, that belly laughs and Nerf guns make the entire world go round.
STAND UP FOR YOUR FAMILY My dad and I were at a friend’s ranch once when I was probably in the 6th grade. They had a ranch hand that was pretty darn drunk and was hanging around while a few of us kids were playing basketball. The ranch hand started cussing a bunch, and my dad politely asked him to quiet down with kids around. Drunk Ranch Hand said something else profane, and my dad was in his face in a heartbeat. Drunk Ranch Hand’s eyes were huge, and my dad said something I couldn’t hear, but Drunk Ranch Hand sulked away quickly. Lesson: don’t mess with my kids. I’ll tear your face off.
Welcome to January. May you take a moment and review 2015, and that you find something worth smiling over. Even if your kids are grown and gone, I hope that some of my memories remind you that, odds are, you did a pretty good job with your kids…even if they don’t tell you as much. If you’ve still got kiddos at home, take heart fellow parents. Hug your kids, EXPLORE their hearts, and just keep them pointed in the right directions. Everything will turn out exactly as it’s supposed, with or without deep heart-to-heart talks by the creek. Smiling,
MONEY MEANS VERY LITTLE I grew up pretty middle class, but also experienced some times where we were pretty darn poor. We lived in crummy rent houses, drove old cars, and did not have the latest toys. I’m sure I whined about it as a kid, but facts were facts. As I’ve grown, I’ve come ben@hillcountryexplore.com
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
The Paniolo Ranch has something for every bride: One Hundred acres of scenic property featuring: B&B cottages Spa Services In House Reception and Rehearsal dinners Large weddings of up to 300 Outside ceremony site Indoor reception hall Small intimate garden weddings All inclusive packages and great photo opportunities Located near the historic towns of Sisterdale and Boerne and just a stones throw away from Austin and San Antonio; we are in the true heart of the Texas Hill Country.
1510 FM 473, Boerne, TX 78006 830.324.6666 | www.panioloranch.com
UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE RANCH VALENTINES DAY WEDDING EXTRAVAGANZA February 14, 2016 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Includes: Officiant, Champagne, Cake and lots of photo opportunities. Exchange vows at the scenic Paniolo Ranch in the beautiful Texas Hill Country on the most memorable day of love! $500 a couple. Bridal Bouquet and Groom’s Boutonnière available upon request. Plus! All newly weds get a 20% discount on all B&B rooms and Spa services. Rooms and Spa must be reserved in advance. Please call 830.324.6666 to reserve your ceremony time!
OPEN HOUSE February 20, 2016 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm The gates of Paniolo Ranch will be open for future brides to come in and explore our gorgeous facilities. Staff will be standing by to answer any questions and some of our preferred vendors will be available for inquiries.
JANUARY
Get out and enjoy the great Texas Hill Country! The most comprehensive events calendar. Send submissions to info@hillcountryexplore.com
BANDERA January 1 Cowgirl Round-up and ShowDeo See examples of showmanship, dressage and speed riding, and listen to storytellers and singers at this event celebrating cowgirl heritage. Hill Country State Natural Area, 10600 Bandera Creek Road. www.banderacowboycapital.com January 5 Cowboy Capital Opry Features Grand Old Opry-style entertainment hosted by Gerry and Harriet Payne. Silver Sage Community Center. www.silversagecorral.org January 9 Bandera 100K, 50K and 25K Hill Country State Natural Area, 10600 Bandera Creek Road. www.tejastrails.com/Bandera January 10 Frontier Times Museum Cowboy Camp Enjoy traditional cowboy music, or bring a guitar and join in the song circle. At 510 13th St. www.frontiertimesmuseum.org January 28-30 11th Street Cowboy Mardi Gras Enjoy live Cajun and country music, Cajun food, a gumbo cook-off, costume contest, canine costume contest, the Cowboy Mardi Gras Parade, floats, horses, cowboys, feathers, masks and beads. Main Street and the 11th Street Cowboy Bar, 307 11th Street. www.11thstreetcowboybar.com January 30 Wild Game Dinner Enjoy an expertly prepared, all-you-can-eat, wild game dinner with everything from white-tail deer to more exotic fare. Mansfield Park Show Barn.
BOERNE January 8 Kendall County Jr. Livestock Show Kendall County Fairgrounds, 1307 River Road. www.visitboerne.org
DRIPPING SPRINGS January 26-28 Hays County Livestock Show Dripping Springs Ranch Park. www. hayscountylivestockshow.com
FREDERICKSBURG January 1 First Friday Art Walk Tour fine art galleries offering special exhibits, demonstrations, refreshments and late hours. Various locations. www.ffawf.com January 15-17 Fredericksburg Trade Days Includes more than 350 vendors, a biergarten, live music and more. Across from Wildseed Farms. www.fbgtradedays.com
January 23 Luckenbach Blues Festival Features local, regional and Texas Blues artists. Luckenbach Dance Hall. www.luckenbachtexas.com January 30 Hill Country Indian Artifact Show Features a wide variety of some of the finest Native American artifacts from Texas and the nation, including arrowheads, pottery and beads. Pioneer Pavilion at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park. www.hillcountryartifacts.com
GRUENE January 1 Hair of the Dog Day Enjoy free live music all day at the oldest continuously open dance hall in Texas. Gruene Hall. www.gruenehall.com
JOHNSON CITY January 14-17 Blanco County Youth Stock Show Blanco Fair Grounds. www.blanco.agrilife.org
KERRVILLE December 3-January 3 Kerr Arts and Cultural Center Exhibits Includes the “TGIF: Friday Painters” exhibit, the Kerrville Art Club Juried Show and Sale, and the KACC Members Miniature Show. At 228 Earl Garrett St. www.kacckerrville.com January 1 First Friday Wine Share Meet new people and try new wines at this fun and friendly event. Bring one bottle of wine per two people and your own wine glass. Begins at 6 p.m. Depot Square. www.storkcountry.com January 9 Symphony of the Hills Concert Cailloux Theater. www.symphonyofthehills.org January 15-23 Hill Country District Junior Livestock Show Kerr County Hill Country Youth Event Center. www.kerrrvilletx.com
NEW BRAUNFELS January 1-May 1 “Lindheimer’s Texas” The “Father of Texas Botany,” Ferdinand Lindheimer of New Braunfels, collected close to 100,000 specimens of Texas plants and sent them out to fellow botanists to show off the unique plants and flowers of Texas. This exhibit has collected some of his original works for display. The Sophienburg Museum and Archives, 401 W. Coll St.
