If you think it was cold this week, let us tell you a story of record cold temperatures that were experienced in Texas history.
February 1899 was a very cold month, thanks in part to a bitterly cold outbreak from the 11th through the 13th. In fact, nothing in the history of Texas quite compares to February 12th 1899.
Some of the coldest weather to ever hit Texas occurred on February 12th of that year. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the state occurred at Tulia in Swisher County in the extreme southern Texas Panhandle. The thermometer dropped to 23 degrees below zero. However,
there were unofficial reports that were even colder. Low temperatures
of 30 degrees below zero were measured that night at Wolf Creek and at a site southeast of Perryton, both in Ochiltree County in the northern Panhandle. This cold air spread throughout the state with reports of a thin layer of ice coating most of Galveston Bay.
The all-time record low temperature that was established at Tulia was tied years later when Seminole, in Gaines County in West Texas,
reported a temperature of 23 degrees below zero on February 8, 1933.
Many Texas cities established all-time record low temperatures In February 1899. Below is a list of the record lows at various cities across the state.
Abilene………….9 below zero…set in 1947
Amarillo………..16 below zero…set in 1899
Austin…………..2 below zero…set in 1949
Beaumont……..10 degrees……set in 1906
Brownsville……..12 degrees……set in 1899
Corpus Christi…..11 degrees……set in 1899
Dallas/Fort Worth….8 below zero…set in 1899
Del Rio…………10 degrees……set in 1989
El Paso………….8 below zero…set in 1962
Galveston………..8 degrees….. Set in 1899
Houston………….5 degrees……set in 1930 and 1940
Lubbock…………17 below zero…set in 1933
Midland/Odessa…..11 below zero…set in 1985
San Angelo……….4 below zero…set in 1989
San Antonio………0 degrees……set in 1949
Waco…………….5 below zero…set in 1949 and 1899
Wichita Falls……12 below zero…set in 1947
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Ofelia Gonzales
Ofelia Gonzales, born December 22, 1952, went into the loving arms of the Lord on December 23, 2022, at the age of 70.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Eusebio and Delfina Gonzales and by her grandmother, Gonzala Gonzales.
She is loved and will be missed by her siblings, Lupe Gonzales and spouse Pat, and Aurora Gonzales, Nephews and Nieces Lupe Gonzales Jr., Daniel Gonzales, Susan Dalen, William Quinonez, Juan Quinonez Jr., Jose Quinonez and Marcella Navarro, as well 11 great-nieces and nephews and numerous other family members and friends. She will be dearly missed and never forgotten.
Visitation will be held Thursday, December 29, 2022 from 9:00am to 10:30am with a Mass to be held at 11:00am at St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Natalia, TX with burial to follow at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Devine, TX.
Services under the direction of Bluebonnet Funeral Chapel.
Richard Lee Johnson
Richard Lee Johnson, 82, of Lytle, TX, passed away on December 17, 2022.
Richard was born in Moravia, Iowa to Guy and Ruth Johnson on June 13, 1940.
He was preceded in death by his beloved, wife, Tonia Naegelin Johnson.
He graduated from Burbank High School in San Antonio. He worked many jobs over his lifetime but enjoyed his work at Home Depot until he retired.
He was a Vietnam Veteran having served in the US Navy. Richard proudly served his country and loved traveling our beautiful countryside with his beloved, wife, on their many road trips. On their travels he was always taking photos of beautiful landscapes, family, and silly signs along the side of the road. He loved working with reclaimed wood, so much that he refinished his beloved wife’s kitchen, using wood from the original homestead. Richard spent the later part of his life being a caretaker for his wife during her thirteen-year fight with cancer.
He was a loving son, brother, husband, father, uncle, grandfather, and Veteran.
