OCTOBER 2018
G N I PEN
G
O ! H D T N 0 RA R1 E B O T OC
WE WANT TO BE KNOWN FOR fantastic soup that is the feature of your meal. Chef Josh has created exceptional menus that will change daily. We know that individuals have unique dietary guidelines and believe wholeheartedly that their palate does not need to be sacrificed in order to be healthy consumers. Our entire kitchen is 100% gluten-free so you can safely order anything we have prepared.
OTHER FEATURES: • Pay-it-forward soup program • Beautiful patio dining • Pet friendly atmosphere • Game night
115 Adler Road Boerne, Texas 78006 (830) 816-5746 www.boernesoupkitchen.com facebook.com/BSKBoerne
YOU BUILT YOUR LIFE. YOU BUILT YOUR DREAM HOUSE. NOW BUILD YOUR SOIL. Soil health is the key to tree health. It’s no secret we have poor soil in the Hill Country. We can help your trees overcome these obstacles.
CERTIFIED ARBORIST DEEP ROOT FERTILIZATION AIR SPADE TREATMENT TREE PRUNING TREE REMOVAL BALL MOSS REMOVAL TREE MITIGATION PLANTING STUMP GRINDING
www.burkettarborcare.com | 830.229.5700 | Contact us for a FREE ESTIMATE
your local Design Build Firm servicing the greater Boerne and Texas Hill Country, as well as North San Antonio.
Specializing in:
Other Features:
Architectural color rendered master plan
• Irrigation Installation and Repair (including water efficient drip irrigation)
including brilliant images and plant descriptions in both 2D & 3D, outlining 10 months of color with a balance between evergreen and deciduous foliage containing movement throughout, resulting in low maintenance, drought tolerant and deer resistant landscape.
• Outdoor Kitchen • Lot Clearing, Cedar Tree Removal and Mulching • Outdoor Lighting • Hardscape (including Fire Pits, Seat Walls, Retaining Walls, Flagstone Patios, Stained and Stamped Concrete, Arbors, Pergolas, Split Rail Cedar Fencing, and more)
Stop in and see us, our associates are ready to assist you. 3 2 2 5 5 I H 1 0 Wes t , B oer n e, TX 78006 | Tel : 830. 816. 3200 | Fax: 830.249.3090 w w w.acaci al an d s cap ean dd es i gn . com
DIFFERENT BY NATURE Relax | Experience | Enjoy
“Under New Ownership!”
930 E. Blanco, Boerne - 830.443.4500 - www.hamilton-co.com EXPERIENCE the difference
CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Marjorie Hagy History 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.
Old Timer Just Old Timer 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.
Kendall D. Aaron Spiritual
10 From The Publisher
26 History
12
30 Spiritual
14
Calendar
32
Art of The Recipe
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.
EXPLORE magazine is published by Schooley Media Ventures
Then & Now
in Boerne, TX. EXPLORE Magazine and Schooley Media Ventures are not responsible for any inaccuracies, erroneous
18 This Month in Texas History
36
Boerne’s Haunted Houses
22
Badass of the Month
38
Old Timer
24
Halloween Candy
publication submitted by advertisers. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the opinions of EXPLORE and/or Schooley Media Ventures. Copyright 2016 Schooley Media Ventures, 930 E. Blanco, Ste. 200, Boerne, TX 78006
Publisher Benjamin D. Schooley ben@hillcountryexplore.com
8 | EXPLORE
information, or typographical errors contained in this
Operations Manager Peggy Schooley peggy@smvtexas.vom
Creative Director Benjamin N. Weber ben.weber@smvtexas.com
ADVERTISING SALES 210-507-5250 sales@hillcountryexplore.com
DEAREST EXPLORE READER, I watched on the news as they walked him to the back of the cop car. His hair was overgrown and shaggy, clothes were stained and torn, and he looked exactly like a guy that wouldn’t surprise you to learn that he was an armed robber. The problem was that he wasn’t an armed robber, he was a well-respected, professional young man that I had enjoyed lunch several times. But, I’m sad to admit, he is an armed robber. He was sentenced to jail, and since then, I have not spoken to him since. I think about him all the time and I hope that he is doing well. I’m sure that he was sentenced to some jail term, and then hopefully he receives some good counseling and/ or therapy to help him avoid any other relapses back into this life, and I hope that he can simply consider this the darkest of chapters in his life and go on to amazing things. Mainly, I think about him every time I see anyone doing that same shameful walk from the side door of the PD to the back of the cop car on the evening news. It’s invariably some scraggly looking guy, wearing trashed clothing, and looking completely defeated while the newscaster explains to me that he robbed a gas station, or was caught stealing, or was in some stupid bar fight. I knew a guy earlier in my life that was really the life of the party. He was extremely outgoing, the girls loved his charm and confidence, and when he entered the room the lights got a little brighter and the volume was turned up. He lived in a nice area of Fair Oaks, was a professional at his job, and was extremely well respected. I used to have lunch with him frequently and I would have characterized him as being a very vibrant, intelligent, warm, and wonderful man. He had no kids yet, but they were on his radar with his young wife. By all accounts, he had it all… and everyone around him loved getting to spend time with him. During a “guy’s trip” with some of his friends one summer, and after way too many cocktails, somebody pulled out a small baggie of cocaine and encouraged him to have some. With his better judgment clouded, he agreed. Within 3 months he was a full on cocaine addict. Within 6 months, his wife had left him and he had lost his job. Within 9 months he had moved on to crack and his home was foreclosed. Whatever clicked in his brain upon his first sampling of cocaine began a tornado of destruction in his life that started quickly. He instantly became transfixed on getting his next fix of cocaine, and it quickly took its toll on his marriage. As he wasn’t sleeping, his job performance took a nose dive, so the once popular and respected young man at work was quickly fired. Now homeless and unemployed, my friend lived in his car for a while. I hadn’t spoken to him in a while as he went through this free fall, so sadly I didn’t even know that it was going on. I remember trying to call him, leaving voicemails, but never did get a reply. As he became more and more desperate for money to fund his habit, one evening at approximately midnight he robbed a gas station in San Antonio with a small .38 caliber handgun on some terrible side of town. Nobody was hurt (thank God), but he was picked up a few nights later while he was passed out in backseat of his Infiniti.
10 | EXPLORE
When I watched my friend do that shameful walk, I thought about his parents and how much they loved him. I thought about his pretty house on the golf course in Fair Oaks. I thought about his smile and his laugh and the great times that we had over lunch. I thought about how this armed robber on TV was not the REAL man, but was simply the culmination of some truly awful choices. I thought about how, if put into a particular set of circumstances, I suppose that I could be making that walk. Or my children could be doing it. Or YOU could be doing it. I know that we all make a noise and say “No way man. I know what causes some people to end up being armed robbers, and I’ll never find myself in that position.” Maybe you’re right. I’m sure you will be. But what if you DID go through a series of maladies in your life, and you ultimately found yourself homeless. You have no money, no prospects, and you look like hell. You’re hungry. And then I read in the police blotter about you being picked up for stealing a car. Or God forbid, holding up my local gas station. We all start off the same. We are all babies with unlimited potential for the rest of our lives. That gangbanger on TV started off as a baby just like you. We are born into different circumstances, and some of us have an environment better conducive for success, but we all have the same potential. Babies in some tough areas are born to crack addicted mothers, living in poverty, and all they know is the struggle to eat and survive. Some of us are born to suburbia parents with stable jobs and a loving family, and worrying about survival is foreign to us. But ya know, both babies are precious. Both babies have the same needs. Both babies grew to be children and had huge dreams of being astronauts and firefighters. Both of them wanted to be…good. The point to all this is that I think that we all tend to think of people in terms of absolutes. My friend, living on the golf course with his great job…well, he’s a good person. The guy doing the “perp walk” to the back of the cop car is very bad. We figure that one person is, and always will be, good; and one is, and always has been, bad. And I just find that unfortunate.
