Stacy Lockhart, manager of the Kosse Cafe, is a proud mother today. Her and Jeff's daughter Stephanie has been named Groesbeck Middle School Student of the Month. There is going to be a ceremony at the cafe next Tuesday between 12:30-1:00 p.m. to present a plaque to Jeff and Stacy for Stephanie's honor. Stephanie is in the eighth grade. Superintendent John Key will be making the presentation. Everyone is invited. Although I don't know the number of students at the Middle School, I would imagine it is somewhere around three hundred. Stephanie is among a select few who will receive this award, and we are all very proud of her. I've known her since she was born and she has always been a sweet girl who actually understands my corny sense of humor. There's a position waiting for her as a Kosse Cafe waitress when she gets a little older and I hope she takes it. Way to go Stephanie!
I came across a history of Groesbeck I.S.D. on the district website. It is written by William Reagan. I think he is one of the teachers although I am not sure. His parents were teachers when I was a student there in the Dark Ages. Anyway, it is very interesting and has some great photos. Click for Groesbeck I.S.D. History.
The strangeness continues in Falls County. Saturday a wooden bridge outside of Marlin burned up, closing the road until $80,000 of repairs are done. Click for article. Considering we had no lightning and there was high humidity that day, it is obvious someone burned the bridge down.
The Kosse Ladies Christmas Party is tonight at 6:30 at the Kosse First Baptist Church. Christmas is only three weeks from today and 2007 arrives in four weeks.
I'm working on a really neat new section of this website. When completed, you will be able to watch literally hundreds of classic television shows, movies, documentaries, classic commercials, cartoons, and more. These will be the complete presentations rather than simply clips, and it only requires watching a short commercial at its beginning. It should be posted within the next week.
I've added a Kosse Demographics section to the City of Kosse page. It gives all sorts of information about the people in our Kosse zipcode. See how you compare. Click for page.
The Falls County Tax Assessor/Collector's office reopened Friday after being closed for two weeks. According to the new tax assessor/collector, it was standing room only for those waiting to get their cars registered and taxes paid. Click for article.
Young Brothers Contracting, a long-time Waco business, has evidently been illegally dumping hazardous waste in the Thelma community near Groesbeck. Not good. Click for article.
I was told by one of my employees that TABC had conducted a sting operation in Kosse a couple of days ago in which someone under eighteen was sent into the Cefco to attempt to buy cigarettes. They were indeed sold and the clerk was arrested. This is one of a number of reasons I long ago got out of the tobacco/alcohol business. I've had people tell me we should get an on-premises beer license and it would help the cafe's business. I don't know if it would or not, but I do know it would change the family atmosphere of the place and put us at greater liability risk. Anyway, the cafe will remain dry.
The final month of 2006 arrives. It's extremely cold tonight with a hard freeze. Thank goodness it's not raining. We salt down the cafe sidewalk during ice storms but it is still quite dangerous.
The Falls County Tax Assessor/Collector's office will reopen today. Click for article. The price of oil is on the upswing again. Click for article. Wal-Mart had their first sales decline in a decade Click for article. The Palestinians cannot get along with each other, much less the Jews. Click for article. My dog continues to drive me crazy and life moves on in Kosse, Texas.
It is 1:00 a.m. and I just stepped outside to discover the norther had arrived. I went to Rosebud last night and sweated the whole time in the midst of the 500-degree pizza ovens. I doubt they will be sweating the next few days. It will be in the 30's all day today with wind chills in the teens. Tomorrow night is predicted to reach a low of 20. The 28 days over 100 that we felt in August will be only a memory.
The Falls County Tax Assessor/Collector's office is still shut down. Click for article. People are unable to register their cars or pay their taxes. There are many who consider themselves Kosseites who actually live in Falls County, as it is only a few hundred yards down Highway 7 and also Highway 14. Considering the length of time this office has been closed, I would assume some of their vehicles are going out of registration today. This will put them at risk of a fine if they are pulled over with expired tags. According to the linked article, "if you're car tags are getting ready to expire or are expired and you live in Falls County you're out of luck!" What kind of fairness is that?! I would think it's about time for the state to intervene and get this office back open. I do not know the previous Falls County Tax Assessor/Collector who resigned after her indictment, but she has sure put a lot of people in a bind.
