We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet for auld lang syne

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Have you heard of Sylvester’s Abend? Have you heard of New Year’s Eve? Two names for the same event. To arrive at the Gregorian calendar that we and most European countries use was not an easy process. Many changes took place before the final calendar set up by Pope Gregory […]

The miraculous electric belt

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — It’s a crumbling brown leather belt with an insert of linked silver-plated rectangular batteries. It might not look like much, but this curious artifact, an electric belt, represents a weird and wonderful era in the history of electricity. Electrotherapy — using electricity to stimulate nerves and muscles — goes way […]

Let’s talk chili!

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — An English-language advertisement in the German-language Neu Braunfelser Zeitung caught my eye: Mexican Restaurant Seguin Street — New Braunfels Meals at all times during the day for 25¢ Chili con carne, frieholes, tomales, fresh oysters, hot coffee and chocolate Cruz Gonzales That might sound pretty normal to you, but this […]

The Greatest Show on Earth

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —  Well before the Civil War, circus troupes had made their way to Texas. The earliest mention of a circus in our local newspaper was on Jan. 7, 1859. My interest in the NB circus scene began with an early 1900s photograph featuring a circus parade of camels on Seguin Street. A […]