Richard is survived by his daughter, Janice Johnson Mickan (Ronnie), son, Ronald Johnson (Denise), daughter, Kathryn Johnson Howe, son, DeWayne Johnson (Debra), and daughter, Renee’ Johnson Mathews (Urlin); grandchildren, Jeffery (Kristi), Travis, Christina, Tiffany (Jack), Joshua (Catherine), Matthew, Brendan (Katherine), Ashlynn, Georgia Faith, and Tripp; great-grandchildren, Emma, Gino, Sabrina, Malina, Yarely, Tyler, Arabella, Mia, Athena, Jaxon, Scarlet, and Jorge. To include Phillip, Mary, and Jonathan; numerous brother’s in-law, sister’s in-law, nieces, and nephews; his sister, Lois Johnson Buehring (Alton) and brother, Paul Johnson (Sue).
Visitation will be January 2, 2023, from 6-7 PM at Hurley Funeral Home in Lytle, TX.
Funeral services will be January 3, 2023, at 2:30 PM at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers the family is asking that donations be made to either:
Texas Parks and Wildlife at 2914 Swiss Ave., Dallas, Tx 75204, www.tpwf.org
St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital https://www.stjude.org/
Wounded Warrior at PO Box 758516, Topeka, KS 66675-8516, https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org/default.aspx?tsid=10043
Anyone wishing to sign the online guestbook, share memories or issue condolences to the family, may do so at www.hurleyfuneralhome.com
Arrangements under the direction of Hurley Funeral Home, 14822 Main Street, Lytle, Texas.
Theresa Elizabeth ‘Tessie’
Rihn Keller
Theresa Elizabeth ‘Tessie’ Rihn Keller of La Coste, passed away on December 23, 2022 at the age of 94. She was born August 3, 1928 in Castroville, Texas to the late Robert Richard Rihn and Marie Steinle Rihn.
Tessie was a graduate of St. Louis High School. On August 30, 1949, she married Lloyd Vincent Keller at St. Louis Catholic Church in Castroville. They were blessed with five daughters and two sons. She worked at UT Health Science Center for fifteen years before retiring. She spent a lot of time watching her children and grandchildren play sports. She was also a big Houston Astros fan.
Survivors include her children and their spouses, Nancy Peters of La Coste, Cheri and Ralph Hoog of Castroville, Chris Keller of Hondo, Gery and Patti Keller of La Coste, Mary and Charlie Migl of San Antonio, and Carolyn and Mark Payne of La Coste; son-in-law, Sam Farmer; fourteen grandchildren; twenty-six great-grandchildren; two great-great-grandchildren; in-laws, Franklin and Irene Keller; as well as numerous nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.
Tessie was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Lloyd Keller; her daughter, Jeanne Marie Farmer; her son-in-law, Joe Peters; her brothers and sister-in-law, Lloyd and Mattie Rihn and Msgr. Roy Rihn; and her sister and brother-in-law, Doris and John C. Biediger, Jr.
Visitation will be Monday, January 2, 2023 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at St. Louis Catholic Church with the Holy Rosary recited at 5:30 p.m. The Mass of Christian Burial will follow the Holy Rosary at 6:00 p.m. Services will conclude at the church.
Memorials may be made in Tessie’s memory to St. Louis Catholic School, Boystown, or the charity of your choice.
Arrangements by Tondre-Guinn Funeral Home. Visit www.tondre-guinn.com
Albert J. Saldana
Albert J. Saldana, born December 5, 1932, went into the loving arms of the Lord on December 19, 2022 at the blessed age of 90.
He is preceded in death by his parents Miguel and Jovita Saldana, spouse Consuelo Saldana and children Daniel Ray, Gilda Ann and Ralph Mark Saldana.
He is loved and will be missed by his siblings, Richard Saldana and spouse Thelma of Natalia, David J. Saldana and spouse Kathy of Arlington and Adelfa Saldana Martinez of Grand Prairie, 6 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, dear friends Greg and Elizabeth Cargile and numerous nephews, nieces and other family members and friends.
