I like to buy birthday presents that are sort of “out of the box” so to speak, especially for kid’s parties. A present is all about the surprise factor for me. When I found out cousin Cody was turning 8, after some thought, I set out to find a camping tent for his birthday gift. My teenager looked at me like I was crazy when I told her I was looking for a tent for a gift. I agree, I’m pretty sure that’s totally out of the realm of his normal activities, but he lives on a ranch now, so I figure he’d enjoy a little backyard camping. To my disappointment, there were none for sale at any of the three stores I went to. So I wandered around a little bit on my way out of the last store when I stumbled upon the perfect gift….a gumball machine. I remember the utter coolness of a coin-operated gum ball machine when I got one long ago, one Christmas in the 90s. I was always a little entrepreneur, and I thought I’d get rich selling gumballs. I wasn’t exactly sure if today’s kids would really like an old-fashioned gum ball machine, but I had a hunch they would. After all, sugar never goes out of style. At least, I figured, I can definitely picture him getting a kick out of selling gumballs to all his brothers and cousins at the party. So I took a chance and grabbed the gum ball machine. And boy did they love it; all the boys and girls hovered around it, scrounging the house (and mama and daddy’s pockets) for quarters. I could have gotten a video game or something electronic because I know he loves those, but to me, it’s so much more fun to see their little eyes light up when they get something new and different. Just as I suspected, he is a true gumball entrepreneur. Here’s to getting rich cousin Cody…one quarter at a time. Hey, maybe I need to find my old gumball machine!
This week at Lytle P.D. … Officers handled 74 calls for service! They conducted 45 traffic stops that resulted in 37 citations and 8 warnings. Officers kept busy – Reported Property Crimes, we had 8 of them: #1 – A construction company working in the Saddle Ridge subdivision reported 140 gallons of diesel missing from two pieces of equipment. #2 – a 2012 Toyota Tundra had the catalytic converter cut off, this happened at the Lytle Crossing parking lot. #3 – An Adams St. resident reported that someone damaged the side mirror on their vehicle. #4 – Lytle ISD reported that somebody passed another fake $20 bill at the concession stand. #5 – H.E.B. Plus reported that a crook made off with 8 trees valued at $58.76. #6 – Officers took a report of a vehicle being “keyed” at the H.E.B. Plus, it occurred during a disturbance. #7 – Burglary of a building, N. Pecan St. Approx. $500 worth of wire was taken from a shed. On an interesting note, the victims had a video of the suspect’s vehicle and saw him a few days later at Dollar General. They confronted the suspect, something I wouldn’t suggest doing. They were able to recover some of their property. #8 – A catalytic converter was cut from a 2004 Toyota Tundra while parked at Hurley’s Funeral Home. Arrests last week, we had 4 of them: #1 – Ofc. A. Lopez (assisted by Sgt. Hanson) cited and released the driver for possession of drug paraphernalia. #2 – Ofc. L. Diaz was checking out a suspicious person at the Lytle Mini Storage and found him to have an active assault warrant out of Bexar Co. He was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. #3 – A welfare check by Ofc. Pena on a female at H.E.B.’s curbside area resulted in a female being arrested for an active warrant out of Bexar Co. for contempt of court. She was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. #4 – Ofc. Pena conducted a traffic stop on Wisdom & Norvell. The driver was arrested for felony DWI and had two active felony warrants out of Bexar Co., both were child sex crimes. So that is it for the crime reports, now on to some other stuff: Perhaps your nose was picking up an odd smell over the weekend? We were scrambling around to figure out why Lytle was using the temporary motto “A City on the Stink.” We were able to find the source of the “fowl” odor as being chicken manure that was recently applied as fertilizer to a large farm just outside of town. We almost broke out our masks again! Our National Night Out event went very well, we ran out of hotdogs towards the end (we served over 300!). Special thanks to the Lytle VFW and their Auxiliary for cooking and serving the hotdogs and providing a DJ. Thanks also to the Lytle HS Honor Society for serving the drinks, and the Lytle PD Civ. Aux. members for staffing our booth, we had numerous businesses and organizations set up as well. I even had my wife and kids handing out ice cream bars. Thanks to all those that participated and or attended the event, there is no way I can list them all here. The Lytle Fire Dept. was able to highlight a new truck and we had a new Tahoe on display too. Plans are already in the works to make the event next year even better. The only downside to the event was Ofc. D. Lopez lost his body-worn camera while taking down the bounce house. Several of the officers got aggressive and jumped on it to force the air out. Later we realized that maybe his camera was rolled up in there. The next morning, we contacted the owner of the bounce house, who happens to be a city council member, and asked about unrolling it and looking for the camera. He found it! The story continues…. he was running a little late, so he texted his wife on his cell phone, and “bodycam” auto-corrected to “body” ……so the text came over as “found body in the bouncer, texting Richey.” I can imagine the thoughts running through her head that we wrapped some kid up in the bouncer the night before.
