Category: Commentary

“A dog is the only thing on Earth that loves you more than you love yourself.”
-Josh Billings

We all have our preferences when it comes to pets. I prefer dogs. Maybe you are a cat, fish, or reptile person. Whatever the case, recent research has proven what we already know – pets are good for you.
Half of the households in the U.S. have a pet of some kind. Whether you have an affectionate dog, a purring cat, or a fish watching you from his watery home every morning as you stumble out of bed to make coffee, the company of a pet is comforting. Pets support our well-being. For many they offer a vital mental and physical coping mechanism.
Pets can provide us with distinct physical benefits. Dogs especially make great exercise companions (this is less of an option with cats and fish). A dog will give you a reason to exercise. For dog owners, walking becomes pretty much mandatory. An interesting systematic review of research was published recently in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes (this is a journal put out by the American Heart Association). It highlighted the fact that dog ownership is associated with better cardiovascular health. The review examined a truckload of studies published between 1950-2019 examining data from approximately four million humans. Many of these studies revealed that dog ownership was linked to improved cholesterol levels, decreased blood pressure, and lower stress response in the sympathetic nervous system. A summary of all the data showed that dog ownership was associated with a 31 percent reduced risk of cardiovascular death. It is believed that the primary reason for this increased longevity stems from the necessary exercise required of dog owners. A squirmy little dog at your feet, ready to go outside and walk your shoes off, will help you live longer.
On a personal note, Mac, our lively little Jack Russell Terrier has prompted me to walk him twice a day. Some days now we hit four miles. I feel better for it and know that walking is good for both of us.
Besides promoting physical well-being, pets can provide a plethora of mental and psychological benefits. These include reduced stress and enhanced mood. Pet ownership stimulates the reduction of cortisol, the primary stress hormone. Animals seriously have the capacity to enhance our mood and mental well-being. And this is good news also for the fish and cat people. I am not much of a cat person, but I will acknowledge that cats make pretty good pets. Their sanctimonious and independent nature make them require less maintenance. They tolerate your absence well but will hang around and offer some degree of comfort when you are home. Fish I think are indifferent, but they are fun to look at, so that’s good for something. Lizards and small rodents might fall into this category as well.
But when it comes to mental health, dogs particularly provide the pure connection and affection which promotes the release of dopamine and serotonin, the neurotransmitters synonymous with relaxation. I always feel more relaxed with little Mac curled up at my feet, or asleep on my desk as I write.
I recently had reason to stop by the designated veterans’ apartments here in town. While there I met an elderly gentleman who was a former Navy SEAL. He glided into the room in his electric wheelchair with his dog Frieda by his side. Frieda’s attention and affection for her person was obvious. This grizzled veteran told me that his beloved dog had literally saved his life. She gave him a reason to live. The bond between the two was evident beyond words.
Pets, and I would again say dogs in particular, can encourage positive social interactions as well. Dogs naturally create opportunities for social connections. Walking your dog can lead to casual conversations with neighbors and other dog owners. Many folks take their charges to the local dog park. It’s easy to meet people this way. Dogs provide a social lubricant. You are more approachable with a dog. Dogs also can help foster emotional security, encouraging people to interact in informal settings.
All pets are good for us in every way. They make our lives better by loving us, overlooking our faults, and wanting nothing more than food, water, and our attention. They are blessings beyond words. Love your pet today…
© 2025 Jody Dyer
typewriterweekly.com

