EXPLORE October 2015

OCTOBER 2015

Welcome to Boerne

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Bluebonnet Realty HOMES FOR SALE

D L SO FOR SALE - $398000 - Rock home with standing seam metal roof and approximately 3000+ s.f. of living area 3 bedroom, 2.5 baths, on 3.65 acres in Ranger Creek

FOR SALE - $179,900 - Comfort Historical home built c. 1900 on 6+ acres with several barns and outbuildings. To Be Sold As Is Where Is!

FOR SALE - $421,000 - FAIR OAKS RANCH - 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath approx 2612 s.f. in beautiful Cibolo Trails of Fair Oaks Ranch.

PROPERTIES FOR LEASE

FOR LEASE - $3200- NEW CONSTRUCTION - 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with game/media room in Champion Heights

FOR LEASE - $3000 - 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath plus large game/family room in Trails of Herff Ranch.

FOR LEASE - $2900 - FAIR OAKS - 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath approximately 3326 s.f. of living area and large yard

FOR LEASE - $2550 - 5 bedroom! 2 master areas, 3 bath in Woods of Frederick Creek. New tile flooring, open plan, approx. 2600 s.f. of living area.

FOR LEASE - $1300 - 4 bedroom, 3 bath home on 0.46 ac fenced with carport, in Walnut Hills Estates off Sisterdale road. Approx. 1821 s.f. of living area.

MORE HOMES AVAILABLE. CALL FOR LISTINGS.

830-816-2288 • www.boernetexashomes.com

styling for the discerning gentleman™

COMPROMISE ELSEWHERE.

$10 OFF YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE 930 E. BLANCO, BOERNE TX

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830.443.4500

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w w w. c o m p l e t e g e n t . c o m

OCTOBER

Explore what's inside this issue!

10 From the Publisher 12 Calendar

34 HAPPY BIRTHDAY EXPLORE EXPLORE MAGAZINE TURNS 8

Meet the team behind this Boerne fixture.

14 MUSIC

46 Spiritual

Publisher Benjamin D. Schooley ben@hillcountryexplore.com

50 OLD TIMER

Operations Manager Michelle Hans michelle@smvtexas.vom

Justice

OLD TIMER Talks traffic.

TROUBADOUR

Creative Director Benjamin N. Weber ben.weber@smvtexas.com

18 The art of PERSPECTIVE

Shawn Lovorn talks about the day he almost died.

Assistant Creative Director Kayla Davisson kayla@smvtexas.com ADVERTISING SALES 210-507-5250 sales@hillcountryexplore.com

38 LIFE

life in 3D

28 History boerne in the beginning

How our fair city came to be.

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

42 COMMUNITY

Cibolo creek Brewing

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 DEAREST EXPLORE READER, It takes a very long time to become young - Picasso I can see the youth in your eyes. When you smile and talk with your friends, I can see the inner flame of youth as it radiates from your eyes, and it warms my heart. These were my thoughts at a recent social function I attended, and I’ve spent way longer than I’ll admit unpacking these thoughts.

I was surrounded by older folks, and as they sipped their wine, they laughed and hugged and spoke excitedly to one another. Their facial expressions were exaggerated, and their teeth were perfectly denture-white. I watched all of this unfold from the corner of the room, and my eyes danced from face to face and back again. As one woman hugged another upon entering the room, they looked exactly like two schoolgirls greeting each other in the school hallway between classes. Except they were probably both in their 70s. Men shook hands and clapped one another on the back, and the exchange might as well have been happening over a keg of beer at a college party.

I had asked my grandfather once, “How does it feel to be 85?” He looked at me funny for a moment and said “I open my eyes and I feel exactly the same as I did when I was 18. But then I start moving and reality hits home and I simply hope I can keep all my parts together until I can get dressed.” It’s been 5 years since that conversation, but I still think about it frequently.

I’ll be turning 40 in December. Not exactly an Old Timer, but I’m also not getting any younger. Maybe I’m not the only one that does this, but I think that as we age, we tend to stare a little longer in the mirror on some mornings and take note of the inevitable toll our age is taking on us. My receding hairline. The lines around my eyes. The grey hairs. Ugh. You look into your own eyes and see the life staring back at you and you dive into those eyes to find the youth lurking within. At least I do.

I’m still 26 in my mind. I wouldn’t EVER want to be 18 again, but 26 was a pretty good time of life for me. That was now 14 years ago, and yet, it was yesterday. I mean, I’m turning 40 in 2 months! Yikes.

Again, as I stood in the corner of that room and watched these older people interact with each other, I could see the 26 year old in each of them. I could imagine the wrinkles erased, the beer bellies flattened, and the muscles firmed. I have to imagine that this is also how they view themselves, only to look in the mirror every morning and inventory the latest “old-age” development. That’s something I’ve been learning about “aging”: It’s relentless, but your youth never leaves you.

I’m here to say that I don’t know that we really have left it behind, despite what your sagging skin might tell you. I can only speak for myself (as I don’t live in your head), but I have to believe that, much like me, you are the same person INSIDE that you were when you were younger. Yes, you have changed and grown, but it’s the same voice inside, is it not? It’s the same voice you’ve heard your entire life, and the same voice you’ll hear till the day you die. It’s YOU, in all of YOUR glory.

What’s the old saying – Youth is wasted on the young. This is a truth in that the younger people tend to believe that they’ll always feel the same way, look the same way, and be able to do the same things that they can do today. The rest of us know the truth.

I’m turning 40, so I’m going to join the “Over the Hill” gang and I’m sure I’ll be razzed by all my friends. The thing that I think I’m learning, and when I attend a social function with older people I’m reminded about: Friends, all of us still hear the same voice inside.

It’s our voices that follow us, and the voice is our YOUTH. It never leaves us…but rather, we tell ourselves to leave it behind. But why?

Embrace your youth. It doesn’t matter if you’re 22 or 102…it’s there inside of you. Be who you ARE, be excited about your future, and do the things that make your heart soar. We’re all going to die, but only the ones that remember that they have YOUTH will be able to know that they didn’t die of old age – they died because their YOUTH simply outlasted their bodies.

Welcome to October. EXPLORE is also growing older, as this is the 8th Anniversary issue. I hope you get a chuckle out of the 3-D effect, and share with your friends.

After all, we’re all just a bunch of kids that want to smile as we flip through a 3-D magazine, right?

Smiling,

Benjamin D. Schooley

ben@hillcountryexplore.com

I still do stupid stuff. I ride motorcycles, and was on an innertube behind a boat just a few weeks ago. I jump on the trampoline with the kids, and had an epic sunburn last weekend after a trip to the water park where I rode every slide at least 1000 times. I’m a kid, man. Just a big, goofy kid caught in the body of a 40 year old businessman.

Sure, I get hurt now when, in years past, I would have bounced back instantly. I have sore muscles that I didn’t even know I had, and overall, it just takes me longer to get over my exertions. But I’m still doing them, because I suppose, the day I stop is the day I’m officially old.

And NOBODY wants to be old. We all want the wisdom that comes from experience, and we want the wealth that a career creates, and the houses that the career can purchase, but no, none of us wants to get old. Maybe that’s a little bit of what I saw in my older friends at this recent social function: I saw very youthful, vibrant people excited about their futures, their friends, and their lives. They just so happened to be trapped in bodies that were breaking down. However, the youth within each of them was blazing bright. I just had to look past their appearances to see it. Once I did, I could see it all over the room.

We are all dying from the moment we are born. The continued, relentless advancement of our ages, and the almost imperceptible changes to our bodies that come with the increasing age count. As soon as we are at a point in our lives that we begin to realize our dreams (middle age), it seems that we begin to turn around and yearn for that which we have invariably left behind: our youth. We get the things that we thought we wanted, but then wonder if we have sacrificed something along the way. Did we give up our freedom for the big job? Did we lose our identity to have a family? Did we leave our joy behind when sprinting after our lust?

10

EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.

OCTOBER

Get out and enjoy the great Texas Hill Country!

The most comprehensive events calendar. Send submissions to info@hillcountryexplore.com BANDERA October 11 Frontier Times Museum Cowboy Camp Enjoy traditional cowboy music, or bring your own guitar

KERRVILLE

and join in the song circle.

October 2 First Friday Wine Share

October 17

FREDERICKSBURG

Ranch Heritage Day Dress in your best Western duds to enjoy ranch skills, music, stories, antique tractors, chuck-wagon cooking, branding irons, an antique fence weaving machine, spinning wool, horse training clinic, horse shoeing demo, trick roping, working dogs with sheep and goats, covered wagon rides and a giant rocking horse Little Wrangler Rodeo.

October 1-31 Texas Wine Month Trail Take a self-guided tour of the Texas Hill Country wineries and receive special tastings and discounts. Tickets are limited and available online only.

October 2 First Friday Art Walk Fredericksburg Tour fine art galleries offering special exhibits, demonstrations, refreshments and extended viewing

BOERNE

hours the first Friday of every month.

October 24 First-ever Halloween extravaganza! The whole family can enjoy mule rides, balloon sculpting, face painting, arts and crafts, a bounce house, trunk or treat, and a costume contest. Bike riders can also participate in a Boo-cycle contest. Just decorate your bicycles, ride in a small parade, and maybe even win a prize!

October 2-4 Oktoberfest

Texas Hill Country Invitational Art Show & Sale Boerne Professional Artists (BPA) will host their premier Art Show & Sale in the Cana Ballroom of St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church. More than 50 participating artists with featured artists conducting “how-to” lectures and demonstrations. www.boerneprofessionalartists.com for more information.

heritage with three days of music, food, drink, dancing, arts and crafts, children’s entertainment and more.

Pacific Combat Living History Program See a living-history demonstration of WWII weaponry, military complete with tank and flame thrower.

October 16-18 Fredericksburg Trade Days antiques, or enjoy the Biergarten and live music.

Pints For Polio $20 per ticket. Proceeds are matched 2-for-1 by the Bill Gates Foundation to fight polio. RANDOM Beer Garden, 11 Upper Cibolo Creek Rd.

one bottle of wine per 2 people and your own wine glass.

Begins at 6 p.m.

October 3 Wild Game Dinner Includes exotic game, catfish and chicken, plus a raffle.

October 23-25 Kerr County Fair Includes a livestock show, exhibits, chili and barbecue cook-offs, margarita taste-off, bull riding, mutton busting, stick-horse races, carnival and midway, dance, parade, vendors, a petting zoo and other children’s activities.

MARBLE FALLS October 16-17 Sculpture on Main See the new sculptures unveiled at this festival for display around Main Street.

clothing, training and tactics of U.S. and Japanese

Shop more than 350 vendors in seven barns with acres of

October 24

friendly event at a different location each month. Bring

Celebrate the fun and flavor of Fredericksburg’s German

October 10-11

October 16-18

Meet new people and try new wines at this fun and

October 24

MEDINA October 3-5, 17-19, 24-26 Great Hill Country Pumpkin Patch This fall festival offers hayrides, a hay bale maze, petting zoo, pumpkin painting, apple orchard tour, storytelling, sing-alongs, pony rides, a barrel train and other children’s activities. Open Saturday-Monday during October.

Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest This grand celebration of Texas food and wine includes musical entertainment and special events.

WIMBERLEY October 3 Wimberley Lions Market Day

COMFORT

GRUENE

October 17-18 Comfort Village Antiques Show This 29th annual show features Americana antiques, including farm tables, cupboards, quilts, rugs, baskets, pewter and a few surprises.

October 8-11 Gruene Music and Wine Fest Features the best in live Texas music, food, wine and beer at historic Gruene Hall and The Grapevine, with more than 100 wines from 30 Texas wineries to try. Includes a seated dinner with win pairings, the Great Guitar Auction, the Texas Tastings & Tunes event Saturday, and beer

DRIPPING SPRINGS

Stroll along a shaded path to more than 475 booths filled with a wide variety of arts, crafts, antiques, gift items, clothing and more.

October 23-25 Wimberley Alive! Music and Arts Festival Enjoy live music on five stages, working artists, food trucks and a children’s area.

tastings Sunday.

October 1-4 Dripping Springs Fair and Rodeo Features rodeo events, a carnival, live music and dance Friday and Saturday, food, drinks and other entertainment.

October 17-18 Old Gruene Market Days Nearly 100 vendors offer uniquely crafted items and packaged Texas foods.

October 16-18 Dripping Springs Songwriters Festival See, hear and get to know some very talented performers who have a deep love of the art of songwriting.

HONDO October1-November 15 South Texas Maize See if you can find your way in and out of the 7-acre puzzle carved into stalks or corn.

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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.

TROUBADOUR

14

EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.

THOUGHTS FROM 39,000 Last month I got emotionally heavy. Getting those feelings off my mind is good though. I need that every now and again. Like a sad song, these thoughts can build inside of me and need to be processed out even when I’m in a good mood.

And life has been good for me. Though for you guys it might look slow, I don’t know if I’ve ever been this productive before.

Right now I’m on a flight back home from LA. Cramped up in the middle seat between a sleeping wife…she’s is the best part of this…and a large guy who never learned how to share or not invade personal space. Best not to look towards the aisle... Then there’s the window. The sky. The miles of desert between Texas and California.

After exploring the city (traveling without working is one of my bigger life goals), meeting new people (amazingly talented people my brothers and I are so excited to be working with), the beach, the freak-show, a really great recording studio; it’s been unbelievable.

So I’m in the air. Going over it in my mind. Holding on to it. Listening to the engine.

Dreaming...

By Rene Villanueva

I didn’t know how to answer her with anything other than a smile and another polite nod. A real Texan.

The lady kept an eye on me from behind the counter, as an orange and black calico bounced out from around her feet, rounding the lotto ticket display, cutting thru my legs, and down a small row of protein bars to the back of the store…

I followed, heading towards the refrigerators.

“Where you from?...You look different.”

“San Antonio,” I answered checking back over my shoulder with a quick look at her. She was still staring at me.

I could feel her examining everything about me, detached and scientific. I felt naked. I felt embarrassed.

I tried to keep focused…Sprite. Coke. Mountain Dew…but that feeling of her eyes just burned the back of my neck.

My heart jumped when I felt a light touch brush against my leg, but it was just the cat.

Pushing its face into my jeans. Wrapping its tail around the other leg.

--…of days when we traveled in a used conversion van. Four captain’s chairs. Little beige mini-blinds on the windows. Rope lights everywhere.

I was 21 and hungry for everything.

We’d loaded up with the four musicians, suitcases, and gear, cutting up IH-35.

“What’s comin’ up?”

It was getting hard to stay sitting for so long. “Could use a stretch,” I added.

I was eager to get to Ohio, Dan and his studio; but after switching my weight back and forth for the last four hours as I switched between each leg falling asleep, and I needed out.

We were only a jump northeast of Dallas into Arkansas at a small convenience store.

I stepped out of the van for the first time since we left San Antonio, and already in a different world. Hope.

It wasn’t exactly what I imagined leaving Texas would look like, but it was a start.

New horizon. New trees. New air bursting in my lungs, pushing me to the edge between life and dream, for a nobody from nowhere. I had spent years as an invisible.

Wanting. Waiting. Sometimes my childhood felt like a slow fall to death. Knowing the world was busting with life happening everywhere else. And I only had to find it. But I was stuck.

--“Would you like anything?” The hostess whispered over the belly of my sleeping neighbor.

“She don’t like nobody around here,” the cashier yelled at me.

The cat sat down to watch me too. Its eyes frozen on my face.

I could hear the lady shuffling behind the counter, “She must think you’re different.”

“Maybe she’s a Texan too,” I laughed but I don’t think she found any humor in it.

The women’s stare turned from cold to angry, “wouldn’t surprise me.”

She rang me up quietly.

Coke. Trail mix. Money.

The cat ran back behind the counter as someone else came in.

She held the change above my hand, “Born in Texas?”

“Yeah,” I had my palm open. Waiting.

Her eyes looked me over back and forth, “Nah, you look too exotic,” she said, finally dropping the coins.

--“Here you are sir,” the softness in the hostess’ voice pulls me out of Arkansas and back into the air. She’s holding the drink out to me and searching her tray for Rachel’s crackers.

“Hey, coffee too,” my sleeping neighbor butts in. His voice cutting low against her ear as she reaches over to hand us the bag.

She was in her late 40’s, well dressed with a floral scarf around her neck like this was a jet off a Mad Men ad.

The hostess flinches for a second then holding back her anger, she softly says, “A hello first.” She does it so gently, and with a sweet laugh too, the man doesn’t even notice the poison behind it.

“Diet Coke,” I said automatically. It’s my junk. My vice.

He mumbles something between a grunt and a hello.

“More crackers,” Rachel said softly to me, still with her eyes closed.

She’s calm, but her eyes were ready to kill, “And welcome back sir. Would you like me to get you something?”

“And more crackers,” I passed down the message.

The hostess slashed a couple tick marks on her paper then moved across the aisle.

Rachel shifted her head gently against my shoulder.

Maybe because it was our first trip, or maybe because it was so strange, but I remember this rest stop well. Better than the hundreds since that I couldn’t tell you a thing about.

--“Hmm,” the lady behind the counter looked me over as the bell rang over the gas station door.

I nodded politely.

“You look exotic,” she said without pause or hesitation. Somewhere between surprise and apathy.

October 2015

The man smiles unashamedly, “Yeah...coffee.”

The hostess flashes a brilliantly white smile and flips around towards the back of plane.

My neighbor is back into his fully laid back and slumped position. A real throaty wind sound is gurgling in his mouth right now as I’m typing this.

Thankfully we will be landing soon, and I’ll have another week before I take off to New Orleans to start a tour. Cutting north up to New York, looping back west through Canada, south along the mid-west and ending back in Arkansas.

It feels like I’ve been here before so many times. But each time I leave I have no idea what to expect. No idea what’ll be at the end of this flight. Or waiting for me in Arkansas. New air. New people. New horizons.

- Rene

www.hillcountryexplore.com

15

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1440 River Road • Boerne, Texas 78006 • 830.816.5095

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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.

830-816-5202 920 East Blanco Road Boerne, TX 78006 www.kcnbuilders.com

October 2015

www.hillcountryexplore.com

17

Shawn begins, “I remember going to the land we were riding on, I remember the bike stopping abruptly and I was flying forward and then I woke up feeling like I was on a cartoon where the birds were going around my head. I remember asking you if my mouth was bleeding because my mouth was paralyzed and I remember that I couldn’t see well or really talk. From there, I remember the excruciating ride to the hospital because the road was washed out and I felt every single bump. Once at the hospital, I remember fighting with the doctors because I was in so much pain and the next thing I know I was at BAMC Trauma Center in the ICU.” Once Shawn had his bearings a little better, the attorney in him kicked in, and he was already worrying about his law practice. “I remember laying in the ICU calling my assistant and telling her that I’ll be back to work in a bit. I knew I couldn’t eat, and I knew I still couldn’t see straight. I am the eternal optimist, so I figured I’d be back in 2 weeks. Nobody really explained the severity of my issues, because my issues got more severe as time went on. I was in the ER and I could move a bit, and then I got better with movement, but spinal fluid was filling in my back which is extremely serious.

So things got worse and worse after I thought they were getting better and better. I couldn’t walk after my first two weeks, and I began to understand how bad things were.

I had my Occupational Therapist in there doing logic games with me and I am sweating like I had run 10 miles from trying to think so hard to do the games. It was the middle of the night and I feel like my head is going to explode and they’re rushing me for CAT scans every night because the docs were terrified.”

As Shawn’s injuries intensified and became more and more complicated, the reality of his predicament began to become apparent. Shawn had multiple skull fractures, paralyzed vocal chords, nerve damage in his right eye which paralyzed it, fused vertebrae, and a spinal fluid leak. Because of the vocal cord paralysis, he couldn’t eat or drink anything – his nourishment came via a feeding tube, which the doctors initially told him would be permanent. Additionally, because of brain injuries, they cast great doubt that he would ever be able to return to his law practice.

“After two weeks of not eating and not drinking you realize quickly that things are bad.

So I was very disconnected at that point, and went through some extremely dark times.

I’m a very spiritual man, and during my darkest time was when I couldn’t think clearly and I couldn’t speak, so I felt I couldn’t pray. I couldn’t pray. I mean, imagine feeling physically and mentally unable to pray. I don’t remember if it was the painkillers or the anger or hurt, but I remember sitting there in my bed day after day crying because there was no outlet for that spirituality – I couldn’t ask for or receive help.”

Publisher’s Note: I am an avid dirt bike rider, and have been since I was a kid. While I quit riding for a long time, the bug bit me again a few years ago and I bought another dirtbike. My best friend, Shawn Lovorn (local attorney and father of 2) decided that he would like to go riding with me and another friend one beautiful Saturday 2 years ago. Shawn was a novice rider, but we all broke away to tear up the hills of Boerne.

While we were all riding around, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked and it was Shawn’s helmet spinning in the dirt. I looked a little further back and could see his rear wheel sticking out of a small ditch.

We got to him as fast as we could, pulled the bike that was lying on top of him clear, and began to triage him. We instantly knew he was hurt, but were unclear of the severity. When he tried to talk, he slurred his words badly, and so the decision was made to get him to the hospital asap.

That day began a journey that Shawn (nor I) ever expected, and in the end, changed us both. Surprisingly, we had never sat down to really discuss that day or his injuries, and so it was my honor to be able to write this issue’s “Art of Perspective” piece. Sometimes the worst experiences can bring out the best in us, and while my perspective was one of a scared friend, Shawn’s perspective changed his life in countless wonderful ways.