My week was fairly quiet until Saturday when my twin grandsons and the family of one of them came for a visit. The one is in transition from being stationed in Hawaii and his next posting; the other came along as he hadn’t gotten to visit in a while. The family was his wife and three children that I hadn’t seen in three years. To say the children have changed would be putting it mildly; they grow a lot in three years! We had a wonderful day, the youngest one learned how to cast his line fishing, of course he just had a bobber and no hook, but he got pretty good. The girl learned very quickly also and actually had an artificial bait on hers, but unfortunately nothing was biting, the oldest boy knew how to cast, but had no luck also. They all were happy to shoot at turtles with my favorite Red Ryder BB gun…they came close a couple of times. My granddaughter-in-law had not ever had the chance to shoot even a BB gun, so she had a good time also. Their next post will be in Florida, and they seem to be looking forward to it, I know they will miss the friends they’ve lived around for several years, but they seem to just deal with it. The practice of decorating “Jack-o-lanterns” began with an Irish folktale about a man called “Stingy Jack”. Back then, large turnips and potatoes were used, rather than pumpkins. As the Irish immigrated to America, they brought customs with them, and this was one of them. In America, pumpkins were available, and this is what they started using. Following is the story of “Stingy Jack” as I found it in a search. As I was typing this, I realized that parts of the story were not continued in a cohesive way, probably due to a mistake of mine. How the History of the Jack-o-lantern came to be An old Irish tale of folklore tells the tale of “Stingy Jack” and the Devil and how trickery led the man to become forever famous. There are variations of the story, as tends to happen with any story passed down through the generations, but the general idea remains fairly consistent. It starts with Jack having a pint at the pub with the Devil himself. Having the nickname “Stingy Jack” obviously meant that the man was always looking for a way out of paying, and so on this particular occasion he saw the Devil as a way free and clear of paying for his drink. He asked the Devil if he would consider shifting himself into the form of a coin that could be used to square away the bill. Old Stingy offered up his soul in exchange for this deal. The Devil of course agreed and turned himself into a sixpence. Of course, once the Devil had done so, Jack got to re-thinking the deal they’d made and was tempted by the feel of money in his hand, so he slipped that Devil coin into his pocket, keeping it near a silver cross so that there was no chance of a change back transformation. After some time, Jack thought of a better deal he could strike with the Devil. He agreed to set the Devil free, as long as this demon assured Jack he would not try to steal the mortal’s soul for ten full years. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years. (This is where a part is missing, sorry!) When Jack finally did die and tried to enter Heaven, God wanted no part of allowing entry to this man wh had demonstrated such terrible behavior while living. The Devil could not allow jack”s soul to enter Hell, and therefore, sent Jack back to where he came from The way was dark, and Jack, unable to see his way out from Hell requested something to light his path. The Devil then tossed a hot, burning coal ember for Jack to carry. This ember would never burns out since it was from the flames of Hell. Since the coal burnt his hands, Jack looked for a vessel to use to carry this coal and eventually came across a turnip which he carved to create a lantern. This created the legend of Jack the Lantern, also known as Jack O’Lantern. Tomatillo Guacamole 7 (medium sized) tomatillos, husks removed, and tomatillos washed and dried 2 large, unpeeled cloves garlic 2 large jalapeños, seeded and halved 2 tablespoons chopped red onion ½ teaspoon white or red wine vinegar ½ cup chopped cilantro 1 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon black pepper 2 or 3 large avocados Preheat broiler. On a cookie sheet lined with foil, roast tomatillos, garlic and chilies (skin side up), for 7 minutes. Remove garlic and chilies, and turn tomatillos over, and broil until charred, about 5 minutes more. Remove from pan to cool. When tomatillos cool, chop into small pieces and set aside. Remove skin from garlic and discard. Mash garlic. Remove skin from chilies and chop or dice chilies. Place chopped onion in bowl with vinegar, stir to coat. Pour into colander to drain and discard vinegar. (This rids the onion of a strong taste). Add cilantro, salt, pepper, mashed garlic chilies and tomatillos to the bowl with the onions and stir to mix. Peel and pit the avocados, add to above mixture, mash with a potato masher until well blended. Taste for seasoning and serve at room temperature with chips. May be made up to 8 hours ahead of serving time and refrigerated. Use in 2 days. (Mine never lasted that long, as we always snacked while waiting for everyone to get there for a meal! If you weren’t there early, you probably didn’t get even a taste). Stuffed Avocado Shells 2 avocados Chicken salad or seafood salad Cut avocados in half and remove pits. Using a spoon, scoop out about 1/2 of the avocado meat from each one, leaving a shell with some avocado meat still in it. Make up (or buy) your favorite chicken salad or seafood salad, dice the avocado you removed and stir into the salad, mound into the avocado shells and serve on a lettuce leaf. 4 servings
Chad Wildoner was also diagnosed with A-T when he was just a toddler. He uses a wheelchair to get around, but he will not let A-T stop him from chasing his dreams. Chad is an inspiration to all who meet him. He has gone on tons of adventures-swimming with dolphins, skydiving, and horseback riding despite A-T. Now he is the proud illustrator of an award-winning book! What will he do next!? He is pictured here with his mom Louise and brother, celebrating the book, Hello from the Great Blue Sea.