Sometimes I wonder if we are so fast to ignore our bloated criminal justice system because we just figure “Well, if you end up in the penal system then you are a bad person and you deserve to rot in there.” At the same time, I wonder if that bad guy in the penal system would have gone on to lead a productive and fulfilling life if he or she had YOUR opportunities. If they weren’t worried about survival from the moment they were born, I wonder if they could have been your co-worker at USAA. At the same time, if you didn’t know anything but poverty, crime, and violence…are you the one that we’re ignoring while you rot in Huntsville? Maybe. Maybe not. I wish, though, that I had a magic wand. I wish that I had some magical way to take many of the people in our criminal system that had made a stupid decision, and somehow teach them how to move forward in their lives. Teach them how to kick drugs, handle their anger differently, and better their education. I know it would require a magic wand, but I wish that it could happen. I think that knowing that people’s lives are being wasted year after year while they sit in a cell because they were hungry and desperate and robbed a store is a very real tragedy. I know that there were probably 1000 decisions that led to that moment of desperation, but it would be magical to witness true rehabilitation. It’s kind of like how in Portugal they have legalized all drugs. When you are caught with them, they send you to rehab. No jail, just remedy. They understand that good people get hooked on drugs, and they just need to understand how to make better choices as opposed to having their entire lives ruined over addictions. Next time that you walk down Main Street in our primarily white, upper-middle class suburban town… take a look around. Any one of these people could fall into some bad situations and ultimately find themselves labeled a criminal. What if we looked at those around us that are in trouble, or are hitchhiking, or are drinking beer sitting on a curb as people with unlimited potential as opposed to people that are beyond hope. What if, instead of rolling your eyes at them and figuring that they are just worthless losers with no hope, you treated them the way that you would treat your own brother. I could go on and on, but I won’t. I really dig PEOPLE, and find them infinitely fascinating. They are broken, and mean, and cruel. They are also beautiful, and full of love, and grace. In fact, we are all EACH of those characteristics if you find us at the right moment. Life is too short to focus on only one side of the coin, and I hope that nobody ever gives up on me and leaves me in the gutter should be unfortunate enough to find myself there. Just like some of those guys that are sleeping under a tree tonight, I’m a father, and a son, and a person with infinite potential that assuredly never gets it all right. Welcome to October. Ah, cooler temps. May you wander your roads upon your journey, and may you EXPLORE your heart as you do so. Lend a hand, hug a heart, and make someone smile. And may someone do the same for you. Smiling,
ben@hillcountryexplore.com
Authentic
WE ARE
5 1 8 R I V E R R O A D | B O E R N E , T X | W W W. L I T T L E G R E T E L . C O M | 8 3 0 - 3 3 1 - 1 3 6 8
AREA EVENTS
Get out and enjoy the great Texas Hill Country!
The most comprehensive events calendar. Send submissions to info@hillcountryexplore.com
October 27 Fredericksburg Food & Wine Fest The 28th annual event features a grand celebration of Texas food and wine with musical entertainment and fun, plus several special events. GRUENE October 4-7 Gruene Music & Wine Fest This 32nd annual Americana event benefiting the United Way of Comal County features the best in live Texas music and the best in Texas food and wines. All four days will be filled with vintner and music events, wine, food & beer samplings, and the Great Guitar Auction.
BANDERA October 2 Cowboy Capital Opry Grand Old Opry-style entertainment is hosted by Gerry and Harriet Payne with refreshments and door prizes. Silver Sage Community Center, 803 Buck Creek. banderacowboycapital.com 830796-3045 October 6 Texas Hill Country Frogs For Freedom Ride All vehicles are welcome on this annual benefit run through the Texas Hill Country. Includes live music, live auction, 50/50 raffle, and a fish fry. Proceeds benefit the widows & children of fallen SEAL-SWCC Warriors. October 6 Bandera Market Days Arts and crafts vendors in downtown Bandera. Bandera County Courthouse Lawn, 500 Main St. banderacowboycapital.com October 6, 13, 20, 27 Bandera Cattle Company Gunfighters Experience the excitement of the Wild West with the award-winning Bandera Cattle Company Gunfighters, recreating shootouts and daily life of the Old West. Shows are at high noon and 2 p.m. Bandera Visitors Center, 126 SH 16. banderacowboycapital.com 830-796-3045 Oct. 13 Texas Hill Country Musicfest Annual fundraiser benefits local non-profit organizations in Bandera with great live music. This year’s event will feature Walt Wilkins & the Mystiqueros. Oct. 27 Cactus Rose Ultra Trail & Relay Race No whiners, wimps, or wusses. A trail of rugged and brutal beauty where everything cuts, stings, or bites. BOERNE October 4 Leine Lounges at RANDOM Come out to RANDOM Beer Garden for this special event. Enjoy live music, swag, photos & autographs, prizes and more. Special guest Dick Leinenkugel, owner of Leinenkugel’s Brewery. Oct. 12-13 Hill Country Charity Art Show This two-day fine art show features 20 talented artists from across the Hill Country. Proceeds from this year’s show support Vault Fostering Community in providing practical and financial assistance to foster and adoptive families in our area. Bring the family and enjoy great art for a great cause! October 13 Pint Night Busted Sandal Brewery presents Pint Night at RANDOM Beer Garden. BURNET October 13 Octoberfest Come out an enjoy live music along with arts and crafts vendors, kids activities, local craft breweries, 5K run, classic car show, Hill Country wineries, silent auction, face painting, Wild West gun fight, and so much more. October 13 Fort Croghan Day Watch a real blacksmith at work, see sugar cane made into syrup, and observe bread baked in a wood-burning stove and view a one-room school house where you can “do your lessons” on a slate board.
12 | EXPLORE
COMFORT October 9 Music in the Park Outdoor music featuring Mike Blakely & Anna. Cold non-alcoholic beverages provided. Bring lawn chairs. October 20-21 Fall Antique Show Sponsored by Texas Presentations, many antique dealers will display their wares for sale. DRIPPING SPRINGS October 13-14 Hill Country Ranch Harvest Market A shopping event bringing in vendors from across the state. They will be showing the best in clothing, gifts, jewelry, gourmet food, Texas handmade items, gifts for the guys, home and holiday decor, candles, accessories, and much more. October 19-21 Dripping Springs Songwriters Festival You are invited to the heart of the beautiful Texas Hill Country to come and enjoy an exciting weekend of phenomenal singer/songwriter showcases. The Dripping Springs Songwriters Festival is an up-close and personal chance to see, hear, and get to know some very talented performers who have a deep love of the art of songwriting. October 20 Hill Country Living + Rainwater Revival Festival The 9th annual family-friendly event is the second year of expanded festivities including a new marketplace for artisans, natural products, and handmade goods; Raindrop Stop for kids with hands-on activities; exhibitors from the rainwater harvesting, green building, native landscaping, wildlife management & sustainable home industries; a food trailer court; and a Hill Country wine tour. FREDERICKSBURG October 1-31 Texas Wine Month Passport Take a selfguided tour of the Texas Hill Country wineries and receive special tastings and discounts. Tickets are limited and available online only. October 4, 11, 18, 25 Fredericksburg Fall Farmers Market (every Thursday) Features live music, prepared foods, cooking demonstrations, wine tasting, and more. October 5 First Friday Art Walk Fredericksburg Tour fine art galleries offering special exhibits, demonstrations, refreshments, and extended viewing hours the first Friday of every month. October 5-7 Oktoberfest Celebrate the fun and flavor of Fredericksburg’s German heritage with three days of music, food, drink, dancing, arts and crafts, children’s entertainment, and more at this 38th annual event. October 12-14 Texas Mesquite Art Festival Features the world’s largest selection of original mesquite art, sculpture, furniture, turnings, architectural accents, gift items, ornaments, and more. October 20 Knights of Columbus Bestfest Not quite Oktoberfest but this ninth annual Bestfest entertains with specialty beer and sausage tastings, live music, prizes, kids games, and more. Proceeds benefit local charities.