– Ben Schooley, Publisher

As the weeks wore on with Shawn still in the ICU, he was able to recover some vocal movement, and could speak at little more than a whisper. Some of his pain had subsided, although it was still severe. However, ever the optimist, Shawn began to plot a course back to his life, whatever it might resemble. “I always knew I was going to get back to work, and I told everyone that I was going to be back. I was ok with the eye patch (to cover his paralyzed eye), and I was ok with the feeding tube even – I knew that if I could think and speak, I would be back to law. There was never a point that I have ever given up. I never asked “WHY ME?” also. I never really threw a pity party with you guys that would come visit me all the time, although it was beyond hard.”

Shawn endured 30 days in the ICU at BAMC’s Trauma Unit, and then completed 60 additional days of therapy and rehab for his voice, general mobility, his brain, and eye.

Away from his family, and not seeing his kids for almost two months was traumatic, but Shawn simply focused on his recovery. Luckily for him, he had a disability policy, which saved his law firm, his financial security, and enabled him to worry less about work or money, and more about his future.

While the therapy and rehab helped, doctors still felt that the feeding tube would be a permanent component of his life, and that his right eye would not work again either.

There was always hope, as they were both due to damaged nerves, which can heal, but they certainly prepared him for the worst. He was slowly able to eat soft foods, such as yogurt, but it was not enough to sustain him.

“I sat there and watched Food Network and I watched it constantly and I prayed and prayed that if I’d just be able to eat yogurt for the rest of my life, I‘d be happy. I didn’t want the feeding tube forever, but at that point, I had accepted the fact I’d never be able to eat or drink again. I have acceptance at this point, but I still had hope. They were telling me it was a nerve issue, and someday it might grow back, so I still had hope. My gosh, I always held so hard to my hope.”

Sure enough, as his release was near, Shawn was able to keep his nutrition up via 12 Ensure drinks a day that they were able to take him off the feeding tube. He couldn’t eat solid foods, but between yogurt, applesauce, and Ensures, he was at least free of that encumbrance. His vocal chords had improved ever so slightly so that he could speak, although it was extremely difficult for him and the end result was very scratchy, and at times, hard to understand.

Once home, Shawn would sporadically head to the office to stay up to speed, and engage his clients and colleagues as best he could. “I always thought I’m going to be back with my job, so I just assumed that I would return to normal. But I did realize later when I couldn’t speak clearly – talking was very hard – I realized that my world has

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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.

changed. I can’t do what I used to do. You don’t realize quite how bad you are until you start hearing yourself speak, and hear others tell you how rough you sound, and I realized this was going to be tough. But again, I never stopped my outlook that I would eventually fully heal, despite my challenges. I knew I had a long way to go, but I always knew I’d get there.”

With his children finally near him again, Shawn’s true perspective was changed forever, and the direction and motivation for his life became more clear. “As soon as I got home and I was able to be with my kids every day, my perspective completely changed. I’ve always had the desire to be with my kids, but that desire didn’t really translate into being the best dad until this accident. For example, I would previously come home, and it’s been a long day and one of the kids would come to me and say ‘Daddy, let’s play!’ and I would say ‘Not right now. I’m tired.’ After the accident, that has never happened again. If they ask to play, you can bet that I’m jumping right in and we are playing. They have become the central focus of my life.”

A few months after his return home, his eye began to function again as the nerves healed, which was a tremendous blessing. His voice was still ragged, but slowly, Shawn continued to push his body to improve. While he did, he was able to establish a part time schedule at his law firm. “I loved my part time arrangement. I would work 2 days a week, and the rest of the time I would be with my children. It was like we were making up for lost time.”

As his health continued to improve, Shawn was given a great deal of hope via a surgery that just might repair his vocal cords and assist him even further with improvement. The doctors explained that there were no guarantees, but that they thought that they could manually move his vocal cord and that it could potentially have a great impact on his speech. Sure enough, after a rather intensive surgery, Shawn left the hospital with a fully functioning vocal capacity.

With his life back to where he wanted it, his family surrounding him, his practice thriving, and his health returned to him, Shawn worked tirelessly to maintain the perspective.

“The hardest thing for me, and what I prayed about every night, was not falling back into my pre-wreck rut. I would pray to God, ‘Don’t let me put work above my kids ever.

Don’t let me do it again.’ And I keep this very close to me every single day.”

October 2015

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However, ever the driven individual, Shawn’s aspirations do not stop. While he has his focus of his family, he still has his practice and has begun laying the foundation for expanding and growing it to serve this fast growing community. “I bought Robert Thornton’s building on Blanco, and have partnered with well-respected local attorney Bob Ogle. We’ve hired an associate attorney, and are working to become a law practice that becomes sort of a one-stop shop for all of your needs. I’m so excited at what we’re doing, and I trust and respect those I’m working with so much. Some might hear these plans and assume that I’ve lost my perspective and am just trying to run out and conquer the world and they could not be more incorrect. I’m trying to make an investment in my family and my life by establishing a world-class law practice that would quickly enable me to have the freedom to step back from it when I choose and be with my family. I love practicing law, but I love my family more. This new structure will enable me to do both, and I cannot wait to get started!”

With this new plan, Shawn has also had to make some large financial decisions and simply trust that things will work out, which is not always the easiest. However, for him, he has learned he has little choice. “One of the reasons I’m different is that people say all the time ‘Let Go, and Let God’, or just ‘Trust in God’ but let’s be honest; not many people can really do that. We want to control it all. But after my accident, I had to absolutely release everything and simply give it to God. I realized that everything could be taken away from me tomorrow. When I start getting caught up in stuff, I just shrug my shoulders and remember that this life is not mine, it’s His. My career isn’t mine, it’s His. All I can do is simply do the best with what I have, and to enjoy my blessings.”

As for blessings, Shawn has two that go by the names of Logan (6) and Lily (4), as well as a tight group of friends and family. If you are lucky enough to be someone that Shawn considers a blessing, you’ll know it because he’ll tell you. “I speak my mind, and I tell people how I feel about them. I tell people all the time that I love them.

I have all these friends that I have known forever and I tell them all the time that I love them, and they’re all surprised that it comes from me because I’m historically too cool for that.

That’s not true any longer.

People are so much more important than work, and most people don’t realize that. Money is fun, but it’s just not important, and I had to learn that lesson.”

Shawn has found his perspective via an accident that he wishes he never had to experience, yet one that forever changed him for the better. The eternal Type-A lawyer in him is still there, but the way that he views the world now is eternally altered. “My ringer on my cell phone is never on. EVER. I know that no phone call is so important that I need to deal with it instantly. Sometimes I catch myself checking my phone too often, and I have to stop and look at the trees, and the flowers, and the smiles of my children and remind myself what truly is important.

Make no mistake; my phone goes off all day and night, but nothing will ever distract me again from my true perspective.”

Publisher’s Note: As I mentioned at the opening, Shawn and I had never spoken about his accident. When he told me of his darkest days and his inability to pray, the hair on my arms stood up. Shawn didn’t remember it, but shortly after his accident as he was strapped to countless machines and tubes, I whispered to him and asked if he was doing okay. He pulled me close and told me about how God Himself had been with him at the accident site. Shawn remembered hearing my voice talking to him, but he mainly remembered sitting with God, and how God explained that this was going to be very hard, but that He would be with him every step of the way. He told him that he would be ok, despite how scared he might be.

When Shawn and I were talking for this article, and he talked about how he couldn’t pray, I recounted this story for him, and I’m certain we both wiped tears away. Shawn’s perspective of his accident and recovery has changed now as well.

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PW

WILSON

Artist Life Coach Writer Speaker

w w w. p a u lwi lso nt x.co m

HISTORY

HISTORY OF BOERNE: PArt 8

By Marjorie Hagy

Whoa, this is crazy- This is the EIGHTH CHAPTER

of the sweeping Chronicle of Boerne, Texas! Can you believe it?? Man, by the time I get done with you, you’re gonna be a regular walking encyclopedia of all things Boerne! You’ll be a hit at parties everywhere in town this season! If you by some chance have not been reading this story and now you’re dying to, who could blame you? It’s not too late- just go to www.hillcountryexplore.com and start in March of this year and soon you’ll know everything there is to know about this little town of ours.

Now that we’ve made it to the twentieth century here in Boerne, I feel like it’s a good time to go back and pick up all the stuff I forgot in the first fifty years. There’s so much.

This is what makes history so difficult for me; that we note the passing of time, of eras, by the major events, by the politicians, or by the disasters, such as the fire that tore through the town, or the hail that wiped out a year’s crop. But history isn’t just which president was in office when, or which country was at war with whom, or all the big events that make the news. It’s in the millions of stories that belong to the people who lived it, the births meticulously recorded in the family Bible, and the hand-carved stones in the tiny, unkempt cemetery around which a subdivision has grown. It’s in the miles of rock fences that wind through the hill country, into which went not only the sweat and labor of the farmer who built them to close in his land and keep in his animals, but also the love he had for his family and his dreams of making this dry, stony land into a place he could be proud to hand over to his daughters and sons one day. History is in

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every poignant relic of the past upon which we can lay our hand and feel a palpable connection to those people before us who once touched the same thing, whose hands created it, sewed it, or fashioned it of wood, stone, or fabric. History is in every edge of the thing rubbed smooth by use, in every fiber softened by time, and is in the handingdown of the stories from the people, long dead, who reach through time to tell us what their lives were like.

What did we miss from the century we just closed out? Well I completely neglected to mention one very important group of people in the history of Kendall County, the cedar burners of Charcoal City. Charcoal City was what they called all the little settlements out

by Bergheim and Kendalia along the Guadalupe Valley where the people built kilns in which to turn cedar into charcoal, and it was a unique and close-knit place where the people rebuilt their lives.

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the former Confederacy, have to do with the story of Boerne is this: some of them found their way here. Texas had, of course, officially been a Confederate state, but it hadn’t suffered the kind of infrastructure damage that some of the others had, those that had been the scene of the heaviest fighting. Oh it was bad here, all right, with the money becoming worthless, the livestock and horses and wagons and belongings disappearing into the war machine, the Hangebund and the Butcher of Fredericksburg, and all that.

But Texas, especially our part of Texas, was still very much intact and just hadn’t been hit as hard as the rest of the CSA. These refugees began to show up in Kendall County, and they were able to find some work, to begin to rebuild their shattered lives, and to build homes and communities in which to begin to heal, along the Guadalupe River in southeastern Kendall County. In exchange for clearing the intrusive cedar from the acreage belonging to some of the large landowners, those ranchers allowed the drifters and their families to live on the land, all along the river, and support themselves by making charcoal from the trees they cut. In little slap-up communities like Happy Valley, Richter’s Flats, and Willke Bend the cedar choppers and their families lived, worked, and slept under the stars, in tents, in shelters they pieced together from cedar boughs, or under their makeshift houses of wagon sheets strung up between the tree branches.

The largest ‘charcoal city’ was named for that simple housing method - String Down and located on the wagon trail to Kendalia near Engel’s Crossing, near the present-day site of Bergheim.

