DECEMBER 2015
Welcome to Boerne
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Bluebonnet Realty
FOR SALE - $375,000 - 4 bedroom, 4 bath in Woods of Frederick Creek. 3000+s.f. of liviing area and bonus room could be 5th bedroom. Also for lease $3050/mo.
FOR LEASE - $2400 - GREAT VIEW! 8 Acres. 3 bed, 2 bath home in Friendly Hills. Also for sale, $385,000
FOR LEASE - $2900 - 5 bedroom, 3.5 bath plus large game/family room in Trails of Herff Ranch.
FOR LEASE - $4200 - Cordillera Ranch exclusive gated 4 bed 3.5 bath, heated pool/spa, outdoor entertainment center on 4.37 acres
FOR LEASE - $2600 - SW Style 3 bed, 2 ba home on 3 acs, barn, and 1800 s.f. metal building with 2 bays.
FOR LEASE - $1500 - 3 bed, 2 bath. Fresh paint new floors updated kitchen and more with large fenced yard convenient to Main Street.
FOR LEASE - $1700 - 3 bed, 2 ba rock 1878 s.f. home on 2 acs in Pleasant Valley. New flooring, fixtures, etc.
FOR LEASE - $1400 - 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
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w w w. c o m p l e t e g e n t . c o m
DECEMBER
Explore what's inside this issue!
10 From the Publisher 12 Calendar
28 LIFE
38 Spiritual
30 LEGEND
40 Holiday events
There is always hope
I AM A HYPOCRITE
Bill Zaner
14 TROUBADOUR
600 MILES FROM HOME
42 COMMUNITY
Boerne performing arts presents the 10 tenors
18 The art of
CRaftsmanship
Andy Rawls and his passion.
Publisher Benjamin D. Schooley ben@hillcountryexplore.com Operations Manager Michelle Hans michelle@smvtexas.vom Creative Director Benjamin N. Weber ben.weber@smvtexas.com Assistant Creative Director Kayla Davisson kayla@smvtexas.com ADVERTISING SALES 210-507-5250 sales@hillcountryexplore.com
46 OLD TIMER
8 types of people you will encounter this holiday season and how to defeat them
34 Charity
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
An inconvenient moment of truth
22 History History of boerne Chapter 9
When God calls, you answer.
Contributing Writers
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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, The day that I graduated from college, I was on the phone with my professor. I said, “Look man, my folks are in the car RIGHT NOW driving up here to watch me graduate. Am I about to have a very awkward day or what?” He sighs and says, “Son, I don’t think you passed.” Pleading, I said, “PLEASE tell me I passed. You are the last class I need. I am terrible at math, but don’t keep me in college over a few points.” Finally, he relented and said, “Fine. I’ll give you a D.” With that, the happy dance ensued in my one bedroom apartment in Lubbock.
However, when we fall and our hands hit the ground, we often find pebbles. I speak of failed relationships and math struggles, but I will confess that my pockets are full of pebbles. When you have enough pebbles, the burden can get heavy. Being heavy with math struggles is one thing, but being heavy in the heart is an entirely different matter.
I’m not sure where or when I decided that I was terrible at math, but I picked up that pebble somewhere and have run with it my entire life. From middle school through high school, on to college, and even to my desk today…I have always joked that I stink at math so somebody else better be doing the hard calculations for me. I have told myself this for so long that it’s as true as the Bible to me.
So maybe the entire issue is one of determining what we deserve. This invariably differs from person to person, but I do believe that it’s probably the most important element in the discussion. What do you deserve in life? You might say “Easy – to be happy!” but if you get real honest, you might confess that you only deserve to be a particular amount of happy. You only deserve a certain amount of satisfaction in your life, because if you were TOO happy, then it would be because you had forgotten your previous failures and sins. For example, I’ll confess that I will probably tell myself that I don’t deserve a totally fulfilling romantic relationship because I have such a poor history with them. If I were to find myself completely immersed in a relationship that was darn near perfect, I would actually feel GUILTY because I had failed previously. So is being happy really what you deserve?
But is it? I can look around and see that I utilize spreadsheets today (that I created) with some pretty complex calculations. I have a variety of budgets, financial forecasts, and tax strategy information. All of it is pretty darn heavy with math. So am I really bad at math, or is it simply something I have told myself so many times that it has become a fact in my head?
Just my humble opinion, but I believe that YES, being happy is truly what you deserve… but only if you will seek it and allow it to happen. So frequently we sabotage our own journey to find it, and even if we do find it, we squash it back down under the illusion that we don’t deserve it enough.
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Friends, the pebbles get heavy. I tell people all the time that are struggling with failures and struggles to just let go of that baggage, embrace the future, and enjoy the journey. And then I realize that I can’t take my own advice at times. We ALL struggle with taking the same advice we dish out.
I read this quote this morning and have been aggressively unpacking it as it caused my heart to hurt. Via a variety of experiences, I have come to believe that there is no greater devil than the lies that we tell ourselves. The damage that those lies do to our hearts can span the entirety of our lifetimes, and absolutely transform the stories of our lives. Sure, the origin of these lies can come from others via hateful words, but it’s up to us for how we receive those words and what we do with them.
As I turn the pages on the chapters of my life, I’m feverishly trying to empty my pockets of pebbles. There are so many. I’m working so hard to remind myself of what I deserve, and I’m trying to listen to God as He encourages me. I’m trying. The point of perhaps every Publisher’s Letter I’ve ever written is to simply explore the ways in which we all relate, and I know that so many of you are struggling with similar issues, as I have seen your pockets full of pebbles. May we all seek to provide the advice that we struggle to accept, to encourage happiness on others even when we resist receiving it, and may we all understand that there is no ceiling to the happiness that we all deserve.
The class in question: Remedial Freshman Math. I was a 5th year Senior. It took me 3 tries to pass the class.
Where did I decide that I was terrible at math? I really don’t remember, but I’m sure that somewhere along the line, someone told me that I struggle with math. I internalized this, and here I sit at 40 years of age, still laughing about how bad I am at math. Yet I’m not sure that I really am. Let’s get deeper. Last month I told you that I was a recently divorced guy. The truth is that I’m the recently TWICE divorced guy. Some might laugh and say “Hey, no big deal Ben! Better things to come! Who cares, anyway?!” but in reality, I’m very sad about both to this day. I never wanted to be divorced, much less TWICE divorced. This is not the way my verse, chapter, and book were to be written. I should have my 2.5 kids, white picket fence, trophy wife and the house in the ‘burbs with an American flag on my porch. I should be leading my Sunday School class, volunteering weekly at a soup kitchen, and be an absolute pillar of the community. Yet, here I sit and I have spent more hours than I’ll ever confess mourning the losses via these relationships, and they upset me to this day, and might always. My life was changed because of them, and I assign myself an extraordinary amount of blame, regardless of if I should or not. So the things that you begin to tell yourself when looking at the wreckage behind you is that you DESERVE the wreckage. I’m a crappy husband. I’m too controlling, selfish, codependent, and emotional…and because of these terrible flaws, I got what was coming to me. I have two broken marriages that I flog myself over because surely, SURELY, I’m the one to blame. As I move forward in my life now, I struggle as I see myself making decisions as a person with so little confidence and self-esteem because I’m so busy condemning myself to unhappiness due to my myriad of sins. Should I take all the blame, pick up that pebble and carry it with me for the rest of my life? Should you do that with your failures, bad chapters, and struggles in your life? Should your mistakes and weaknesses become the very things that define who you are today?
We are all flawed people, but the flaws can become the lies that we tell ourselves and limit the happiness we can achieve. If you tell yourself the lie enough, it will become part of you and can alter the course of your life in negative ways. Redefine the truth that is YOU, and really re-write the story of your life as you find all the happiness that you seek. Despite our failures. Despite our struggles. And despite the wreckage that is on the road behind us all. Welcome to December. As we close the books on the year that was, may you see the journey ahead as limitless, rewarding, and full of everything that you truly deserve. And may you be so happy you forget you’ve ever been any other way. Smiling, Benjamin D. Schooley
ben@hillcountryexplore.com
I see God in my children all the time. I kneel down to their level and tell them that they can do ANYTHING. No matter the struggle, be it school, sports, aspirations, or bullies…I tell them that there is nothing that they are incapable of doing or accomplishing. When they fail, I encourage them forward and try to ensure that they find no pebbles. I know that if I love my children this much and would take a bullet for them without hesitation, how much must God love me, and what is He trying to tell me when I, as a grown man, have the same insecurities and negative thoughts that my young children do? I can only imagine that He is there beside us all as we stumble, and He is clapping His hands and encouraging, “C’mon! You can do it! I believe in you! I love you!” and we slowly get our footing and trudge onward.
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
DECEMBER
Get out and enjoy the great Texas Hill Country! The most comprehensive events calendar. Send submissions to info@hillcountryexplore.com BANDERA December 1 Cowboy Capital Opry Features Grand Old Opry-style entertainment hosted by Gerry and Harriet Payne. Silver Sage Community Center, 803 Buck Creek. www.silversagecorral.org December 4 Shoppers’ Jubilee Features a live Nativity, caroling, Christmas program and shopping. Downtown. www.banderatexasbusiness.com December 6 Frontier Times Museum Cowboy Camp Enjoy traditional cowboy music, or bring your own guitar and join in the song circle. Frontier Times Museum, 510 13th St. www. frontiertimesmuseum.org
BOERNE December 2 Enchanted Springs Ranch Chuck Wagon Dinner Enjoy a meal, stroll through an Old West town and take a wagon ride through the Wild Animal Park. Enchanted Springs Ranch. www.visitboerne.org December 13 Boerne Concert Band Christmas Concert Begins at 6 p.m. Boerne High Auditorium. www.visitboerne.org December 17 The Ten Tenors: Home for the Holidays Boerne Champion Auditorium, 201 Charger Blvd. www.visitboerne.org
CANYON LAKE December 10-12, 17-19 North Pole Village Enjoy the magic of the North Pole with a stroll through Santa’s Village, where children can enjoy activities at the church, bakery and a hayride to Bethlehem. CRRC Rec Center (below the dam), 125 Mabel Jones Drive. www.crrcofcanyonlake.org December 12 Parade of Lights on the Lake Begins at 6 p.m. Canyon Lake. www.canyonlakechamber.com
CASTROVILLE December 4-5 Old-Fashioned Christmas More than 250 craft and food vendors merge on Houston Square for a festival holiday market that also includes live entertainment, visits with Santa. Hours are 6-10 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Saturday. Houston Square, 611 Madrid. www.castroville.com
DRIPPING SPRINGS December 5 Christmas on Mercer Annual celebration features arts and crafts, food vendors, children’s activities, entertainment and pictures with Santa. The town tree lighting is at dusk. Downtown Historical District, Mercer Street. www.cityofdrippingsprings.com
FREDERICKSBURG December 1-January 2 Eisbahn Outdoor Ice Skating This annual seasonal outdoor ice skating event benefits The Heritage School and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Marktplatz. www.skateinfred.com December 4 First Friday Art Walk Tour fine art galleries offering demonstrations, refreshments and Various locations. www.ffawf.com
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special exhibits, extended hours.