October 20-21 Old Gruene Market Days This monthly event (except January) has been held for more than 30 years and features more than 100 artisans offering handmade items made by the vendors themselves. Free parking, admission, and live entertainment. October 27-28 Texas Clay Festival Respected potters and sculptors from around Texas display, sell their wares, and demonstrate a variety of techniques at the 26th annual event. Hands-on activities are available for children. KERRVILLE October 5 First Friday Wine Share On the first Friday of each month, gather with friends old and new to share new wines, meet new people and talk business, art, and more. October 12-14 James Avery Invitational Golf Tournament This 54-hole, two man tournament is played over three different golf courses. Comanche Trace, Riverhill & Scott Schreiner golf courses. October 13 Kerr County Market Days Features an indoor marketplace for vendors of original handcrafted goods, artwork, and homegrown plants and produce. Pets on a leash are welcome. October 13 Hill Country Swap Meet Features a giant community garage sale, flea market, and trade days all-in-one. Buy or sell new, used, antiques, collectibles, arts and crafts, knives, books, furniture, tools, clothing, kitchen and household items, and more. Concessions are available on site along with lots of free parking. Pets on a leash are welcome. October 25-28 39th Annual Kerr County Fair & Carnival/ Midway The 39th annual fair includes judged creative arts exhibits, 4-H prospect show, bull riding, carnival and midway, parade, dance, vendors, and more. October 31 Family Fright Night An evening of safe and traditional family fun includes trick or treating, games, food vendors, bounce houses, and more. MARBLE FALLS October 13 Marble Falls Music Festival Marble Falls Music Festival has renamed, rebranded, and is ready to reestablish itself as the best event you’ll attend this year. We’re taking center stage with an inclusive variety of music genres plus a food truck competition and local beer & wine. MEDINA October 5-8, 12-15, 19-22, 26-29 Great Hill Country Pumpkin Patch A festival for children and the child in us all. Unlimited hayrides, hay bale maze and giant hay stacks, petting zoo, play an instrument, apple orchard tour, visit the cider mill and apple processing, purchase and paint a pumpkin, storytelling and sing-along time, pet and groom a pony, paint a mural. In addition, for a small fee you can, ride a pony, take a barrel train ride, face painted (weekends only), and complete a sand art project (weekends only), build a pomander, and feed the animals.
830-428-3026
Beginning at 6:00 p.m.
Meet Special guest Leinenkugel’s owner Dick Leinenkugel Live Music • Swag • Pint glasses Photos and Autographs • Leine lounges Popup Prizes • Post your best lG photo contest Signed Paddle
PE
THURSDAY OCTOBER 4TH LEINE LOUNGES
T
F R I E ND LY
WE ARE ALWAYS
PE
EVERYDAY!!!
11 Upper Cibolo Creek Rd.
LY
$2.00 Domestic Drafts
F R I E ND
/RandomTexasFamilyFun /RandomTexas t /RandomBeeRGaRdn
LIVE MUSIC EVERY WEEKEND
T
80+ BEERS ON TAP
PINT NIGHT WITH BUSTED SANDAL
OCTOBER 13TH Book your Holiday Party NOW at RANDOM!!
THE ART OF THE RECIPE BY ANDREA FORSHEE
On October 15th, the legendary Fickle Pickle of the Hill Country will celebrate its 38th Anniversary. One of the longest running businesses in Boerne, Fickle Pickleshoused inside Texas Carousel Antiques, has become a fixture on the Hill Country Mile. Owner Lisa Obriotti and husband Jake couldn’t be prouder to continue Lisa’s mother, Billie Shaw’s legacy.
O
14 | EXPLORE
In 1980, Billie Shaw moved to Pipe Creek from San Antonio and opened an antique store in Boerne. In order to bring customers into the store, Billie began sampling out her homemade pickles. One day she called Lisa and said, “I think I’m going to start selling my pickles in the store but I need a name.” Lisa’s immediate reply? “Fickle Pickles!”
just won’t work the same. It has to be canned by hand and made in small batches, otherwise it won’t taste the same. As long as we can continue to produce the product the way we want and have enough on hand, we want to keep expanding.” They have stores in Gruene, Bandera, and of course the flagship store in Boerne, with hopes to open one in Austin soon.
What began as just an idea to generate more traffic into her store quickly turned into the biggest selling item. As orders for Fickle Pickles began coming in, Billie was amazed and shared her excitement with Lisa (who still lived in San Antonio) just about every day. Lisa remembers a call from her mom one day, “You wouldn’t believe how much everyone likes my pickles! A man just ordered 12 jars of my pickles! That’s a case!”
There is no doubt that Lisa’s passion to continue her mom’s legacy is key to Fickle Pickle’s success. The pickles are delicious with a combination of sweet, crunchy, and spicy are definitely the beginning to the lasting impression this company makes. However, it is Lisa and the staff that have people coming back. “Once your focus is on your customer, everything falls into place. If you ever lose track of your customers then you will lose track of your business.”
Billie Shaw, who was fondly referred to as “The Pickle Lady,” began jarring these savory, crunchy gems and quickly made a big name for her family recipe. Still using one single and successful family recipe, Fickle Pickles and “The Pickle Lady’s Daughter” as Lisa is now known, has been featured in Southern Living, Texas Monthly and has even graced the stage at a live episode of The Martha Stewart Show. In 2001, Billie was ready to hand the reigns of the business over to her only daughter. Lisa said, “When I first took over, it was very difficult because things were not measured. She just did it and I had to literally watch her to learn how she made them!” Lisa still uses the same recipe as her mom, and a staff of 6 cut and can by hand the way her mom did 38 years ago. “Only my husband and I know what goes into our product. We are very protective of what we make because it is ours.” Lisa and Jake took the business and began marketing to expand the reach of the business. Lisa began mailing lists and advertisements and word began to spread even more. The launch of an online store increased business exponentially. Lisa is proud to say, “We have been very fortunate, we have never had a year where we equaled the year before, we have always had an increase!” Pickles have been shipped all over the world, including Finland, England, Iraq, and Australia and have become a must have Christmas gift for many families. Lisa feels the biggest key to the success to the company (other than the amazing pickles, of course!) is their customer service. “We just want to pay homage to her hard, hard work. We want to make her proud and keep giving that old-fashioned customer service. We go the extra mile and make sure our customers feel at home. We always make it right and strive to make our customers happy and satisfied.” Also keeping the product in their own stores rather than wholesale them has been key. “Having control over the product and knowing how it is represented and sampled is so very important. I need to know that our pickles are being presented the way we believe they should be.” Looking to the future, Lisa’s goal is to continue to grow the company while still keeping the product handmade. “We’ve looked at different ways to produce the pickles in larger batches but no matter what we’ve seen, we know it
Lisa and Jake Obriotti select their customer service representatives with this in mind and there is no doubt that it makes a difference. Each store as well as the kitchen is staffed with people that are just as passionate about their pickles as they are, and it is obvious the moment you walk in the door. With all of the changes that Boerne has gone through over the years, it is nice to know that small town customer service and a delicious handmade product has the staying power. Stop by any one of their stores on October 15th to wish them a Happy 38th Anniversary and to sample the best pickle you’ll ever have. Pick up a marinade excellent for pork, chicken, or shrimp and few jars of Original and Extra Spicy. You won’t regret it!
WWW.HILLCOUNTRYEXPLORE.COM | OCTOBER 2018
| 15
24 Wasp Creek Rd. Boerne, TX 78006 830.777.6704 SaintTryphon.com @sainttryphonwine #COMETASTETEXAS
REAL. TEXAS. WINE. Open THURSDAY - SUNDAY
Boerne’s FIRST Winery
100% Texas Wine
Your Hometown Home Care and Hospice Provider Is Now Five-Star Rated!
Locally owned & operated serving San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country since 2007
Home Care
Skilled Nursing Therapy Services Specialty Programs Home Health Aides Palliative Care Wound Care
37131 IH-10 W., Ste. 400 :: Boerne, TX 78006 :: 830.331.1291 Visit us on the web at www.allcountyhomecareandhospice.com
16 | EXPLORE
Hospice Care
Nursing Care Pain and Symptom Management Emotional and Spiritual Support Hospice Aides Trained Volunteers Medical Social Worker
LOVE YOUR WATER! Have the Healthiest, Cleanest, Freshest, Water in the Neighborhood!