In fact, Bergheim owes its existence to the charcoal people. Andreas Engel, the founder of Bergheim, ran a trading post at Engel’s Crossing for nine years before he established his ‘mountain home’ in 1901 - that was the year Bergheim got its post office. Engel was a friend to the cedar choppers, taking charcoal in trade for the food, clothing and other supplies they purchased from the store, which he then traded to his suppliers. ‘It was seldom that any money was exchanged over the counter,’ said one old charcoal burner, remembering Mr. Engle fondly. ‘Us charcoal people should love Mr. Engle, as he kept many a one of us from starving to death.’

There was no shame in charcoal burning, though it was rough, hot, hard work, and when times were tough even the farmers about town were known to occasionally burn a little cedar to get by, to ‘patch in’, as they called it. One local school teacher used to keep a kiln burning over his summer vacations to make ends meet. But the folks who populated String Down and Happy Valley were different from the people of Boerne and the rest of Kendall County - in the first place, their families hadn’t been here for generations.

Boerne society was insular, as author Annie Fellows Johnston had one of her characters explain, ‘They made it as much like a corner of the Fatherland as they could,’ said this fictional character of the Germans who founded Boerne. ‘And their descendants still cling to their language and customs. They don’t want any disturbing, aggressive Americans in their midst, so they never call on newcomers, and never return their visits if any of them try to make the advances. They will welcome you to their shops, but not to their homes. Even the English and Scotch people who have owned the out-lying [sic] ranches as long as they have owned the town are looked upon as aliens and strangers, in a way.’ And these newcomers were very different to the German townspeople, having come from an entirely different background and culture.

Most of the cedar choppers were from the Appalachian states of the former Confederacy, from Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, or from the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri and the northern part of Arkansas. They had their own customs and their own language, not just English to Boerne’s German but a different kind of English than any they’d ever heard before in Kendall County. The mountain people’s ancestry was Scotch-Irish, and by and large, almost everything about them, from the way they spoke and the music they danced to, to the clothes they wore and their religion, was different. The fact of the matter is that Boerne people and other German-Americans in the county looked down on the charcoal burners as backwoods hillbillies who didn’t own land and worked in a dirty business. Boerne kids resented being called charcoal burners by kids from other towns, and resented the title ‘charcoal capitol of the world’ that was lobbed at them disparagingly. Sometimes the charcoal people came to town to vote or to trade - the men with their smoke-darkened skin and the women and girls in their ‘slat bonnets’ (stovepipe bonnets with their deep brims stiffened with cedar slats) - silent in their wagons, stocking up at AW Wendler’s store on coffee, sugar, cornmeal, rice, soap, chewing tobacco, beans, sow belly, and salt pork. If these very rare trips to town were big occasions to the cedar choppers - who usually did any shopping they had to do at Engel’s Store - they were at least as fascinating to the townspeople, who must have been used to seeing strangers with the influx of tourists to the Texas Alps, but who had seldom seen anyone this different. When the charcoal children filed shyly across the street to get their red and cream sodas or root beer from Krause’s saloon, the Boerne children would trail behind, the two groups of kids following each other’s every movement.

Their story began in the wake of the Civil War, when so many people were displaced, when thousands of Confederate veterans trudged home after that long, brutal war to find that they had no home. Their families had been unable to raise crops without their menfolk, and hadn’t raised the money to feed them, much less to pay the taxes on their farms. They’d said all the way through that miserable time, that it was a rich man’s war and a poor man’s battle, and these poor families were still paying for it, displaced, homeless, and cut loose to wander the country in search of some way to just survive.

Many of them went to work sharecropping for the owners of the old plantations- those that still survived, anyway. Formerly worked by slaves, these big operations turned to tenant farming to get their land worked on the cheap and so began a terrible era of debt-enslavement - a system almost as bleak and desolate as actual, institutional slavery - but that, alas, is a story for a different time. What these wanderers, people of

October 2015

But the town’s businessmen respected these cedar burners, who were for the most part responsible, hard-working, did not drink, didn’t believe in owing money, and feared the Lord mightily. Circuit-riding preachers used to go through the encampments of String Down, Richter’s Flats, and the others. They’d stay with the cedar people for a few weeks, preach every night, singing and praising under a tent, brush arbor, or one of the big cypress trees growing from the river, shouting hallelujahs, exalting the Lord, speaking in tongues, and baptizing in the Guadalupe.

The men would get together a load of charcoal, or cedar Christmas trees during the yuletide season, and set off to San Antonio to sell their wares, but they couldn’t wait to get back to their homes by the river again. ‘It was the hardest part about charcoal,’ said one man, ‘as it meant being away from home.’

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It was a hard life down in the kilns by the river, ‘rough work in a raw country’, as historian Fritz Toepperwein called it. Said one old-timer, ‘That is about the hottest spot between here and the boogey man.’ But the folks who peopled Charcoal City loved their lives in those smoke-filled cedar brakes on the Guadalupe. From homeless drifters, nomads wandering the old South in search of bare existence, they had created homes, and a community they loved, and a place where they belonged. Their kids really did walk barefoot five miles to the Panther Creek School every day, and sat together at lunchtime to eat the corn pone and syrup they brought in their lunch buckets. By night there was fiddling, singing, and the mingled smells of burning cedar and their supper cooking, wafting up from their makeshift houses, coffee brewing over a wood fire, and the lilt of mothers singing to their babies. They fished the river and barbequed over their own charcoal; they picnicked and had chivaris (loud serenades) when couples got married; they celebrated the birth of a baby; they mourned together the passing of a soul; and they nursed each other in their illnesses. Nobody ever got rich burning cedar, but they worked hard and built little villages where they and their families were happy and safe.

‘We never had no money to speak of, but I loved my old home out there in Charcoal City, even if it was no-count,’ remembered one old charcoal man when asked about his life in 1949. ‘People was good to one another, and when you did something for a neighbor or friend, we never thought of pay.’

Charcoal itself was eventually replaced in all of its uses, from cooking and heating to curing indigestion, flavoring chewing gum and whitening teeth; from filtering water to

perking up your chickens by mixing it into their feed. And when charcoal went out of use, the people of Charcoal City drifted away like the ashes from their kilns. A lot of the folks settled around here, having stuck around so long, and traded in their wagon bed homes for what they called ‘tight houses’ (plain old places with four walls and floors) even though they likely still preferred their old tent homes, and probably still slept out under the stars when they could. As late as 1950 a couple of the old-timers would still burn a kiln every once in a while, just to keep a hand in, because they’d come to love the heat, the smell, and the art of the thing; a world they’d fashioned with their own tools. That way of life disappeared like smoke into the dusk when the last family left the old camps of Willke Bend and String Down for good. They might have been forgotten altogether, lost to time, if not for Boerne historians Emilie and Fritz Toepperwein who saved their story from oblivion. It’s one of the reasons I’m so into crawling around in the past, getting all cobwebby - so that nobody’s stories curl up and blow away just because somebody forgot to tell them. Imagine that you are the last person who remembers something, a certain story, the words to an old song, the color of your grandmother’s eyes, but you never write it down, you never tell someone. When that happens, the story is gone, the song cannot be sung again, and no one else can ever see your grandma’s eyes. Then no one will ever know that part of the story. Because the Toepperweins saved their stories, I now know about the cedar choppers lives, where they came from and more than that. I know there was singing, fiddle playing in the camp, and what their air smelled like. And now you do too, and their story is not over. Mr. and Mrs. Toepperwein said they were recording the history of Charcoal City

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‘so that the records of the lives and times of the charcoal burners will not be lost with the passing of all the men and women of that industry.’ Now they have all passed - the Toepperweins, too - but I’m still writing their story, and soon you’ll be reading it.

Think of that.

Something else I forgot, or sort of grazed right over and it really deserves so much more attention because it’s a great big deal, was about how these English settlers of ours brought polo to the hill country (maybe even the United States), and just happened to play the first game of polo ever in this country. Yeah, that happened here, even though some posers in Denison, Texas, and even New York City, have tried to claim that honor.

I told you about the English settlers who lived mostly out west of Boerne, down Upper Balcones Road way, but I didn’t tell you how they brought polo to the US. Just a little history - well, first a little non-Boerne history - in 1858, under Queen Victoria and in the middle of Great Britain’s empire period, the Indian subcontinent came under British rule in what was called the Raj, and that area in 1947, in what would become India and Pakistan, was occupied by British soldiers. Rudyard Kipling writes about that time in history a lot. Have you ever read The Secret Garden? India is where the little girl lived before her parent’s died and she went to live in Scotland with her uncle. Of course, if you haven’t read it, none of this stuff can make much sense to you...anyway, the sport of polo originated in the Middle East, in Persia (Iran) in about 600 BC. During the Raj,

British soldiers stationed in India discovered it and brought it back to England in 1869.

It was a big hit in England - I mean a really big smash hit – and then a kind of mania.

Some of those Englishmen who got caught up in the polo rage turned around and immigrated to Boerne, Texas, and the rest is history.

One English cavalryman, a Captain William ‘Glynn’ Turquand, having done his service in India and now retired, packed up his mallets and polo balls and crossed the Atlantic to end up right here in Boerne. He bought a huge ranch that straddled the Kendall/ Bexar county lines at Balcones Creek, right there where Upper Balcones becomes Toutant Beauregard Road (now and for many years the Wendler place). Right away, he hired a crew of cowboys to help him train up a stable of world-class polo ponies. It might not be too much of a stretch to say that Captain Turquand was obsessed with the sport, and along with fellow British ex-pat and new Boerne-ite Willy Hughes (whom we met before, in the fifth chapter of this history, back in July), Turquand began shipping his championship-quality animals to New York and all along the Eastern Seaboard. So d’you hear that New York City? You got your polo ponies from us! The first game of polo ever played on American soil was played by a group of British colonists who called themselves the Boerne Polo Team. It happened at Turquand’s famous Balcones Ranch, right out there on the right-hand side of Upper Balcones just before you cross the creek into Bexar County - not in New York. And it happened at a time before the guy who claims to have played in the first game, ‘ever picked up a polo mallet,’ as Wikipedia puts it.

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One other detail for you to love: Captain Turquand once arranged for his own father to meet a shipment of ponies in New York, and to get them to a spot north of the city to continue their journey to Texas. Hastings Turquand, arrayed in full English riding gear and accompanied by an outfit of Texas cowboys, drove those horses right through the Manhattan financial district and straight up Fifth Avenue to meet their train. Mic drop New York. Don’t mess with Texas.

The post office, of the sort of official seat of Boerne’s British colony, and the school the English settlers established there, were named Hastings, by the way, in honor of the dashing father of Captain Turquand.