We are excited to announce that Devine News Editor and author Kayleen Holder and illustrator Chad Wildoner have won a Moonbeam Award this October. The Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards is an international annual contest founded in 2006. According to their website, the Moonbeam Awards aims to recognize “exemplary children’s books and their creators, and are dedicated to supporting childhood literacy and life-long reading.” Holder and Wildoner’s book, Hello from the Great Blue Sea, took 3rd place in Educational Children’s Activity books.
An award-winning smile for an award-winning book….All profits of the book benefit the A-T Children’s Project in honor of A-T warriors like Audrey Capps, 4 years old of Devine, smiling with the award-winning book written by Aunt Kayleen.
The book features 12 colorful sea creatures from the “sea cookie to the shark” and has some fun facts about each one. It also features a cut-out memory card game and puzzle in the back. To make it even more special, all profits from this book will go to the A-T Children’s Project, in honor of Kayleen’s little 4-year-old niece Audrey Capps, and all A-T warriors, to help find a cure for Ataxia telangiectasia. The book’s illustrator Chad Wildoner has battled A-T since he was a toddler. “I want to show kid’s with A-T or any disability that there is nowhere you cannot go, and nothing you cannot do if you work hard and believe in yourself,” said Holder and Wildoner. You can purchase the book on Amazon, or in Devine at Country Gals, Mag’s Place, Nellie Ruth’s, Bon Cafe, and Sonny’s Italian Grill.
Martin Villarreal was the winner of the 2021 Ford Eco Sport donated by Chaparral Ford family Don and Irma Dunford, pictured with grandson and GM Zachary Morris and Father Antonio Xavier Hernandez-Peraza. The vehicle was donated as the grand prize of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Festival drawing, which was a huge success thanks to all of the generous donors.
Former volunteers Melvin Ehlinger and Tom Foster reminiscing with Devine VFD Chief Greg Atkinson and Asst. Chief Patrick DuBOse.
By Kayleen Holder Editor There was quite a crowd of DuBoses and community members at the Dubose Firehouse this Saturday, as the dedication and revealing of the plaque took place at 3 pm. The amount of hours and manpower that’s been put into our local volunteer fire department by so many families over the past 93 years, is insurmountable. I wish we could name every single one of those heroes, who sacrificed their time doing to such hard and important work for our community. The event began with several community members looking at old photos and swapping stories with the new generation who keeps the Devine Volunteer Fire trucks rolling. Chief Greg Atkinson gave a speech as they got ready to officially name the station and reveal the plaque out front. Atkinson said the name “DuBose” kept appearing and reappearing as he researched the history of the Devine Volunteer Fire Department, and he was honored when Patrick DuBose retired from SAFD and re-joined Devine VFD as the Assistant Chief.
Bobbie DuBose spoke about how she used to answer fire calls from her home phone nights and weekends and help respond with her husband Dub.
