Opinion

The expression about an ill wind blowing no good goes back almost five centuries. Just 52 years ago, however, a true-life example occurred at what seemed to be an unlucky turn of event at a Justin, TX, rodeo.

Dr. Ronny Collins and wife Terri--both at the rodeo--met for the first time, huddling with others in a generator-lighted concession stand as arena lights darkened when a truck backed into a power pole. A Weatherford High School sophomore at the time, she rode bulls for four years, the same number that Ronny spent facing raging bulls as a rodeo clown.

A masked mob dragged five suspected cattle thieves kicking and screaming from the Mason County jail on Feb. 18, 1875, lynched three of the terrified outlaws and touched off a nasty feud known as the Hoodoo War.

In the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War, Texans often took the law into their own hands. 

Desperate characters, who mistook common folk for easy pickings, were routinely dispatched without benefit of judge, jury or clergy.

Dear Rusty: I have been working somewhat consistently since commencing my Social Security benefit income. I’ve been collecting since my full benefit age of 66, approximately. I’m now 81, and customarily, in about October of each calendar year, Social Security notifies me of additional benefits from my additional work. Not this year. 

Our sense of hearing is to be treasured. The sound of ships nearing shores, buzzers sounding at the end of victories and fireworks signaling a new year are but three examples. 

There are, however, pitfalls to be endured. Sometimes we “over hear” too much, and--sadly--take off like a world- champion jockey on the fastest of steeds, but still can’t hold a candle to my Uncle Mort, who utters fragments of what he thinks he hears at 200 words per minute, with gusts to 250…

A while back, he asked a grown granddaughter what she found interesting on the Internet. 

Mary Austin Holley landed at Galveston on Feb. 5, 1843 on her fifth and final visit to her dead cousin’s former colony.

When Stephen F. Austin was 11 years old, his father Moses sent him back east to stay with relatives the boy barely knew. From 1804 until 1807, the future “Father of Texas” studied at an academy in New Haven, Connecticut and got acquainted with his kinfolks.

Dear Rusty: Can you help me understand? I have paid into Social Security since I started working in 1978. I did have a lot of tax deductions, but I don’t understand why I only receive $350 a month from Social Security. Signed: Befuddled Senior

Dear Befuddled Senior: Your Social Security benefit is based upon your average monthly earnings for the 35 years over your lifetime that you earned the most while contributing to the Social Security program (however, your benefit isn’t based on your contributions to SS). 

It was an afternoon when elements of Murphy’s Law loomed, not in cataclysmic ways, but merely gnawing tidbits of annoyance--for both me and others--that harkened us back to lessons of a children’s book, The Little Engine That Could. Millions of children first learned of “I-think-I-can” challenges, thanks to this little locomotive. (We who are long of tooth are likely in the “we’re-afraid-we-can’t” stage.) 

Arnold Monk, whose pen name was “Watty Piper,” was the author. Maybe his goofy pen name helped the 1930 book to catch on. It remains popular today…

Dear Rusty: I am a 63-year-old single lady, and I have questions regarding Social Security “early retirement,” though I will still be working full time. I know there is a maximum allowable income limit and, if I exceed that, I will need to return probably 2/3 of my received Social Security benefit. 

The nine signers of the “Plan of San Diego,” a blueprint for a borderland bloodbath, were charged on Jan. 24, 1915 with conspiracy against the United States government.

As revolution raged in their homeland, Mexican exiles and their American cousins revived an old dream. Article after article in the 230 Spanish-language newspapers from California to Texas talked about taking back the territory lost in the 1848 war with the gringos.

It should come as no surprise to those of us who have reached “geezerhood” that our ear drums are challenged annually by random sounds--from up and down, here, there and all around. 

It’s the sounds of New Year’s resolutions crashing against the floor. Sometimes we cry, creating a tear-filled pond en route to becoming an ocean. 

Like comic strip character Charlie Brown always “flubbed” in his football-kicking attempts, we blunder each New Year on the resolution thing. And, thinking we are made of stuff, we fail again. But, at least we try...