SAN MARCOS January 3-July 3 “Rodrigo Moya: Photography and Conscience / Fotografia y conciencia” This exhibit is the first retrospective in the United States of Moya’s work, including more than 90 images that document Mexico and Latin America from revolutionary movements to timeless moments of daily life. The Wittliff Collections. www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu January 10-May 13 “Animals Among Us: Photographs from the Permanent Collection” This photography exhibit features cats, dogs, horses, fish, fowl, insects and more in images by 39 artists. The Wittliff Collections. www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu January 17-July 3 “Places in the Heart: Texas Cinescapes” Screenplays, props, wardrobe pieces, behind-the-scenes photos and other items show how authentic visions of the Lone Star State have been created on screen. The Wittliff Collections. www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu
SAN SABA January 1-6 Mill Pond Park Christmas Lights Extravaganza Mill Pond Park. 325/372-5144
SPICEWOOD January 16 Malford Milligan in Concert Advance tickets recommended. Begins at 7 p.m. Spicewood Vineyard Event Center, 1419 C.R. 409. www.spicewoodarts.org
STONEWALL January 1 Black-Eyed Pea and Cornbread Cook-off Torre di Pietra Winery, 10915 U.S. 290 E. www.torredipietra.com
UVALDE January 8 Four Square Friday Enjoy late night shopping, food, live music and art at this monthly event named for the town’s original design with four town squares. Downtown. www.visituvalde.com
WIMBERLEY January 29-February 21 “Narnia: The Musical” EmilyAnn Theatre and Gardens, 1101 F.M. 2325. www.emilyann.org
January 8-10 Antique Show Hours are 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Sunday. New Braunfels Civic and Convention Center, 375 S. Castell Ave. www.heritageeventcompany.com
January 17 Spectrum Winds in Concert Fredericksburg United Methodist Church, 1800 N. Llano. www.fredericksburgmusicclub.com
12
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
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January 2016
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13
TROUBADOUR
after new orleans & the stars By Rene Villanueva
I was feeling buzzed after our set. Feeling good. Lost in the delicate web of New Orleans; that kind of floating, detaching me from everything. It was my first show in this new group, and I made it through the first performance sober, though I wasn’t completely loose yet. No disasters on my end. That was cause enough for a couple drinks to celebrate. So I packed my bass up, cleared out my part of the stage for Jesse, and went to our green room. Around the drums, past the house crew, the storage of mic stands and cables, through a narrow slit of doorway, and an empty refrigerator to the room. Not really a room…more of a long, narrow hallway with a makeup counter/mirror that had those giant yellow bulbs circling around it, and a cheap couch piled upon by backpacks, laptops and trash. In the corner, most importantly, was a little 24-pack ice chest. Only heavy craft beers, IPA’s and Mexican imports. You should know by now I’m an unapologetic light beer drinker. Without a Lone Star, my next fall back is whiskey, which was also missing from our room. It’s nice to be in charge of your own rider.
14
That’s alright... A cramped hallway right behind a loud rock band is not really a great place to chill. Even though I love Heartless, I also love my hearing. And after all the buildup, the thinking, the traveling, the practicing - now that the first show was done - I just wanted to breathe a bit. Celebrate it for myself. So I left down a long service hallway of broken tables and spare chairs towards the front bar. The club had a front bar that was something like a Victorian Hotel, decorated by Aerosmith with its velvety purple wallpaper, purposefully-musty antique mirrors, tasseled light fixtures, and dark oak everything. Only a few people were hanging around the front bar. Most were in the main room watching the show. I found a bar stool away from a small group and pretended to check my phone while I waited for a bartender to show up. From out the front window I saw a few of my band mates were having a smoke and chatting with people. I looked across the bar again... still no bartender but the couple at the end were looking at me and whispering.
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
I put my head back in my phone and gave it a second before I looked up again... They’re still looking at me. And they’re smiling. She’s short. Blonde. A young twenties. Dressed in tight jeans, boots and an oversize boyfriend hoodie. He looked older. Freshly shaven. Thinning hair with a slick leather jacket. Where is that bartender? Maybe this place was a bad idea.
“Didn’t you say you just met him? Matt?” That sounded weird to me... Or did it? Is it a normal thing to just meet someone and go out together? I can be really bad at reading people. My wife is so intuitive with emotions, but my instincts are usually all over the map. I usually come off as cold, or aloof, when I’m busy thinking of a new story or lyrics in my head. It’s not that I’m not interested, my head is just somewhere else. Something about Holly and her story was putting my instincts off.
I could go with the guys... Just need to order then go...
She was sweet. The whole time just talking about themselves and music. They were fans. And for Matt’s age and size he seemed pretty harmless. But the more I thought about it, the weirder it seemed. Why are they hanging out with each other? With me? Why are they here?
Then a beer slides up next to me.
Holly looked down at the bar, “He’s celebrating something I think.”
“On us?” she said taking a stool next to me, “We bought too many.”
“And you?”
The older guy she was with was picking up his stuff to move closer.
“I’m just going with the night. See where it goes. Not everyone has a plan Rene...” “Fair enough.”
“Can’t even get one drink,” I joked.
“What are you going to do? The mysterious musician…traveling.”
“What?”
“Getting ready for the next town I guess.” Out of the window I see my band walk back into the bar.
“Never mind,” I smiled and took the beer, “Thanks.” “We’re having such a fun time tonight,” She flipped her hair to the side with that smile again, as he brought over their drinks and stood behind her, “really liked the music. The way you guys played together.” “You guys were great,” he lifted his glass. We all drank. Matt and Holly gave me proper introductions and told me some story of how they met at another bar down the street. The first band was great and the second was slow, and the third was a bore so they went out looking for another place with a “really great funk band” (I think), and then ended up here watching our set. “How long have you been doing this?” Matt asked. He had a strong, unblinking stare punctuated by his thick eyebrows. “Touring?” “Yeah. With this band.” I thought for a second about how much I felt like telling my story, “Been touring for a while but honestly this is my first show with these guys.” “I can’t believe that,” Holly leaned in close to my arm, “We thought... no. You all seemed so intuitive.” I took the last drink and the empty can clinked on the bar. She reached over and shook my can, “Could you?” she asked Matt. “No you don’t have to,” I jumped in. Matt looked at me for a second, “Don’t worry,” he laughed and took all of our drinks, “I’ll be right back.” “The bar inside is better,” she laughed as Matt went off to the bar in the next room. “Is this one even open,” I joked, wondering how long I wanted to stay here with Matt and Holly... wondering where the bartender was. She was telling me about her favorite show she had seen. And how she was just in love with everything about it. How she loves to talk with musicians afterwards.
Holly dipped her shoulder into mine, “You’re on a bus then?” “Yeah. And I think I’ve got to…” “That’s so exciting. I can’t imagine what that must be like. Don’t pretend like it isn’t great.” “It’s pretty great. I wouldn’t complain.” Matt came back from the second bar with another beer for me, and two drinks and three shots saying, “We’ve got to!” And I’m smiling but all I’m thinking is: shots are gonna hurt me tomorrow... ugh... Just the one. He stands right in between where Holly and I are sitting. We all drink. It is strong, syrupy, and cheap. The kind that puts a chill down my back. Holly whispers something to Matt. He puts his hand on the back of my chair as he leans into hear. And Holly gives me a gentle kick with her foot. Then it swings away and comes back. That little hold. This is weird. “Guys it’s been really nice,” I pointed to the band that was heading back stage, “I’ve got to get back.” They looked at each other as I took the beer. Matt threw out a “Maybe we will see you later?” and handed me the napkin that was under the beer. And before that could go on any more, I went back down the hallway to catch up with the guys. They were already gone. It took me a second before I thought, what just happened? Everything about it... why did he hand me that napkin? And the look he had...and how she kicked me, that could’ve been an accident but it lingered. That’s when I saw what Matt had written on the bottom of the napkin. Before you leave (504) ***-**** - Matt and Holly That kinda stunned me. I opened the beer and threw away the napkin. Then took a second in that service hallway collecting myself.