I want to give a Kosse Blog five-star rating to one of our local businesses. A couple of days ago my starter went out on my car and I was stranded at my office. I went across the street to Jimmy O'Neal's automotive repair shop and he was here in a matter of minutes. Not only did he have the part delivered by lunchtime, it was ready to go by 2:30. The price was reasonable and the car was properly repaired. While it is never a pleasant experience having a dead vehicle, the experience with Jimmy O'Neal was quite pleasant. Kosse is fortunate to have such a helpful five-star mechanic.
It was three years ago today that Stewart was killed. His favorite musical group was Pearl Jam.
Tim and Karen Partin are new parents. Their daughter Karter is our newest Kosse citizen. Grandparents are DeWitt and Mary Ann Johnson. Tim and Karen are the owners of Kosse Feeds. DeWitt and Mary Ann own De's Parts and Services. Congratulations.
According to the results of a study by psychiatrist Dr. Luan Brizendine, the average female speaks 20,000 words per day while the average male speaks 7000. Assuming a person sleeps eight hours per day, this means the average female speaks 1250 words each waking hour. Click for article. If the average is 20,000 words per day, I have one young lady working at the cafe who speaks at least 50,000 each day. She's never quiet and will say anything that crosses her mind. A couple of weeks ago I was at the cafe on a Friday. It was during the middle of lunch and the place was packed. I was sitting in the middle of the cafe so was a significant distance from the kitchen. I can barely hear out of my right ear and in loud gatherings, such as that moment in the cafe, my hearing ability is virtually nil. I am blessed with great employees for the most part, and everyone was working like a well-oiled machine. All of a sudden (keeping in mind I am basically deaf in loud gatherings) I hear a loud announcement being made by this employee who is forty feet away in the dishwashing area. She announced that she had nothing to do. While listening to this announcement I am observing a number of tables which are no longer occupied and need cleaning. Considering the employee telling the whole cafe she had nothing to do was a busperson and responsible for helping clean the dirty tables, I did not find it a gratifying situation and immediately pointed out the dirty tables to her. Geez.
I've been working on the Consumer Tips section of this website and have so far compiled experts' articles on eighty-eight different subjects. There is a lot of helpful information in these articles and the list of subjects will keep growing as time permits. Click for Consumer Tips section.
It's supposed to get down in the 20's this Friday and Saturday nights. Getting pretty darn chilly in Kosse. Of course winter is only three and a half weeks away. With the cooler weather my electric bills dropped by 40% over their summer highs.
I received an e-mail from a lady doing a genealogical survey of her husband's family. I sent her a certain amount of information but I'm sure she would appreciate any additional help which might be forthcoming on the subject.
Hi,
I am doing some geneology on my husband's family which has roots in the Kosse-Groesbeck area. I was wondering if people with the Freeman name still live in the area. My husband's (maternal) grandfather is buried in the Freeman family plot in the Kosse Cemetary and it was told that he was a half brother to the Freeman boy, Walter. I have been unable to locate any history of a marriage of Tom Jones to a woman named Freeman, and was hoping to locate a Freeman decendent who has done some family research. I have traced all the other family branches back to the early 1800's, but have been unable to make any headway on this branch. If you have any Freeman's that frequent your cafe, I would love to correspond with them or if you know of any history on these families. Time is running out on my recovering any "living" information on this Jones branch as only two members are still living.....with many blanks as they are well up in age. Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a great Christmas.
It was a very nice Thanksgiving. All five of us surviving Rasco siblings were together with Mother at my sister Lee Ann's house. I'm not sure how it happened so quickly, but I find myself among the old geezers at the Rasco family gatherings. I turned around one day and suddenly Ryan and his cousins were adults. I've got some really smart and sweet nephews and nieces.
Someone had the bright idea of taking pictures outside at dusk and we ended up being eaten alive by swarms of mosquitoes. I remember as a youngster living on the coast with the constant presence of mosquitoes. (In fact, the Brazosport area has an annual Great Texas Mosquito Festival to honor the ever-present pests. Click for article.) Every few days a city truck would come by and fog the neighborhood with mosquito killer. All of us kids would run outside to be in the middle of the aromatic fog. Being the early 1960's I imagine we inhaled a significant amount of DDT and other pesticides during our fog forays. Maybe that explains some of my mental problems.
I'm adding classical music to the Music Library section of this website. My favorite operatic composer is Richard Wagner so my first additions were three of his best compositions. Today's Song of the Day is perhaps his best known work, as performed by the National Orchestra of Slovakia.