December 4 Light the Night Christmas Parade and AfterGlow Main Street and Marktplatz. www.lightthenightchristmasparade.com December 5 Holiday Home Tour Self-guided tour includes seven unique homes that have been decorated in their finest for the holidays. Various locations. www.pioneermuseum.net/holiday-home-tour.php December 7 Pearl Harbor Day Observance Recognition and memorial program includes speakers, chaplain, Joint Color Guard, music and more. National Museum of the Pacific War. www.pacificwarmuseum.org December 11-20 “A Tuna Christmas” The colorful residents of Tuna, Texas, are competing in the annual Christmas lawn display contest when a mysterious Christmas Phantom wreaks havoc on the elaborate decorations. Steve W. Shepherd Theater, 1668 U.S. 87 S. www.fredericksburgtheater.org December 18-20 Fredericksburg Trade Days Shop with more than 350 vendors in seven barns, acres of antiques, biergarten, live music and more. Across from Wildseed Farms. www.fbgtradedays.com December 31 Luckenbach New Year’s Eve Celebration Usher in the new year with a party and live music by Thomas Michael Riley. Luckenbach Dance Hall. www. luckenbachtexas.com
GRUENE December 5 Pony Express Ride A Pony Express rider from the Heritage Trail Ride Association of New Braunfels arrives with Christmas greetings from the governor of Texas at 10 a.m., and a temporary post office is set up to cancel stamps for mailing—bring your Christmas cards. Gruene Historic District. www.gruenetexas.com December 5 Town Lighting Gruene closes out the day’s festivities with a brass band street performance at 5 p.m. Then at 6 p.m., Cowboy Kringle rides into town on horseback to light up the town and hand out candy canes to children. Gruene Historic District. www.GrueneTexas.com
KERRVILLE December 1 Christmas Walk Experience the Christmas story on a journey that takes participants to short programs at St. Peter’s, First Baptist, First Presbyterian, First Assembly and Notre Dame churches. Hours are 5:30–8:30 p.m. Various locations. December 4 First Friday Wine Share Meet new people and try new wines at this fun and friendly event at a different location each month. Bring one bottle of wine per two people and your wine glass. Begins at 6 p.m. Depot Square. www.storkcountry.com
December 4 “A Night in Who-Ville” Children enjoy games, face painting, interacting with real Who-people and a screening of the animated “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” movie. Kerrville-Schreiner Park. www.kerrvilletx.gov December 6 Mickey Gilley in Concert Country music legend and original “Urban Cowboy” Mickey Gilley performs with his band. Cailloux Theater, 910 Main St. www.caillouxtheater.com December 12 “The Kingston Trio” This show brings the traditional Kingston Trio sound, plus holiday favorites, to make Christmas time special. Cailloux Theater. www.caillouxtheater.com December 19 Kerr County Market Days Old-fashioned market on the square features handmade crafts, artwork and homegrown plants and produce. Hours are 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Kerr County Courthouse, 700 Main St. www.kerrmarketdays.org December 19 White Christmas in the Hills Kerrville School of Dance and San Antonio Performing Arts Classical Ballet present a colorful Christmas program. Begins at 7 p.m. Cailloux Theater, 910 Main St.
LUCKENBACH December 19 Luckenbach Christmas Ball Annual dance features Gary P. Nunn. Luckenbach Dance Hall. www.luckenbachtexas.com
MARBLE FALLS November 20-January 1 Walkway of Lights Enjoy a self-paced walk through a winter wonderland with more than 250 lighted displays on the banks of Lake Marble Falls. The walk is approximately a quarter-mile long and is handicap friendly. Open from 6–10 p.m. nightly, weather permitting. Santa is available for pictures on the weekends. Lakeside Park, 307 Buena Vista. www.walkwayoflightstx.com
WIMBERLEY December 1-29 Trail of Lights Stroll a walking path with more than 100 lighted exhibits, roast marshmallows and enjoy live entertainment. Open daily, 6–9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 6–10 p.m. FridaySaturday. EmilyAnn Theatre and Gardens, 1101 F.M. 2325. www.emilyann.org December 5 Wimberley Lions Market Day Stroll along a shaded path to more than 475 booths filled with a wide variety of arts, crafts, antiques, gift items, clothing and more. Wimberley Lions field. www.ShopMarketDays.com December 12 Second Saturday Gallery Trail More than a dozen galleries offer wine, snacks and art displays from 4–7 p.m. Wimberley Square. www.wimberleyarts.org
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
Cy Torgerson, Proprietor/Instructor
Give the Gift that Lasts a Lifetime
The Gift of Music!! ROCK • BLUES • FOLK COUNTRY • AMERICANA Learn to play what you enjoy!
Teaching over 1,400 students since 2001!
265 N. Main #C • Boerne, Texas 78006
830.249.9931
www.thebohemianguitarplayer.com “When you encourage the love of music, you are giving a gift that will last a lifetime!”
518 River Road, Boerne, TX www.littlegretel.com
830-331-1368 December 2015
www.hillcountryexplore.com
13
TROUBADOUR
600 MILES FROM HOME: Part 2
14
By Rene Villanueva
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
We’d made it into the diner only seconds before it really began to pour. In a few minutes, the rain filled the street, overwhelmed the gutter, and crept over the sidewalk. Normally I love a flash flood…maybe because it’s a very South Texas thing, to suddenly go from a beautiful day to 10 minutes of intense rain. The crack of an Earth-shaking, chest pounding thunder, and the way lightning spreads out its wild, illuminated fingers through the sky…so primordial and anciently terrifying, touching down into some instinctual part of me. And then nothing…as if it never was. That day my stomach was having too rough of a time to enjoy any of it. A mixture of travel exhaustion and late-night drinking had me queasy, making the storm feel unsettling instead of romantically melancholy. Looking through the menu of a New Orleans greasy spoon wasn’t helping either.
All day. Every day. For months. For years. Again and again. Without driving each other crazy. All focused. All giving more than they are asked. All willing to sacrifice again and again. My brothers and I have been through so much I don’t think you could find a tighter band. We don’t always agree, and it isn’t perfect or easy, but we have a way of finding a compromise, of fighting it out and moving on. My drink order came. It was a lukewarm can and one of those cheap, thick plastic cups that still felt hot, like it was just pulled out of the dishwasher, filled with crushed ice. I like that I know the cup is freshly clean, but the heat makes for a weird taste. At least I had the ice.
I think I would have just gone somewhere else had it not been so torrential at the moment. The place looked like some weird version of Al’s Diner. Our server - paper hat, apron, and all - was going down our line of bar-stools collecting drink orders on his notepad. I was being indecisive. My eyes couldn’t even find where to start. The menu was looking like a blur of black letters, red lines, and poorly lit photos of unappetizing food. He started with the others, “What can I get you man?” He had a voice 15 decibels too loud for my head. He was energized, enthusiastic, and trying hard to be friendly. I guess to cover the fact that he was a fighter. Intimidating in size and height, with a cauliflower ear, knuckles flat as a board, left eyebrow scar, and speech slurred and spacey. He easily weighed something close to two and a half musicians combined. “Coffee.”
“Got tired of waiting outside?” The server yelled at them, “Might as well grab a drink my man. I’ll getcha.”
“Coffee.” Damn that went fast. My turn. “My man, coffee like your friends?” “Uh... no...” I could feel my stomach knot, and the weird feeling of having to swallow when there’s nothing there. “Diet Coke.” He laughed, “I gotcha. I gotcha. This guy needs me to turn down the lights!” Ugh. He yelled it, but I don’t think anyone noticed over the pan-slapping, yelling, and sizzling noises coming from the fry cooks. Conversation was light. Partly because of my state, though I wasn’t the only one feeling off, and partly because I was still finding my way into the group. Fred was looking for the best vegetarian option that wasn’t like another omelet we had only a few hours before we went to sleep. Dave was getting menu recommendations. I halfheartedly debated what meal was least likely to come back up - between a burger and the house special (a piled on mountain of a sandwich recommended to Dave by our waiter) - while my mind wandered off about this… It’d been a while since I played with completely new people. It’d been a while since I had been thrown in to socialize with completely new people. A new band. How weird it is to start one. How hard it is to find people I like, much less play with, or start a business together. Besides musical chemistry, which is rare and difficult enough to find, you need to be able to hang with the members.
December 2015
Two men came into the restaurant, shoes sloshing and umbrellas dripping by the door.
“It just won’t stop.” They laughed, grabbed a bar-stool a few spaces down from us, and started on about the weather as the server did his same loud routine for the new customers. I turned to Fred, “What you decide?” “Omelet,” he sighed. “Goin’ for two,” I laughed as he shrugged. Fred tossed me a what-about-you look.” “Ugh... hamburger I guess? I dunno.” I think I burned through two glasses of water and a diet coke before I even ordered. And the rain fell harder. And the smells of grease and meat came out from the kitchen. And the sounds of the two new customers ordering, the server still yelling, and the cooks laughing and dropping pans. And all my thoughts spinning. The first show was that night. The real fire. Being thrown into a new band, with its own history and methods, I was still finding my boundaries and my place. Rehearsals. Drinking. Late night Jazz bars and omelets. Hangover lunches. All bringing us a little closer together. But that night will make it happen or not. The music can make us, and it doesn’t matter who we are or what we were. On stage, we are together, forced to make something happen or fail trying. And just like that, the rain stopped.