“Oh Matt?” she started then turned to look for him, “He’s happy to do it. He’s been buying for me all night. And we really like you.”
I could hear the band playing, and the guys laughing in the green room ahead. I saw the lights from the front bar coming into the hallway behind me. I thought of the dark street we were on, and the city around us, and the miles of highway that connect here to the next city and all the way back home. And all the people that were around and all the different things they were doing.
“Me?... What?”
And the night that covered it all. And the stars.
“You guys are too nice,” I started.
“Your band... And you.”
January 2016
www.hillcountryexplore.com
15
Rehabilitate in Boerne, One Step Closer to Home
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in the heart of Boerne, with individualized therapy programs that enable one to return home quickly. By receiving rehabilitation services close to home, family and friends are able to visit often and with ease.
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16
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
• Ken Nietenhoefer •
Premier Custom Home Builder in the Texas Hill Country For over 40 years, KCN has been building beautiful custom homes of all sizes in Boerne, Comfort, Bandera, Castroville and throughout the Texas Hill Country. Our reputation for honesty and integrity, combined with our commitment to deliver excellent quality, expert craftsmanship, and customer service, has afforded us the opportunity to build many long lasting relationships with our clients. In fact, we have constructed two or more jobs for 31 different customers.
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January 2016
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
HISTORY
HISTORY OF BOERNE: PArt 10
By Marjorie Hagy
Wilkommen!
This is the TENTH chapter in the History of Boerne series! Last month we roared into the first two decades of the twentieth century on a wave of prosperity from Boerne’s booming tourist and health resort industry. Also fueling the boom was King Cotton, and for a while there it looked like the good times would last forever.
And all of a sudden, it was a ghost town. Almost ever since Dr Herff had discovered Boerne, which was as long ago as there had been such a settlement along the military road in the Cibolo valley, there had been lung patients here, breathing in the mountain ozone, living side by side with the settlers, and suddenly they were gone. Boerne had been raised on the revenues from tending the sick, its stores and houses and inns built on the alpine air so plentiful and abundant, and now they looked around and noticed they had all that air to themselves. That wave of prosperity had carried them into the twentieth century, had electrified the newly incorporated town, literally; had paid to rebuild the Main Street structures lost in the 1908 fire and for a surge of new building that followed, for the homes and the hotels and the boarding houses with their porches, from the limestone mansions to the two-room dwellings in the Flats as well as the livery stables and the notion stores and the cars beginning to appear on the roads. The health resort industry had been their mainstay along with farming and the sheep ranching, but now the rooms stood empty, the governor who stayed at the Kendall Inn every summer with his family didn’t come anymore and only a few stragglers appeared at Mary Schertz Becker’s place for the turkey dinner each Monday. Even those soldiers with their poor, ruined lungs, sick with mustard and nerve gas who’d been shipped to Boerne all during the Great War, those doughboys who flirted with the girls for a season before going back to their own different parts of the world, were all gone, and the little town seemed deathly quiet. Boerne, once the star of the Texas Alps, a ‘health and recreation resort ringed by wooded hillsides, [which] spread its winding streets past old stone houses’, turned back into another bump-in-the-road one-horse town. Where once ‘nearly every passenger train brought in several hollow-eyed, hectically coughing specters’, where the local boys would spark the visiting girls, taking them out walking down Main Street or riding in a horsedrawn buggy and later in their cars, where the local girls would dance the night away up on Kronkosky Hill with the convalescent soldiers- now there were quiet streets and nights where the song of the cicadas and the whippoorwill replaced the laughter of the visitors and the orchestra music drifting down from the Hill. It was over. By 1923, the huge St Mary’s Sanitarium up north on Main Street across from the Episcopal church was down from hundreds of patients to just sixty; a couple of years later there were none. For a while the rambling Victorian building with its porches and gingerbread trim was home to a few retired nuns of the Incarnate Word who had the whole, huge place to themselves, all those echoing halls and empty rooms, but then even they went somewhere else, and they grand old place stood abandoned and deteriorating. In 1930, Dr Herff’s own sanitarium and the Holy Angels Catholic school behind it were razed, and as Kurt Vonnegut called it, the forgettery set to work. Forty years later a picture of the old St Mary’s sanitarium appeared in the Boerne Star over a caption asking readers to write in if they knew what that building was and where it had been, and it wasn’t a trivia question either, it was a request for information. You know how it goes, your dad would tell you about how Boerne used to be world-famous and everyone used to come here, your mom’ll reminisce about the boarders that used to stay next door but you’ll only listen with half an ear because so many other things are important to you besides your parents droning on about the old days. And a generation or two later, it’s all disappeared into the mist, the memory of all those good times, the excitement of the arrival of each new train, the bustle along Main Street as the hansom cabs brought the baggage and the latest guests to the opulent hotels There would be so many hard times after those old, good times that by the 1970s it must’ve seemed that Boerne had always been the same, just a dusty old one-horse berg that nobody had ever heard of and where nothing ever happened. After all that time even the old timers who had lived through those days might’ve looked back on them as if the dances under the fairy lights and the long moonlit evenings on the hotel verandas had happened to someone else, somewhere far from here. Interviewed in 1980, Henry Fabra as an old man seemed a bit bemused as he finished up remembering the parties they used to have and how he used to chase the visiting girls: ‘After the First World War was over, I don’t know why, but they just quit coming here, for some reason.’ Thirty-some years past my own callow youth, I sometimes look back through the mist and see my own growing-up years like that: Did all that really happen, then? This little strip center, empty now, remember how we used to fill it up on a Saturday night? Peel the years away to when that flower shop was Hamby’s, to back when we used to eat at The