“The most dangerous food is wedding cake.”
-James Thurber

There is a funny episode from the great TV series Seinfeld where Elaine, needing an afternoon sugar rush, sneaks into her boss Mr. Peterman’s college boy mini fridge and nibbles on cake hidden within. This cake turns out to be a vintage slice from the 1937 wedding of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson worth $29,000. After ingesting the cake, and learning the value of her afternoon snack, Elaine tries to replace it with a grocery store substitute from Entenmann’s but is caught on camera enjoying “the most romantic thing she’s ever eaten.” We are left to imagine the pain Elaine will endure passing the antique cake that has been “stored for six decades in a poorly ventilated English basement.”
This sitcom story is funny, but it couldn’t be true, right? No one has ever heard of vintage wedding cake, bought and sold for profit, passed around after 70-80 years, have they? Much to my astonishment vintage cake trading and collecting is a real thing. This story is strange, but true!
Evidently there is a common practice of decades-old wedding cake being bought and sold by collectors, with pieces sometimes fetching thousands of dollars. Slices of wedding cake, especially royal wedding cake, are often given as souvenirs. These sometimes come up for auction. Buyers with a taste for history often snatch them up. And lest you think we are talking about moldy chunks of dry plaster-like cake topped with rancid vanilla frosting, apparently royal wedding cakes are traditionally made of fruitcake. Fruitcakes are extremely shelf stable. And a piece from 1937 might be almost petrified.
In 2014 a piece of cake from King Charles and Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding sold for $7,500. Another Charles and Di slice sold for $2,511 in 2021.
In 2015 a Beverly Hills auction house sold slices collected by a former chauffeur of Queen Elizabeth II. He had saved slices from the weddings of Princess Anne (1973), Prince Andrew (1986), Charles – both weddings (1981 & 2005), and Prince William (2011). In 2014 a separate auction house sold another slice from Prince William and Princess Kate’s wedding for $7,500.
Recently, a slice of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip’s wedding cake from 1947 sold for $3,669. It was purchased by Gerry Layton and is one of the last pieces of cake from this wedding in existence. Despite its rarity, Layton plans to eat it. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s confection was a nine-foot-tall elegant baked monster of a cake weighing over 500 pounds. It was cut into 2000 pieces. In 2013 another Queen Elizabeth slice sold for $2,300, auctioned by Christie’s.
And just like in the Seinfeld episode, in 1998 a slice from Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson’s wedding sold for $29,900. Initially valued at $500-$1000, the buyer, entrepreneur Benjamin Yin, explained he bought the cake for sentimental reasons. “It represents the epitome of a great romance – truly romantic and elegant,” he said.
With my curiosity piqued, I went online in search of vintage cake for sale. For the heady price of $3,400 I found a royal wedding cake collection set. This consisted of three rare slices of official royal wedding cake, each from a “landmark royal marriage.” One slice was from the wedding of Charles and Diana. Another slice came from the wedding of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips. The third was from Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s wedding. All are fruitcake, with special cream cheese frosting on the Charles and Di slice. The collection was offered for sale from the family of a former member of the Queen’s official bodyguard unit. Each piece comes wrapped in its original wax paper inside a monogramed silver presentation box with a signed letter of authenticity. If you are a royalist, or maybe just have an online shopping addiction, this antique cake can be yours with the click of a mouse.
The strange world of vintage wedding cake collecting seems like the stuff of fiction. Who knew it was real!
© 2025 Jody Dyer
typewriterweekly.com

“As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free.”
William Shakespeare
The Tempest – Act 5

The annals of true crime are filled with interesting stories. Sometimes these stories provide the seed for cinema. I recently stumbled onto one of these stories. It is too compelling not to share.
In 1948 famed Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart was featured in the movie Call Northside 777. The movie relates a true story. Presented in a semi-documentary style, with frequent narration, much of the movie was filmed on the north side of Chicago using actual locations where the events in real life took place. This movie falls into the category of Film Noir (French for dark film – a cinematic style used in crime dramas of the 1940s-1950s, often shot in black and white). This movie is worth watching (you can find it on YouTube). Here is the backstory…
On October 10, 1944, an ad appeared in the classified section of the Chicago Times. It read – “$5,000 reward for killers of Officer Bundy on Dec. 9, 1932. Call GRO-1758, 12-7 p.m.” The ad was placed by a Mrs. Tillie Majczek, whose son Joe Majczek, along with his friend Ted Marcinkiewiez, had been convicted of the crime and was serving a 99-year sentence in the Illinois State Penitentiary. Believing her son innocent, Mrs. Majczek toiled nightly scrubbing floors, saving $5,000 reward money after working 11 years in hopes of solving the crime and freeing her son.
The actual murder that triggered the events in this story took place inside a delicatessen located at 4312 S. Ashland Avenue during an attempted robbery in December of 1932. Chicago police officer William D. Lundy was shot by two intruders as he tried to stop the robbery. The state’s key witness, Mrs. Vera Walush, owner of the deli, was operating an illegal speakeasy on the premises (a speakeasy was an illicit establishment selling liquor during prohibition).
Eleven years later, the ad placed by Mrs. Majczek caught the eyes of two veteran reporters at the Chicago Times newspaper and out of curiosity they started digging…and writing.
In the movie, as is normal in film, creative license was taken with certain details added and names changed. And the phone number from the ad, which became the title of the movie, was changed to Northside 777. Note – Before the 1950s, phone numbers were preceded by letters indicating the telephone exchange serving a particular area. Full words were used to help customers remember the telephone exchange name. Later exchange names were dropped as U.S. phone systems switched to area codes and all-number calling.
Among the troubling details real-life reporters Jack McPhaul and James McGuire dug up (in the movie Jimmy Stewart plays their role as reporter P.J. McNeal) was the fact that Vera Walush had originally told the police she could not identify the holdup men. Joe Majczek, on probation at the time for a robbery committed when he was a juvenile that netted him $2, had been placed in a police line-up. Twice Vera Walush had failed to pick him out as a suspect.
Later, Vera Walush suddenly remembered that one of the killers was Ted Marcinkiewiez, a regular at her deli and friend of Joe Majczek. It was noted that she had only identified the two men as the killers after the police threatened to arrest her for bootlegging if she couldn’t identify any suspects. To save herself, Vera lied under oath.
The reporters also learned that a detective involved in the case informed the presiding judge during the trial that Joe and Ted had been framed. The judge pledged to push for a new trial, but was advised that if he did this, his political career would come to an end.
It is believed that these two innocent men had been convicted after city leaders, fearful that violence was tarnishing Chicago’s image and causing political damage, decided to “do something.” Six murders had been committed in the city the week Officer Lundy was killed. Homicide was a growing problem in Chicago.
When the truth came out, Majczek’s story was splashed across the pages of daily newspapers everywhere. And after all the evidence was presented to the Illinois Department of Corrections, Governor Dwight H. Green granted Majczek a full pardon. On August 14, 1945, Joe Majczek walked out of prison a free man. Five years later, his friend Ted Marcinkiewiez