FREE Trial Offer
Try a Kinetico Water System on us for up to 30 days and experience the Kinetico difference!
830-443-4702 KineticoSA.com
H
History is a popular topic with our readers. Marjorie Hagy’s HISTORY piece is probably the most popular article in our illustrious publication month after month. With that fact, we thought we’d share some broader Texas history each month. Nothing earth shattering, but we hope you might find something to make you pause and say, “Huh. Well I’ll be.”
October 1st, 1849
On this day in 1849, the first prisoner, a convicted horse thief from Fayette County, entered the partially completed Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville. The facility held only three prisoners in 1849, but by 1855 it housed seventy-five convicts, and by 1860, 182. In 2017 there were six prison units and a prison transfer facility in Huntsville, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was responsible for more than 146,000 adult inmates at units throughout the state.
October 8th, 1926
On this day in 1926, the Witte Memorial Museum opened in San Antonio. The museum was largely the brainchild of Ellen D. Schulz Quillin, who helped start the San Antonio Museum Association and raised $5,000 to purchase Henry Philemon Attwater’s collection of natural history specimens. She initially stored the collection at Main Avenue High School, where she was a science teacher, but successfully petitioned the city for a site and funds for a museum to showcase the collection and others like it. The building was constructed with public funds and a $65,000 bequest to the city from local businessman Alfred G. Witte, who stipulated that a museum be built in Brackenridge Park in memory of his parents. The facility was known as the Witte Memorial Museum until 1984, when the name was simplified to Witte Museum. The San Antonio Museum of Art, which opened with much fanfare in 1981 in a former brewery, was originally an outgrowth of the Witte.
October 13th, 1845
On this day in 1845, the voters of the Republic of Texas approved an ordinance to accept annexation by a vote of 4,245 to 257. They also adopted the proposed state constitution by a vote of 4,174 to 312. The annexation of Texas to the United States had been a topic of political and diplomatic discussions since the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Although most Texans had been in favor of annexation and had voted for it as early as 1836, constitutional scruples, fear of war with Mexico, and the controversy of adding another slave state to the union prevented the acceptance of annexation by the United States until 1845.
18 | EXPLORE
October 14th, 1890
On this day in 1890, Dwight David Eisenhower, general of the army and thirty-fourth president of the United States, was born in a two-story frame house in Denison, Texas. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Abilene, Kansas. Other presidents have had strong ties to the Lone Star State. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born near Stonewall in the Texas Hill Country, and George H. W. Bush and son George W. Bush have called Texas home for many years.
October 15th, 1943
On this day in 1943, Texas native Ira Eaker was promoted from commander of the Eighth Air Force to assume command of both American air forces in England, the Eighth and the Ninth. Eaker, an aviation pioneer, joined the army in 1917 and transferred to the Army Air Corps in 1918. He was one of ten pilots chosen to make the Pan American Goodwill Flight in 1926, and pioneered in flight refueling in the interwar years. During his World War II service in England between 1942 and 1944, Eaker was instrumental in the development and application of daylight precision bombing in the European Theater. He went on to command the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces in 1944-45. He died in 1987.
October 19th, 1889
On this day in 1889, H. S. Barber, the earliest known explorer of the Devil’s Sinkhole, carved his name in the cave. Located northeast of Rocksprings in Edwards County, the Devil’s Sinkhole was named in 1876 by the wives of Ammon Billings and other men who had discovered the entrance after an encounter with Indians. The pit entrance is approximately fifty feet wide and expands downward into an oval room, roughly 320 feet in diameter, that is partly filled with fallen rock. The cave is 350 feet deep. Cave explorers from all over the United States have been drawn to it because of its impressive size and rumors of lost bat rooms. Guano has been removed sporadically from the cave for use as fertilizer. The cave was added to the National Registry of Natural Landmarks in the early 1970s. It and the surrounding land are owned by the state of Texas.
October 26th, 1930
On this day in 1930, the Southern Methodist University Mustangs beat the Indiana Hoosiers 27-0 in the first football game at the brandnew Cotton Bowl in Dallas’s Fair Park. The 46,000-seat stadium was on the site of Fair Park Football Stadium, built in 1921 with a seating capacity of 15,000. A milestone in the history of the stadium occurred on January 1, 1937, when the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs beat Marquette University 16-6 in the first Cotton Bowl Classic. The classic became an annual tradition matching the Southwest Conference champion against a highly rated opponent, and now primarily features teams from the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference. The stadium was renovated extensively in 1948, 1949, 1994, and 2008, bringing its official capacity to 92,100. The Cotton Bowl served as the home of the Dallas Texans of the National Football League in 1952, the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs) of the American Football League from 1960 to 1962, the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL from 1960 to 1970, and the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) of Major League Soccer from 1996 to 2005. It also hosted several matches during the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The last Cotton Bowl Classic held in the eponymously named stadium was played on January 2, 2009. However, the site still hosts the annual clash between the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oklahoma, the State Fair Classic between Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M, and the Heart of Dallas Bowl.
October 28th, 1835
On this day in 1835, Texans and Mexicans skirmished near San Antonio at the battle of Concepción, the opening engagement in the siege of Bexar. Some ninety Texans under the command of James Bowie and James W. Fannin, Jr., defeated a force of 275 Mexican soldiers and two cannons. Mexican losses included fourteen killed and thirty-nine wounded, some of whom died later. Texas losses included one killed and one wounded.
UP-SCALE CONTEMPORARY STEAK AND SEAFOOD IN A CASUAL DINING ENVIRONMENT 1 1 Upp e r C i b o l o C re e k R d . ( L o c at e d at R a n d om ) | B o e r n e , Te x a s | 8 3 0 . 3 8 8 . 9 5 4 5
BADASS OF THE MONTH
J 22 | EXPLORE
John Coffee Hays maybe not be a name that you instantly recognize like a Davy Crockett or Sam Houston. However, don’t think for a minute that this month’s BADASS was anything but a Comanche kickin’, cattle rustler killin’, wild west taming kick ass cowboy that ultimately gets credit for the formation and initial training of one of the world’s most revered security forces – The Texas Rangers.
Born in Cedar Lick, Tennessee (which is a bad ass name by itself) in 1817, Hays was the nephew of future President, Andrew Jackson. His father was a well known military man, but both of his parents died from yellow fever when Hays was but 15. He and his six siblings were scattered, with most of them going to live with relatives in Mississippi, but Hays took off to become a land surveyor in 1832, which was a helluva lot more dangerous than it is nowadays.
than to kill any man with a five-pointed tin star on their shirt.
You see, in the 1830s, there was still a ton of Louisiana Purchase territory that had never been mapped or charted yet, so these surveyors in those days basically packed up a horse and took off into the unknown wilderness with a rifle, some jerky, and their surveying equipment as they tried to survive. Hunger, Indians, wild animals, hypothermia, heat stroke…everything bad that could happen would happen to these guys frequently. Hays was described as a quiet skinny kid by those he worked with, but it was noted that anytime he got to pull his gun and start kicking ass, he did so with terrifying efficiency.
This initial group was a pretty rag tag bunch of badasses, many of which with little more than a grudge to enact a little justice the Texas way. He trained them efficiently and constantly, and before long he had pretty much the most bad ass group of lawmen that Texas had ever seen.
Hays kept up with the surveying gig for a while, but things were blowing up down in Goliad and with the Alamo and Hays said “Hell yeah. I’m on my way.” He fought for Texas in 1840, introduced himself to Sam Houston as the nephew of Andrew Jackson, and was immediately given an officer’s position in a relatively new organization charged with providing order on the wild frontier – the Texas Rangers. Hays quickly worked his way up the ladder, and “Captain Jack” was soon commanding a regimen of Rangers charged with patrolling the southwest portion of Texas. If anybody told you that land surveying was dangerous back in the day, Hays and his crew single handedly trying to protect hundreds of miles of Wild West Texas was whole lot worse. Comanches, Mexican Army patrols, bandit gangs, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, and all sorts of other trouble makers were littered all over this part of the world and they would love nothing more
Hays’ job was to build up this team, outfit them, and train them properly. The first thing that he did was have them throw away their single shot pistols and trade them in for a relatively new invention, the five shot revolver known as the Colt Paterson.