What else did I forget - oh, there’s the train. I feel like I didn’t talk enough about the train and what a difference that made to the people of Boerne. The first excursion train of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad roared into town on the morning of March 17, 1887, and changed life in this little one-horse burg forever. The people knew it was going to change their lives, and they were ready for it. When that big steam engine pulled into town, with its seven bright red coaches behind it, everyone was ready to party, and they busted out en masse celebrating the new era. About six hundred people took that first train to Boerne, and were met at the temporary depot at the end of Theissen Street by just about everybody in town. They all walked together, or were ferried by wagon, carriage or hack, to the picnic grounds under the oaks near St Peter’s church. The fatted calf - actually, several of them - were barbequing, the lemonade and more potent potables were flowing, the politicians and big shots were speechifying, and the band was playing. The whole town, temporarily doubled in size by these visitors, partied into the night knowing Boerne would never, ever be the same.

Suddenly, the trip to San Antonio took only two and a half smooth, trouble-free hours, as opposed to the seven it had taken by stage or wagon, and that seven hour estimate was a best case scenario kind of thing, too. The rule of thumb for Boerne-ites before the train came along was to plan a whole day for the trip to the big city, and all night, too, was not unheard of. A few years before the SA&AP reached Boerne, a local man by the name of Dr. Lindner described his trip by stagecoach, from Military Plaza in downtown San Antonio to Boerne, starting with ‘a cup of dishwater on the plaza.’ Lindner reported spotting a dead cow at ‘8 mile hill’ and speculated on its likely cause of death, ‘No wonder,’ he snorted, ‘the road would make anyone sick. It is awful.’ After having left downtown SA at seven in the morning, his coach finally arrived in Leon Springs at 1 pm. The trip was taking so long, according to Dr. Lindner, because ‘[t]he mud was so deep the wheels had to be cleaned every few minutes.’ ‘Luckily,’ he reported wryly, ‘we had very gentle animals, only killed two drivers in the last year.’ His mood, apparently, didn’t brighten much upon finally reaching Boerne, that lovely, healthful hamlet in the mountains.

‘Hell of a resort,’ he grumped. ‘Every second person consumptive; everything wet except the Cibolo River, which had dried up.’

At any rate, the trip from San Antonio to Boerne was, of course, entirely uphill, Boerne being about twice as high above sea level as our bigger neighbor. The roads were rough and turned into thighdeep mud in wet conditions, while becoming choking dust in the prevailing miserable heat and more-or-less permanent drought. Now Boerne was suddenly a hop, skip and a train ride away, and only set you back 95 cents. The mail and the newspapers were coming twice a day, people were coming to town from all over the world, and businesses blew up. Warehouses and shipping facilities cropped up all along the line in Boerne, some of which are still standing along Rosewood Street. In 1906, they finally got around to building a permanent depot at the end of James and Rosewood streets; a two-building affair, the smaller of which was a freight room and the larger a timber framed waiting area, ticket counter and everything else, measuring about 24 by 62 feet. Both of those two buildings are still standing in Boerne today, and both are still very much in use, although they’ve gone their own separate ways. The bigger part is now part of a private home on East Bandera Street. Although I won’t tell you the street address, because, first of all, I don’t know the rules about that stuff, and secondly, it’ll be more fun if you drive down there to try and find it on your own. You will be able to find it, too - it still looks a lot like a depot. The other, smaller part now lives at 1107 S. Main and is a commercial building, the Hitching Post liquor store for a while and most recently a bakery, I think. Traditions at the Depot, by the way, is someone else’s tradition altogether.

That building was moved to Boerne from Encinal, Texas, not far from Laredo, sometime in the 90s. I mean the 1990s. It has nothing to do with Boerne history unless we’re talking about the commercialization and cutesey-ing up that changed the whole face of this place, but that’s a whole ‘nother subject.

The train, of course, wasn’t just a relic of the nineteenth century, so I didn’t mess up too badly by only bringing it up now. The SA&AP opened Boerne up to become the world-renowned health resort that it became, bringing visitors from not only San Antonio but from as far away as Chicago, St Louis, New York, New England, and from the soggy coastal states (where TB was thought to linger in the miasma of the swamps and hang in shrouds over the low-lying marshland), to breathe in the life-giving ozone of the beautiful Texas Alps.

Dr. Herff had been sending his lung patients to Boerne since the 1860s, and Boerne had long had the reputation of a healthful place with a few sanitaria and rooming houses for the poor sufferers of the White Death. After the train opened the town up in 1887, that industry exploded. Suddenly there were at least thirteen hospitals and hotels catering to the lung patients and their families, and countless rooming houses; it was said that virtually every house in town had at least one boarder at one time or another and that every person in town was in some way connected with the business of consumption. St Mary’s sanitarium, an extension of Santa Rosa hospital (which didn’t take TB cases), was opened in 1896 on the site of another sanitarium called White Gables, and ran by a Dr. Miller. The Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, with the very material help of chief physician Dr. Ferdinand Herff, originally opened the hospital for priests suffering from tuberculosis, but soon, with the press of people pouring into Boerne seeking treatment, opened their doors to all comers. In fact, Boerne would, for thirty years or so, build its economy around this industry, and its reputation around the world.

flint, nobody ever thought of putting them together. Now get outta the cave. I hafta mop.’ Boerne kids at the beginning of the 20th century could turn to the train for their kicks. The late Max Theis, Boerne old timer born in 1897, in a 1980 interview reminisced about his own youth, ‘[One] pastime was to meet the trains when they came through on Sunday afternoon. The boys and girls would walk down the railroad track to Van Raub, which was the closest station, and then pay 15 cents to ride back to Boerne. We would buy a nickel’s worth of crackers and a nickel’s worth of cheese to have something to eat.’ A lifelong friend of Max Theis, Mrs. Rose Esser Kemp, born in 1900 in Kendalia and raised in Kendalia and Boerne, also fondly recalled the train, ‘The most interesting thing I had to do when I was a teenager was to go to the depot and meet the train. The train came through here once a day going to Kerrville, and then came back about 4:00. Every time we were free, not only kids but grown people would go up there and meet the train, and watch the train come in. That was one of the pastimes we had.’

The resort industry also provided recreation for the callow youth of Boerne a hundred years ago and more. The late Henry Fabra, native and lifelong Boerne-ite and once a well-known figure about town, drove the wagon for his family’s meat market, and remembered delivering the day’s order to the hotels around town when he was young.

He said they’d sometimes need sixty T-bone steaks to serve for breakfast at the Phillip House hotel, and similar numbers at the Kendall Inn. He’d go back there again after work hours to squire the girls around. ‘We had a whole bunch of boys here, about 18 or 20 boys here,’ Henry Fabra recalled as an old man. ‘We all went over there to chase those girls. We had girls and people here from San Antonio, Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, Port Arthur, New Orleans, Lake Charles...They would come up here and spend the whole summer up here...They didn’t just want to sit around the hotels with nobody coming around.’ Young Henry selflessly performed a community service of sorts. ‘I took my girls out in a horse and buggy,’ he said, ‘and when I got my Ford, I took the girls out for the afternoon.’ Mrs. Rose Esser Kemp also remembered those summer visitors at the hotels. ‘Some of them were real sick,’ she recalled, ‘and some of them weren’t. Some of them were good companions - dates. We danced with them.’ Max Theis remembered them too. ‘We used to sit and spoon when the girls came to town,’ he said. ‘We’d walk up and down Main Street, and then walk them over to the Kendall Inn, where they were staying.’

The schools used to put on plays, the churches had their picnics, and there was roller skating in the Vanderstratten - the old wooden-floored, cavernous Metropolitan Opera House. Max Theis spoke of the singing club, Gesang Verein, and the dancing clubs. Ye Days of Yore was one such - how they put on their shows and dances in the Vanderstratten and served meals in a little hall next door. He also remembered ‘[t]hat hall was used by the traveling men to show their wares. They’d come in big ambulances loaded with trunks, and have a big black man driving their mules. They unloaded there for people to look at their samples and buy their merchandise.’ These traveling salesmen often put on magic shows in order to draw crowds to their sales, and the young folks never liked to miss those. One of the salesmen even had his own pet monkey.

Theis explained those ‘ambulances’ too. ‘It was really just like a wagon bed with seats across, and on springs, just like you have in a car now,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t an ambulance to haul sick people.’ His parents, he said, would rent one of those ambulances from one of the two livery stables in town at the time, and ‘[t]hey would put a quarter-keg of beer on the back and go out to the river for a picnic, or go visiting.’ The teenagers also used the ambulances. ‘That’s the way we did our dating in those days, too,’ he said.

‘Several couples would get together and take the old gray mare out towards Bandera or somewhere, five or six miles...We would ride out to the Guadalupe River to Ammann’s Crossing. On the way out we’d steal corn from the farmers, then go in and buy a pound of butter and cook it in the ashes at the river. That was our entertainment.’

From 1905 until 1911, an author lived in Boerne, in a little house on Theissen Street, with her son and daughter. Annie Fellows Johnston, whom I mentioned earlier, was a prolific writer, author of a children’s book series, and a single, widowed mother, who, like so many others, had come to Boerne in hopes that the air would deliver her boy John from the ravages of the White Death. John Johnston would eventually succumb to the disease, and Annie and her daughter went back to their home in Kentucky. vDuring their stay, Mrs. Johnston wrote a book about the little alpine village she and her family had come to love. In Mary Ware in Texas (1907), Annie’s children go by the names Norman and Mary, and Boerne is called Bauer, Texas. The charming descriptions are of my hometown a hundred years ago, and one day when I’ve figured out my time machine, I shall feed into it Mrs. Johnston’s word pictures of this unspoiled little town along the creek in the lovely Cibolo Valley. ‘The station [that little depot of which we spoke earlier] was half a mile away from the village, and as they swung down the sunny white road towards it, at a rapid gait, both Norman and Mary looked out eagerly at the place that was to be their home for a whole long winter, and maybe more...From a distance [Boerne] looked almost like a toy village, with its red roofs, blue barns and flashing windmills nestled against the background of misty hills. Low mountain peaks rose here and there on the far horizon beyond.’ ‘“This is distinctly a German village, you know,” explained Mrs. Barnaby as they passed a group of little flaxen-haired Teutons on the roadside, who were calling to each other and their dog in a tongue which Mary could not understand.’

Just get that picture in your head, would you? Close your eyes if you need to, and conjure up that toy village, seen from the train as it crests a hill and begins its descent into the little toy town with its patchwork fields, the sun shimmering on the creek as it weaves through the whole scene like a silvery thread. Say it’s morning, and you can hear Henry Fabra calling ‘Meat! Meat!’ as his cart wends its way through the streets, from door to door, and the hausfraus go out to their step to buy what they need to feed their families that day. You can hear those little tow-headed children calling to each other in German as their mothers bargain with young Henry.

Later on that evening, when the crickets start to tune up for the night and the first lightning bugs flicker on, an ambulance drawn by the old gray mare will return to town from the direction of the Guadalupe. The kids riding in it will smell of the river and of the ashes of a fire. They’ll be deliciously tired, a little sunburnt, and they’ll have just a bit of corn stuck in their teeth.