When it comes to Devine Volunteer Department, Atkinson said, “there are several families that left behind a legacy….there were Ehlingers; there were Rodriguez’; there were Bramhalls,” just to name a few. For 83 of the 93 years that the department has existed, a DuBose has been on the roster alongside so many other volunteers, Atkinson said. “A DuBose helped found this department. A DuBose helped incorporate this department. A DuBose helped form Emergency Service District #2. If it wasn’t for this family, the city of Devine would have lacked fire and medical services on many occasions. What a legacy,” Chief Atkinson said. “I want to say thank you to this family,” Chief Atkinson said. “That’s 83 years of not just firefighter support but of the families who had mom or dad who were away from dinner or Christmas morning because they had to go help somebody…It’s 83 years where mom or dad or son had to run out the door to help someone when it was an important time in that person’s life too…what a sacrifice. On behalf of me and my staff, thank you.” Mrs. Bobbie DuBose got up to speak for a few minutes after the dedication. She shared stories of when she took over dispatcher duties, answering fire calls from her home phone, all while raising three kiddos.
Tinker DuBose pictured with his wife Debbie, viewing the new plaque honoring the many volunteers like him who kept the fire trucks rolling over the years.
“I’ll never forget when Richard Schott asked Dub and I to answer the calls at home. ‘It’ll just be temporary,’ he said. Do you know how long it lasted?” she asked with a smile. “For 10 years I answered that phone at night and on the weekends!” But that wasn’t all, she went with her husband to fire calls now and then too. “But anyway it was exciting,” DuBose said. “I stuck with it and he stuck with me. The life of a wife of a fireman named Dub DuBose. I’ll tell ya, many nights he would take the tanker truck out to a fire. I would drive and he would run the fire hose.” She later added,“One time our young daughter Jennifer had to answer the fire phone, she was scared and didn’t want to, but she did it because she knew it was important and had to be done. She did a great job, we were proud of her of course”. Lewis Stroud fondly recalled a fire story and shared it with us at the news office recently. “I remember back in 1955 when our house was on fire on Zig Zag, just outside the city. C.P.DuBose jumped on the fire engine as one of the other firemen stood in front of the truck and told him he couldn’t take it outside city limits. C.P. told him to get out of the way or he would run him over, as he wasn’t going to let the Stroud home burn down. He zipped on over and put out the fire all by himself. If it wasn’t for C. P. our home would have burned down!” said Stroud. “I was in the 5th grade at the time.” The fire house was across the street from The Devine News where C.P. worked, so when the sirens went off he made many fires during his time as did his sons Dub, Wade, Pat and grandson Patrick DuBose who all worked at the news office over the years. This is what many businesses did that had volunteer firemen as employees. They knew the volunteers were limited during the working hours as many worked out of town. So they allowed their employees to go to fire calls during working hours while they were on the payroll, to protect the community and its families. Henry Schmidt was one of those business owners who allowed his employees to run out to the fires, and he was usually right beside them. Small town businesses sacrificed and took care of their fellow neighbors in need. Schmidt’s son Mike and his friends Mickey Davis, Gilbert Rodriguez and Patrick DuBose were allowed as juniors and seniors to leave the high school to fight fires, because they were needed during daylight hours to fill the need and put out the fires alongside the few volunteers who were available during working hours. The DuBose family is humbled by this honor, and wants to recognize all of the many men and women who worked side by side to keep the fire trucks rolling all these years, and many more to come.
While officials are awaiting positive identification, the family mourns the loss of a friend, father and brother.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene on Colonial Parkway this past Thursday morning, October 6 around 9:23 AM only to find an older trailer home totally engulfed. Sadly, authorities believe Fred Schilling of Devine perished in the fire. Within minutes the entire home was gone “The home was engulfed when we arrive on scene, and no rescue attempt was possible,” stated Lieutenant Chris Andrews. “Multiple fire departments responded quickly, and were able to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring homes. Unfortunately, a man believed to be 73-year-old Fred Schilling perished in the fire.” Shilling lived in the home for years on Colonial Parkway across from the cemetery. According to family members Fred was always helping someone out. He enjoyed telling jokes to make people laugh and stopping to help people in need. Fred was a welder by trade, loved motorcycles and the outdoors, and enjoyed landscaping as well. His smile and kind heart will be missed by those who knew him. “The Bexar County Fire Marshall was contacted and conducted an investigation, but their report is not available at this time. The remains were transferred to Lockhart, Texas for autopsy and identification,” Andrews said.
Natalia will host a homecoming parade, community pep rally and tailgate on Wednesday, October 12th. The Parade will start at 6:30 pm with the pep rally and tailgate to immediately follow. The parade will start at the High School parking lot, travel down Kearney to Hwy. 132 and pass in front of the City Office before turning up Miller Street to finish at the Mustang Stadium parking lot. If you are interested in entering a float in the Homecoming Parade, please go to https://forms.gle/LSVCFDgTUjNMphja7 and complete the form. Deadline to submit the form is October 7, 2022.