Albert was a veteran of the US Army and a member of the Lions Club. He will be dearly missed and never forgotten.
Visitation was Tuesday, December 27, 2022 at 5pm with a prayer service at 6pm. A funeral service will be held Wednesday, December 28, 2022 at 10am at First Baptist Church in Natalia, TX with burial to follow with military honors at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Devine, TX.
Services under the direction of Bluebonnet Funeral Chapel.
Morphin Time!
Christmas morning was a blast as always. I wish every morning could be like Christmas morning. My sweet teenager decided that she would give us an interesting wake-up call since her little brother has been letting us sleep in sometimes (too late for her taste of Christmas morning). So she set a speaker right outside our bedroom and began blaring “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer.” It started out at a nice low volume but quickly started climbing.
“It was only on 100,” she said when I came out.
Santa left the kid’s presents sitting on the couch this year, and it took the kids quite a while before they spotted them. They were both super pleased. Tucker got his Treasure X sunken gold ship which he wrote a letter to Santa asking for, and when he saw it he yelled out “This is exactly what I wanted!”
Tucker, the super-sonic fast gift opener, was constantly hungry for the next gift. He had a lot of fun unwrapping this year.
The days leading up to Christmas were a tad bit stressful, as seeing those big gifts wrapped under the tree began driving Tucker a little bonkers. I waited to wrap the biggest, most exciting gifts until a couple days before Christmas, and it’s a darn good thing. Tucker is a lot of things, but patient isn’t one of them.
We certainly had a great Christmas and my mom got to have all of her kids under one roof at the same time finally, so that was fun for her. We didn’t get to re-enact one of our great sibling rivalry fights, but my children keep up the tradition quite well.
Tucker got “real” Power Ranger Dino Fury keys for Christmas, so we will certainly have a lot of “morphin time” fun in the days to come.
Finding Some Peace in Getting Old
We recently attended a Birthday Party for a Dear Friend who turned 100. While quite a milestone in human standards, I find this wonderful lady possesses one of the most balanced attitudes of anyone I know.
Keep in mind that she was born in 1922 and that means she has seen quite a few things most of us have not, or only read about in books.
The celebration was very well attended, and I found myself looking for a corner and then moving out into the foyer of the building where her Great Grandchildren were manning the guest registry sign in duties. Since some of the kiddos were quite young, it seemed like a plausible excuse not to be in the “visiting room”, which was large but still crowded.
At the end of the day, Ms. Elizabeth commented that she only failed to recognize one person out of the well over 100 attendees. I got lost in the “name recalling” after about the first 10 folks!
In reflecting the viewpoint of this wonderful role model, I came away with a little less dread about the growing numbers of candles on the B-Day tortillas each year and decided to put on a different outlook. Accept the ever-growing limitations, laugh at them, and keep on plugging along.
I really took that attitude to heart and bought my much older than me Brother-in-Law (11 months) a T-shirt for Christmas to reflect that new outlook.
It says…I Am Too Old to Fight and Too Slow to Run.
But I Am Still a Pretty Darn Good Shot.
Strikes me that may describe more than just him in our family tree. Just as an important side note, he is a Navy Seal!
Almost 2023!
Almost 2023! Last week officers handled 69 calls for police service. That is on the “high” side, surprisingly most of them were minor calls and didn’t require any follow-up. Officers conducted 60 traffic stops, resulting in 53 citations and 7 warnings.
There were no arrests last week.
We had three property crimes reported last week.
1 – A roll-up door at the John Lott Park pavilion was damaged. It appears someone may have been trying to break inside the storage room. #2 – A 2001 Ford F250 was stolen from the apartments on Lytle-Somerset St. It was recovered a few days later in Uvalde Co. I don’t have the details yet, but I would bet it was used in a human smuggling operation. #3 – On Christmas Day, the Lytle One Stop (Exxon) on Main St. reported an attempted theft. While one person distracted the clerk, another person reached behind the counter and grabbed four $50 lottery tickets. The clerk confronted the thief, and he left the tickets behind. When we get him identified we will be sure and add him to the naughty list.