Hays adapted many Indian and Mexican ways of travel by limiting what his guys actually carried to what they could fit on the horse. If they were hungry, they shot an animal. They were able to travel light and fast, and were responding to any threats they heard about with lightning speed. Most bad guys simply gave up simply due to their reputation, and the ones that didn’t surrender did not live to have time to regret it. One of his more famous
battles was in 1844 at the “Battle of Walker’s Creek”. Hays only had about 15 of his guys (he had to split them up frequently to cover ground), when they were ambushed by a similar number of Comanche. As soon as Comanches attacked, they seemed to retreat. Hays was skeptical, so he had his guys stand their ground, and when the Comanches figured that their fake retreat wasn’t going to work, they charged at a full 80 strong. Hays spit in the dirt and rode head-on towards a force of Indians that outnumbered him four-to-one. Hays screamed for his men to not fire until they were at point blank, and as the Comanches were still using the old single shot guns, Hays’ men wiped them out almost instantly and the Rangers didn’t lose a single man. One of his officers in the battle, Lieutenant Samuel Walker, was so impressed with the fight that he would go on to create a six-shooter pistol known as the Walker Colt. It got a lot of use in the Civil War, and it’s the same gun as used in The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Hays was then called into action in 1846 for the MexicanAmerican War to assist in the invasion of Mexico. Hays now had 250 men, was promoted to Colonel, and his Rangers worked as scouts, recon, and anti-guerilla forces. Their job was to keep the supply lines open, and in doing so they found themselves in tons of battles and basically kicked ass all over Mexico. He spent 3 days outside Vera Cruz where the Rangers drove off a force of 200 Mexican cavalry without losing a single man. Santa Anna himself even referred to the Rangers as “Los Diablos Tejanos” and at some point Hays even went to a ball in Austin wearing a uniform that he had stolen from Santa Anna’s palace. Hays had become a pretty big celebrity in Texas and people even tried to talk him into running for governor. Instead, Hays decided to head west and quiet down for a bit. But this is Jack Hays, so quieting down wasn’t in his blood, so he split for Tucson where he had to stay for 6 weeks because so many people in his party were sick. From there, he took off for
San Diego, on horseback, kicking Apache ass, beating disease, heat, wild animals and every other imaginable challenge along the way. From there, he jumped on a boat and sailed up to San Francisco on a steamboat that almost capsized twice. After kicking ass all the way across the Southwestern US, Hays basically ends up in San Francisco where, because of his reputation, he was immediately elected to be the city’s first Sheriff. He then built the town’s first permanent jail, disbanded a murderous vigilante group called the “Committee of Vigilance” and actually brought order to the place by declaring that alleged criminals were entitled to a fair trial under the law. He beat the Paiute Indians in the Second Battle of Pyramid Lake, and then went back to his roots as the US Surveyor General for California. He founded the City of Oakland, was a stockholder in the Oakland Gas Light Company, served on the Board of Regents for the California School for the Deaf and the Blind, founded the Oakland Union Nation Bank, and finished up as the Mayor of Oakland for a while. When the Civil War fired up, Hays was of course offered a high ranking position, but he declined because he had far too much fortune generating awesomeness to attend to. He died peacefully in his sleep in 1883, and will forever live on in lore as one of the most badass men to ever leave a mark on Texas history and legend.
WWW.HILLCOUNTRYEXPLORE.COM | OCTOBER 2018
| 23
THE STAR OF HALLOW’S EVE Halloween is big business. Americans spend roughly $2.1 BILLION on Halloween candy each year. Here are a few interesting Halloween candy facts you may not have known. Including some useless party conversation about the candy favored by Texans.
Americans spend roughly $2.1 BILLION on Halloween Candy each year. A dentist helped invent cotton candy. 1897 dentist Willian Morrison partnered with confectioner John C. Wharton to come up with a machine that used centrifugal force to turn sugar into cotton-like strands. Originally it was called “Fairy Floss.” The name Cotton Candy didn’t show up until the 1920s. The M&M on M&Ms stands for Mars and Murrie. Those are the surnames of the two businessmen who first developed and financed the candy. It takes anywhere between 144 and 252 licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop. According to the American Chemical Society, eating 262 fun-sized Halloween candy bars would poison a 180-pound person. But don’t worry about death by candy: You’d vomit before you’d be able to down that many candy bars in one sitting.
24 | EXPLORE
Every state has its favorite candy. Starburst was the most popular Halloween candy in Texas in 2017. With 1,952,361 pounds of the candy sold. Here are a few numbers to put that amount into perspective. 181,081,483 pieces If placed face to face (how they come in the full size package) that’s roughly 886 miles of candy. That would span the length of I-10 from El Paso, TX to Orange, TX, PLUS an additional 20 miles. If you place them side by side (how they come in the fun size packaging) it would stretch from El Paso to Jacksonville, FL PLUS another 70 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. The weight is equivalent to 150 African elephants or 6.5 Blue Whales. It would also take 7 C-5 cargo jets filled to capacity to air lift all of it. According to a BuzzFeed poll pink (strawberry) is the favorite flavor followed by red (cherry), yellow (lemon), and finally orange.
Unique gifts for mommy and baby MATERNITY | BABY | JEWELRY | BAGS (830) 816-5918
210 E. Blanco Rd. www.shopmommy2b.com shopmommy2b@gmail.com
Boerne, TX 78006
DEEP BENEATH By Marjorie Hagy
T
The official story is that Cascade Caverns was discovered in 1840 when a cow fell into a sinkhole, but the vast cave was, of course, well-known to untold generations of Native Americans before white people ever thought of a place called Texas. It was also known to prehistoric animals like the mastodon, the saber-toothed tiger and American bison, or perhaps they just had the misfortune of stumbling
in by accident, like the poor cow, for the remains of all of these were found inside it’s depths. It’s a whole other world, a world of bottomless pools and tumbling waterfalls, of salamanders and bats and hermits and a vast domed cathedral, and it’s all underneath the world we know, in Cascade Cavern, the subterranean wonder.