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Antlers, to nighttimes at the Lake, drinking beer- those things really happened, right? And you tell your kids about those random things but they too only listen with half an ear, and most of that stuff your folks remember out loud isn’t anything you’d think to pass on to your own kids, so- and so, so many things just vanish into the forgettery. Farming and ranching had been good during the boom years too, whatever combination of fair skies and rain, long sunny days and short summer nights had turned out just right to produce bumper crops of corn and oats and wheat, but Kendall County was riding high on cotton. ‘This used to be a cotton center here,’ another old timer, Max Theis, who grew up with Henry Fabra, recalled. ‘We had cotton gins all around Boerne. There was one where the Masonic Building is, and there were two on Theissen Street. Mr Kutzer, Mr Reinhard and Charlie Schwartz all had a cotton gin. There was one at Welfare, Waring, Bandera, all around Sisterdale. The land in back of us, all the way to Theissen Street, would be stacked three or four bales high. Buyers from Galveston would come up, grade it, and ship it to Galveston to the cut mills. From there it was shipped to different parts of the country.’ In Bergheim, too, Andreas Engel ginned as much as five hundred bales a year, and cotton money nearly doubled the size of the farms in Kendall County during those good years. But then, all of a sudden, that too was gone. In 1892 this beetle crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into Brownsville, and by 1909 it had gotten all the way to Alabama, traveling at the rate of forty to one hundred and sixty miles per year. By the mid-1920s, feeding on cotton buds and flowers, it had made its way into all of the cotton-growing regions in the United States. And in 1925, the dread boll weevil arrived in Boerne and devastated the cotton industry. Just wiped it out. All those farms, dependent on the cotton crop, all those gins in all those little towns across Kendall County, all the families involved in every step of the process, from getting the cotton seed into the ground to reaping the bolls to ginning and baling and getting it to market- the whole shebang, just like the tourist and resort industry, just dried up and blew away, gone, like they say, with the wind. Just gone. And a few years later the stock market crashed, and America entered the Great Depression. So. The upheaval was particularly dramatic in Boerne, where they had so recently enjoyed such prosperity, and then it’s easy to forget the good times when the hard times come. And they were long years of hardship in these parts, as in the rest of the world, but the difference is they were our hard times. They were personal to us because they were happening to us, it was our neighbors and friends and kin and us who were losing their jobs and their farms and their money and who didn’t have enough, sometimes, to eat. By the time the Dirty Thirties came around, the families that made up this town of Boerne, Texas, had been living in each other’s pockets for eighty-some years, going to school together in their log and limestone schoolhouses, growing up with the people they would marry, and the roots of the family trees were grown together in such a tangle that pretty much everyone was related to everyone else. And though they might not always like one another nor get along, they did take care of each other when the going got rough. In the midst of the Depression they set up a cannery over near the Courthouse, and the farmers brought what produce they couldn’t sell elsewhere, to be canned by others who couldn’t find work and to be distributed to still others who were having trouble keeping body and soul together. It was symbiosis, a close-knit and hard-hit community throwing in their work and their assets together for the greater good of the body. Stone soup- they each threw in what had to offer. Men went to work under one of FDR’s ‘Alphabet Agencies’, for the CCC, CWA, and WPA. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration provided employment for men desperate not only to take care of their families but to get back to work again for their own sanity and self-worth, while at the same time vastly improving the infrastructure throughout Texas and the rest of the country. The most important immediate benefit of the president’s ‘alphabet soup’ work programs was that the men got back to work, but Roosevelt’s New Deal legacy lives on, eighty years later, in post offices and government buildings, in murals, state parks, museums and in all kinds of unexpected places all over the United States. In Boerne and Kendall County
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the men working under these programs built the old Boerne Municipal swimming pool behind Main Plaza on the Cibolo Creek, and they raised the banks of the creek itself all through town to provide flood control. They cut cedar all over Kendall County and built dams, roads and bridges. Bastrop and Garner state parks are just two of the many in Texas that were created by the Depression-era works programs, and in San Antonio men working for the New Deal programs built Alamo Stadium, improvements to the Alamo itself, worked on the zoo and Brackenridge Park and the Witte Museum, and they built El Mercado and the Arneson River Theater, the Riverwalk and La Villita and the Missions and many, many more projects still in use today. Much of the work in Kendall County was not quite as visible and involved soil conservation and erosion-control projects including seeding, planting trees and flood and forest fire prevention because remember, the Dirty Thirties got their name from the Dust Bowl that was raging in the Great Plains states, and America was finally discovering that living on this land meant we have a responsibility to be good stewards. In those days of the Depression, many out-of-work men took to the road to find work wherever they could, and as the economic crisis worsened and jobs became more and more scarce, lots of people in small towns and large all over the country became very defensive about competition for what little work they had. Boerne, already a very clannish and intimate society of fiercely reticent individuals, turned in on itself even more closely, and they determinedly enforced a ‘no strangers’ policy toward any itinerate job seekers who might be wandering past the city limits. Especially those of color. Now let’s talk about something here, this is the deal: The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1866 by ex-Confederate soldiers and other Southerners opposed to Reconstruction after the Civil War. That’s what that was all about, officially, though Lord knows, mixed up in that were as many different motives and biases and feelings and hatreds as there were members in this bunch of people. Then eventually the Klan disbanded as Reconstruction ended, because the perceived ‘need’ for these people to dress up and do whatever they were doing was over. So there’s that. Cut to nearly fifty years later, and this character who called himself ‘Colonel’ William Joseph Simmons goes to see this brand-new motion picture called Birth of A Nation by a guy named D. W. Griffith. Now this Simmons, he made his living by selling memberships in fraternal organizations like the Woodmen of the World, and suddenly while he’s watching this movie, a light bulb goes off over his head. See, Birth of a Nation was adapted from this book called The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan, and just by its name you can tell, it was just- I’m not a film critic, see, I’m a lot like Holden Caufield in A Catcher in the Rye who hates the flicks, but I mean, this movie was just awful, and featured black characters played as wildly sexualized apes by white men in black-face makeup. I am perfectly aware that 1915, when this thing came out, was a hundred years ago now and sensibilities and all that were very different, but this movie was horribly offensive even for its own times, was protested by thousands of African-Americans, and the NAACP led an unsuccessful campaign to have it banned. In a nutshell, black people were the bad guys and a menace to all decentthinking white people, while the KKK were these dashing, chivalrous, romantic heroes. And this ‘Colonel’ guy thinks, Oh wow, I bet I could get this thing going again and sell some memberships and… Voila, next thing you know he’s burning a cross on top of Stone Mountain, Georgia and the Klan is reborn. Only this time, no matter what it was intended to be in its original incarnation, now it’s definitely an all-out violent and hateful terrorist organization, as mean and as poisonous as a snake. And this time they’ve discovered all kinds of new people to hate, including Catholics, Jews and foreigners. And here’s the really terrible part: Their message struck a cord. (I’ve got to tell you, at the risk of alienating any of my readers which I certainly hope not to do, but writing about this I feel like I’m skating uncomfortably close to things that are happening again in the world today, right now, and I simply wish to urge each of you to please, reject hate and fear and scape-goating, and embrace the light. Don’t let history repeat itself- choose love, as in ‘love one another as I have loved you’, and ‘perfect love casts out fear.’ That’s all I ask you guys to do- just, whenever there’s a choice to make, choose the compassionate option. Choose kindness, choose love.)