It was awfully cold for a few nights, fortunately, there were no major issues. Public Works did handle a few calls for broken pipes, and they worked to keep the freezing weather from causing issues with our water system.
Maybe you are new to the City of Lytle and are unfamiliar with our ordinances. Here is an important one: The discharge of fireworks is prohibited in the city limits, so no “popping” fireworks, please!
If you happen to see or hear fireworks the perpetrator would be someone who just moved to town. Someone that has lived here for over a year would know about the ordinance and certainly wouldn’t “pop” firecrackers (Would they?). Please report fireworks violations to our dispatcher, the Atascosa Co. Sheriff’s Office @ 830-769-3434 (option #1).
The family and I had a great Christmas, a few activities at church, and a few gifts for the kids. Life is good.
I am an old boring guy, I either work the streets on New Year’s or stay home. This year I will be at the house. But…. we will have extra officers out on the road on New Year’s Eve, our D.W.I. guys will be out in force. Please don’t be our first arrest of 2023. I might come up with a song to go with that.
It’s over for another year
The weather this past week has been a doozy. I went from mild and balmy to totally icy in just a couple of days, and Texas isn’t in nearly as bad a shape as many of the northern states. The temperature here at my house was a very cool 17ºF, on Friday morning. None of my pipes were frozen mostly due to all the work that was done a couple of years ago. The only problem I encountered was that I had hot and cold water all over the house except the kitchen, it had only hot water! That worked OK as the RO system was working fine. Finally, around 3:30 in the afternoon when the sun was on that side of the house, the pipe thawed out and I had water again. I went out and checked and the pipes were well wrapped. Needless to say, on Friday night, that faucet stayed on with just a fine trickle of water.
This Christmas started out as being a very quiet one, that didn’t last for long! We are actually celebrating on Monday and what began as a small get-together mushroomed into being about 15 to 18 people! As it turns out, I will probably have all four of my children and their spouses, two or maybe three of my grandsons and their families and several friends of the family. We will be serving Mexican Food, as it’s something fairly simple and goes a long way.
Saturday evening, I will go to church in town with my sister and her husband, and then we will go to her house for supper and exchanging of gifts. It will be just the three of us and it has become our tradition, as we have done it almost every year since I’ve been here! We enjoy it so much. For several years, we went to the little country church for Midnight Mass, but since Covid, all Christmas Eve Masses are in town.
Are you planning a get-together, open house or party for New Year’s Eve? If you are, here are a few recipes for dips and some cheese balls if that is what you care to serve.
Italian Dip
2 blocks cream cheese (8-ounce size)
½ cup sour cream (if desired)
1 package Good Seasons® Italian, Zesty Italian or Garlic dressing mix
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Beat cream cheese until smooth, beat in sour cream (if used), add dressing mix and Parmesan cheese. Stir together until well mixed.
Chalupa Dip
2 cans (16-ounce size) refried beans (your choice, with or without jalapenos)
1 package taco seasoning mix
3 large avocados (or a package of ready made guacamole)
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
1 clove garlic, very finely minced
2 cups sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup picante sauce (mild medium or hot)
3 to 4 cups finely shredded lettuce
2 small tomatoes, diced and drained well
4 or 5 green onions, sliced thinly, including tops
1 can sliced ripe olives
2 cups shredded Longhorn style cheese or Monterrey Jack cheese
Mix taco seasoning into the refried beans. Spread into a 9×12 clear glass baking dish or onto a large sandwich tray with sides (10 to 12-inch glass cake plate with sides about ½ inch deep). Mix together the avocados with the juice and garlic to make guacamole or spread the package of ready-to-eat guacamole over the beans. Mix together the sour cream, mayonnaise and picante sauce, spread over the avocado mixture. Top with remaining ingredients in order listed. Chill before serving. Serve with tortilla chips
Hidden Valley Ranch Cheese Ball
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup milk
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
8-ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 package cream cheese (8-ounce)
Toasted almonds or pecans, very finely chopped.