26 | EXPLORE
Formed in the Earth’s lower Cretaceous period and shaped by frequent torrents of floodwater through her rooms, changed and changing even in our short lifetimes, through flood and draught, through the steady seep of groundwater creating its magnificent forms, Cascade Cavern is part of the Glen Rose Formation, a geological formation that begins in South Central Texas, runs north through the Hill Country, and ends somewhere up in north of here. It descends down one hundred and forty feet underground- as far as is known- and also unknown is how far the cave stretches back into the earth. It’s presumed that large portions of the cavern remain unexplored, but have been tantalizingly glimpsed- the sound of rushing water through cracks in the limestone walls, a tiny hole through which can be seen other rooms, unvisited, inaccessible, just beyond human reach. The land on which the cave is located was originally part of a Spanish Land Grant deeded to one Juan Ramon Arocha. After the Declaration of Texas Independence in 1837, every household received a piece of land and
Patent #64 with Cascade Cavern on it went to Arocha. It was unallocated- meaning unlocated and still part of the wilderness out of which Boerne would eventually grow. Land speculators William Steele and Ludovic Colquhoun bought the land, unseen, and soon sold it, also unseen. The land was swapped around and changed hands over and over again, but most likely none of the owners ever saw it. The first people who came to actually live there were a Dr Benjamin Hester and his wife, from Memphis. But as they were the first local owners of the place, the cave took on their name, and Hester’s Cave it was for years and years. According to Elizabeth Gray Hudson, who grew up on the place, ‘...[T]here was always the great black hole tucked away on the back of the property. A place for a Sunday afternoon’s outing. A cave for the curious to explore.’ And the curious did, of course, explore it; boys and young men did what boys and young men have always done, and dared each other to go in, taking their girls out there, maybe, to wait outside the cave,
thrillingly nervous, while the guys proved their derringdo. There was only so much a fella could do for fun in Boerne in the day: you could take a train ride to the next town & back, you could go for a picnic into the country or to the ‘town lake’ (which was the spillway below the dam on River Road), you could ‘promenade’ with your girl up and down Main Street- or you could go out to Hester’s Cave. There was a giant stalactite hanging just inside the entrance to the cavern, blocking the main passageway, and on it, and on the limestone walls surrounding, the boys and many others would carve their names and initials for posterity- and indeed, the names of Charlie Dienger, the Howard boys of Boerne and one Charlie Bull of Van Raub, were visible for nearly one hundred years there until the action of the floodwaters of a century finally rubbed them smoothe. Elizabeth Gray Hudson’s father, Alfred Gray, bought the land (and Hester’s Cave) in 1929 and established his dairy business there, Graymead Dairy, which he ran for several years until the Great Depression forced him to
close. So there he found himself, Alfred Gray, his money fast running out and his business bankrupt through no fault of his own, the economy in the can and a family to maintain- his wife, Edith Gilliat, Elizabeth and her twin sister Edith and their younger brother Gordon. And he’s got this land, and this cave on the back of the place...And a light bulb goes off over Alfred Gray’s head- maybe he hops up and yells ‘Eureka!’ By George, he’s got it! Right about the same time as Alfred was engaging in some serious noodle-scratching over this hole he was in (no pun intended), there’d been these two guys, brothers, Dan and Bernard Cartwright, going around making a name for themselves exploring caves all over Texas, and becoming quite the experts on their subject. They were also getting to know kind of a lot about developing caves commercially, and everybody and their brother with a cave on the old home place was hitting them up to come take a look and part with a little advice. Also at the same time, over in New Mexico Carlsbad Cavern had just become a national park- and all of this information must’ve hit Alfred just right and BAM! The light bulb flashed on. In a trice, Dairy Farmer Gray got ahold of Bernard Cartwright, and next thing anybody knew, the two of them were standing outside the cave entrance with their gear, ready for the trip of a lifetime- past the stalactite and into the unknown world beyond where, for all they knew, no human had ever been before. They prepared their kit well, Bernard, of course, having a pretty good idea what one might expect down below the surface: ropes, waders, and a camera, flashlights sealed in gallon molasses buckets to keep them dry and a quantity of candles and matches to test the quality of the air that far below the surface. ‘Alert cavers,’ wrote Elizabeth fifty years later, ‘are always aware of the danger of “black damp” or carbon monoxide poisoning.’ She was only four years old that day in 1931, and her first awareness of the cave in her backyard was the anxiety she felt as she watched her father and his new friend make their preparations.
WWW.HILLCOUNTRYEXPLORE.COM | OCTOBER 2018
| 27
Up into the 1880s the cave was accessible only by a hole on it’s top, through which the owner before the Grays, LW Menn, was rumored to have deposited wanna-be spelunkers by way of a bucket on a rope, which was lowered and lifted in and out of the hole by a winch on his truck. But by the time Gray and Cartwright prepared to go in the side of a cliff had been washed out by floodwaters and a sort of ramp of boulders had been formed, over which the two men now proceeded to crawl into the great beyond. ‘For several hours on that hot fall afternoon in 1931,’ Elizabeth later wrote, ‘Mary Cartwright and my mother, Edith Gray, waited anxiously for the men’s return. It was late in the day before they emerged with their exciting news.’ And exciting news it certainly was. They reported passages and chambers and an underground oak thicket, a subterranean lake into which a curtain of stalactites dipped- they’d seen a great room like a vast cathedral with domes in the ceiling, all reflected in the dark surface of a silent lake with seven little waterfalls forming a gentle cascade, before their flickering candles and the strange sensations in their heads warned them of the bad air and the need to turn back. Before they left the cave for the light of day, however, the two men had made plans to open the cave to the public. Bernard wrote up an article with an exciting description of the cave, accompanied by the pictures he’d taken, and it ran in one of the San Antonio newspapers on November 22, 1931.
the original exploration- a six-foot tusk, which still had hair and flesh clinging to it when found, the hair and flesh disintegrating upon exposure to the air while workmen watched. A mastodon shinbone was also discovered inside the cave, as well as saber-tooth tiger and bison bones. Remains of Native Americans and their handiwork have been found in Cascade Cavern, including Lipan Apache artifacts from the 18th century, leading to speculation that these native tribes used the cave for shelter- but remember, the cave was almost inaccessible until nearly 1900, and it’s more likely that these relics were washed into the cave during one of the many floods. And provoking wild imaginations for years, the rusted-out remains of a late-19th century revolver were also discovered in the cave. All of these priceless relics are gone, though. The park closed during WWII, and during that time the museum there was looted and all the artifacts stolen. It was reopened in the fifties.
And just like that, the problem of finding the money to develop the cave was solved. Gray was still a farmer, remember, with a dairy the Depression had killed, and the same old question of money was on his mind- how to turn the cavern into a paying venture by which to support his family. And the answer turned out to be a guy named Frank Nicholson. Nicholson was at a loose end, having recently parted ways with Carlsbad Cavern, when he happened to read Cartwright’s article on Hester’s Cave, and he hot-footed his way to Boerne where within two months he’d partnered up with Alfred Gray to develop the cave. He even found an investor to provide the dough, a Canadian named EA Drake. And in a matter of months, in April 1932 the place was ready for business, renamed Cascade Cavern by Mrs Gray and christened with a bottle of subterranean water by Attorney General James Allred, later governor of Texas. There was a big barbeque and washtubs full of potato salad, there were local dignitaries and the South Texas Press Association, and all the speechifying and celebrating and foofaraw one would expect. It was a happy day, and fortune smiled on the Grays and the Drakes- Cascade Cavern would become one of the most popular tourist stops in the area. During it’s heyday- and it was a long heyday, from the time it opened up into the 70s- a campground, dance hall, small amusement park and swimming pool were all added, and the place was de rigueur for birthday parties for us 70s middle school set.
And oh yeah, there was one other denizen of the cavern, back one hundred and fifty years ago or so, name of Bayard the Hermit. This was a man who reputedly lived in the cave and didn’t have anything to do with anybody else, unless it was to doctor them with his home-brewed herbal concoctions, and even then it was said that he ‘preferred to use a child as interpreter’. The notice of his death in the New York Times(!) said that he could have been the brother of Grover Cleveland’s Secretary of State and that he might have been a bigshot in the Mexican War, but apparently people in Boerne only knew him as the Hermit Bayard, a shy old eccentric who lived in the cave. A German-American in Cincinnati who had once lived in Sisterdale wrote a story about him, Ein Verstehltes Leben, which won a prize in a contest in the Germanlanguage newspaper Volksblatt in 1876, and which was re-discovered and translated into English by May Francis in 1932 as The Hermit of the Cavern- the popularity of which was the reason the New York Times wrote anything about him at all. In the story, Bayard fought a duel in his native Germany and thought he’d killed his adversary and so fled to Texas with his guilt to become a hermit. Maybe so, and maybe all that was a bit of romancing. What I think is, the guy didn’t need such a grand excuse to hole himself up in Hester’s Cave- after all, the temperature in there tops out around 68 degrees and he had that whole, beautiful, magical place to himself, the geological formations of millennia, the sound of water rushing by in unseen passages, the cathedral with the sheet of dark water fed by seven babbling cascades. Maybe he was lucky enough to have discovered his paradise, and just felt like staying.
All kinds of things have been discovered in the cave, both natural and man-made. Mastodon remains were found by the entrance to the cavern, way back during
28 | EXPLORE
What remains, though, are the several species of endemic animals living in the cavern- two varieties of frog, the cliff frog and the leopard frog, Cave Ground Beetles, Cave Harvestmen, Cave Crickets and Eastern Pipistrelle Bats all coexist in their underground world, and of course the Cascade Caverns Neotenic Salamander. Also called the Kendall County Salamander, this little guy has only ever been found in Cascade Caverns and the Cave Without a Name.