‘I wish you....’ sighed Mary Ware in Texas, a hundred years ago, ‘could see the little town now, spread out below the hills in the twilight, with the windmills silhouetted against the sky. At one end is the little stone belfry of St. Peter’s, at the other the square gray tower of the [Holy Angels] Academy and just between, swinging low over the hills in the faint afterglow, the pale golden crescent of the new moon. After all, it’s a good old world...’

And one more thing - the train also answered the question every generation of kids has whined at their exasperated parents, what’s there to do in this burg?? Cave mothers, no doubt, snapped at their own hairy little children, ‘Go play with the fire for heaven’s sake!

You don’t know how lucky you are to have that. In my day all we had were sticks and

October 2015

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY EXPLORE! KENDALL COUNTY’S MOST ORIGINAL PUBLICATION, EXPLORE, IS CELEBRATING ITS 8TH ANNIVERSARY WITH THIS ISSUE. Born in 2007, EXPLORE has experienced growth and changes over the years, and has become known as one of the more unique and engaging publications in the area. Originally printed on newspaper with only limited color spreads, it was eventually changed to its current glossy, full-color, and large format.

Covering a wide variety of content, EXPLORE has never been a publication that you read for hard-news.

Rather, from history to spiritual to music and every topic in-between, EXPLORE is an irreverent, often humorous publication that is not afraid to make fun of itself, nor others. From local rants and raves via Old Timer, to larger more poignant pieces such as the “Art of…” profiles, EXPLORE has continually sought to engage the reader with something different than what they might expect.

Additionally, it is the only monthly publication in the State of Texas that has printed an issue entirely in 3-D. The attempt at 3-D is the 2nd time for EXPLORE, with the first being in 2012.

Here’s to many more years of EXPLORE – Happy Birthday!

Ben Schooley Publisher Education Texas Tech University and the School of Hard Knocks Family Kendall (12), Aaron (9), and David (5). And a giant fat dog named Raider.

Years with EXPLORE Since Day 1!

Favorite part of the magazine?

I have always loved that our content is universally meant to impact you in some way. It’s not here to necessarily educate you, but we do try to make you laugh, cry, smile, or think. We live in an era of information overload, and I have enjoyed trying to simply move you in some way.

Ben Weber Creative Director (aka Creative Ninja) Education Texas Tech University Family My wife Lori, Andrew (6) and Kate (3 going on 16) Years with EXPLORE 4+ Favorite part of your job?

Typically, graphic designers sit at a desk day in and day out. We’re generally light to transparent in color due to the lack of sunlight.

However, with EXPLORE I’m given the opportunity to get away from the desk frequently to meet with clients or take photos for an article.

It’s nice to actually use my leg muscles and see the sun.

Most memorable issue/article?

Exactly three years ago we did the first 3D issue. It very nearly killed me. With only 2 weeks before deadline we finally figured out how to make the effect work in print. The week of print I worked about 90 hours. Then I was flying to Dallas the day after uploading to do a press check and almost missed my flight. In the end everything came together for one hell of a cool issue. Then I vowed never to do 3D again. Wait…

Do you think you make a better designer or mob hit man?

I often wonder if I was really supposed to be doing something else with my life. Something crazy like assassin or fighter pilot. But alas, apparently I’m a good designer so I’m stuck in a less life threatening profession. Though carpel tunnel syndrome is VERY REAL. Don’t knock the carpel tunnel.

Favorite quote?

“Leave each other alone.” Though with allergy season upon us more recently it’s been “Cover your mouth!”

Favorite article ever published?

This one is next to impossible for me – there are so many. The most memorable one I have is the very first Publisher’s Letter I ever wrote. I had NO idea what I was doing, and felt like I was about to get married. I always really liked Marjorie Hagy’s History article that was about the Newton Boys and their visit, and subsequent robbery, in Boerne.

Oh, and the one about the kids in the 1800s that were murdered by Indians. It occurred at what is now Plant and Blanco and I think about that article every time I drive through there.

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing?

Something else where I can be my own boss.

I tell everyone I’m not self-employed, I’m un-employable. There’s a good reason I say that.

Most memorable day/event with EXPLORE? You’ll think I’m lying, but I swear I’m not: not a single day goes by that I don’t say a prayer of thanks for being blessed with my job. I love it, I love the people I work with, and I was truly born to do it. So every single day is my most memorable day.

Favorite quote?

“You will always find exactly what you seek”.

There is so much truth in that and it can apply to so many areas of your life.

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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.

Kayla Davisson Associate Creative Director

Michelle Hans Operations Manager

What’s a weird habit of yours?

I always have to sleep with my ears covered. The feeling of having my ears exposed in the night while I sleep is absolutely terrifying!!

What’s a weird habit of yours?

I am “OCD” about insignificant things…such as the placement of a candle on the kitchen counter or the order in which I hang my clothes in the closet…but not about useful things like housecleaning or household organization.

What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?

This mostly has to do with my 6 year old son. It irks me when he’s eating and he licks his fingers, but not just one finger. He sticks all five fingers in at the same time then wipes his hands on his pants…

What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?

SLOOOOOOOOW DRIVERS in the ‘fast’ lane or on country roads (cough…FM 1376… cough)

What’s a song you secretly love to blast and belt out when you’re alone?

“Valerie” from The Glee soundtrack…

What’s a song you secretly love to blast and belt out when you’re alone?

“Roar” by Katy Perry, and most recently ”Broken Wing” by Martina McBride

What’s the drink you always order at Starbucks?

Grande iced coffee sweetened with cream

What’s the drink you always order at Starbucks?

I’m boring…just a tall Pike’s Place with creamer and two Sweet-n-Lows.

Which Scooby-Doo character are you most like and why?

It would be a combination of Shaggy and Daphne…I love my dog and I’m danger prone.

Which Scooby-Doo character are you most like and why?

I’d say a little bit of Daphne, because I’m super clumsy at times and also a bit of Fred…

Not that I’m “less intelligent” … but I do believe in a lot of crazy legends out there.

What’s one thing you want to do before you die?

Solve a cold case file….

What’s one thing you want to do before you die?

Walk (climb?) the Great Wall of China and bathe the elephants in Thailand…okay, that was two. Who can pick just one?!?

What’s a beauty role you preach, but never actually practice?

Eat healthy

What’s a beauty role you preach, but never actually practice?

Wear sunscreen.

If you could go back in time and give your younger self advice, what would it be and why?

To the pre-teen me: STOP worrying about what everyone else thinks of you. You are beautiful just the way you are, quit trying to please people who don’t even matter….

They will not be in your future.

Favorite part of your job?

In the short month that I’ve been on the SMV team, I’ve loved it all! I’ve loved this opportunity, God presented before me, to work for a small business I’ve been secretly intrigued to work for, in my hometown that I love immensely. Ben, Kayla, and Weber allow me to be me…weird me, “creative” me, ditsy me…without laughing too obnoxiously at me. So far, so good.

Favorite part of your job: A few things.. First, I get to do what I love! Second, I get to wear non flattering comfy clothes ( even if it looks like I just rolled out of bed ) and last but not least, I get to work with some pretty special, hilarious, awesome people.

It’s cliche but I couldn’t see myself anywhere else.

Most memorable issue/article: The most memorable for me is the November 2014 issue. The spiritual article, ‘Let Go and Let God’ this is something that I believe most of us struggle with on a day to day basis. It was just a great reminder to continue to trust in God and know that he is always there for you and always loving you and forgiving you. No matter how badly you screw up, there is always something better coming along, you just need to trust in him. “The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and you are accomplishing nothing by wasting the life God has blessed you with by driving yourself mad with regret and depression.”

October 2015

Most memorable issue/article?

It would have to be the history piece from a couple of years – “Murder in the Castle” – starring the wealthy and prominent Graham family. What a fascinating bit of Boerne’s history! A man (HJ Graham) builds a castle with no explanation of why he chose to build such an extravagant abode. This castle houses his father’s (Joseph Graham) many historically awesome documents from his Consul days under Lincoln’s presidency. Then sadly, his only son (HH Graham) is shot to death at the young age of 38, after years of alcohol addiction in the very castle his father built. Where is this castle you ask? It is no longer standing; however, it once stood at atop the same hill HEB now calls home. And these were the olden days or our lives…

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LIFE

LIFE IN 3D

“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run— in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”

In the spirit of EXPLORE Magazine’s epic October issue, I thought we’d put on our stereoscopic glasses and take a look at my favorite topic – life and living – in 3-D. After thirty-plus years of personal and professional observation, I have concluded that every single person on Earth is looking for happiness in life.

Happiness in their marriage.

Happiness in their family.

Happiness in their career.

Happiness in their health.

Happiness in their finances.

Happiness in their soul…or whatever they call that place deep down inside of them where they long to be happy.

Who doesn’t want to be happy?

I can’t think of anybody, can you?

I believe all people, regardless of where they live on the globe, generally want to be happy. They may use different words to describe what they really want in life, but it all boils down to what we mean when we talk about “being happy.”

“I just want to be happy!” is the soulful longing of every human being.

I have done enough traveling throughout the world with a keen eye on human behavior to have a reasonably informed perspective on people in other cultures. While customs and experiences may vary from continent to continent, I have observed people all around the world longing for: personal fulfillment relational connection professional accomplishment financial stability, and physical vitality While each of these is pursued in a myriad of ways around the globe, they are essentially the same the world over.

I have been stuck in early morning rush hour traffic in cities like Jerusalem (Israel), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Abuja (Nigeria), Munich (Germany), Salzburg (Austria), Interlaken (Switzerland), Toronto (Canada), Matamoras (Mexico), Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Manhattan. A number of years ago, my wife and I found ourselves going nowhere in the heart of the little country of Liechtenstein due to an unusual traffic jam created by a local farmer driving a herd of cattle right up the middle of the street.

We sat there both bemused and amused at the same time in this rather unusual case of rush-hour traffic.

Although each of these places is located in very different parts of the globe, they all look eerily similar to each other when the sun comes up. I’ve watched laborers race off to cubicles and construction sites, offices and off-shore rigs in the same way I’ve observed them scurry off to fields and factories, fishing boats and pharmacies.

What’s everybody rushing off to when the sun comes up around the world? Simply put – the pursuit of happiness!

Whether in Europe or Asia, Africa or America, I have witnessed people participating in a wide variety of experiences in search of love, success, security, and fulfillment. Of all the places I’ve been, I’ve seen married couples and singles, school children and senior citizens, rich and poor, educated and uneducated involved in a variety of experiences ranging from working to worship, from learning to loving, from earning to spending. I’ve noted that people in Belfast seek out the club scene on Friday nights much like they do in Berlin. In every corner of the earth, men and women do that dance men and women do to attract one another in the hopes of romance and love. Whether it is politics or music, triathlon or theater, landscaping or literature, people all over the world spend each day of their life pursuing every activity imaginable with the hopes of finding what it is they believe will bring them happiness.