January 2016
So anyway, membership in this new Klan just skyrocketed in the 1920s and by the middle of the decade there were something like between three and eight million members. And membership was not limited to the poor and uneducated on society’s fringes, either. Regular middle-class Americans put on the white sheets and hoods, doctors, lawyers, ministers, judges, cops, insurance adjusters- all joined the KKK, and though this was a supposedly ‘secret society’, lots and lots of people were right out in the open with it, and proud. And what is all this in aid of as far as this article is concerned, you may ask? Simply this: the Klan was alive and well in Boerne in its resurgence in the 1920s, and furthermore, there were several active Kendall County members as late as 1997 when the Klan held a rally at the Kendall County courthouse, which I attended in protest. In my column here with the Explore, I don’t exactly run a scandalizing expose kind of thing, but I do like to dabble in the truth, and the truth is that candy-coating a thing doesn’t make it so. We haven’t always been a town full of rosy-cheeked Germans oozing with goodwill toward man, and some of us aren’t even now. Instead of Dickens-on-Maining it back in the twenties some of us were busy hammering up a great big sign on the outskirts of town warning ‘N______ DON’T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOU IN THIS TOWN!’ No, it wasn’t preachers as the popular and quaintly colorful fable would have it, prohibiting clerics in this fiercely Free-Thinking town (which it wasn’t), it was a much darker and ominous, evil thing, and I hope to God no dark-skinned person ever risked seeing what the penalty was for disobeying. In 1910 Kendall County had a black population of 253 souls, but by the end of the 1920s almost none of them remained in Boerne, and by 1980 only twenty-four people of color lived here. Again- Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In fact, the entire population of Boerne fell off dramatically in those desperately lean years, from around 2,000 in 1928 to 1,117 in 1931- that’s a loss of nearly nine hundred people in only three years, or nearly half of its population. There was just so little for them here anymore, and things must be better somewhere else, anywhere else. All over the country little towns like Boerne were going under, emptying out as their industry died and their founding families all left on a search for survival. The Depression created ghost towns all over the United States as the small-town population moved to the city to look for work. Families in Kendall County who had long been independent on their own land were losing their farms and turning increasingly to tenant farming, a back-breaking and heartbreaking, hard-scrabble way of life where you might end up at the end of one harvest season even deeper in debt than you were before you brought in your crop, a system under which many sharecroppers essentially became enslaved by debt to their landlords. Those people who stayed in Boerne were hanging on like grim death. Businesses closed their doors all over town and some never opened up again as the people who owned them disappeared into the maws of the Depression. Of all the glorious inns and hotels and resorts that had flourished in this one-time capital of the Texas Alps in its heyday, only two or three survived the Dirty Thirties. Boarding houses were closed and extra wings that had been hastily added onto homes to support the crush of visitors were torn down, their lumber and even their nails recycled in other projects. People hauled away the rocks and bricks and wood from the bulldozed St. Mary’s sanitarium to use in their own building projects in lieu of new materials. Familiar faces thinned down, the bones standing out in hunger and in grim determination. Many of the adults during those lean years had grown up during the boom time, those happy years of prosperity and parties up on the Hill, and this struggle just to stay alive was a new thing to them. Their immigrant parents and grandparents had been the ones to endure the hardships, the struggle for survival in a new and unknown country, the grueling labor of raising a home out of the wilderness, and now these first and second generation Texans reached deep down to discover their own wells of courage that surely flowed into their veins from those of their forebears.
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BOERNE
THEN
NOW
1954. It was owned s a fixture in Boerne in Bigs General Store wa to Johnny's Feed me ho Gerfers. Today it is ce Ali by ted era op d an e Pet Grooming. st Pet Shop and Boern and Supply, the Red Cre
Boerne Camper’s Association event at the Cibolo Creek dam in 1890.
today. The , pictured in 1918 and The Robert E. Lee house n Antonio and Sa he traveled between house hosted Lee when Fort Mason.
St. Peter's Church was built in 1923. It was org inally built to house 200. By 1980 the congregation had gro wn to over 700 and plans for expansio n began. Discussions ensued over whether to raze the str ucture or save a portio n of it.
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LIFE
The one diet everybody should try Before they die
By Paul Wilson
“I really need to go on a diet.”
A DIET IS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT FOOD
Rare is the person over forty who hasn’t said those words at one time or another.
Most people think of food and exercise when they hear the word “diet.” I’d like to suggest there is another way to think of the word; something much bigger than mere calories.
Curiously, somewhere in our fourth decade all of our pants start fitting like skinny jeans. We have to pause at the top of the stairs to catch our breath. We break out in a sweat just trying to put on our socks. The person looking back at us in the bathroom mirror really should put on some clothes. Nobody needs to see that. Let’s face it, the older we get the more difficult it becomes to keep fit. Regardless of how easy it was for you when we were younger, it all seems to change with each passing year. Our metabolism slows to a crawl, our lungs shrink to the size of blueberries, our joints ache at just the thought of exercise, and eventually, we all suffer from a bad case of “furniture disease” – you know, when your chest falls into your drawers. Unfortunately, after forty, most Americans just give up trying to stay fit. They choose to live their adult life carrying around “a few extra” pounds. For many, those “few extra pounds” are just denial for being way overweight. Obesity is a real issue in America. The medical community agrees; excess fat in the human body is killing us. It used to be the older people got, the wiser they become. Nowadays, it seems the older we become, the wider we get.
How about a diet for your entire life? What I call a “Life Diet.” A Life Diet is a plan for the overall health and fitness of each of the key areas of your life. Areas like relationships, finances, vocation, and your personal or inner-world. Why not a diet for those vital areas of your life that has a greater impact on your health than the food you eat? It has always intrigued me that so many people talk about WHAT to eat when it comes to a diet. Rarely does anybody consider WHY we eat in the first place. You have to figure out WHY you eat before WHAT you eat is going to have any net effect on your health. The WHY drives the WHAT. Until you understand the motivations behind why you eat, you’ll never have control over what you eat for longer than a few weeks, at most. This is why many people fail at staying on a diet for very long. They keep coming up short on the willpower to stick with their diet. Determination and discipline are a mental/ emotional issue, not a nutritional one. Food can fuel your body, but it can’t fix your life.
Lest you think this article is about losing weight, I am going to make a sudden left hand turn on you. Consider this my blinker.
FAT COMES IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES As a Life Coach, I’ve concluded fat isn’t always about excess body weight. Sometimes, it’s about our money. At other times, it’s about our relationships. And still, at other times, it can be more about what is happening between our ears than what’s going on behind our navel. What if we used the word “fat” for anything that is harmful to our health? “Fat” can be found in all kinds of places in our life. All of us carry around a bit more of it than we really should. Debt is fat. Worry is fat. An addiction is fat. Hating your job is fat. A disappointing marriage is fat. Lacking passion or enthusiasm is fat. Feeling like you’re at a standstill in your life is fat. Having no available energy to get out for a little exercise is fat. Always wishing you could do what you always wanted to do is fat too. The net effect of our health (and our happiness) is usually influenced by factors beyond how much we weigh when we stand on the bathroom scale. Ever had a “heavy heart”? Ever felt like you were “carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders” or “weighed down” by the nagging tension of an unresolved issue in your life? More times than not, feeling overwhelmed is just as harmful to our health as being overweight.