COMPREHENSIVE EYE EXAMINATIONS | EYE CARE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT Jennifer Johnson has dreamed of becoming an optometrist since she was in middle school, and through hard work and determination, she made her dream come true. At the young age of four, Jennifer was diagnosed with accommodative esotropia and hyperopia, and was prescribed her first pair of eyeglasses and began engaging in vision therapy. It was during this phase of her life that she was introduced to a whole new visual world, and began developing her passion for optometry. Jennifer attended Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA), where she successfully completed the pre-professional program in 1996. During her time at SFA, she worked as an optometric technician for four years, which is where she learned all aspects of running an optometry practice. Upon graduating from SFA, she was accepted to Southern College of Optometry (SCO), in Memphis, Tennessee, where she graduated with honors in 2000. She then moved to San Antonio and started practicing on the south side of town in a multi-specialty eye clinic.
Jennifer L. Johnson, OD, FAAO Therapeutic Optometrist Optometric Glaucoma Specialist
Jennifer Jeanes
Eye Care Technician
Missing her small-town roots and dreaming of practicing within a familiar, close knit community, she and her family moved to Boerne, Texas in 2009. In 2011, Jennifer joined the staff at Boerne Vision Center, where she established close personal relationships with members of the community. While
Channing Siebels Receptionist
working as part of the Boerne Vision Center team, she began participating in, and graduated from, “Leadership Boerne,” which is sponsored by the Boerne Chamber of Commerce. In addition, she joined the Board of the Rainbow Senior Center at the Kronkosky Place in 2012 and was named Boerne Business Woman of the year in 2015. After more than 17 years of practicing optometry and gaining experience in various areas of eye and vision care, under the supervision of talented mentors and experienced optometry professionals, Jennifer decided it was time to realize her dream of owning and operating her own practice. After consulting God through prayer, and her family, in August of 2017, Jennifer Johnson founded Johnson Eye Care in Boerne, Texas. In addition to serving the Fair Oaks and Boerne community as a talented optometrist, Jennifer is also married to Dr. Michael Johnson, who was also her high school sweetheart. Together, they have two amazing daughters, Cate and Grace. The Johnson family lives in the Fair Oaks Ranch community, where they are active members of First United Methodist Church of Boerne, and serve the community through various ministries. Cate and Grace enjoy participating in many of the weekly children’s and youth programs at their church.
BEST OF THE BEST IN BOERNE
1375 South Main Ste. 202 (next to Dietz-McLean Optical) :: phone: 830-428-0901 :: fax: 830-331-4100
HOURS
Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Wednesday 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. :: Friday 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
www.johnsoneyes.com
INCREASE MY FAITH By Kendall D. Aaron
A
As I often say when writing this article, I’m not your stereotypical religious writer. I don’t have perfect salt and pepper hair, I am not a deacon, and I don’t sit on any boards for the Church. I don’t teach Sunday School, I don’t lead a bible study, and I do not volunteer with eleven local charities.
Instead, I get really angry at God from time to time, I scream profanities from time to time when I stub my toe really hard, I drink cocktails with my friends while watching football games, and I can admit that sometimes I realize that I haven’t prayed in days. That said, I can also say that I really believe in God and strive to be the best I can be in His image. I suppose I’m just honest enough to admit that I fall way, way short. Life has frustrated me lately and I’ve gone through a pretty tumultuous relationship with God for the past couple of years, and we’ve had several knock-down drag-out fights between the two of us. Just like everyone, I want things to be easy and to follow my plans, but dang it, God doesn’t always work that way so things in my life take a hard left and it really ticks me off. I never win these arguments as you can imagine, but I’m stubborn and full of myself sometimes so I somehow justify my occasional tangles with God. Like many of you that are honest about your fluctuating relationship with God, I am sometimes smacked in the face by His presence in my life and am also frequently hit with my own arrogance and lack of humility. I was re-organizing my closet the other day and came across an old journal of mine. It was probably 4 years old, and just contained countless little scribbles about where I was in my life, things I was struggling with, and celebrations I experience by feeling God’s presence in my life. I sat on the floor of my closet and slowly turned the pages to re-read these passages and frequently had to wipe a tear from my eye. You see, before this current chapter of my life that has frustrated me, I apparently was in a chapter of growth, humility, and honesty. Sigh. I wrote of my submission of God, my constant desire to be in His presence, and my relentless journey to somehow map a journey through life that was as honorable and transparent as possible. I was on FIRE, man. As I put the journal away I had to sigh a big breath of frustration and think to myself “Well, you’re certainly not on FIRE anymore, big fella.” And I’m not. I fully admit it. I still talk to God daily, I still tell myself that I’m trying to do my best, and I certainly am
30 | EXPLORE
not out robbing banks now…but I’d be lying if I said I was preparing for my missionary trip. I’m a bitter, frustrated, tired guy. That’s not unique to me, but it is depressing to me. And I’m sure that if you can relate, you’re struggling with some depression as well. Because you WANT to be more, you want to have that relationship with God, you pray for it. You want to be on FIRE again, man. So what’s my point? You’re relating to my story, you get it, you want to move forward in your spiritual walk, so what the heck is the great advice or wisdom that you have for us? Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot. There’s that story in the Bible where Jesus healed the young boy and his father exclaimed “Increase my faith, Jesus!” You see, he believed…sorta. But this guy is standing right in front of Jesus himself, and he still had to cry out for God to increase his faith. We are all people, so that means that we all fail. I hate to say that I think that frequently Christians themselves don’t do a lot to help struggling people because they don’t meet them where they are. They don’t mean to cause harm, but when you are on FIRE for Jesus, sometimes it’s hard to come down the ladder and join me while I sit in the corner. Instead they preach and encourage passionately from a position higher up the ladder and they don’t want to come down to your sad low level. I’m not here to bag on Christians because, well, I’ve been the guy high up the ladder. What I am trying to say is that it’s just ok to be sitting in the corner. I don’t want you to stay there, and I know that you don’t want to stay there, either, but if you are there, just start by recognizing it. Take a look back in your past and try to remember those times when you were WAY up the ladder and think about what you were doing differently. I’m going to guess that some of the simplest answers are going to be “I went to church every week” and “I prayed throughout the day” and even “I met with a small group to study further.” Today you haven’t been to church but a few times in the past few months, you prayed last week (maybe) and there is no way you’re going to one of those small group things. I get it. Today I want you to forgive yourself. Release the guilt, but then proclaim that you want to find yourself closer to God in the next few months. Just like starting a new workout routine (which is HARD), try to squirrel away a little time each day to just focus on this journey. Pray. Read. Just sit on the porch and talk to God. Something. ANYTHING. I promise that if you’ll at least begin to seek Him, He will be right there for you to find. Perhaps you’ll do as I’m about to do, which is to just pray out loud, “Increase my faith, Jesus.” Sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
Visit Our Newest Location
Downright Comfort! GIFTS • RUGS • DECOR • COWHIDES • FURNITURE & CUSTOM UPHOLSTERY
Unique decor and gifts. Featuring natural, vintage, antique and one-of-a-kind trinkets and treasures from around the globe!
Like us on Facebook
DOWNRIGHT COMFORT 205 TX-27 • Comfort, TX 78013
SAN ANTONIO 210-642-8310 555 W. Bitters Rd. • San Antonio (The Alley on Bitters)
BOERNE 830-331-1201 107 E. San Antonio Ave. • Boerne (Next to the Courthouse)
COMFORT 830 201-0214 523 8th St. • Comfort (Inside the 8th Street Market)
BOERNE
THEN
NOW
The hadcr afted Max Be housed in the Antler seler Bar Restauran t.
n on Main Billy Vanderstratten Saloo in 1908 Street. Destroyed by fire
Saloon & athletic w ing added Philip Man to the or in 1878 .
32 | EXPLORE
The Antler Restaurant circa 1975.
FIRE IT UP
GOURMET
PIZZA
CRAFT BEER & WINE SANDWICHES * SALADS
A FAMILY RESTAURANT WHERE CRAFT BEER & WINE MEET CRAFT PIZZA IJK
118 Old San Antonio RD. * Boerne TX * 830.331.1212 W e d n es d a y - S und a y 1 1: 00 a .m . - 9 : 30 p .m .
t in a p o t y d a e r e r We a r u o h it w d e r n w o t the new shoppe! STOP IN FOR 85% OFF SELECT PAINTS Brands in stock include Pratt and Lambert, PPG, Proluxe (Sikkens formula) Modern Masters, and Old Masters.