How is it that I have seen so many seemingly identical experiences in so many divergent places in the world? Well, simply put, because all human beings are generally after the same thing in essentially the same way. They just want to be happy and pursue it much like the next guy.

Due to the nature of my profession, I have met thousands of people in the course of my lifetime and talked with many of them on a much deeper level than casual conversation.

From what I have heard, we all crave happiness. While we may use different words, perhaps even different definitions and certainly different routes, all of us want the same thing: to be happy.

WHAT KIND OF HAPPINESS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

There is a healthy understanding of happiness, and an unhealthy one. Where you start determines if you spend your time and energy in a healthy pursuit of happiness or an unhealthy one.

Some people mistakenly believe happiness is found in outward possessions and experiences such as success, prosperity, comfort, convenience, pleasure, and thrill.

They, in turn, go looking for happiness but rarely find what they are looking for. Because they start from the wrong place, they eventually end up disappointed, frustrated, bitter, angry, or disillusioned.

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- Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

By Paul Wilson

Other people see happiness from a healthier perspective; a more noble one. For them, happiness has more to do with contentment, joy, peace, purpose, passion, significance, and fulfillment. These experiences come more from within us rather than around us. Our search for this kind of happiness tends to be healthier than the other option.

I am not talking about a materialistic, narcissistic kind of happiness. I am talking about something more noble. I am thinking of happiness as an inner contentment and the joy it creates due to living your life with purpose, passion, and the fulfillment that comes with significance.

When it comes to happiness, selfishness is never as rewarding as selflessness.

THE HAPPINESS EQUATION

We all want to be happy. Although we might be tempted to think the quest for “happiness” is different for everybody, the truth is that it is not. The search for happiness is generally the same for everybody.

“Happiness” is ultimately an equation of two elements combined together. Our proximity to the sum total of the two elements often determines the amount of happiness we enjoy.

Met expectations + Fulfilled desires = Happiness.

In other words, the closer our life looks to our expectations and desires, the happier we are. In contrast, when we find our expectations unmet and our desires disappointed, we are generally unhappy people.

We see this in children all the time. Who hasn’t witnessed the whining, crying, screaming, or unbridled tantrum of the child who didn’t get what he wanted? Whether in the cereal aisle at the grocery store or the midway of the amusement park, it’s not a pretty sight when a child does not get what he wants!

The difficult truth to accept is that many of us never completely outgrow some of the patterns we develop as children. While we might become more sophisticated in our whining and temper tantrums, we still kick and scream in one way or another when we don’t get what we want as adults.

That’s not pretty either!

The happiest people you will ever meet live in a state of satisfaction in which their primary expectations and desires are fulfilled. And whatever expectations and desires remain lacking, they accept as both normal and reasonable. These people are comfortable with the fact that life will never be “perfect”; they will never have absolutely everything their little hearts desire. They’re good with that. They live with a tremendous amount of gratitude for all they do enjoy.

Happy people do not allow what they are lacking to rob them of their joy, peace, or contentment.

People who strive for the kind of life where everything is to their satisfaction do experience enormous amounts of frustration and discontentment. They, in turn, are seldom happy for very long.

HAPPINESS IN 3-D

Whatever your ambitions, whatever your expectations, whatever your desires – if they are noble – they will require three things from you every time, all the time.

Happiness takes some effort on our part. There are a few things we have to practice in order to experience the happiness we long to enjoy in our life. They are: Discipline Diligence Determination

DISCIPLINE

Whatever expectations and desires you have, an enormous amount of discipline will be required of you if you hope to see them fulfilled.

I am using the word discipline for the skills and habits you must honor in order to achieve your ambitions. Everything we hope to achieve requires some combination of skills and behaviors (habits) to accomplish it. Name any category and there will be key things you must do in order to experience progress or achieve success in that arena.

Relational connection requires certain skills and habits.

Financial prosperity requires certain skills and habits.

Athletic success requires certain skills and habits.

Professional promotion requires certain skills and habits.

In the pursuit of happiness, each of your expectations and desires represents something you’re going to have to get really good at if you hope to see them fulfilled. Figure out what disciplines you must honor and you have taken the first step toward enjoying the happiness that comes with expectations met and desires fulfilled.

DILIGENCE

Diligence is the consistent application of discipline.

If you think for a moment that real and substantive happiness will come your way with a half-hearted, hit-or-miss, part-time effort, you will be greatly disappointed. Apathetic, sporadic, and erratic attempts at what makes you happy rarely yield the results you are looking for.

EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.

The best things in life take both persistence and time. Ask a farmer looking for healthy crops. Ask an athlete looking to be the best. Ask an entrepreneur looking to hit it big.

The weekend warrior rarely enjoys the same level of success as the dedicated devotee.

To achieve the happiness you long for you have to practice the necessary disciplines in a consistent fashion, often for long periods of time.

We see this truth in an extremely vivid fashion when it comes to losing weight and getting into shape. Both require persistence to see results.

Diligence is consistently refusing foods you know to be unhealthy for you and destructive to your progress. When everything inside of you is screaming for you to eat that doughnut, consume that ice cream, or drink that soda, you consistently refuse to do so. In your effort to lose weight, you consistently choose those foods and beverages that are going to help you to shed fat. Honoring the habits of healthy eating again and again, day after day, is about diligence.

The same is true with exercise. Erratic or “occasional” exercise rarely results in weight loss, muscle tone, or increased endurance. Exercise must be consistent in order for it to offer any noticeable dividends in progress. Diligence is what drives you to get out of bed and go running on those cold, wet mornings. Diligence is what pushes you into the gym for another tedious workout. Diligence is what convinces you to get back on the bike when you’d rather enjoy the air-conditioned comfort of your living room.

Diligent people seem to find happiness more frequently than the weekend warrior who dabbles in what it takes to be truly happy.

DETERMINATION

Whereas diligence is about persistence, determination is about perseverance.

Thinking your pursuit of happiness is going to be without obstacles along the way is precisely why it eludes you. You are going to encounter problems, disappointments, challenges, losses, injuries, illnesses, frustrations, criticism, opposition, and a thousand other varieties of detours on the road to happiness. If you abandon the pursuit of your ambitions every time you encounter a difficulty, you’ll never ever know the happiness you seek.

If you truly believe the thing you are after will be a source of happiness in your life, you must determine to pursue it even in the face of insurmountable obstacles and formidable challenges. Whatever life throws at you while traveling a road toward happiness, you must determine to keep going; to never quit. Resolute determination is paramount to continued progress when the going gets rough.

Discipline.

Diligence.

Determination.

The road to happiness demands all three attributes from anybody who hopes to find what they are looking for. Ignoring one diminishes the likelihood of enjoying happiness.

Don’t want to honor the disciplines it takes to achieve your happiness? Don’t be surprised your attempts end in frustration.

Don’t have the patience to spend much time doing what you need to do to be happy?

Don’t complain that it keeps eluding you.

Don’t have the fortitude to endure whatever challenges you might face on the road to happiness? Don’t expect to get where you want to go.

The most important thing you must remember about happiness is pursuing it will never produce it. It is a by-product of your focus on that which you most enjoy. Happiness is not an object one can put their hands on; not an achievement one can orchestrate.

It is the result of – the reward for – having pursued something more noble; something greater than your own comfort and convenience.

A HAPPIER YOU

In your search for happiness, you will know greater success if you find those few things that bring you joy, peace, contentment, and a sense of making a contribution to your world and those around you. When you give them the priority they deserve, you will need to practice each of the ‘3-Ds’: discipline, diligence, and determination.

Neglect any of them and you will ultimately find your expectations unmet and your desires unfulfilled. This will leave you feeling frustrated, unfulfilled, and disappointed; in other words, unhappy! This is not at all what you get out of bed for every day.

So what’s going to separate you from the billions of people around the globe who rush out the door in search of happiness when the sun comes up in the morning?

Well, that’s up to you.

If you get out of bed with a clear focus on a few priorities that really capture your heart and imagination, committed to doing whatever it takes to achieve them (discipline) each and every day (diligence) no matter what might get in your way (determination), you will see life take on a vivid intensity as if you were looking at it through stereoscopic glasses.

Life in 3-D! Does it get any better than that?

October 2015

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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.

October 2015

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Community

CIBOLO CREEK

By Delaney Young

We can thank medieval monks for a lot of things. They were inventors and improvers of the ancient practical arts like plowing fields and purifying metals. They rediscovered and preserved ancient Greek writings and manuscripts. These men saved Western Civilization from reverting back to complete barbarism, but one of the most important arts that they saved, improved, and greatly influenced is the art of crafting the most popular alcoholic beverage in the whole United States: beer.

graduate school, Wolosin landed a job in Austin working at Namaste Brewing, now called Kamala Brewing, at the Whip In (well known Austin brewery and restaurant). Not long after he started working at the Whip In, the brewery won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival and a silver medal at the World Beer Cup, two of the largest beer competitions in the world. Wolosin quickly made a name for himself in the beer world. “That basically put a stamp on me and the other brewer at the Whip In.”

Making and brewing beer has come a long way since 6th century A.D. Craft beer is a unique part of the American culture. This drink has grown into a thriving industry in America and a “comfort drink” that is made, served, and talked about every day. According to Ty Wolosin, “that’s part of beer’s history; a gathering place for the community.” Wolosin is the entrepreneurial founder of the newest addition to the Boerne beer scene, Cibolo Creek Brewing Company. The business is a work in progress and, according to Wolosin, “has kind of gone through a few iterations. It began once my family and I moved to Boerne. My wife’s family is from the area and I have brewing experience from when I lived in Austin. Initially, we played around with the idea of doing a production brewery, like Boerne Brewing, where you basically make your beer and ship it out in bottles, kegs, etc. That ended up being way more complicated than we wanted.”

Not only did Wolosin’s experience in Austin help him make a name for himself but it also helped him establish relationships that would prove invaluable. “Via my connections in Austin, I’m friends with a lot of guys who work for other beer companies around the country so I want to carry some other hard-to-get beer. Not a ton, but definitely a few taps.” Wolosin wants to set himself apart from the other bars and breweries in Boerne, and plans to use these connections to make Cibolo Creek Brewing unique. “The main idea is to have beer as the center point…. We’re definitely not trying to compete with our friends at 259 or Cypress Grille. Our current plans have the capability to brew six different styles of our own beer, so I think we’re going to focus on five for now. We also want to focus on Texas wines. We’ll have a small but nice collection of wine from Texas for people who don’t want beer, along with some cider.”

The couple moved to Boerne about a year ago and hit the ground running, brainstorming and looking for a piece of property. When a place opened up on Main Street earlier this year, Wolosin decided to focus on “what it is now going to be, with food and onsite consumption of our beer and maybe outside consumption eventually.”

In addition to brewing beer, Wolosin manages a sustainable meat distribution company.