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Are you ready to learn something? WHY you eat is rarely about food. It is almost always about feelings. Frustrations with your finances, your job, your relationships, your health, or your self often drive why you eat what you do. Emotion, not nutrition, is the driving force behind most eating habits. For many people, mental and emotional catalysts such as worry, fear, anger, sadness, and disappointment fuel the urge to eat. Unfortunately, this is what often underlies our attraction to “comfort food”? It’s all about resorting to food that makes you feel good regardless of whether it is, in fact, good for you. The pleasure of food and drink masks the discomfort of the stress we’re feeling in the same way a belly full of milk lulls a baby to sleep between it’s next ear-splitting cry for more. Most people fail to see the relationship between what they eat and how they feel. Stress in their life is created by what is going on in their finances, relationships, or vocation. They are unable to pay bills, their marriage is full of angry tension, or things at work are not going well. So they eat. You’re worried. So you eat. You’re upset. So you eat. You’re bored. So you eat. You’re sad. So you eat. You’re ashamed. So you eat. Everything going on in our life at any given moment is related. We are remarkably organic organisms where the whole of our world is intricately woven together in our experience. We go off to work and we are there. We come home to our marriage and there we are. We crash on the couch to watch television and, behold, there we are again. We are the common denominator to everything happening in our life at any given time. While we possess an amazing ability to compartmentalize the activities of our life, we must understand that our mind is occupied with other things at the same time. You can be laser-focused on what is in front of you, meanwhile, on another level of your sub-conscience, your mind is working overtime on the other things going on in your life at that exact moment. The frustrating realities of your marriage don’t go away just because you’re at work. While you may be able to muster the mental fortitude to focus on your job for several hours,
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your mind is still gnawing on the latest argument you had with your spouse on the way out the door to the office that morning. You come home after a long day at work, and walk right back into the center of the drama awaiting you at home. Immediately your mind switches to thinking through solutions to the problems you’re facing on that project at the office. It never stops. It’s all going on at the same time at any given moment. Work. Finances. Relationships. You. Work. Finances. Relationships. You. Work. Finances. Relationships. You. Your mind is always in motion. Your mind never stops working on the stuff of life. Even while you sleep, your mind works on the unresolved and upsetting issues of life. That is why you wake up in the morning feeling as tired as when you went to bed. Your mind is unable to switch itself off while there is still work being done on what’s bothering you. You’re worried about work because you know you don’t have the financial reserves to weather being out of a job. The truth is, even after all these years, you’re still living month to month when it comes to paychecks and bills. If you lose your job, your financial picture will look like a line of dominoes collapsing into each other. You’ll be in a world of hurt in no time; scrambling to keep everybody paid while trying to stay one step ahead of the collection agencies. You’re under a lot of stress at work to finish an important project in time and under budget. Your boss is demanding assurances of a timely completion. Your contractors are not meeting important deadlines. Your engineer just informed you of a costly change order that threatens to delay the entire project. You’re frustrated and angry with all of them for the enormous stress they are creating in your life. You’re not sleeping well, it seems like you’re working non-stop, and you’re drinking a bit more than usual to take the edge off of the stress you’re shouldering right now. Unfortunately, it’s your family who is on the receiving end of your frayed emotions. You would never talk that way to anybody at the office. Your impatience, terse words, and angry outburst are meant for your boss, but directed at your spouse. It looks like you’re upset with your children – they have no idea why – but, in fact, the folks at work have pushed you over the edge…all because of that project that needs to be completed on time…if you hope to keep your job…so you can stay in the house you bought…that’s more than you can really afford…leaving you living paycheck to paycheck. You get the idea. These important arenas of our life are all inter-connected; related by virtue of the fact that you are at the center of them all. I am not talking about packing on a few extra pounds around the waistline at this point. I am talking about a life in disarray, complicating your health on a much larger scale than the one in the bathroom. “You really need to go on a diet.”
our discussion, let’s simply create two categories: Good Food and Bad Food. For instance: For someone trying to lost weight, broccoli is a good food. Candy is a bad food. For someone trying to nurture a healthy marriage, thoughtfulness is a good food. Impatience is a bad food. For someone who wants fulfillment, loving what you do for a living is a good food. Hating work each day is a bad food. Financially speaking, an emergency account is a good food. A maxed our credit card is a bad food. Personally speaking, being at peace is a good food. Remaining crippled by insecurities is a bad food. It has been my observation that most adults have absolutely no strategy for how they live their life. They live their entire life in reaction mode, taking it as it comes rather than making it what they’d like it to be. Oh, they may have a few goals assigned to them at work, but most people over forty would have a difficult time telling you what they’re trying to accomplish with their life beyond going to work, raising kids, and enjoying weekends. They have a hobby or two to escape the stress now and then. They take a vacation once or twice a year to stave off boredom in some desperate attempt to revive an exhausted spirit. Why not create a life you don’t have to take a vacation from?
GOOD FOOD. BAD FOOD. A diet is just a strategy; a plan or approach to reaching an objective.
This is where The Life Diet can help. If you want to live your life with greater passion and purpose, this is the one diet you should try before you die. It is less about losing weight and more about living wisely the one and only life you will ever get.
Take that same concept and apply it to every other arena of your life. What about a strategy for achieving greater financial fitness? What about a plan for a healthier circle of relationships? What are you doing to enjoy a more fulfilling experience at work? What’s your approach to managing the questions swirling around inside your head and the emotions wreaking havoc in your heart?
The start of a new year is a great time to make big changes or even a few minor adjustments. Why not make this the year you do something about living the life you’ve always wanted.
They are all part of the diet you are currently on; the sum total of habits you have created for dealing with (or avoiding) what is going on in your life.
www.paulwilsontx.com/life-coach/
If I can help, I’d be happy to get you started on your Life Diet today.
In the same way there are good foods and bad foods for helping you lose weight, there are good habits and bad habits that determine what your life looks like. For the sake of
January 2016
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AT 46 CROSSING, IN BERGHEIM, BEHIND VALERO
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ENGAGED As a local business woman and public servant, Christina is a highly qualified candidate for county commissioner. Christina’s public service includes serving as District 5 Councilmember for the City of Boerne; a position she has held since 2012. Prior to her council service, she served as a commissioner on the Historic Landmark Commission. Additionally, Christina has served on the Boerne Volunteer Fire Department for 24 years; making history as the first female firefighter for the department.
EXPERIENCED Christina holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, majoring in management, from Southwest Texas State University. In her work life, she managers the family business, Bergmann Lumber, both and iconic and historic downtown Boerne business serving the Kendall County community since 1957. As a life-long Boerne resident and business woman, she is cognizant of our county’s history but also invested in its future. Maintaining a good quality of life, ensuring public safety, and improving roadways are among her main concerns. Contact Christina Bergmann at her web site, www.votebergmann.com or find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BergmannforCommissioner. You can also stop by to talk with her at Bergmann Lumber on Main Street or call (830) 249-2712.
Pd Pol Adv Robert Cisneros, Treasurer 236 South Main, Boerne, TX
January 2016
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CHARITY
No longer walking the road alone By Paul Wilson
Three out of 10 girls will become pregnant before the age of 20. These pregnancies often leave the moms feeling afraid, ashamed, and like outcasts in their communities. This hopelessness leads to some pretty disheartening statistics: 67% of teen moms that live on their own live below the poverty line. Only 28% of them will graduate high school. They are seven times more likely to commit suicide. The vision of Young Life is that every adolescent will have the opportunity to meet Jesus Christ and follow Him. Determined to fulfill this vision, Young Lives was developed to specifically reach teen moms. Teen moms are falling through the cracks, and Young Lives wants to change those statistics through life-on-life ministry. Several years ago, two local women recognized the need and brought Young Lives to Boerne. They literally got in their cars and went searching for local teen moms. Courtney Garrison, Young Lives National Development Coordinator, shares that they found these girls at local high schools and met them right where they were, on their turf. They shared hope, love, and encouragement in a way that many of the girls had never experienced. They built relationships which cultivated trust, and from there Boerne Young Lives was able to prosper. The Boerne Coordinator, Megan Luevano, shared that there are currently 24 local girls that Young Lives is either currently mentoring or developing a relationship with. Each of these young ladies receives one-on-one mentoring with someone who has been trained purposefully to empower them. The girls come together every other week at Club to eat a family style meal, play games, share life, and hear the gospel. They have an opportunity to meet girls that are walking a similar road as themselves; a chance to eliminate hopelessness in the very isolated world of teen pregnancy.