www.hillcountryexplore.com
15
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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
December 2015
www.hillcountryexplore.com
17
ART OF
By Ben Schooley :: Photo By West Vita
For Andy Rawls, owner of Andy Rawls Fine Texas Woodcraft, the art of Craftsmanship is something he is extremely passionate about. Utilizing old-world classic techniques to construct beautiful heirloom furniture, Rawls has quickly built a reputation as one of the area’s most skilled craftsmen. Rawls originally attended Baylor, and ultimately gained a degree in Telecommunications where he intended to go into film, web, and graphic design. While in college, he would work with his dad back home in his very small shop constructing furniture for his apartment, though it wasn’t something he necessarily saw as a business. After a brief stint in Mexico setting up a Spanish language program, Rawls was back home and a bit listless with his career path. Rawls explains, “As I was finishing my degree, I took some classes at Homestead Heritage where they had classes for skills like blacksmith, furniture, pottery, etc. There were no power tools and it’s all hand tool driven, classic skills. Their woodworking school is very well known. I went there and took several classes under Paul Sellars. I took a rocking chair class, Windsor chair class…but what was so cool is that you learn the super-traditional approach to creation. They teach you the techniques to create the stuff in the best way. Up until then, I had just been buying 2x4s and screwing them together.” As Rawls was determining his next move career-wise, and with some woodworking skills in place, he began considering furniture creation as a viable business idea. With the idea in mind, he began to hone his skills. “After Mexico, I had the idea of furniture. I had moved back home and got an apprenticeship in Kentucky with a chair maker. It was just a summer but I learned so much. He incorporated a lot of the techniques I had learned and I was able to see how to turn the processes into a viable business. I moved back to Waco after the summer with a small shop that was very basic. I was working part time and just doing the furniture on the side. I had no work, and it was right around 2008 when the economy was just terrible, and it was a total bust.” With a floundering business, Rawls began looking for a new direction. “After a year or so, I was super burned out and was tired of just getting dragged around. You realize how hard business can be. I was bouncing the idea of becoming a certified Arborist and putting woodworking behind, but then I met Emily (wife) who was from Boerne. We were in a similar state of being burned out and she had just moved back to Boerne. So one day I packed up everything I had and moved to Boerne. After our marriage, my father in law set me up at Catterton Woodworks here in town. I went to work with him for 3 years, and mostly what he does is custom doors for some of the nicer homes in the area. Brent (Catterton) was a great influence on me as a mentor. I gained so much confidence working with him and realizing that I could handle most any situation with the woodworking, when before I was focused mostly on furniture.” In January of 2012, Andy Rawls Fine Texas Woodcraft was born. Housed in the quaint garage located behind Beatitude on Blanco Road, Rawls began using his skills and talents to create his passion, fine heirloom furniture. Rawls is quite philosophical about his work, and it shows. “The antiques we have now that have been around 100 or more years were created in a traditional way. The joinery, the materials, and the construction methods were ones that aren’t used today. The modern way has eliminated a lot of those techniques to maximize profitability. So we rarely have heirloom furniture anymore, but those old techniques are proven. You can look at the dovetail work on some of the stuff that is heirloom, and you can quickly see why it’s constructed the way that it is. It’s beautiful, and you become intimate with the materials when you are working with hand tools. You get a better feel for how things work. I think there’s so much more value in the craftsmanship – when you look at the craftsmanship nowadays, it’s less important, it’s more about design. We as craftsmen…when we work, the end results are not pre-determined. It has to do with my skills and my judgment, and the materials I’m working with. With modern stuff, every item is the same. It’s mass-produced. I think It’s important for our culture and our surroundings to put more value in the workmanship than we do currently. When you buy big box furniture, most of it will end up in the landfill. It’s not stuff you’re going to pass down generations. Craftsmen can make things that are durable and will outlast our lifetimes, and that process is important as I feel that it connects the generations. It becomes priceless.” Currently producing 40-50 pieces a year, Rawls is quickly building a reputation via word of mouth. While a custom hand-crafted dining room table might run anywhere from $1500 to $5500, Rawls is working to educate people on his techniques while still remaining competitive. As he has limited capacity for a one-man operation, he is working to not only increase that capacity via a new showroom under construction on Sisterdale Highway, but he is also attempting to give back. “I’d really like to start bringing on apprentices. That process of teaching is hugely rewarding to me. There were so many people that helped me, and I want to be able to do that for others and teach them what true craftsmanship looks like.”
www.andyrawls.com | 254-913-6237 | andy@andyrawls.com
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
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HISTORY
HISTORY OF BOERNE: PArt 9
By Marjorie Hagy
Wilkommen to Chapter Nine
of our complete and total, exhaustive and exhausting, everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know history of Boerne, Texas! Can you believe this has been going on for nine months now?! When I started this way back in March, I thought it’d probably take about three months! But you know how I love to talk and go into excruciating detail and run off down a rabbit hole here and there, so this whole thing has taken a little longer than I thought. Today we’ve finally reached the new century, 1900, the Fin de siècle as the French say, referring to the turn of a new century, and the closing and opening of eras. It was Boerne’s heyday, and a good time to live in this little alpine village with the life-giving ozone.
What a hot time in the old town it was! As the clock rolled over to 1900, Boerne was right in the middle of its boom. The Resort Era was in full swing and people were flocking to this hub of the “Texas Alps” to be cured of tuberculosis, to breathe deeply of the mountain ozone, to take the waters of the sulphur springs, to see and be seen hob-nobbing with the big names and celebrities, the fashionable elite who fanned themselves and lolled becomingly on the wide verandas of the local hotels or cruised Main in their hansom cabs. Since the earliest years – the 1860s – Dr. Ferdinand Herff had been sending his lung cases to Boerne, and business had really taken off in the late 1880s when the SA&AP Railroad had finally come to town. Now at the beginning of the new century, this little town was hopping. Not everybody was coining money though – typical of the Gilded Era, there was the abjectly poor of Boerne, many of whom lived over the rope bridge in the Flats. Those blackand brown-skinned citizens who would always come last on any social or economic ranking, worked building the hotels and the new houses and in rebuilding Main Street after the disastrous fire of 1908. They did the laundry, and worked in the kitchens and the dining rooms of the inns, and some of them even took ill and died when they finished the plates of the poor consumptives who sent their meals back half-eaten. The poor will always be among us, in the last Gilded Age as in the present one. The big difference being that in 1900, the poor and minorities here in Boerne could be shunted off to a certain part of town, and it was perfectly legal and acceptable to segregate them. Whereas these days you have to use code words like ‘affordable housing’ when referring to ‘those people’ – oh and I am one of those people who cannot afford – so therefore do not deserve to live in Boerne anymore? Ah, well. Progress. There were inns and swank hotels all over town, as well as lower-rent boarding houses for the sufferer who had moved to Boerne indefinitely, to either get cured or die trying in the precious mountain air. They said that at one time or another every single house had at least one boarder who had something to do with the health industry. There were nurses and doctors and the families of consumptives, but the most frequent lodger was the poor ‘lunger’ himself and this, curiously, affected the signature architecture of the time.
vate home that grew into a boarding house gained porches, upstairs and down, circling the house, so that each boarder had his own place to sit and breathe. Every room at every expensive hotel had its own porch space – so ask your authentic builder what he knows about porches. Oh, and mention to him or her that those old Germans preferred to plaster over their authentic hill country limestone, because they thought that plain old rock made their houses look poor. How tastes change! It was during this wildly prosperous time, in 1904, that Boerne became electrified. Imagine that! Power was provided by San Antonio Public Services Company, and suddenly all those chandeliers in all those fancy hotels went from twinkling candle and gaslight to blazing Edison bulbs, and voila! Suddenly there was a social scene in this new after-dark culture. But this Boerne society was a closed one, not kind or accepting at all to newcomers and outsiders. Ah yes, by the first decade of the twentieth century when Boerne found itself in her salad days, all the townspeople had had fifty, sixty years to turn inward on itself, and to decide who was whom in these parts, and who was definitely not. All those years, the Ammanns, Theis’, and Wollschlaegers had been intermingling and intermarrying and closing ranks. The Vogts and Bergmanns, and Grahams had been living in each other’s pockets, and this had become a much closed society, very standoffish to newcomers not seasoned by a half a century or so of vetting. Stanley Stein (formerly Sidney Levyson of Boerne), crusader, journalist, Jew, and easily the most famous resident of US Marine Hospital #66, the National Leprosarium of the United States, once recalled his own mother’s ill-fated attempt to find friendship when she and her family came to town in 1904, the same year as electricity. Stanley’s mother was a native-born German and since, as Stanley pointed out, ‘many of the townspeople were first-generation Germans, my mother was delighted to be among them,’ but the feeling was by no means mutual. ‘My mother,’ he said ’cried herself in secret over the refusal of her supposed fellow-countrymen to make friends with the Juden.’ It wasn’t just the fact of the Levyson’s Jewishness that kept poor Mrs. Levyson out of the loop. Newcomers and outsiders settling in their midst have found themselves on the wrong side of old Boerne’s hospitality ever since the beginning.
Nowadays, home builders advertise themselves as building ‘authentic’ Hill Country style homes, and I’ve noticed that by that they seem to mean lots of cedar beams and limestone…that kind of thing. But Boerne’s resort years had a lasting influence on home styles, so that the ‘typical’ house in these parts had its own authentic Boerne look. See, it was the open-air method of treatment that all the doctors espoused who were sending their White Death patients to Boerne. That cure consisted of lots of rest, plenty of good food, and even more good-bracing mountain air. A railroad pamphlet of 1894 explained why the air around Boerne was so great: ‘The reason the air is so conducive to the cure of diseased lungs is described as being caused by the trade winds which, for a period of perhaps eight months in the year, blow from the coast passing over a wide stretch of mostly dry country, but covered with mesquite, a species of mimosa. The resinous odors from mesquite, as from the pine, have a curative effect in all diseases of the lungs, which with the bracing air found upon reaching Kendall County, restores the wasted tissues and brings new life to the wasted form and red blood to the cheeks.’ This is the idea – that all of that air, blowing off the Gulf of Mexico, gusts inland along the route of Hwy 37, over all those miles and miles of mesquite brush, picking up all those healthful qualities and finally running into the mountain air in Boerne where it all gets mixed up together and collects in the little bowl of the Cibolo Valley. There it would just sit, waiting for people to breathe it in.
I swear to you, when my own family appeared in Boerne in 1974 it wasn’t easy even then to bust my way into fifth grade society. One girl nastily called me out on the playground, in front of the whole class, with this particular ‘Gotcha!’ zinger: ‘Oh yeah?? Then where is Bleu Boy??’ which I cleverly sidestepped with the ol’ ‘Of course I know but I don’t hafta tell you’ ploy. After I found out what Bleu Boy was, I referenced it pretty frequently within her earshot, but disappointingly she didn’t seem to care after that.
So here were these poor people, down with tuberculosis, pale as ghosts and all of their energy sapped by the constant coughing. That’s why TB used to be seen as such a romantic kind of disease, a lot of languishing specters on chaise lounges thinking up touching deathbed scenes – but the reality was more like hacking until you coughed up blood and your ribs broke. So what the sufferer’s life looked like, on any given day, was whatever breakfast they could get down followed by the rest of the daylight hours spent lying on a chair outside their door, breathing in the life-saving air. Their job, their whole life, their only chance of possibly getting better and getting off that chair to walk away and live someday, was sitting on that porch, sucking in the air.
Kendall County threw the first county fair in those flourishing years, in 1906 to be exact. Boy, that’s when a county fair was something! I don’t think we can ever truly appreciate, today, what the fair meant in the lives of the country people in those long-ago days. Not when we have cars, good roads, and TVs and all that, and the technology right in your pocket to talk to anybody, anywhere in the world. Kendall County is a big old place, and if in 1906, you lived in some far-flung corner of it, twenty or thirty miles from the county seat over rough roads in a wagon drawn by mules or horses or by an ox-team, having to cross a couple of rivers on the way, then I bet you’d know how important a trip to the county fair was. For a kid in that wagon, your dad would be leading along the best of his livestock, all combed and washed up, your mom carrying a bunch of baked goods in baskets with items she had sewn by hand, some of the best veggies from her garden. Your dad would be dragging along a sample of his wheat or his cotton to show, and on the other end of the trip were more people than you may have ever seen at one time. There’d be tables where
So how did the Resort Era affect the look of Boerne houses then? Simply that there were porches simply everywhere, more than in other Hill Country German town, because the principal industry all those years was healing those poor folks of consumption. Every pri-
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Anyway, new people – and that’s all there seem to be anymore – gripe and complain about how they’re treated nowadays. Y’all should’ve been around in the late 1970s, early 1980s when that particular crop of new people got tired of being shut out of all the fun and created their own group called the Newcomers. They had BBQs and parties and all kinds of fun, drinking California Coolers, not giving a hoot, and generally flipping the bird at the old guard. Of course all the old poops hated them. You know, the more things change around here, the more they stay the same – and when you get old like me, you’ll know that’s true of the whole world. Course, by then you’ll also be old enough and wise enough to know that none of that matters – all that old high school crap about what group you want to be seen with – and you’ll hopefully have long discovered the value of your own weird friends and the overwhelming freedom of just being whoever the hell you want to be.
