With the way the war was going, the news from Houston on April 6, 1865 was enough to make a grown man cry. Another well-known name had been added to the Confederate casualty list, but this time the fatal bullet had not been fired by a Yankee.
I might never have resented my brother if he’d have been born other than in 1944, when Grapette was getting a foothold in our town.
I had enjoyed “only child” perks for seven years, and in first grade observed that my “well-to-do” classmates brought squatty bottles of a purply soda to chase down their ham-and-cheese sandwiches made with real “light bread.” My first brush with Grapette.
President Franklin Roosevelt secretly signed an executive order in early April 1942 that allowed American aviators to join Claire Chennault’s volunteers in China.
With the United States still eight months away from entering the escalating worldwide conflict, support for the “Flying Tigers” had to be discreet. But FDR never regretted taking the risky move. During the dark days after Pearl Harbor, the Texan’s daredevils gave American morale a much-needed boost with their aerial thumping of the Japanese air force.
Dear Rusty: My wife and I are currently collecting Social Security. We both started receiving SS at 62 years old. That said, we get by on a tight budget.
A retired friend told us about an option which allows a spouse to collect half (1/2) of the other spouse’s SS monthly income. My question has two parts: 1. Can we both collect on each other’s SS? And 2. Are there any pitfalls? Signed: Seeking an Increase
Dear Seeking: Well, I’m afraid spousal benefits aren’t quite that simple.
The ballyhoo about “no free lunches” was first bandied about in the 1880s and today, Southwest Airlines’ “bags fly free” death bell is on the verge of gonging.
Long known for allowing passengers to check two pieces of luggage “free,” SWA is altering its policy and there’s more story-spinning underway than a 10-year-old pulling the string from a new top.
On March 22, 1877, Guy M. Bryan wrote the new President of the United States, who happened to be an old college classmate, to recommend a relative for the Supreme Court.
William Pitt Ballinger had no idea why the caretaker governor summoned him in the middle of May 1865. He was relieved to learn that Pendleton Murrah and Gen. John Bankhead Magruder had accepted the fall of the Confederacy as an irreversible fact.
Had a Texas Aggie been a Rip Van Winkle wannabe in 2011, he (she) might hardly recognize the university upon awakening from slumber in 2025.
There might be understandable confusion. Is real time clearly in focus or is the awakening accompanied by swirling figmentary dream extensions from a heap of sleep? Surely the eye-rubbing Aggie isn’t experiencing the world’s biggest Aggie joke.
Dear Rusty: I have questions concerning the deduction of money from my Social Security benefit amount as relates to the sale of investment property. I am 66 years old and have been drawing Social Security since I turned 62. My wife is 56 and is a housewife and has no taxable income.
Our income comes from our rental property and my Social Security benefit. I have decided to liquidate two of our properties - one was sold in December 2024, and one is in Escrow and is scheduled to close in March 2025.
Dear Rusty: Is there any way I can get out of paying the $185 I am told will be taken out of my Social Security for Medicare Part B when I turn 65? We pay for Medicare all our working lives, and now I have to pay a monthly premium for insurance that only covers 80%. Signed: Disheartened Senior
Breaking their habit of working strictly at night, a bandit band of brothers robbed the bank at New Braunfels in broad daylight March 12, 1922.
If Willis Newton can be believed, and that is a big “if,” the Newton Boys were the most successful bank and train robbers of all-time. Their total take from 87 banks and six trains in a five-year crime spree was “more money than the Dalton Gang, Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch and the James-Younger Gang combined.”