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Just imagine at the young age of 14 years old, feeling so alone, so insecure, and so helpless....pregnant, scared, and lost. Then one day someone who believes in you shows up at your school to bring you lunch, and tells you that you are not worthless. You have worth…and so does your baby. You CAN graduate high school, you CAN be a good parent to this child, and you CAN beat the statistics. This person is going to keep on loving you and equip you while you make some hard decisions, and begin to find yourself again. If you aren’t envisioning the true picture of hope, then something is wrong with you. While working on this article, I read several testimonies written by young ladies who had been pulled out of their darkest places into the light of community and hope, through the loving care of their Young Lives mentor. Abigail, who had her wakeup call when she awoke in a hospital bed with her Young Lives mentor, Megan, present and praying for her. She saw the true love of Christ and this gave her the confidence to take her first plane ride to Young Lives Camp, where she officially turned her life over to Christ. Mary, who had her daughter at age 16, was also awakened at Young Lives Camp when the speaker explained what freedom in Christ truly was: a local teen mom, who was given love and support as she chose adoption for her child. Story after story of lives transformed after God’s plan and purpose for His life was shared by a woman willing to give up just a little bit of her time each week as a Young Lives mentor. Young Lives is thriving because they are bold and determined in reaching every single teen mom. Hopelessness will be overcome on their watch. Future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn. Psalm 22:30-31
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Welcome to Boerne
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Bluebonnet Realty Thanks to the Boerne area for giving Bluebonnet Realty the opportunity to serve this community for over 25 years. Here’s wishing you all a safe, joyous, and, prosperous 2016!!! Happy New Year!
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FOR LEASE - $2500 - 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths in The Trails of Herff Ranch, approx. 2892 s.f. of liv area
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January 2016
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SPIRITUAL
I’m ANGRY By Kendall D. Aaron
I’m flat on my face spiritually, and I suppose I have been for a while. I still talk with my Christian friends, and over a lunch will explain that I’m doing ok and am “just fighting the good fight.” I still go to church, and even pray…but if I were real honest, I would have to admit that I am standing as if in a tub of concrete. It’s a miserable feeling. I’ve confessed this to a few of my closest friends and they clap me on the back and give me the standard “Christian-speak” stuff like “If you feel distant from God, guess who moved?” and frankly, I want to stab them when they say that. I know that it comes from good intentions, but sometimes Christians don’t need encouragement as much as they need true, tangible help and fellowship. I’ve come to learn that this is one of those times. It’s certainly not their responsibility necessarily to drag me out of my funk, but feeling distant from God is a terrifying feeling and oftentimes requires more than a quick bible verse. I need a magic wand waved over my head that magically makes me feel the presence of God and softens my heart and pulls me up out of the mud to dry ground. Got one of those? The Bible is chock full of characters that experienced a distance from God. For a whole variety of reasons, many of the Godliest people that had ever lived were faced with periods of depression and isolation. They moaned and writhed at the distance that they felt from God and wrote entire passages about their prayers. Psalm 6:2–3 says, “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is greatly troubled, but you, O Lord, how long?” Or Psalm 90:13–14, “Return, O Lord. How long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.” The Bible is full of verses like these, so my situation is certainly not unique and is one that has been experienced since the dawn of time. So why is it such a pitiful feeling to feel like God and I just aren’t on the same page? The very definition of hell is the complete separation from God. There is fire and brimstone,
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but perhaps the worst of HELL is the lack of God’s presence. I think about this sometimes, and have to remind myself: If I’m on earth (and not in hell), then God must be with me. Even when I don’t feel Him. I read somewhere that there is no “Bad” emotion to bring to God. Sadness, frustration, guilt…and even anger. He can’t work on your heart if you won’t expose it to Him. So if you’re mad at God, I’m learning that maybe the only thing that you can do is pick up rocks and throw them at the sky and to be angry at Him. Once it’s been exposed (confessed), God can begin to work through the issues with you. If you’re anything like me, confessing that you might be angry at God feels almost blasphemous. However, as we’ve read above, countless people throughout the history of mankind have expressed frustration and anger toward God – and ultimately, God healed these people of that anger and saved them. Step 1 was always confessing it, however. Outside of confession, I think that sometimes it must be properly framed. I’ve gotten so mad at an errant golf shot that I threw the club across the fairway. Did the golf club cause the bad shot, or was it my lack of practice? We both know the answer. Are you angry because of a lost loved one, a lost job, financial troubles, marital troubles…the list could go on and on. As much as it pains my human heart to admit, but each one of the above is an opportunity to grow in Christ. Is it easy? Absolutely not. But figuring out a way to TRUST God and know that His plan is far superior to yours is truly the only direction one can go with it. Otherwise, you are fighting against the will of God and will ultimately be dismayed again and again as He will not bend to your will. Finding the strength to simply TRUST Him will not only calm your heart, alleviate your anger, but invariably you will raise your eyes and realize that you are not distant from God…but He is right beside you…just as He has always promised. Let me know when you make progress – as for me, I have a long way to go. But every time the sun rises, I have a new opportunity to improve.
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
108 Hagen Drive • Boerne $379,000 | MLS #1146993 Charming 4 bedroom, 4 bath home in woods of frederick creek. beautiful kitchen, screened porch, and upstairs game room
community
O H LLYWOOD COMES TO BOERNE By Sue Talford
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
Lights, camera, action! An overture plays and the movie begins to roll! The entire movie mood is set by the sounds of the orchestra…whether it’s the Overture to Superman, The Sting, or James Bond - 007! The classics of Hollywood’s biggest hits are a collection of musical scores that create tension, provide happiness, or identify a super hero just by sound…the sounds that you will experience at “A Night at the Oscars!” “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore!” Instead, we’re at Boerne Champion Auditorium where the Hollywood Concert Orchestra takes the stage to perform “A Night at the Oscars” on Saturday, February 6. This red-carpet event will host an evening of musical highlights plus the Fifth Anniversary Celebration of Boerne Performing Arts, whose mission is to bring the world of professional performing arts to our community. Star of stage, screen and television…and Boerne Performing Arts Board Member…Cheryl Ladd will emcee the 7:30pm evening performance which will feature selections from E.T., The Wizard of Oz, Schindler’s List, Titanic and numerous other award winning musical scores. Cheryl is looking forward to the event she describes as “a fun, fun evening!” Cheryl continues, “While this is not the actual Emmys or the Golden Globes (both of which she has co-emceed in the past), we are planning a red carpet entrance for Boerne Performing Arts’ major patrons who truly are the “stars” of our organization. We hope this evening will be very Hollywood-ish and very glamorous, and we are working with Boerne Community Theatre to have impersonators of Hollywood stars that will be mingling with the audience throughout the evening.”