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
they sold candy, and pens set up filled with pigs and goats and Lord knows what all. There’d be dancing inside the Vanderstratton Opera Hall, and a parade. That county fair would be the one event you’d look forward to from one end of the year to the next. The first several years, they held it at the old Vanderstratton Opera House on the southeast corner of Main Street and San Antonio. In 1913, good ol’ Dr. Ferdinand Herff and five of his sons – Adolph, Charles A., John, August, and Willie – presented forty acres of their enormous ranch to the Kendall County Fair Association for use as fairgrounds. Since then, the Fair has been held out at Herff Park.
1918 Snowfall
And somewhere in there, Boerne was finally incorporated in 1909, becoming a city and having grown out of that little handful of cabins along the military road, somewhere in a forest next to the creek. Sixty years after those eight starryeyed, idealistic young radicals from Germany first set stakes next to the Cibolo Creek at Tusculum with wildly, hopeful dreams of building the perfect society in this spot in Texas, Boerne officially became a town. William Willke, druggist, was its first mayor. We had the railroad and we had the telephone, we had electricity and at least eight hotels, and we were known as a fashionable resort town all over the world. In 1900, Kendall County had 542 farms, and in the last twenty years the average farm size had nearly doubled, from 367 to 626 acres. Kendall County had nearly 20,000 cattle and 8,600 sheep. Corn and oats were among the chief crops, but cotton was king – the county cotton crop supported at least ten cotton gins, and the Engle Gin in Bergheim alone ginned five hundred bales of cotton the year of that first Fair. The rains were bountiful and timely and townspeople were shipping their grain, their produce, and their livestock to market in San Antonio. Somewhere along in there someone showed up on Main Street in the first automobile ever to appear in town, and people threw up their hands and said it was a passing fad. It was a good, prosperous time, it was the pinnacle, and it was the heyday of Boerne, Texas.
building that acted as a fire wall housed a vehicle and harness store on the bottom floor, and the lodge room of the Masons, Knights of Honor, and Modern Woodmen of America on the top. Most of the vehicle and harness store stock was saved, but as for the lodge, ‘all the lodge paraphernalia was destroyed, and the building gutted.’ This was terrible news for the Masons and Woodmen et al, as all of their historical records and all of their treasures were lost to the fire. The big rock building saved the rest of the town in the opinion of the SA Light reporter, and just about everybody else in Boerne, but most of the east side of the downtown district lay in ruins. Think about that for just a sec: all of those Boerne townspeople awakened by the flames – either the sight or the smell of them, or the sound of the alarm in the night – and flying out of bed, yanking on whatever clothes they grabbed up and running downtown. Everyone in Boerne must have known what danger they were in. Everyone must have had at least a fleeting image of their own wooden-frame home and everything they owned in the world, consumed by that fire in a matter of minutes. But you can bet that on the morning after – when the men stood around fanning themselves with their hats and reliving the night’s battle, the women thinking about their own homes spared while the kids fooled around in the ashes, parents shooing them out – these Boerneites’ thoughts weren’t about so much about what they’d lost, but what they’d narrowly escaped. ‘Considering the lack of water and the lack of effective firefighting paraphernalia, it is a marvel that the town was not destroyed,’ said the paper, and you know those people concurred.
The Fire of 1908 and the prosperity of that era set off a building boom, and the Main Street that we know today started coming into focus, from the Carstanjen building of 1901 to the HO Adler building of 1911 and the Joe Vogt bakDietert Historical Archives - Patrick Heath Public Library (Boerne) ery building of 1912, and all those storefronts along the east side of Main Street built to replace the frame shops lost in the fire. The old ‘FIRE ALMOST CLAIMS BOERNE AT EARLY HOUR THIS MORNING’ Vanderstratton Opera House started showing silent movies in between plays, the magic ‘Hurry Call Is Sent to San Antonio for Fire Fighting Apparatus’ shows of the drummers and travelling salesmen, and those times when they folded up all ‘SAVED BY WALL’ the chairs and turned the place into a wooden-floored skating rink. Eventually the silents ‘Rock Structure Stands and Stops Progress of Blaze Which Threatened Whole Town’ became the talkies, and the Opera House became the Plaza Theater. Main Plaza began to take form, evolving over the years from a livestock pen to a marketplace to the temporary Well, there were some bad times too; I mean life being what it is. According to this story in fairgrounds to finally gaining a gazebo (and later a fountain, merry-go-round, and a swing the San Antonio Light newspaper, ‘the whole town of Boerne narrowly escaped complete or two for the kids). destruction by fire early this morning,’ – that is, the early morning hours of August 19, 1908, when flames broke out at two in the morning at a saloon located along the east side But even as Boerne boomed, as the town enjoyed this halcyon period in its history, things of Main Street, between East San Antonio and Rosewood Ave. – then Depot Street. ‘The were about to hit the fan in the rest of the world. In Europe, there were all these factors alarm was given promptly,’ wrote the Light reporter, ‘and the whole town turned out, but simmering around in a pot about to boil over with the addition of just one more ingredithe flames spread quickly...’ Indeed, the fire raged out of control on that frying-pan hot ent, and people lived cheek to jowl with fear as they waited for that one more thing. On August night along the row of sun-baked, wood-frame buildings that made up Boerne’s June 28, 1914, with the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria business district, and overwhelmed the little town’s firefighting apparatus. ‘The small en- and his wife Sophie, that ingredient dropped and the tenuous peace between Europe’s gine quickly pumped a tank dry and the hose would not reach to the river,’ the paper great powers collapsed. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Serbia reported. So this is what it sounds like to me: there were farms, one hundred years ago, had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun. all along Main Street, and stock tanks and windmills and small ponds all over the place too. It sounds like the fire plan had been to access those tanks for their water to douse At a remove of one hundred years and more, what comes through today is mostly the conthe flames. In August 1908, just like in our own Augusts these days, rain is in short shrift fusion and pointlessness of the thing. The Great War, as it was called all the way until the and the sun is merciless in drying up the water, so once the fire engine emptied the pond next Great War began just a generation later, was to change the world, with far-reaching they had to turn to the Cibolo, and they found their hoses didn’t reach that far. The paper consequences felt even today. The total number of military and civilian casualties of that goes on to report that ‘it was necessary to haul the water from the river in a sprinkling cart’, war to end all wars was over thirty-eight million people, some seventeen million deaths which was a watering cart used for the purpose of wetting the caliche roads and keeping and twenty million wounded, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. the dust down, and, quotes the Light reporter, ‘those who were directing the battle real- A generation of young men was wiped out and a generation of young women grew up ized that this method would not prove effective.’ So they called the bigger fire depart- spinsters, as all the men who would’ve become husbands were dead ‘over there’. Worse, ment in San Antonio, but by the time everybody from the superintendent to the fire chief the punitive Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I lead directly to the ascension of to the acting mayor of San Antonio finally approved, the crisis in Boerne was over. Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party, World War II and the Holocaust, the Cold War and communist East Germany, and to the Berlin Wall and the loss of untold countless lives. This So what happened then? Well it’s all laid out in the headline – the fire tore through those local conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia somehow became tangled up in this wooden stores in its path like they were nothing, but it finally burnt itself up when it came complex web of alliances and oaths of honor, unresolved territorial disputes raised their face to face with a limestone rock building that stopped it in its tracks. The townspeople ugly heads, and the whole thing was complicated by misunderstandings and communicawho’d turned out to fight the fire had kept any stray sparks from jumping into the bone-dry tion delays. Finally, on April 6, 1917, the United States went to war. trees or the neighboring roofs, and spreading the damage to the rest of town. This rock
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Now I’d like to say this, and this I truly believe: no matter what is said about any war after the last shot has been fired, in the final tally, when the politicians trample one another in their rush to distance themselves from the slaughter and the historians weigh the rightness or the wrongness of it in the balance – no matter whether some will say that going to war was a mistake and others that it was bad strategy, a political miscalculation – the men and women who stand up to offer their lives in the service of their country never question those things when the time comes to be counted. Those matters they leave to be sorted out by the strategists and the generals. Theirs is just to walk up to the line to offer what they have: their valor, their courage, their lives, and their honor; to stand in the gap and serve their country. In Kendall County, more than twenty fine, young men stepped forward to fight for their country in World War I, and twelve of them never made it home. They were Willie John Blaschke of Waring, Harry E Jordt, Ira Roy Langston, Juan A Perez, Bruno Phillip for whom the Boerne VFW Post is named, Richard Schulze who was aboard a troopship off the coast of Ireland when it was struck by a German U-boat, Adam E Smith, Thomas Jefferson Smith, AR Steves, Paul J Straugh, John William Stribling, and Jack O’Neill Wren. On the home front back in Boerne, the Great War took another kind of toll, besides even that bitter loss of their finest. Consider this: of a Kendall County population of about 4,500 souls in 1917, nearly seventy-five percent of those people were either German-born immigrants or first generation German-Texans. This was a place removed from Germany by less than seventy years, and so many of the townspeople had strong ties still to their ancestral homeland, still had family there, and most people in town still spoke German as their first – and many times only – language. They had a strong kinship with Germany, but they were loyal Americans too, as many of them had demonstrated when Texas seceded from the US and they stayed loyal to the Union and suffered for that loyalty. It must have been difficult in so many cases – in some, surely, it was heart-wrenching to go to war against people in some cases of their own blood – but the German-Texans of the hill country stayed trueblue to this, their new homeland. There was a harsh backlash during that first Great War, of animosity towards anything or anyone German. People of German heritage, with German surnames and German accents, found themselves being verbally abused, called out on the streets as spies and sympathizers, and in some cases beaten up and even arrested. My own great-grandfather
Calrow Building 1920
remain and make Boerne their home. Those cabins were still standing up until 1985 when they were finally torn down, and my sister and I explored through those little houses many a time before they disappeared. The mansion would change hands again in 1923, when a Mr. Gallagher turned it into the Hilltop Hotel, and guests would rent those cottages. HL Davis, longtime and much beloved citizen of Boerne, would later still live in the old Hilltop mansion with his wife, Minnie Perrin Davis. On an old insurance map, there’s a swimming pool marked near the house, and I’ve spent many a long walk on the grounds looking for a trace of that forgotten, filled-in pool, imagining the people gathered around it in the hotel’s heyday, or when the Davis family lived up there on the hill. The mansion would eventually serve as the Hilltop Nursing Home for a while, and even after a new facility was built in the 1980s and the old place abandoned, the Hilltop Mansion still stood. Even now you can see some of the statues and a fountain that used to grace the old grounds when it was still one of the jewels in Boerne’s crown. And that’s as neat of a segue as I can think of to ease right into the Kronkosky place, which crowned another hill on the other side of town. Garland Perry, Boerne’s History Muse, wrote of how he regretted not having been around to see ‘Kronkosky Hill in its heyday, when the family opened their property to the public as a lavish entertainment center, the likes of which had never before been seen in this region.’ Pretty strong praise! Albert Kronkosky, Sr. was born and educated in New Braunfels. When he grew up, he showed an incredible skill in business, having a finger in every pie in San Antonio there for a while, from the San Antonio Drug Company, the Gebhardt Chili Powder Company, Portland Cement, to San Antonio’s City National Bank, and investing all the money he made extremely wisely. After marrying Augusta ‘Gussie’ Graebner, a San Antonio socialite, the couple bought twenty-seven acres on a hill south of town where they planned to set up their country retreat. They ended up liking it so much they decided to build their fulltime home there. The Kronkosky’s spent many years and a bundle of dough turning their hilltop into a showplace, and over the years they added Kronkosky Tower (that rectangular, Japanese-style tower that’s surely the most iconic feature of Boerne’s skyline), a whole lot of lavish landscaping, and Kronkosky Pavilion, where through the years they hosted parties and dances for the local youth, including soldiers stationed at Camp Stanley. Max Theis remembered learning to dance up at Kronkosky Hill, ‘really dance,’ he said. ‘When we had our dances there, we entertained the officers who were training at Camp Stanley – at that time it was Camp Funston. We would get girls for those boys and bring them up to Kronkosky Hill – we’d have a band and furnish them food and drink. We even managed to get beer there during Prohibition.’ Rose Esser Kemp remembered ‘He [Mr. K] had the Hill fixed up beautifully – all the pathways, Lovers’ Lane and all, where we could stroll around. It was quite a famous place.’ Albert Sr. and Gussie Kronkosky had one son, Albert Kronkosky, Jr., In 1961, he sold the family property on Kronkosky Hill to the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters, and it has been their home ever since. In 1991, Albert Jr. and his wife established the Albert and Bessie Mae Kronkosky Charitable Foundation with an initial donation of three hundred million dollars, to help support non-profit organizations in Bexar, Comal, Kendall, and Bandera Counties. Every time I see the Kronkosky’s name on something, a new addition at the zoo or as underwriters of some NPR program, I secretly feel a bit possessive, because I feel a little as though I’ve somehow been to one of those parties up on the Hill in the glory days, that maybe I kind of know what it looked like, all those fairy lights marking Lovers’ Lane and the footbridge over the valley, the sound of the orchestra and the heady smell of beer flowing right through Prohibition, the excitement of dancing with a young officer in uniform.