Locally and Family owned and operated
210-378-8122
31007 IH 10 W Ste 101 • Boerne, TX 78006 • www.strattepaintshoppe.com WWW.HILLCOUNTRYEXPLORE.COM | OCTOBER 2018
| 33
COMING JANUARY 2019
210.507.5250 | ben@smvtexas.com
• 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, Pipe Creek 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 32 different customers.
830-816-5202 920 East Blanco Road Boerne, TX 78006 www.kcnbuilders.com
Gentle, Caring, Family Practice, Courteous Professional Staff • State of the Art Procedures & Techniques
WE’ VE RECENTLY E XPANDED George E. Metz III, DDS • Michael Hoeppner, DDS
830-229-5581
Gentle, Caring, Family Practice, Courteous Professional Staff State of the Art Procedures & Techniques
NowRaccepting appointments for Kevin Beitchman, DDS, MS - Orthodontist WE’ VE ECENTLY E X PA N DED George E. Metz III, DDS • Michael Hoeppner, DDS
Kendall Woods Dental 830-229-5581
25 FM 3351 South Boerne, Texas 78006
Now accepting appointments for Kevin Beitchman, DDS, MS - Orthodontist
Kendall Woods Dental
WWW.HILLCOUNTRYEXPLORE.COM | OCTOBER 2018
| 35
With Halloween upon us, let’s visit some of the most popular haunted landmarks in our own backyard.
YE KENDALL INN
NG
THE DIENGER BUILDI
(Formally the Boerne
Public Library)
Joseph and Ida Dienger built the Dienger Building in 1887. Downstairs they operated a dry-goods grocery store. The used the upstairs as their home that they shared with their seven children. In 1991, The City of Boerne bought the Dienger Building and the ghosts came out to play. Many local residents have reported seeing lights in the building going on and off when they drive by at night. There have also been other reports: unusual voices echoing in the hall, the figure of a woman by a staircase, and books falling off shelves when no one was in the room. So why do the Dienger’s ghosts still hang around? As the story goes, Mr. Dienger, at one time, used space in the building to host meetings, celebrations, and parties for area businesses and clubs. Some believers think it could be the spiritual remains of Joseph Dienger. Others think the ghost is Ida Dienger who didn’t approve of the alcohol that was served during her husband’s gatherings.
36 | EXPLORE
COUNTRY SPIRIT
RESTAURANT & BAR (currently Capita l Title)
Country Spirit is known to be haunted by three ghosts - David, Augustine, and Fred. The most widely- known ghost is David, a teenager who haunts the upstairs bathroom. According to legend, David drowned in the claw-foot bathtub that remains in the bathroom to this day. While you’re upstairs, be on the lookout for Augustine - she likes to lounge on a green couch near the bathrooms. Don’t be surprised if you hear doors opening or closing while you’re waiting in the line for the restroom. Fred is known to hang out in the basement – so if you stick to the first floor of the restaurant you should be ghost free.
Erastus and Sarah Reed bought the land Ye Kendall Inn currently occupies in 1859. The Inn, then known as The Old Reed house, acted as Boerne’s only stagecoach stop. Apparently the Reeds never wanted to leave their beloved Inn and their spirits remain. The lobby, the Marcella, and the Victoria Room are considered the most actively haunted areas. There are reports of a sign flying off the wall in the lobby and landing across the room. Sounds of horse and carriages trotting through the lobby can be heard. Of course, like many ghost stories lights mysteriously flicker on and off during the night. The most ironic report is that a claw-foot bathtub in The Victoria Room mysteriously fills itself while guests sleep. They claim to never hear the water running. If brave hearted, discover these historic haunted Boerne landmarks. And maybe, just maybe, you will meet a ghost.
WWW.HILLCOUNTRYEXPLORE.COM | OCTOBER 2018
| 37
OLD TIMER
I
I’m bored on a Saturday night, and as I sat on my porch this evening, I got to thinking about this town. I catch myself getting frustrated at things that go on around here, but instead of being a cantankerous old man, I challenged myself with the simple question of “Ok, so if you were in charge, what would you do on the FIRST DAY of your term that would actually improve things around here?” It took me a while, but here we go. These are in no particular order, but I think that at the end of my first day the City would have an entirely new direction (that’s a good thing). I think I’d cancel the contract for our City Manager and staff. I’m sure they are nice folks, but anyone that has allowed this level of land raping in this town to go on for as long as it has gone on should get the boot. Their replacements will be someone from Fredericksburg, Santa Fe, or from any of the other cities throughout the country that actually works to preserve their town’s heritage, vibe, and look without selling it out to the highest bidder. I would personally hang the new signs at Boerne Lake that alert users to our new pricing structure: Citizens – FREE / County non-residents - $150/car. We’re stuck with the $chultz’s stupid Taj-Mah-City Hall… but I’d take a look at the blueprint and sublet out 50% of the building to private renters. I guarantee you that I could do it and save the City a mountain of cash because we all know that the building is far more than what was necessary and is nothing more than a “legacy maker” for a few certain people. Kendall Gateway – I would call TxDot and tell them that we are not interested in any further discussion on the topic and that they will not get our support in any way. Bye. When I’m done yelling at that person from TxDot, I’ll demand another TxDot person to come to town and they cannot leave until they time every single light in this town to function at maximum effectiveness. No more sitting at a red light while the other light is green and there are no cars going through. Our lights will be set to unbelievable precision and you should be able to drive from one end of town to the other without hitting a red light. Then when they’re done I’ll explain that this is why we don’t need a Kendall loop because we just fixed 80% of our traffic problems. And yes, I promise you that our ridiculous red lights are a great source of woes in terms of traffic and congestion. County Commissioner jobs are now non-paid, just like City Council. The days of them collecting their juicy check + free car are over. If they want to serve, they can SERVE. They shouldn’t be campaigning for their JOB. Moratorium on….EVERYTHING. That’s right, shut it all down. No new permits, no new developments, no new construction. We’re going to meticulously go through every single lot in this town and re-do the zoning to ensure it is proper. When we’re done, developers will know that it’s going to take an act of Congress to get a
38 | EXPLORE
zoning change, and even then it’s doubtful. If they don’t like it, BYE. There’s plenty of other developers behind you.
as tractor trailers rumble down our “quaint” shopping district is ridiculous. No mas.
All ducks on River Rd. shall be killed with impunity. We will then grill them up and have a city wide BBQ at the River Park. The stupid duck statue will be thrown into the river to become fish habitat.
I’m not done, but I suppose that makes for an OK first day. I’m pleased as I re-read my list because at the end of my first day, I have grabbed hold of the steering wheel and every citizen in this town knows that we are heading in a new direction (which I think the overwhelming population desires) . I also think that developers now know that playtime is over in Boerne, and that’s a very, very good thing. Lastly, I think that the citizens might retain a little HOPE, and that my friends, is in very short supply in the past 6 years.
I’m also going to re-zone all buildings facing Main from Texas Meat Co to the Town Square so that they can only be retail / restaurant / bar / etc… (think tourism). We need to increase our walkable tourist section of town, and with stupid crap like CVS almost happening, we’re going to drill down on our zoning to not only preserve the shopping district, but expand it. I’m going to ban 18-wheelers on Main unless they are making a delivery. There are countless ways for a big rig to avoid our town depending on their destination. Sitting at Boerne Grill and having to scream across the table
Now we just need someone to print this out and run on this platform so that we are not condemned to another couple years of this depressing madness via our City leadership. I’d do it, but I’m too old. And I’m not sure if my “killing the ducks” pledge would go over that well.
Host your next wedding, corporate event, family reunion, or birthday in the beautiful hill country. Open Air Pavilion & Saloon For Events | Daily & Weekly Cabin Rentals
Cabins equipped with 1 bedroom, kitchenette & loft Cabins On Event Venue Site BBQ Pits
6005 W. Ammann Road Boerne, TX 78163 830-336-4223 www.stargazer-ranch.com
10 minutes to boerne | 20 minutes to IH 10 | 15 minutes to Bulverde | Minutes to Fair Oaks Ranch