A fascination with walls
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- Published: Thursday, 07 November 2024 18:32
Walls or fences have always fascinated me. Possibly because I have wondered so many times why they were built in the first place. Are they built to keep something in or to keep something or someone out? Why do we build walls or fences? Is it because we can't get along with each other?
My father had a very interesting experience with cemetery walls. I grew up in a farming community where fences were very important to keep cattle in. That importance carried over to the cemetery where each little family plot had a small six inch high and some three-inch-wide concrete border around the family plot. Between each little wall there was about a four-inch vacant spot where weeds grew and multiplied. Can you imagine in a perpetual care cemetery what extra work that meant for the caretaker! Extra work meant extra expense.
My father- who was a very practical man - he believed it would be more logical to join one concrete barrier to the next...which of course is what he did. This did not go over very well with the next-door plot which belonged to his sister's family. He had to send someone in to cut through the concrete wall and remedy the situation to avoid a family feud. After many years the local Cemetery Association board just last year voted that in order to save money on maintenance that the wall from one family plot should be joined to the next family plot. How practical can you get?
Some day - when you have time - look up the most famous walls that exist in the world. Of course, the best known and the longest is the Great Wall of China. My daughter who visited China must have also been infatuated with walls. Even though it was against the law she managed to sleep on the Great Wall of China. I am sure that today the Great Wall of China is patrolled more diligently than when she slept on the wall when she was in her mid to late twenties.
One of the more famous walls is the chewing gum wall in Seattle, Washington. Can you imagine all these globs of chewing gum stuck on a wall. According to the description of the wall there are so many clumps of chewing gum that the wall emits a sugary smell.
Another famous wall was the Berlin Wall which, at one time, separated many families. In my many trips I never saw the Berlin Wall. But I did see one of the fences in Germany with lookout towers with guards watching the fence. It was scary to realize you were being watched.
Another wall that really disturbs me is the wall in Israel. Anytime I have had a bus group who visited Christ's birthplace, our bus has been stopped but all we needed to say was “Americans,” which was pretty obvious anyway as Americans stand out like sore thumbs. Then we were waved on through.
Today, walls are sometimes built as memorials such as the Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Our local Border Wall does not even make the list even though it does draw many politicians to visit the Valley for our “border problem.”
On October 19, Mission Bell-Tradewinds had a successful cancer fundraiser. They raised nearly $7,000 to help residents that are battling cancer. The money is being used to help with medical expenses, travel expenses, and other related expenses by several residents in the park. The park held a dance, silent auction, had T-shirt sales, a 50/50, food sales, and more. Leslie Blasing donated her time and talent to the event and Ron Moshier even stopped by and did dollar dances to pitch in to the fundraising.
It’s that time of year again for senior slow pitch softball in the Rio Grande Valley.
It’s that time again. As the Thanksgiving season approaches, many families and children are giving thanks for all their blessings and sharing those blessings with children in need by packing shoeboxes with Operation Christmas Child.
The Rio Grande Valley State Veterans Cemetery sign has been illuminated green as part of Operation Green Light for Veterans, a nationwide effort by counties, the National Association of Counties (NACo), and the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers.
AUSTIN — Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is proud to introduce another installment of the series highlighting the VLB's Voices of Veterans oral history program. In this article, we highlight the service of Sergeant Corby Vinson who served in the U.S. Army and completed three service tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Museum of South Texas History presents “The Shooting Star of Starr County: An Out of this World Discovery” exhibit in the Cell Block Gallery upstairs in the 1910 Jail building.
By Carina A. Brunson