January 2016
The Hollywood Concert Orchestra is an ensemble of America’s finest musicians, both vocalists and instrumentalists, and has become one of the premier pops ensembles in the world. With its unique presentation of the latest TV, movie and Broadway themes written and arranged especially for the orchestra, the Hollywood Concert Orchestra is known as “the Orchestra of the Stars” featuring the best and brightest guest artists and soloists in lively and entertaining performances. That is what The Hollywood Concert Orchestra specializes in…the music that “made” the movies! The iconic music performed by The Hollywood Concert Orchestra will include works by John Williams (winner of five Academy Award, 17 Grammys, three Golden Globes, and two Emmys), Lerner and Lowe, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Marvin Hamlisch. The musical film adaptations of such Broadway hits as My Fair Lady, Sound of Music, West Side Story and Phantom of the Opera will also make for a special evening at our local Boerne Oscars! Concertgoers are encouraged to “dress the part” wearing Black Tie and Formal Dress and enjoy this one special night of “Hollywood in Boerne.” “Go ahead…make my day”, and enjoy this evening of Hollywood festivities. As Forest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re gonna get!” Your musical experience at “A Night at the Oscars” will be one that you will never forget. So, “May the Force be with You” as you purchase your tickets ($30-$60 $20 for students) for this event online at BoernePerformingArts.com, or as they say in Hollywood, “E.T. phone home” at 830.331.9079 for personal assistance with ticketing.
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
OUTDOORS
By Steve Ramirez
The rain falls softly outside my window. It meanders along the side of my house, past the desert willow tree, down the road and into the farmer’s field where the donkey calls out each morning when he is lonely. It has been so dry for so long that its deep soaking wetness seems like a gasping breath to a suffocating land. It is not new water that falls; it is the same ancient water that has fallen upon this land before humanity walked the earth. It is the same water that formed the lakes, rivers, seas…and me. The rain runs like hope into the limestone and deep underneath it… living both seen and unseen, like an extension of God. Rain teaches us lessons. It speaks to us about persistence, renewal, and second chances. When the seed holds tightly among the barren rock waiting for something; it is the rain that rewards its solitary vigil. Rain is cleansing. It washes away the dust and debris that clings to sticks, and stones, and spirits. It is so foolish to run from the rain. I have stood out in the rain with it running down my face and I have looked up into its origins feeling free. I have stood in a Texas Hill Country river with the rain falling gently down, dappling the river, going home…everything hushed, watching, and waiting. And, when the rain did pass the birds began to sing, the mayflies floated in the evening breeze, fish rising to the spent lovers as they drifted with the raindrops. Life travels in circles. Rain can be seen in its reflection. Wildflowers bloom and canyons are formed by its arrival and its departure. Oceans are transformed as the sky returns what it borrowed, a blanket of wet shimmering phosphorescence with the impact of a million returning children. And then, when each raindrop has come home there is only silence. As the earth shifts its axis the rain transforms to crystals, each one- a new one and they drift among the mountain tops and picket fences and collectively crunch beneath your feet. Rain brings as many memories and smiles and sunshine ever could.
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Sometimes it is the sound of rain that is magical. I remember how it once sounded when a more youthful me was living in the tropics. It fell at night upon the corrugated tin roof and splattered along the narrow leaves of palm trees outside my window. It fell in daylight coming in great grey sheets across the sea, arriving as if turning wake vision into dreams, and just as it came it passed leaving a soft, dripping, peace behind its path. I remember how it came when once I lived in the eternal city. It fell upon the cobblestones as once did the feet of centurions. When it did there was a feeling of the city being washed clean of all the doings of mankind, and when it passed there was the drip-drip-dripping upon the pavement, and the sound of wet tires across the stones, and the deathly quiet beyond the wetness. Sometimes rain sounds magical. This summer was the hottest summer I can ever remember in the Texas Hill County. As hot as it was for me and for mine I felt most for the wildlife that suffered beneath its baked, dry, oppressive, weight. The crystal clear rivers turned to stone and the fish floated sullenly in the few small holes in the stone that still held water. I can only imagine how we humans would feel if we watched as the pocket of air we breathe each day grew ever narrower. The flowers died and the trees seemed suspended in time, unable to grow, unwilling to let go. And then, the rain fell, and life found its way. Perhaps the old adage needs to be reconsidered; should it not be, “saving for a sunny day?” Perspective holds the key to the values we place on conditions. The rain has ceased outside my window, and with it my words seems sink into the ground, suddenly inaccessible. It is like an old friend has left me. I cannot hear the donkey braying in the farmer’s field, but I know he is there. I wonder, is he lonely, too. If only I had a carrot and some rubber boots.
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
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OLD TIMER
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
JANUARY
JULY
Local cat-people erect 12 foot tall cat statue in the woods behind Wal-Mart to memorialize the cat colony recently relocated from there.
July 4 inferno as fireworks burn down the Fairgrounds.
Wal-Mart is fire-bombed. Local 72 year old woman arrested.
Bronze statue of cat becomes so hot from the heat that it burns 3 of the cypress trees. Statue pushed into the river and never seen again.
Construction on the final portion of the Herff Ranch extension is suspended after another cat colony is found living in the woods. Pickets and torches abound.
Heat wave pushes temps over 100 the entire month.
AUGUST Flooding throughout town – Dodging Duck is underwater.
FEBRUARY Snow at St. Valentine’s Day Massacre – 11 die.
Jerry Jones signs Manziel as starting QB. Romo retires to Corpus Christi.
Gas hits new low of .99/gallon. Hummer dealership breaks ground by Nissan. Alligator finally shot and killed at Boerne Lake. Statue erected by the Lake. Lottery winner at Mr. D’s gas station for 14 million. Donates $3million to the Library Foundation. Petition with 327,000 signatures must be honored for new high school naming rights - logo competition held for the new Boerne Fighting Ninnies.
MARCH New Bohanans restaurant opens at Ye Kendall Inn. Line around the building. Closes at 8pm. Cat statue dragged by drunk teenagers and left in the River Road Park. Duck and Cat remain there as City deems it “art”. During renovations on Ye Kendall Inn, embezzled money from ’83 Berges Fest discovered.
APRIL Long-rumored Chick-Fil-A location breaks ground. New location: old Shamrock gas station at Main/Bandera. Oil discovered at North end of Main. Mayor Schultz takes credit. BISD announces plans for 3rd high school – holds contest for mascot naming rights.
SEPTEMBER Disney announces plans to construct new amusement park between Boerne and Comfort. Mexico Disney to begin construction in 2018. Comfort Freethinkers move to Junction. Boerne Chargers off to 5-0 start in football.
OCTOBER Herff Extension complete. Applebees, TGI Fridays and Red Lobster announce new locations on Main Street. Tapatio Springs golf course awarded new PGA tour stop. 17 inches of snow on Halloween
MAY
NOVEMBER
Fire at Fair Oaks Golf Course. Once it’s put out, Ryland Homes announces new subdivision
Ted Cruz elected President of the United States
Property values double in Boerne City Limits Donald Trump leaves Presidential Race after accusing Jesus of being a terrorist. Also revealed his birth certificate was forged and came to the country illegally. Real name is Barry Soetoro.
Rioting in San Antonio on Black Friday produces fires that can be seen from Boerne
DECEMBER
JUNE
Esperanza development selling at amazing pace – City projects to run out of water by Easter.
Alligator spotted in Boerne Lake – again. NCAA announces new 8 team playoff format for football Bear Moon Bakery becomes headquarters for local Hillary Clinton Campaign organization. Berges Fest tragedy as one float’s drunken participant falls off and is crushed by tractor. City outlaws beer at future parades and considers officially banning fun as well.
January 2016
Dickens on Main opens November 26 – massive hail storm during event – dozens hospitalized.
Red light cameras installed throughout town. Revenue generated used to put in random brick crosswalks. Millions left over. Old Timer shuts down his article – cites “I’m sick of this shit” as his reasoning.
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