Dietert Historical Archives - Patrick Heath Public Library (Boerne)
Weinburger, who was not a German-Texan, but a native Michigander of German immigrant parents, was arrested on the streets of Detroit during WWI for speaking his first language. From the time of his release until the day of his death, he never spoke German in public again. People in Boerne and all over the hill country, and in the very German city of San Antonio, Americanized their German names or changed them altogether, scrapped their German traditions, and even some of their food. An article in The New York Times a few days after the US had entered the war reported that the ‘Federal Food Board was petitioned that something be done at once to remove the pro-German stigma from sauerkraut. Owing to the prejudice that had developed against the use of a food of such unmitigated German origin, the dealers maintained that great stores of sauerkraut were about to go to waste and...suggested that the name “sauerkraut” be done away with, and that the antipathy be avoided by calling it something like “Liberty Cabbage.”’ That’s a quote you guys. I don’t make this stuff up. With the advent of war, the homegrown health resort industry did not evaporate, but it did change for the duration. People still had TB, and would until 1944 when three scientists finally isolated the first antibiotic and bacterial agent effective against that dread disease. Sufferers of the affliction still made the pilgrimage to Boerne to take in the air, but the industry changed to adapt to the new needs of soldiers who had been the victims of gas attacks in the trenches of Europe. These young men were coming back from the front lines in Europe with lungs damaged by the chemical warfare employed by the enemy; disabling chemicals like tear gas and the very harmful mustard gas, and deadly agents like phosgene and chlorine. Boerne’s sanitariums began taking them in and taking care of them. Up on the hill behind the big two-story rock school building on Blanco Street, that hill that overlooks all that north part of Boerne, a man named William Kuhlmann built a mansion in 1895 as a gift to his bride. She was his childhood sweetheart in Germany, and he returned to the old country to marry his beloved and bring her back to Boerne. He lost her in childbirth soon after their return to the United States. Brokenhearted, Kuhlmann never did live in the mansion he’d built for his bride, but in 1919 sold it to a doctor by the name of WE Wright. Dr. Write turned the beautiful home into a sanitarium where he treated those veterans with their ruined lungs, according to his contract with the Veterans Administration, and later he would add several little cottages to the grounds for those men who would
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All over town are hidden sacred places that we might never know about if we never listen, or look, or read some secret treasure map that tells us where they are. Kronkosky Hill is one of those secret places, calm and quiet now, but somewhere that once breathed and sang and bloomed in phosphorescence, and lived in someone’s memory forever as the magical somewhere they once fell in love. The big open practice field behind the BISD Administration building on Main Street and Lohmann – that used to be the fifth grade playground when I was new here and that girl called me out about the old Bleu Boy. No matter what may happen someday on that very spot, whatever some developer who doesn’t know anything about my hometown ever decides to build right there, there’s a spot somewhere in that field, right about where we used to play kickball, that’ll always smell like dirt and sneakers and those red, rubber balls we used to kick. If you stand in just the right place you might be able to hear a ten year-old girl’s lame retort: ‘Yes I do, but I don’t hafta tell YOU!’ Back behind the nursing home near the old fountain, you can hear the ice clink in a highball glass and the high-pitched giggle of a woman who’s had a little too much out by the pool. If the wind’s just right, where the last of Dr. Wright’s cottages stood, you might catch the ghostly whisper of a raucous cough or smell the smoke as an old man, cured of the old White Death, lights up a stogie in the twilight. In the middle of town is another sacred place, the old Military Plaza where in 1923, five years after the end of the war to end all wars, the town of Boerne came together to dedicate a monument to the memory of the men who died over there. Just about the entire population of Kendall County turned out at that final roll call, wearing their Sunday-goto-meeting clothes, farms and windmills and countryside in the background, and their hearts on their sleeves. They couldn’t know what would happen a few years into their futures – shoot, they couldn’t know what would happen later that evening. They put on their best faces and posed for a panoramic photograph that would freeze them in that moment forever, but in real life they walked away from their poses seconds later, and off into the rest of their lives. If you stand there on a clear day and really listen, you can hear it: the sound of people gathered together for a picnic on a clear morning, ninety-some years ago, in the prime of their lives. In their heyday.
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LIFE
THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE They say, “Life is a journey.” From John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” to Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” the imagery of a journey has always been a helpful metaphor for describing the experience of life. We talk about “the road I chose” or “the path I took” when we find ourselves reflecting about our days on this earth.
By Paul Wilson
We do ourselves a big favor when we listen to what they have to share. Only ignorant people ignore the helpful advice of others. One of the benefits of listening to what they have to share is to see it’s completely normal to encounter difficulties along the road. They’ve had them; you will too. Bumps in the road are just a part of life.
The imagery of this journey abounds in our conversation. We use phrases like:
On most days, the road can be a fun, fascinating, and fulfilling adventure.
“I’m in a rut.” = stuck, routine, unmotivated
Just not every day.
“I ended up in a ditch.” = sidetracked, sidelined, wrecked, broken
Some days are dark and dreary, some disappointing, others just downright discouraging.
“It’s like pushing a rock up hill.” = difficult, discouraging, frustrating “It’s all down hill from here.” = easy, effortless, or, at times, hopeless
MY BEST ADVICE
“The mountain in front of me.” = challenge, obstacle, difficulty
As one who has traveled this road for a little over half a century, I want to share one thing with you that I hope you will always remember for as long as you live.
“I’m off to greener pastures.” = better, opportunity, hopefulness
Don’t ever forget this:
“It was a deep hole to climb out of.” = consequences, discouragement
THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE!
“It’s been a rocky road.” = disappointing, difficult, contentious
Whatever happens down the road, there is always hope. No matter how dark the night, there is always the flicker of a candle called hope. When engulfed in utter darkness, there is always the warm glow of a lantern offering a faint light by which to find your way forward when the clouds hide the moon. If you can’t see it, look in another direction. It’s there.
This same image also plays well in the songs we love. Some days the journey takes us out along “country roads” while other times it’s more like “life in the fast lane.” Sometimes it’s a “stairway to heaven.” Sometimes a “highway to hell.” Life is full of contrasts; ups and downs, mountain highs and valley lows, crashing waves and quiet pastures. Some days you’re enthusiastically scaling the rock face of life’s opportunities. Other days you’re frozen in fear against the precipice, trying to figure out what to do to keep from plummeting to your death. Along the road to life we will discover fascinating places, meet lots of interesting people, and enjoy amazing experiences. If we keep our eyes and ears open, we find ourselves in a front row seat of the exciting story unfolding right before us. An open mind helps, too. The amazing truth about being human is that each of us possesses the power to make our own choices, to decide our own priorities, and to determine our own direction. Ultimately, the choices we make, the priorities we choose, and the direction we take, becomes our destiny. JUST TRYING TO HELP Regardless of what path you choose, you will inevitably meet some people along the way who have been on the road a bit longer. They’re a little further ahead of you. They are not necessarily better at walking the road, just more experienced. They have been a few more places, met a few more people, and enjoyed a few more adventures by virtue of the time they have been on the road. It is not that they are more intelligent, more responsible, or even more mature. It’s just that they have seen and done a few more things than you have and learned a lesson or two you have yet to understand. Never miss the opportunity to talk with those on the road ahead of you when it presents itself. What they have to share can be really helpful if you’re inclined to listen. Those who have traveled longer and further than you will tell you the road to life is not always pleasant, easy, or comfortable. Sometimes it can be difficult, disappointing, and even dangerous. At other times it can be frustrating, confusing, scary, overwhelming, intimidating, lonely, isolating, and downright paralyzing. Those ahead of you can warn you where the water gets deep, the bridge is out, the trail gets tricky, or the rocks are slippery.
Keep looking. There isn’t anything that you will encounter on that road before you that you can’t overcome. Not necessarily because you are so strong and capable in and of yourself, but because there is always somebody who can help you in some way. Here are two reasons why I believe there is always hope for anybody and everybody, regardless of your faith, your philosophy, or your feelings. No matter what you are facing in your life, these two things are always true: 1. THERE IS ALWAYS HELP! There is always someone who can help, some thing that helps, or some way to get over, around, or through whatever you might encounter on the road up ahead of you. Always! We live in a world full of all kinds of remarkable resources. A lot of them are free! As much as we bellyache about the burden of taxes or the bureaucracy of government services, there is a plethora of agencies and organizations that offer subsidized help for anybody who needs it. From medical care to academic tutoring; from financial assistance to a place to sleep for the night, there is help. If you need it, there is a place where you can find it. There is always someone or something that can provide whatever kind of help you need. There is no reason to suffer alone or for a long time with all of the support and care that is out there. Your friends, parents, teachers, coaches, doctors, counselors, ministers, peers – sometimes even complete strangers – are more than willing to offer you some guidance, assistance, or support. And when they can’t, there are always other adults, other teachers, other doctors, or other ministers, who can.
