postponement

I am busy packing to move. Within thirty days I will be back. Thank you. John.

The Salt Grass Trail

I started out riding in the Salt Grass Trail as a whim, but it soon grew to be a major event. The number of city dudes who wanted to ride in the trail was unbelievable. For seven years I rode with the Port City Stockyards every year. We ate well and slept in bedrolls. The ride was orignally devised to publicize the Houston Fat Stock Show. It became as big as the stock show itself. About halfway through the seven years we had to make some rules. The ride had become a mob scene and riders got hurt. Now you had to sign up with an organized trail group. At its peak the ride featured 50 wagons and about 3,000 riders. It was an experience.

horses

I have always loved horses. When we moved to Friendswood I bought four horses: One for Marie and One each for Nancy and Trinka. Marie used to run barrel races. I used to swim the river horseback. But it turned out that the rider in our family was Trinka. From the time she was five years old Trinka rode horseback, with or without a saddle. By the time she was twelve Trinka was an accomplished rider. Eventually, Trinka went to New York and formed a ballet company, but she still loved horses. One day she called me from New York. Daddy, she said, will you bring me a horse. I replied that I would bring her a horse with a new saddle and all I needed was the address of the stable where she was going to lodge the horse. That was the end of that, I am sorry to say. She could not afford the rent of the stable in Manhattan. I also could not afford the price of the rent.

Friendswood

Friendswood was a Quaker community located halfway between Galveston and Houston. It was a little on the dull side but a great place to raise two daughters. I commuted to Houston which took about an hour. You could not buy alcoholic liquor in Friendswood and there was only one church -- the Friends Church. Eventually we established an Episcopal Church which we named Good Shepherd. After a while, NASA was established nearby and many lifelong Episcopalians moved to Friendswood. You still could not buy liquor, but we had weekend dances. The culture of Friendswood was changed. All this took place while NASA was developing. Then came the visit to the Moon. This not only changed Friendswood but the United States.

Friendswood

Friendswood

A Big Wedding

Marie Peterman and I were married in the Episcopal Church in my home town of San Angelo in front of about 500 people. We resigned from the Standard Times and took the summer off by going to Ruidoso, New Mexico. Later on we ended up in Houston, with me working for the Houston Post and Marie working for the Houston Chronicle. At various times I was an editor, a news reporter, a TV personality and a daily columnist. Marie was an editor at the Chronicle. We were married for 60 years. We were the parents of two daughters, Nancy, who is a lawyer in Austin and Katrinka, who is a publishers assistant in New York. kEventually we published a chain of weekly newspapers between Galveston and Houston known as the Journal newspapers.