Mix together milk, mayonnaise and dressing mix. Set aside. Have cheese at room temperature for at least one hour. Beat cream cheese thoroughly with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in shredded cheese and dressing mixture. Pack into small bowl which you have lined with plastic wrap. Chill in freezer for 30 minutes. Lift out of bowl with plastic wrap and shape into ball. Roll in chopped nuts.
French Dressing Dip
1 package (8-oz) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup Kraft French Dressing
2 tbs. catsup*
2 tbs. mayonnaise
2 teaspoons very finely chopped or grated onion
Beat the cream cheese until smooth, and then beat in the French dressing, catsup, mayonnaise and onion until well mixed. Chill before using to allow flavors to blend. Serve with chips.
This is a very good basic dip that also makes a great shrimp dip. *For shrimp dip, I added about a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and in place of the catsup, I used an equal amount of the bottled chili sauce and added a couple of teaspoons of prepared horseradish. For shrimp dip, drain and rinse a small can of shrimp, dice finely and stir in with the rest of the ingredients.
Dill Pickle Cheese Ball
1 package (8-oz) cream cheese, softened
¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided use
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
¼ cup finely chopped dill pickle, or ¼ dill pickle relish
1½ teaspoons pickle juice
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon salt
Coating:
4 to 5 slices bacon cooked and crumbled (thin sliced bacon)
¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 Tbs. finely chopped fresh dill
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth; then add the remaining ingredients until well combined and shape into a ball.
In a shallow bowl or plate, mix the bacon, cheese and fresh dill, and roll the cheese ball in this mixture until well coated. Chill before serving.
(Make ‘mini’ cheese balls, about ¾-inch in diameter; roll in the mixture and use a pretzel stick in each one to serve. (They need to be one-bite size, I made mine the size of a walnut and they were too big and my friends ended up having to spread them on chips).
Here’s wishing all my friends and readers a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year. God bless you and be safe if you’re traveling!
Laverne Mae Criswell
Laverne Mae (Scoggins) Criswell, 78, of Somerset, passed away on December 16, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas.
Laverne was born March 11, 1944, to Stanley and Lena Scoggins of Natalia, Texas.
She is preceded in death by her parents; husband, James E. Criswell; and sister, Lucile Kemp.
Laverne enjoyed hunting and spending time with her family. She leaves behind her beloved dogs, Rusty, Chester, Mickey, and Sweetie Dog, which were her pride and joy.
Laverne is survived by her sons, James M. Criswell and wife, Tammy; Thad Criswell and wife, Laura; Jacob Criswell and wife, Jennifer; sister, Lillian (Scoggins) Ricord and husband, Lonnie; brother, Charles Scoggins and wife, Diana; granddaughters, Kyla (Criswell) Williamson and husband, Matthew, Courtney (Criswell) Myers and husband, John, Kaitlyn (Criswell) DeLoach and husband, Dalton, Bree Criswell and Tye Criswell; grandsons, Logan Criswell and Augustus Criswell; and great-grandson, Beau Williamson.
Pallbearers will be her sons, James E. Criswell, Thad Criswell, Jacob Criswell; brother-in-law, Lonnie Ricord; and family friends, Jake Grothues, and Ernie Menchaca.
Visitation will be on December 21, 2022 from 9 am to 11 am at Hurley Funeral Home, Chapel in Lytle, Tx., a with Graveside Services at 11:30 am at the Lytle Community Cemetery.
Anyone wishing to sign the online guestbook, share memories or issue condolences to the family, may do so at www.hurleyfuneralhome.com
Arrangements under the direction of Hurley Funeral Home, 14822 Main Street, Lytle, Texas.