If you are a human on planet Earth, you need money. We all carry it. We try hard to earn it. And whether it is found in the form of plastic, paper, or various alloys, we all depend on it every day. Money is important.
Though not overly fond of conversation, and perhaps lacking some degree of social adequacy, I do occasionally talk to people. As a sort of sociological experiment, from time to time I have asked folks this question – who’s on our money? Call me curious. Maybe I have been hobnobbing with the wrong crowd, but I can honestly say that I have yet to meet one person who could accurately identify all the fine Americans pictured on our currency and coin. Yes, almost everyone knows who is on the one-dollar bill, and most can identify the face on the five. But when it comes to the $2, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills, they are often at a loss. And then we have coins. Who’s that guy on the nickel? I have been flummoxed to realize that most citizens do not know who is shown on our money. Maybe most don’t care, but I happen to think this is important. Our money reflects our history. We need to know it.
I think this history is especially important as time marches on and things change. There is talk of swapping out some of those pictured on our bills now. It is rumored that Harriet Tubman is scheduled to replace Hamilton on the $10 bill sometime in the future (or maybe replace Jackson on the $20). If this must be done, Harriet Tubman is indeed a worthy candidate. Her exploits ferrying runaway slaves to freedom, pistol in hand, on the Underground Railroad is the stuff of legend. She deserves to be honored. But I shudder to think of what is in store for us in the future when the shallow people take charge. Imagine Taylor Swift on the twenty? Arghhhh……
All that being said, for those who want to know, here’s a brief primer regarding the storied folks you might find in your wallet, purse, or closet coin jar. Let’s start with folding money first.

~ $1 bill – George Washington – Our first president and often called the Father of our Country, George Washington graces the one-dollar bill. As Commander of the Continental Army, he led our patriot forces to victory against the British in the Revolutionary War.
~ $2 bill – Thomas Jefferson – You don’t often see two-dollar bills in circulation, but they are out there. On the two you will see the face of our third president, Thomas Jefferson. He is probably most famous for penning the Declaration of Independence.
~ $5 bill – Abraham Lincoln – Our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln is credited with holding the Union together during the Civil War and playing a major role in the abolition of slavery. He was our first Republican president and the first president assassinated in office.
~ $10 bill – Alexander Hamilton – Another Founding Father, military officer, and statesman, Alexander Hamilton is pictured on the ten-dollar bill. He served as our first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under Washington.
~ $20 bill – Andrew Jackson – Our 7th president, Andrew Jackson is found on the twenty-dollar bill. He was a U.S. Army general and served in both houses of Congress before being elected president in 1829.
~ $50 bill – Ulysses S. Grant – Our 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant led the Union Army to victory against the Confederacy in the Civil War. Along with his military accomplishments, I think Grant is on the fifty-dollar bill in part because he has a cool beard.
~ $100 bill – Benjamin Franklin – Immortalized on the one-hundred-dollar bill is the brilliant Benjamin Franklin – writer, inventor, statesman, scientist, political philosopher, and polymath. His immense contributions to America’s identity and founding cannot be overstated.
Pictured on our U.S. coins, we see some of these same notable figures. Abraham Lincoln is found on the penny. Thomas Jefferson is on the nickel. On the dime we see Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). He was our 32nd president and guided the U.S. through the perils of WWII. George Washington graces the quarter. The fifty-cent piece shows our 35th president, John F. Kennedy (JFK). Sadly, he was the fourth U.S. president assassinated in office. Though not often seen in circulation, we do have one-dollar coins in our money supply. The current issue shows Sacagawea, known for her vital role in the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806). Don’t mistake these coins for quarters.
The next time you toss a few bills on the table to pay for your brisket lunch or breakfast tacos, you might glance at the faces found on those green bills and remember some of what they did for us. They were fine Americans and deserve to be remembered…
© 2025 Jody Dyer
typewriterweekly.com