He plans to incorporate this side of his business life into Cibolo Creek Brewing. The company, Windy Hill Foods, sells goat, lamb, beef, vegetables and eggs. Wolosin says that Windy Hill food products “will be integrated into the menu as well as some seasonal beers that have ingredients from farms, whether it’s spices or citrus from The Valley.” These products will be included on the menu to compliment the different beer selections, but will not be the main focus of Cibolo Creek Brewing. He envisions a very small and simple farm-to-table kind of menu.

Nancy Fitch and Shea Ash, founders of the Peach Tree Café, owned the house before Wolosin. This building, like several buildings on Main Street, has a long history of previous owners that can be traced back to the early 1900s. It was a home to several families from 1908 until 1982, when it was used as an office and, later, a restaurant.

For Boerne, this history makes the house very valuable. Because the house is over 100 years old, Wolosin can only renovate certain parts. “We can’t do much to the façade of the outside, because you have to go through the Boerne Historical Commission…. The biggest changes are going to happen in the back. There’s an addition that was done in the ‘70s, the bathroom and kitchen, that’s going to be torn down. There will be brand new bathrooms that are a little bigger. Where the kitchen is will be the bar, where the serving tanks are will be a new kitchen and then a brewery that stretches into the back parking lot.”

Wolosin learned how to make beer in graduate school at University of Montana. One of his peers in the geography program had some extra homebrew kits that he lent Wolosin. “We started with that, making really bad beer that we’d force our friends to try,” Wolosin says with a laugh. “Then, slowly but surely, we perfected it.” After

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Wolosin predicts that Cibolo Creek Brewing will be up and running by spring of 2016.

His mother- and father-in-law, co-owners of the company, see the company opening its 20th century Victorian-styled doors in early February next year. Regardless of the opening date, Wolosin and his family agree, “The main idea with this location is to have a gastro-pub type of environment for the city of Boerne that is definitely family friendly.

I have a 15 month old, my brother-in-law has a 10 and 12 year old, so we want everyone to be able to come here.”

The concept of Cibolo Creek Brewing Company is something Boerne has never seen before. Wolosin’s connection to the breweries in Austin, access to organic farmraised produce, and commitment to excellently crafted beer make Cibolo Creek Brewing a highly anticipated addition to Boerne’s Main Street.

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October 2015

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C 210.912.8221 | P 830.816.2288 F 830.816.5903 angela@smvtexas.com www.boernetexashomes.com

Bluebonnet Realty

SPIRITUAL

By Kendall D. Aaron There are about a million murder mystery shows on TV. Not of the “Matlock” kind, but of the true life mystery shows take the viewer through the entire experience of murder, trial, and ultimately verdict. They’re on the ID channel, Lifetime, the OWN network, etc. And of course, if it’s on a murder mystery show, it’s because the outcome is not clear until the end of the show.

They do not feature the “cut and dry” murders where the murderer is caught standing over his victim, but rather, they cover the murders where there a lot of loose ends and unanswered questions. And typically, there is very, very little evidence.

I’ve watched these types of shows for years, and maybe it’s because I’m getting soft in my old age, but I’m having a harder time stomaching them the more I watch. The questions they raise are rarely answered, but rest assured, in the 60 minute show, odds are that the defendant’s life is about to be destroyed.

Justice is fundamental to humans. When we or our loved ones have been wronged, we seek justice. We seek legal victories in our business deals that go wrong, we seek money when we have been defrauded, and when a family member is murdered or hurt, we seek the ultimate punishment for those accused: their physical lives.

But the fact that there dozens upon dozens of murder mystery shows goes to evidence that the accused may or may not always be the guilty party, and that there is considerable doubt and mystery. Detectives use advanced scientific techniques to secure evidence and test hypothesis, they interview as many witnesses as necessary, and quite often, they use good ol’ fashioned gut instinct. For whatever reason, they hone in on one person and begin to turn the screws on them to see if they’ll crack. They question answers to questions they’ve given, they find people that will comment on how the person behaved shortly after the murder, and they look to see if the surviving person was set to inherit any insurance money. And then they arrest the person, create a motive (be it money or marriage troubles), and toss them in jail.

Then, just like any good old episode of Perry Mason, attorneys from both sides put on a show of explaining why or why not the murder was committed by the accused. With a theory, some impressions by those around the accused, and with little else, 12 people are then sent back to the jury room to decide the accused’s fate.

And, as a Christian nation, I personally think we’ve lost our way when it comes to justice.

The concepts of grace, compassion, and devotion are dwindling away. For

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one, if you’ve been arrested for murder, 99% of the population instantly assumes you are guilty.

So the defense attorney is now arguing from a standpoint of proving their defendant innocent.

If your face is on the evening news while the newscaster says “John Smith was arrested for his wife’s murder last night….” then the majority of people shake their heads and say “I hope he burns.” The prosecutors create motives that may or may not have been proven, use witnesses that might hold a grudge against the accused, and simply create a hypothesis oftentimes.

And then they convict the defendant. And his life is over. And these shows will interview the damned from their jail cells after the trial, and they’ll still say “I’ll go to my grave knowing I didn’t kill that person.” And maybe they’re lying. I’m sure most people in jail would say they’re innocent. But maybe they’re not lying.

Maybe we’ve created a system where prosecutors advertise in their re-election campaigns their “conviction rates”. Maybe we’ve written laws where jurors aren’t allowed to hear integral parts of evidence because it wasn’t collected properly. This doesn’t mean it’s not evidence, it just means it can’t be shown to the very people determining guilt. Maybe we want justice so bad for the victim that we’d convict almost anyone that the prosecution put in front of us. We don’t want to send the family members home without justice, so we figure we’ll at least give them that.

But look at what it costs.

I think I’d much rather a guilty person go free than an innocent person to jail. And I mean that. No, I have never lost a loved one to violent crime, but I’d hope that I could stand by this statement if placed in that situation. Because, you see, I know the guilty party will pay for their crimes, whether it is in this lifetime, or the afterlife. I know that even if the guilty party goes free, there will still be judgement. And I know that I’ll experience my sense of justice accordingly. But perhaps man will not provide it; God will.

I pray for us as a society. We have created systems that yield considerable power over us (the legal system), and I pray that we direct that system toward one of justice, not conviction rates. I pray that we would seek justice, and not assume guilt. I pray that we would seek God’s wisdom, and not legal hijinks.

I pray that we would show compassion by having the strength to acquit those without mountains of evidence against them, and remember that God will dole out the justice appropriate.

And I pray that none of ever have to know what it feels like to seek that kind of justice. The only thing remaining from sin are lots and lots of victims.

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The Cibolo Nature Center and Farm is a community that passionately believes our brightest future is one lived in harmony with nature. Beginning with the Cibolo Creek, our aim is to ensure our natural treasures are not only protected, but thriving. To do this, we’re building a unique conservation model to protect our resources, study and learn from the natural world, teach and apply sustainable farming practices, and encourage the enjoyment and celebration of nature. We believe that our model is teachable and that our successes in the Cibolo Creek can be replicated in conservation efforts across the globe.

CELEBRATE Celebrate the Cibolo Annual Gala: Planting a Legacy Oct. 3 LEARN Fall Gardening Classes at the Herff Farm Oct. 3, 17, 23 PLAY CNC Little Explorers Program for Preschoolers Tuesdays at the CNC VOLUNTEER Second Saturday Volunteer Day of Service Oct. 10 For More Information Visit: Cibolo.org photo courtesy of Paul Mannikko

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OLD TIMER

OLD TIMER A few issues back I solved the City’s communication problems for them. The City is constantly whining because they vote for some new development, and then raise their hands in indignation when citizens begin flaming them publicly.

They whine, “But you didn’t come to the Council meetings!” and then they move onto their next vote. The problem, as any intelligent citizen can clearly see, is that we elected these officials to be our voice. They KNOW we don’t want more developments and apartments, but they allow them to come to town and then act confused when they experience the backlash from the citizens.

As such, I gave them 10 suggestions for how best they could communicate upcoming votes or issues so that the public was fully aware. Councilmen came by my porch, told me they actually liked several of the suggestions (not ALL of them were snarky) and then left.

I’ll be holding my breath to see any of them initiated.

Since I have now fixed their communication problems (only in theory, of course, as none will ever be utilized), I think that this month I will fix Boerne’s traffic issues.

SON DO YOU REALIZE YOU WERE ABOUT TO CRUSH THIS CUTE LITTLE MASS OF POOP AND FEATHERS BETTER KNOWN AS THE MAJESTIC DUCK!?

MOTION CAMERAS Have you noticed all of our fancy new stoplights? Yeah, they’re real purty. Well, if you look above each one, there are cameras facing in every direction. This terrified me initially as I thought they were red light cameras, but nope, they are motion cameras (I confirmed with TxDot).

They detect if a car is waiting, and if not, they can adjust and delay the timing of the lights. Do you know how many of them are actually on and working? Not many. Why? I have no damn clue. But sit at River Road and watch as the light is turned green for the lanes with no cars in it. It’s cute. And boy, does it piss me off. Utilize the technology we have, guys.

AN EXIT FOR 46E Most of the development in town is happening on 46E. Herff Ranch, Esperanza, The Woods of Boerne, etc…all of it is happening over there. The River Road and Esser intersection is going to eternally be a nightmare. They should create a road that connects from the Boerne Stage Road exit and then carve a path out to Highway 46, east of the high school. Residents could then get off the freeway, and then turn left on 46E to come back to the developments, completely eliminating the congestion at Esser/River. We don’t own the land to do this? Who gives a damn! They just used imminent domain to do the ridiculous Esser Road cluster, so why could they not do it for this one? My idea would actually FIX something.

BAN ALL BIG RIGS ON MAIN STREET This should be a no-brainer. There is virtually no reason than an 18-wheeler should be on Main Street ever.

Make them take a scenic route to their destinations.

They clog up the roads, they are noisy as heck and are so very dangerous for what is supposed to be a pedestrian friendly area. I cringe at the thought of a youngster darting out between two parked cars all the time. City folks are going to tell you something stupid like “TxDot controls the road”, but I don’t care. Fix it. Make this happen.

TURN ARROWS At the intersection of Rosewood and Main is a light. For eons, the light gave you a dedicated left turn arrow. Maybe a year ago, they turned that off. Now the poor schlub who is trying to turn left must lock up the entire left lane while he patiently waits for the rare break in traffic to turn.

Why do we do stupid shit like this?

Why?! It boggles my mind.

TRAFFIC COPS We have cops. Let’s use ‘em. There are several lights that lock up badly during peak times. Why not have a cop out there helping out? He could control the lights and let one go for longer so as to alleviate the congestion.

When there are 4 cars deep heading south on Main, and it’s 500 deep on River, why not have a cop out there to help? It’s only for a few hours and would help so very much.

There ya have it – does it fix every traffic issue we have? Nope, but it’s a damn good start. Will a single idea I have be utilized by City staff? Absolutely not. What can you do to help? Attend a Council meeting and complain about it, but you don’t know when the meetings are, do you? Nor do I.

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