Some of what they might try to tell you is stuff like:
Deciding you can’t be helped by anything or anyone when you face something overwhelming on your journey just isn’t the truth. It is a lie that keeps us from moving past the obstacle in our path.
Some of the people you’ll meet along the way will break your heart or violate your trust.
Quit believing it. It could cost you your life.
There will be some situations that are really hard to figure out and you won’t always know exactly what to do next. Your life’s work can become stressful, overwhelming, and sometimes just boring.
From the seduction of suicide to the prison of addiction, from the despair of divorce to the discouragement of illness, don’t believe for a minute there is no way to escape whatever kidnapped your hope. Do not let yourself go it alone when there is help for the asking.
Along the way, money can get really tight.
We have to acknowledge that asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.
At some point on the journey, you might become ill, injured, or your body will just stop working the way it always has.
Wise people ask for help! Really smart people understand that they can’t possibly know everything, fix everything, or do everything. It is just not humanly possible. So they ask for help. They are not intimidated or embarrassed to reach out to somebody smarter, more experienced, or more talented to help them where they are stuck.
At times on the road, things can get really confusing inside your head and your heart will feel sad, angry, or hopeless for reasons you don’t always understand. There will be times on the journey where the world will be a pretty scary place with all kinds of strange, dangerous, and heartbreaking things happening all around you.
There is always hope because there is always help. And because there is always help…
The experienced traveler – the one a little further down the road than you – doesn’t tell you these things to discourage or frighten you. They’re just trying to help. All they want to do is alert you to what you might encounter to prepare you for what may come.
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
2. THERE IS ALWAYS HEALING! “It will get better.” “Tomorrow is a new day.” “The answer is out there.” “We can always find a solution.” “Wounds will heal.” “Change is possible.” These are not just plastic things to say to someone who is hurting as a way to sound compassionate without getting involved. They really are true about life. It really will get better. Tomorrow really is a new day. There really are answers and solutions to the questions of our soul. Wounds really do heal. Change really is possible. Reality confirms that the sun always comes up in the morning. The dark night of despair never lasts forever. It may take a whole lot longer than we might wish. The path back may be much more difficult than we’d like. The road to recovery may exact more pain than any of us imagines. It may get worse before it gets better. However, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. There is always hope on the other side of healing. The human body is a remarkable organism capable of extraordinary abilities. One, of which, is healing. Tissue, muscles, bones, ligaments, and joints can restore themselves after serious injuries. Organs can recover after significant trauma. With the proper medical attention, it is amazing what the body can do when it comes to healing. Even more resilient is the human soul. With the right kind of help, a soul can heal from whatever trauma it has endured. No matter how much pain you encounter down in the deepest recesses of your life, there is always the hope of recovery. Granted, healing doesn’t always mean getting everything back exactly the way it was before. Healing from a divorce doesn’t necessarily mean being happily married again. Healing from an injury doesn’t always mean being active in the exact same way. Healing from abuse doesn’t mean never ever remembering the pain.
DON’T EVER FORGET THIS There is always hope! I hope you will never, ever forget that, for as long as you live.
Sure, it takes time. Sure, it’s not easy. Sure, it takes a tremendous amount of work to make your way back to where you want to be. Sure, there are moments when you will ache with a longing for the way it used to be.
I hope that whatever you encounter on your journey along the road of life, you will recall reading “that article by that guy in that magazine” and remember, “There is always hope.”
That still doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t get there.
Because there is always help, there is always healing.
Healing can be about perspective; a new way of seeing things. It is the joy of learning to live in a way where the past no longer determines your future. While the pain may not go away and the problems may persist, it is still possible to find a different perspective on whatever you face.
Because there is always healing, there is always hope.
You can always make a positive out of a negative.
I’ll see you on down the road. I hope you have a great trip!
Because there is always hope, life’s journey can be a remarkable adventure regardless of what you may encounter on the road to wherever life may take you.
A few months ago, I stood on the starting line of an Olympic distance triathlon in Austin, Texas. A few of the two thousand athletes lined up beside me were missing arms or legs. A couple of them were blind. Some were battling cancer, while others had fought their way to that starting line after suffering life-threatening injuries. However, they ran the exact same race I did; some of them faster than I did. Whatever took their limbs – whether it was disease or disaster – they were able to find their way through enormous loss and become triathletes. Even in their pain they chose to live beyond their grief to accomplish an extraordinary feat. No, they weren’t able to replace their limbs, miraculously regain their sight, or change the past. However, they could heal how they saw their limitations. And they did! They turned them into a heroic and inspirational passion for life! And so can you. In the face of whatever you are going to run into on the road of life, you too can turn obstacles into opportunities.
December 2015
www.hillcountryexplore.com
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William “Bill” Zaner passed away on November 22, 2015. A true Boerne legend, Bill was also a world-renowned landscape artist whose art was simply breath-taking. A self-taught artist, Bill also turned the tables and began offering art classes in Big Bend where he taught countless others to create art under his watchful eye. Bill had a beer named for him at the Dodging Duck, was a selfproclaimed “Geezer” and the walls of his studios were wallpapered in his hand-written notes, sayings, quotes, and sketches. Bill was passionate about life, and refused to slow down as evidenced by the fact that he was riding his Harley well into his ‘80s. Bill was married to his wife Elaine for over 6 decades, and his friends counted in the thousands. If you have been in Boerne for any length of time, you knew Bill. If you haven’t been here long enough to know him, you certainly missed out. Upon learning of his passing, we stumbled across this old gem that he had written several years ago for EXPLORE and it made the entire staff smile….and we thought it might make you smile as well. We’ll miss you Bill. The world is a little less vibrant without you in it.
DIFFERENT STUFF by Bill Zaner
BIRTHDAYS Originally printed February 2011
Or: the interiority of old farthood
One is told as a would-be writer that to be successful at it, one must hold forth on subjects that are familiar to one. This is to say, writing about things one knows nothing about, or has not experienced firsthand, will lead to naught but disappointment for both author and reader. In fact, writing a sentence such as the preceding proves itself – the writer is undoubtedly a bag of wind.
Be all that as it may, this author does have surpassing familiarity with two aspects of his life- at least two: one, ART. Two: Birthdays. He has indeed experienced a lot of both. When one has reached the official age (81) which causes his acquaintances (family and friends) to refer to him as one of the following, it has definitely come to pass: He is an old GEEZER. He is an old DUFFER. He is an old CODGER. He is an old FART. It’s always been my contention that if one is lucky enough to achieve such an elevated level of antiquity, and wishes to be the BEST old fart one can be, one must PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. It doesn’t just happen. No, if one expects to be the best at anything, one must TRAIN oneself. I myself began training for geezerhood at about the age of 22. The handwriting was right there on the wall – I COULD POSSIBLY live long enough to actually ripen! Who knew?
I have a saying I love repeating endlessly: “I don’t need a memory – I have an imagination.” I’ll tell you what that means to me personally here in my dotage: If I don’t remember it, I’ll make it up. And, believe me when I tell you that I every time I make it up, I get better and better! So one makes the most of old farthood – one enjoys the “interiority” of the condition by laughing at oneself, if one can possibly find some humor in it. One says what one’s own grandfather used to say – “I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” Or “Keep on doin’ what you been doin’ and you’ll keep on getting’ what you been getting’.” He was a really good old fart. Lived to be 90, joking his way through most every day. Ok, so I don’t really know, in response to all those well-intentioned New Year’s greetings from those polite folks whether I had a good year or not, but I do know for sure I’m having a really good day TODAY.
Well, I suspected. I did have all these forebears who were genuine codgers – grandparents, great-grandparents, all living into their nineties, although in the days of my twenty-twohood, nobody gave a thought to life expectancy, or genetics. You just went ahead and LIVED. It behooves me to say right here, though, that I do believe genetics has much to do with achieving old farthood. I’m not by any means meaning to offer any kind of “advice” or divulge any “secrets” about living so long. I got lucky, that’s all there is to it, but for one other thing:I KNOW how lucky I’ve been: I have a loving wife/companion for 56 of those years. I have work I love and don’t have to retire from. I enjoy being an old fart. (I told you I started getting in shape for this eventuality 60 years ago.) Young people (under 65) make jokes about old people such as: you’re old when you talk only about your ailments, or health insurance, or doctors, or what medicines you’re taking, or you constantly complain about the bad behavior of young people (under 65). The bad thing is, much of what those whippersnappers joke about is TRUE, much as it pains me to say it. We DO talk about our ailments, doctors, drugs, etc. We feel like we’ve earned the right to do and say whatever we please. It may be true, too. All I can say about that is if you behave the way young people (65 and under) say you do, you probably qualify for geezer-hood. Keep in mind those youngsters don’t have a clue about what it’s like to be old, but you, on the other hand, know EXACTLY what it’s like to be young. (Unless, like me, you’ve forgotten most of it.)
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Photo courtesy of LenKowitz.com http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-29IGFKOv3p4/Tqlot9cSP7I/AAAAAAAAA7c/Mx3EmI6IBos/s1600/BillZaner-in-hisStudio-0911.jpg
LEGEND
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HE’S OUT THERE. ARE YOU READY?
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NOW OPEN
AT 46 CROSSING, IN BERGHEIM, BEHIND VALERO
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
December 2015
www.hillcountryexplore.com
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CHARITY
AN INCONVENIENT MOMENT OF TRUTH
by Misty McElhannon
www.momentoftruthministries.org | bmorgan@motmsatx.org Sitting in traffic can be a real bummer…watching the clock quickly tick by on your precious time, as you agonizingly wait for the arrival at your preferred destination. For Bill Morgan, a dreaded commute home in traffic was the beginning of his Moment of Truth. Bill…a successful business man, former pro baseball player, husband, and father… truly had it all. As a selfproclaimed ‘winning addict’, he had life by the horns. He woke up each day with the agenda to kick butt and take names in the business world, and he was doing just that. Commuting to San Antonio from his gorgeous home in quaint Boerne was just about the most unproductive part of his day. Until the day it wasn’t. Sometimes God whispers to us quietly almost giving us the opportunity to ignore if we choose. But, sometimes He speaks loudly enough to rattle us and get our attention in a way there is no denying. In this moment of traffic, God provided the most uncomfortable moment of truth that would change every minute of the rest of Bill’s life. It’s hard to know exactly what God is asking from you sometimes, but if you listen carefully, He will provide all those details. Here’s the thing: Bill, like the rest of us, was sure that if he just waited it out, God would politely and calmly show him the way. Instead, God awoke him in the middle of the night with a not so subtle reminder of what he had nudged him towards in traffic just a few weeks before. Bill woke up with tears streaming down his face and with an uncertainty of exactly what was coming next, but with every assurance that it was going to rock his world. Within the next few months, Bill would sell his successful business, buy a church in the “hood” on the east side, and turn over his life in the most radical way to God. Some people would say that Bill gave up everything for the “street people” on the East Side. Some people would say that he has gifted these people in the most incredible way by devoting his time, talents, love, and encouragement. Teaching them to love one another, to serve one another, have pride in the things they work for, and to be good stewards of their possessions. Giving them leadership skills, jobs, helping them earn, and allowing them to understand that they are more deserving than a handout. Some people would say that what Bill did the moment he followed God’s calling on his life is the most selfless thing they have ever seen. But, what Bill would tell you is that it is himself who has been the most richly blessed. Bill has been freed from a bondage to the world that measures success by financial status. His eyes were opened to the most significant people he has ever encountered…the people who have nothing. Answering this command from God was inconvenient. Following this seemingly dangerous road has brought him a peace that he never thought he could experience. He now spends his waking moments serving alongside his beautiful family in different aspects of the Moment of Truth Ministries. Whether it is at the community store where they gather items to sell at affordable prices to the community and in turn provide jobs and hope, or through mentoring programs he has developed in the “hood”, or by simple worshipping alongside his new friends on a Sunday morning at God’s House. Bill has developed something incredible by simply saying yes to something that seemed ridiculous. He now wakes up each day more excited than ever before because his own story is continuing to unfold before his eyes. He devotes his time to his friends on the east side by developing relationships and trust, and in turn God provides him with continuous teaching moments that humble him, stretch him, and grow him in ways he never thought possible. Sometimes the start of a path to true success is waiting for us in the most undesirable places…like traffic.
