Monthly Archives: May 2026

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Now … about that memoir

My network of friends comprises an inquisitive bunch, many of whom are members of that diminishing club of retired newspaper reporters and editors.

They have been asking me about the status of the memoir y’all know I’ve been working on since The Flood. I have a mixed report to deliver. First of all, it’s still alive and awaiting an eventual first draft. Second of all, I have been neglecting it for the past several weeks. I kinda place it on the back shelf.

The good news? I am dusting it off and getting ready to launch the sprint to its finish.

My memeoir has a working title: My Life in Print. It will chronicle my joy-filled career as a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist. It began in early 1976 and ended on Aug. 31, 2012. That’s 36-plus years of offering guidance, my own opinion on issues of the day and sharing with High Plains Blogger readers the experiences I had over the course of that career meeting some truly fascinating individuals. I have had a full life and I want to share some of it with you.

Ol’ Father Time has kinda gotten in the way. I am well past 70 years of age and my old body is showing signs of wear and tear. It has become a bit of a challenge sitting for any length of time in front of my laptop, telling the stories I want to tell.

My bride had this idea when my career as a full-time journalist ended. Why not, she said, write about the career you’ve had? Do it for our boys. So … I did. More on Kathy Anne in just a moment.

The list is long. I have finished writing about most of the names on that list. They include folks you know, some you don’t know and individuals who have made an impression — for good or bad — on me during my journey through life. The memoir also includes some experiences that not every human being has been able to say they have done.

Today I had lunch with two dear friends — a husband and wife — I have known for 40 years. I told them about the circumstances of losing my bride three years ago to glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. My friends didn’t know the whole story, so I told them about it. Then my friend, Patrick, asked me, “Have you thought about writing about your story with her?” I said I have actually written about my journey through intense pain, sadness and sorrow on this blog. “Have you thought about publishing them?” he asked. Hmm. Well, I have thought about it, I said.

I believe it’s time to announce another command decision. I am going to find a way to weave some of that journey through the darkness into My Life in Print. If I find a relevant spot to insert a blog entry, I’ll try it, see if it works and then move on.

It’s time to get busy.

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Oh, for the good old days …

A former member of Congress once told me a story that I want to share with you today because it reminds me of the days when Congress spent time actually governing and ignored the insults the other side would toss at them.

The ex-rep is Larry Combest, a Lubbock Republican and a man of high principle. Combest once represented the southern half of Amarillo, the part of the city that sat within the Randall County area of the Texas Panhandle.

Combest once served as an aide to Sen. John Tower, a Republican who once was slated to become defense secretary during the George H.W. Bush administration; his nomination got derailed over some persnal conduct issues. According to Combest, Tower had friends across the aisle, one of whom was Sen. Hubert Humphrey, a Minnesota Democrat. Tower and Humphrey would engage in ferocious floor debates over this or that public policy. Both men were adamant in their beliefs. They would raise their voices to each other.

Then, at the end of a day of stern debate, Sens. Tower and Humphrey would walk across the Senate floor, shake hands and often embrace as they walked through the doors of the chamber. Combest said the men were friends and never let harsh words spoken on the Senate floor sully their friendship.

I can cite many examples of bipartisan friendships in the Senate: Democrat Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Republican Bob Dole of Kansas; Democrat George McGovern of South Dakota and Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona; Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. I need to add that Combest once told me his best friend in the House was a Democrat, fellow West Texan Charles Stenholm of Abilene. All of these men were fierce advocates of their points of view. They all maintained close friendships with their friends on the other side.

I want a return to that level of collegiality. These days we hear criticism that cuts deeply. It makes me wonder whether there is a relationship between the way lawmakers treated each other then and what we have today … which happens to be a Senate where nothing gets done.

Coincidence? I think not!

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Patience becomes a must

Work has begun a massive highway plan to improve transit along a major east-west highway that cuts through the heart of North Texas.

I refer to U.S. Highway 380, which serves as a major thoroughfare to residents of and visitors to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. There will be plenty of grumbles, profanities and obscene gestures to be seen and heard for what will seem like forever.

For my part, I will mutter the four-letter words under my breath in the sanctity of my pickup truck.

The Texas Department of Transportation has big plans for 380. It’s going to turn the four-lane highway into a six-lane jumbo road. One can see the concept of the new lanes being dug out at this moment. I live in Princeton and the evidence of work is everywhere in the form of those ubiquitous orange barrels and cones.

OK, so what’s the purpose of this blog? It’s merely to implore everyone to find that patience gene in our DNA and put it to work as we travel along the highway.

TxDOT unveiled some time ago an initiative that intends to reduce traffic along US 380. Part of that plan involves purchasing land in loops around communities that sit along 380. Princeton is one of them. The idea is to route through traffic off of 380, encourage motorists to take the loop and leave the existing highway to in-town/local traffic. The idea sounds doable. I will be anxious to see if works out as traffic planners envision.

That is, if I live long enough. I am not a young man. Indeed, I might be unable to drive myself when TxDOT announces it’s done with this massive project.

Well, I hereby pledge to mind my manners for as long as I can and for as long as it still matters.

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Make next manager live here

Former Princeton City Manager Mike Mashburn got away with a dodge that should have been termed unacceptable.

Mashburn was hired by the City Council to help establish a budget that would fall on the shoulders of the city’s 40,000 resident to pay. The city manager wasn’t one of them. He lived far outside the city limits, thus absolving himself of any fiscal responsibility for what he was asking the rest of us to pay.

The next city manager must not be allowed to wriggle off the fiscal hook in such a manner. Mashburn quit the city manager’s job after serving in that role for fewer than two years. The guy didn’t even live within Princeton’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. And yet, he was crafting a municipal budget that would be paid for fully by the rest of us.

This exemption bothered a number of residents, many of whom sought an amendment to the city charter that would require the manager to live within the city limits.

Just as maddening as the residency exemption was to many of us, Mashburn was able to negotiate a monthly travel allowance based solely on the city manager having to drive to work every day.

Let’s get real, shall we? The City Council makes precisely one hiring decision: it’s the city manager. The next individual who ends up managing the growth of the nation’s fastest-growing city should have to live here and share the burden he or she is asking the rest of us to bear. It’s a requirement that doesn’t need a charter amendment to give it standing.