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
December 11th
Parent’s Night Out
December 12th
Breakfast with Santa 9am-11am
December 21-23
Dance, Crafts and Arts Clinics
9am-10am- Dancers will learn a variety of dances. 10am-11am- The crafty campers will enjoy projects 1pm-2:30pm- The budding artists will create masterpieces of art. It is sure to be a great Christmas gift.
December 28-30
Team Building and Tumbling Clinics
9am-10am- Team building: Kids will enjoy group games, camp songs and team building acitivites 10am-11am- Tumble 1 is focused on learning basic tumbling skills on the floor 11am-12pm- Advanced Tumbling recommended to have the skills to perform a handspring for class
December 26-Jan 30
Joining Special Come by to find out how to get a jump on the new year. 1361 S. Main Street, Boerne TX 78006 | 830-815-1040
December 2015
www.hillcountryexplore.com
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108 Hagen Drive • Boerne $379,000 | MLS #1146993 Charming 4 bedroom, 4 bath home in woods of frederick creek. beautiful kitchen, screened porch, and upstairs game room
SPIRITUAL
I’m A HYPOCRITE By Kendall D. Aaron
I’m mad at the church. By “the church”, I mean the literal building that I attend locally. I’m mad at people that attend the church, I’m a little miffed at some of the staff, and some of the leaders of the church have frustrated me. No, I’m not going to tell you where I attend because it’s unimportant. The thing is that I truly love my church, but am really struggling lately. I wake up motivated to attend, and then as my morning goes on, I have been finding more and more excuses to skip. Later, I’m frustrated with myself for bailing on something that I know my soul longs for and then I become even more upset about the entire ordeal. The church is often described as a family. By design, it’s a group of people that come together to worship and then care for one another just as Christ does for us. We establish bible study groups, prayer circles, and generally try to get involved in one another’s lives in an effort to help each other on our spiritual journeys. All very lofty goals and ideals. The problem is that the church is full of people, and people are broken sinners and are incapable of loving one another like Christ does. Instead, we ignore each other occasionally, we bicker, we gossip, and we are insensitive. We hurt each other, and laugh at other’s struggles and fail to achieve our goals. We’re people, ok? I get that. We’re hypocrites. Every one of us, myself included. How many people do you know that won’t attend church because of the hypocrites? All of us have friends and family like that. We tell them that our church is different, but really, is it? Probably not. Just like every family, my church family (and yours) is chock full of weirdos that you’d rather avoid. You smile politely at family functions, but you surely sit at the other end of the buffet table. Church is the same, though it makes it difficult to really focus on the true reason for church when that same weirdo is preaching, or leading a Bible Study, or watching your kiddo in the children’s Sunday school. You roll your eyes, sigh deeply, and experience increasing frustration with the entire situation. If I understand that people are broken sinners, then what is it about actually being around broken sinners that frustrates me so much? Why do people leave the church citing the hypocrisy when they know going in that church is full of people…and that people are invariably a mess? I’m not 100% sure, but l think that often times it’s the refusal on some to acknowledge that they are just giant hypocrites. I have a couple of pastor friends that lead other churches, and one in particular is my absolute favorite simply because there is nothing I can tell him that he’ll judge me about. “Friend, I have been so angry lately” I’ll say, and he’ll chuckle and say “Sheesh – me too!” I might add, “And boy, I’ve been drinking way too much.” Without batting an eye, he’ll nod his head and say, “Man, been there and done that. I’ve struggled with that also.” There’s never any condemnation, no incessant quoting of scripture about my sins (because I already know they are sins), but rather, it’s just an instant arm around my shoulder, an acknowledgement that he’s a sinner too, and some old fashioned encouragement. If you can acknowledge that you are a mess just like me, then we’re both not hypocrites. We are embracing our sinful nature and not hiding it. We are raising our hands and screaming, “My Lord, I’m such a pathetic sinner and I need Jesus more than ANYBODY here at church!” We are humble in that we see ourselves as broken as we are and we see others the same. I suppose it’s the people at church that hide their sins (that the rest of us can see) and behave as if YOU need more grace than they do. Those people are tough to be around, and have me on this particular Sunday morning (yes, I’m skipping church as I write this- nice, huh?) feeling awfully frustrated. Luke 6:42 says, “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” This verse applies to my hypocrite friends that have me grumbling today….but then I have to turn it right around and apply it to myself. If that guy across the worship chapel is the biggest dang hypocrite in the building, then that’s God’s problem to work out with him. What about me? What about my sins? What about my own hypocrisy I’m committing while I’m sitting in church thinking about some person and all of their sins, when my list of sins is a mile long? OUCH. I said above how frustrating some people at church can be, but I wonder if anybody thinks the same of me? Probably. They are sitting on the opposite side of the chapel thinking, “That freaking guy thinks he’s such hot stuff. He’s judging ME right now but boy, he’s got issues, too.” And you know what? They are right. Embrace your church, warts and all. Yes, there are annoying people that attend. Yes, some are further on their spiritual journey than others. Yes, some are just raging hypocrites. But don’t be like me – get to the church. Hug your friends. Look around the chapel and just smile knowing that you, dear broken sinner, are sitting in a room full of raging hypocrites (yourself included) and all are at least seeking to be better people. Which makes them not hypocrites at all, but rather, admitted sinners seeking a better life. And that right there is the entire purpose of church.
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
As a Master in the Academy of General Dentistry, Dr. Chet Hawkins posses the highest level of education recognized for a dentist. As a graduate of the Pankey Institute, he’s had the finest post-doctoral training in the world. “I want to establish a master plan and then develop a blueprint for my patients’ long-term care,” he explains. “We want to solve the causes of the problems before we do anything else to their teeth. Then we can rebuild or repair with confidence that the fix will last as long as possible. We also educate our patients about other health issues related to oral disease. There is a connection between periodontal disease and heart disease that people need to know about.” Dr. Hawkins and his wife, Deby, have been residents of Boerne for 7 years and are excited to serve the residents of Boerne.
I just went to see Dr. Hawkins yesterday for an exam and cleaning. I was promptly seen, the procedures were done painlessly and in a timely manner with the latest equipment. My necessary dental work was explained fully to me. Everyone in the office greeted me warmly and made me feel special. - Elaine We have been going to the Hawkins Dental Office for 25 years. This office is far superior to the average dental office. Their exceptional practice is due to their sincere desire to provide the very best service to their patients. They maintain the latest technology and genuinely care about the welfare of the people who they serve. I cannot find the words to express the high regard that my family and I hold for this dental practice. - Gene Pleasant, friendly staff. No wait. Dr. Hawkins listens to your issues and then provides clear solutions. Great dentist. Also, great hygienist. Overall, great experience. - Cindy
Master in the Academy of General Dentistry • 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE 806 N. Main St. • Boerne • 830-249-7870 • www.drchethawkins.com
December 2015
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2015 HOLIDAY
CALENDAR OF EVENTS BOERNE
www.ci.boerne.tx.us
OMA’S CHRISTMAS CRAFTS FAIR Featuring lunch and photos with Santa, and the Inaugural Opa’s Chili Cook-Off, Kendall County Fairgrounds, Boerne, 12/5 – 12/6 from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
WEIHNACHTS PARADE Downtown Boerne, 12/5 from 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
BOERNE CONCERT BAND’S CHRISTMAS CONCERT Boerne High Auditorium, 12/13 from 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
BOERNE PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTS THE TEN TENORS’ HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS Boerne Champion Auditorium, 12/17 at 7:30 p.m.
TOBIN CENTER
MAJESTIC THEATRE
www.tobincenter.org
www.majesticempire.com
BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA: CHRISTMAS ROCKS EXTRAVAGANZA
FROST AND FIRE
Majestic Theatre, 12/12 at 8:00 p.m.
The Children’s Choir of San Antonio, Tobin Center, 12/6
BOOK OF MORMON
CONSPIRARE CHRISTMAS
Majestic Theatre, 12/15 - 12/20
Tobin Center, 12/8
MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER CHRISTMAS BY CHIP DAVIS
ELF
ZOO LIGHTS - HOLIDAY NIGHTS
Cinema on the Plaza, Tobin Center, 12/11
Majestic Theatre, 12/26 at 8:00 p.m.
HOLIDAY POPS MOSCOW BALLET’S GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER
Tobin Center, 12/18 - 12/20
Majestic Theatre, 12/27 – 12/28
RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER THE MUSICAL Tobin Center, 12/21 - 12/24
SAN ANTONIO BOTANICAL GARDENS
www.sabot.org
San Antonio Botanical Garden, 12/5 – 12/6, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
HOLIDAYS IN BLOOM San Antonio Botanical Center, thru 12/31
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS The Magik Theatre, thru 12/30
TAMALES! AT THE PEARL The Pearl Brewery, 12/6 at 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
SANTA’S RAILROAD WONDERLAND Texas Transportation Museum, 12/5-12/6, 12/12-12/13, 12/1912/20, 12/26 at 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
WITTE MUSEUM www.wittemuseum.org
DOG DAYS
San Antonio Zoo, thru 1/3
WINTER WONDERLAND The DoSeum - San Antonio’s Museum for Kids, 12/5-12/31
SOUTH TEXAS HOLIDAY TRADITIONS WITTE FAMILY DAYS
RUSSELL HILL ROGERS’ ‘MUSICAL EVENINGS AT SAN FERNANDO CATHEDRAL’ FEATURING TROIKA
Witte Museum, 12/5, 12:00PM - 4:00PM
San Fernando Cathedral, 12/6 at 6:30 p.m.
LA TAMALADA
JINGLE BELLS RUN/WALK FOR ARTHRITIS
Witte Museum, 12/5, 11:00AM-1:00PM
Valero Headquarters, 12/12 at 3:00 p.m.
THE JONES FAMILY SINGERS
SAN ANTONIO RIVERWALK
www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com
Other area venues
Jo Long Theatre at the Carver Community Cultural Center, 12/12 from 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
ARTS SAN ANTONIO PRESENTS MEJIA BALLET INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING THE NUTCRACKER
FORD HOLIDAY BOAT CAROLING
PETER PAN
San Antonio River Walk, 12/2 - 12/20
Woodlawn Theatre, thru 12/23
Lila Cockrell Theatre, 12/19 – 12/21
FORD FIESTA DE LAS LUMINARIAS
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
San Antonio River Walk, 12/4 - 12/20
Russell Hill Rogers Theater - The Playhouse San Antonio, 12/3 12/21
ALAMO CITY’S DANCE COMPANY PERFORMING THE NUTCRACKER
SANTA AT THE RIVER WITH MUSICAL BARGES San Antonio River Walk at Camden, 12/6 from 6:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m.
SEA WORLD’S CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION
WINTER ARTS AND CRAFTS SHOW
SIX FLAGS’ ‘HOLIDAY IN THE PARK’
Riverwalk (by the Chamber of Commerce), 12/11 - 12/13 from 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas, thru 1/3
ALAMO BOWL RUDY’S BAR-B-Q PEP RALLY
Sea World San Antonio, thru 12/31
McAllister Auditorium, 12/19 - 12/20, times vary
LA GRAN POSADA – THE REENACTMENT OF THE HOLY FAMILY’S JOURNEY FOR SHELTER Milam Park to San Fernando Cathedral, 12/21 from 6:00 p.m.8:30 p.m.
CELEBRATE SAN ANTONIO FEATURING THE VALERO FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA Hemisfair Park, 12/31 from 5:00 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.
Arneson River Theatre, 12/31
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
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210.507.5250 • 930 E. Blanco, Boerne 78006 we’re so good, you thought this was an article. didn’t you?
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Vocal Wonders By Sue Talford
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EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
The Power of Ten…Australia’s Vocal Wonder from Down Under…returns to the stage in Boerne, Texas, with an all-new vocal celebration for the holiday season. Charming more than 90 million people around the world, this spirited ensemble of ten incredibly talented tenors are bringing Christmas Cheer to 1,000 lucky Blokes and Sheilas (as they say Down Under) who will be in attendance at The TEN TENORS “Home for the Holidays” show on Thursday, December 17, 2015, at Boerne Champion Auditorium. It was less than two years ago that this singing sensation brought down the house at Boerne Champion Auditorium with their “On Broadway” performance. Boerne Performing Arts is extremely pleased to be bringing The Ten Tenors back to Boerne featuring their “Home for the Holidays” show. TEN TENORS member Jared Newall describes his experience as a performer at the January 2014 FOR KIDS program in Boerne. “I remember the FOR KIDS show vividly! There was a sense of nervousness within the TEN as the overture began to play. We worried that the students weren’t going to be interested in our show…or that maybe it was just a good excuse for them to get out of class. Boy, were we wrong! What we encountered was one of the most enthusiastic audiences we would perform for on our 2014 North American tour.” Jared continues to expound on the Boerne FOR KIDS show, reminiscing on his personal introduction of one of the final songs for the students. He details his introduction of “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked”, ”I remember everyone screaming, cheering, and most amazingly, singing along. We don’t get to do student shows often, but it was an experience I think all the boys will remember fondly!”
There were two other highlights that Jared relates from the 2014 North American Tour. “Firstly, getting to perform on the Today Show in New York City was an absolute standout…meeting Kathie Lee and Hoda was a blast!” But at the top of his list was the night The TEN TENORS met and performed for Morgan Freeman, in his hometown in Mississippi. Jared continues, “Mr. Freeman was extremely generous with his time, and forthcoming with his applause. He is such an incredible patron of the arts, and it was a privilege to meet him.” Performing as part of the opening celebration of the 2012 Euro soccer tournament, in Warsaw, Poland, is the largest performance venue of Jared’s TEN TENORS tenure. According to Jared, “The crowd was a capacity 60,000, and we got to go out there and do what we do. It was one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve ever had!” He has also performed with the TEN at the annual “Carols in the Domain Christmas Concert” in Sydney, Australia, to over 100,000 plus people. “Home for the Holidays” is a show that is more than three years in the making. Jared details that it has taken thousands of man-hours to put together, and it is the culmination of “our collective passion as performers, and of our love for all things Christmas.” Since the TEN live scattered around Australia (including one from New Zealand), they utilize the internet as a learning tool. All materials are sent electronically to the tenors to work on individually, prior to them “descending into Melbourne, Australia, to bring everything together for the polished production you’ll be seeing December!” Jared describes the upcoming show as one for every person who loves Christmas carols. Jared enthuses, “It is for people who sing songs about snow and winter wonderlands, even though they never see any of those things at Christmas (I’m talking to you, Boerne!). This show is for every child that cannot sleep on the night before Christmas, and for the adults they’ve become!” Two hundred and sixty tickets remain for this holiday blockbuster. Tickets ($20-$60) for the 7:30pm show are available online at BoernePerformingArts.com or by phone at 830.331.9079. So Boerne, here’s a wonderful opportunity to again provide an enthusiastic, full house audience to enjoy the return of Jared Newall with the TEN TENORS. As Jared reflected, “To be invited to perform for people is an honour. To be invited back is a privilege. We cannot wait to see you again soon!”
December 2015
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/RandomTexasFamilyFun t /RandomBeeRGaRdn /RandomTexas
December 19th Everyone’s invited to Random’s Ugly Christmas Sweater Party!!!
Visit with Santa Claus and Paint Xmas ornaments: 4:00 -7:00 | Live Music 7:00 | Ugly Sweater Contest 9:00
DECEMBER 12TH HAVE A SUPER DAY WITH THE SUPER HEROES!! Take Photos and Meet the Super Heroes.
Paint Christmas ornaments all of December
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There’s still time to book your holiday parties
80+
Craft Beers
Kiddo Friendly • Dog Lovers Wonderful Food Truck Eats
11 Upper Cibolo Creek Rd. Please Call for Reservations 210-294-0025
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
OLD TIMER
OLD TIMER Yes that’s turkey and ham... we think.
THE “DRUNK” We all have at least one in the family. The guy (or girl) that hits the sauce hard all day, and by late afternoon is just a mess. While they are fun at first, once the slurring words starts, they get annoying quick. Beer breath in your ear while telling you something they find supremely profound induces eye-rolling and the formulation of plans to get away. How to Defeat: Well, the Drunk will be easily distracted, so you can typically avoid by moving quickly out of the room when they enter. Slide out a side door so you don’t have to walk past them. Or, you could just shrug your shoulders and join ‘em to help you get through the day.
It’s December, and that means Christmas. That’s a good thing. It also means FAMILY, and that’s not always a good thing. Sure, we all imagine seeing our family would be really nice, but then we do it, and are reminded quickly why we only see them once a year. This month, I thought that I would bestow upon you the wisdom that my many years have afforded me. Here’s how to deal with your annoying family members and keep your sanity. Each one is different, but the tactics below are time-tested. THE “ADVISOR” This is typically your uncle or older cousin who is quite successful. Fancy clothes, jewelry, car, etc. This person believes that every decision you have made was wrong, and the ones that you’re gonna make – well, those are even worse. Your degree choice was wrong, your career path is misguided, and why do you still wear flip flops? How to defeat: LIE. If the Advisor was in finance, explain that you are considering the same field. Tell him you were just promoted to VP of “Whatever”. Describe the new Porsche you are considering. Then quickly explain that your boss is calling you and excuse yourself. Advisor will nod approvingly. THE “MAGNIFICENT” This particular nuisance is probably close to your age, and is hell-bent on proving that if you hadn’t wasted your life, then you, too, could be making something of yourself. He is probably just returned from another world tour, paying his way as a professional hang-glider. When he’s not busy sitting in with The Rolling Stones, he’s busy climbing mountains, riding lions across the savanna, and hanging with his ridiculously hot girlfriend. How to Defeat: There is no defeat for the Magnificent. Why can’t you just be him? No, photoshopping yourself into a picture with a hot girlfriend isn’t the same. Embrace your mediocrity. THE “POLITICIAN” We all know one of these people, and we run into them frequently in our social circles, in addition to our families. Obama is a Muslim terrorist. George Bush was responsible for 9/11 and it was all about oil profits. The government is coming for your guys. If you support a candidate, it never fails that the Politician wants to murder that candidate with their bare hands. You get sucked into listening to their vitriol about politics, conspiracies, and a myriad of topics you could care less about. These people are not fun. How to Defeat: Inappropriate laughter. Yup, this shuts ‘em up quick. When the Politician regales you with how candidate X is going to destroy this country from the inside out, just bust out a huge guffaw, slap your knee, and say “Oh man – that’s a good one.” Repeat enough times, and they’ll just stare at you. At this point, tell whatever random story you can conjure up to change the subject and then leave the room quickly.
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THE “OVERLY RELIGIOUS” This one can be kind of a touchy subject in these parts. Talking about God during the holidays is fine. Reason for the season and all, right? But some folks just take it a little too far. T-shirts with bible verses and the obligatory WWJD bracelet give these people away before they even open their mouths. And you know they will. Usually to tell you how you’re living the life of a heathen or to argue with the “Drunk” or the “Politician” or both. How to Defeat: Explain that you’ve recently joined the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and you need to go take your new driver’s license photo with a colander on your head. When they stare blankly at you, exit stage left. THE “OLD TIMER” Also known as Grandpa. The “Old Timer” will randomly start conversations with anyone who isn’t talking at that particular moment, and even some who are. Weaving a web of stories that will only make sense to them. Because you’re pretty sure Kennedy was killed AFTER the Franco-Prussian War. The “Old Timer” will also never miss the opportunity to bestow wisdom upon the lesser “seasoned” members of the family. How to Defeat: There is no defeat. He learned a long time ago in The War how to kill you six times before you hit the ground. So if you even begin to think you know something better than the Old Timer, stop. You will not win. Just sit, and endure. THE “HEALTH NUT” This particular category of person is interesting. Typically recognized by the undersized shirts and constant use of words like “BRO” “the Box” and “glutes.” However, this person may come out of left field as the relative who has decided that the holidays are the perfect time to start their new diet. The latter being far more aggravating as they feel it is their new calling in life to tell everyone else about their new found “lifestyle” and how great it is and if you don’t do the same you might as well start digging your grave now. Always be on the lookout. How to Defeat: Constantly shovel pumpkin pie and cookies into your mouth making it impossible for you to respond. Don’t forget to nod occasionally as well. They think you’re listening and you’re quickly consuming your way into a food coma. THE “DUDE” At least 34 years old, unkempt hair, patchy facial hair, flip flops and a robe are the physical traits of the “Dude”. His skin may have an odd yellow tint to it, either from the lack of sun or copious amounts of Mountain Dew in his system. He’s been living in his parents basement since dropping out of community college and only surfaces for obligatory family gatherings and to show his Dungeons and Dragons buddies where the bathroom is. How to Defeat: Casually let drop that the “Magnificent” just informed you that they were looking for a new roommate and that they have an open WiFi connection.
EXPLORE it! LIVE IT! The REAL Kendall County.
L AW F I R M
WHEN THE SLEIGH BELLS BECOME SIRENS.
507 E. Blanco Rd.
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Boerne, TX
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830-331-2772