“Where’s the basement?”
-Pee Wee Herman (at the Alamo)

If you ingested any amount of television during the 1980s, you are probably familiar with Pee Wee Herman. Pee Wee, a comic creation and persona of actor and comedian Paul Reubens, dominated alternative pop culture during the Reagan years. Kind of like a cross between Howdy Doody and the B-52s, Pee Wee Herman brought a strange and surreal space-age retro vibe to America. Pee Wee’s brand of humor was so offbeat and refreshing that we couldn’t help but love him. Recently a news story broke that at first was hard to believe but turned out to be true. It involves a bicycle, and Pee Wee’s distinct connection to Texas and the Alamo.
Besides a hit TV show for kids, and his frequent appearances on late-night television (most often on Late Night with David Letterman), Pee Wee Herman was perhaps best known for the wacky big screen movie hit Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985). The story of a boy and his bike, the cinematic action centers around Pee Wee’s vintage 1950s era red and white Schwinn DX cruiser. In movie lingo the bike is what you would call a MacGuffin (an object used as a plot device in movies that the story is centered on). In the movie, Pee Wee’s bike is stolen, and the action tracks his quest to get it back. Various hilarious misadventures follow, and all is wet your pants funny. If you’ve never seen this movie, it is worth watching. Here’s a brief summary…
While shopping, Pee Wee’s bike is stolen. He assumes his hateful neighbor Francis is responsible but can’t prove it. A psychic then tells Pee Wee his bike is in the basement of the Alamo, so his travels begin.
Pee Wee hitchhikes to Texas, riding first with a fugitive convict named Mickey, and then later traveling with trucker Large Marge. At a truck stop, Pee Wee realizes he has lost his wallet, so has to pay for his meal by washing dishes. There he meets Simone, a waitress who dreams of visiting Paris. Pee Wee encourages her to follow her dreams, but as they watch the sun rise from inside a roadside dinosaur statue, Simone’s jealous boyfriend Andy appears. Pee Wee escapes angry Andy by hoping onto a moving train. Finally arriving at the Alamo, Pee Wee learns there is no basement, and his bike is not there.
Despondent, Pee Wee calls Dottie, his only true friend. He then again runs into Andy and is only able to evade him by posing as a rodeo contestant and riding a bucking bull. Pee Wee is thrown from the bull and knocked out as the bull chases Andy from the arena. Pee Wee later visits a biker bar to use the pay phone and is threatened with death after accidently knocking over a line of motorcycles. Pee Wee wins over the bikers however after borrowing a pair of platform shoes from a small statured fry cook and dancing on the tables to the song Tequila. The bikers then give Pee Wee a motorcycle to finish his journey, but he promptly crashes and winds up in the hospital.
While in the hospital, Pee Wee sees his bike on TV being used as a prop at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California. Pee Wee then travels to California, sneaks onto the Warner Brothers lot and grabs his bike. After being chased by security, Pee Wee passes a burning pet shop and stops to rescue the animals inside. Firefighters declare Pee Wee a hero, but the police arrest him anyway. Allowed to keep his bike, the studio president agrees to drop the charges against Pee Wee in exchange for the rights to adapt his story into a film starring James Brolin (as “P.W. Herman”) and Morgan Fairchild as Dottie. The movie ends with Pee Wee and Dottie at a drive-in theater, watching this film. Ultimately, Pee Wee and Dottie depart on their bikes, with Pee Wee claiming that he doesn’t need to watch the movie because he’s already “lived” it. This is one bizarre and fun movie to watch. Fast forward to today…
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and its ties to Texas, Pee Wee’s red bike (one of several used in the movie and recently acquired at auction for $125,000), is to be put on display at the Alamo. It will serve as a centerpiece of a new visitor center and museum in the Mays Family Gallery, slated to open in the fall of 2027. Until then you can see Pee Wee’s bike at the Ralston Family Collections Center there on the Alamo grounds.
I am glad that Pee Wee’s bike has finally made it to the Alamo…
© 2025 Jody Dyer
typewriterweekly.com

“Wherever you go, there are three icons that everyone knows: Jesus Christ, Pele´, and Coca-Cola.”
-Pele´

If you are old like me and were blessed to grow up before we had bottled water and the internet (we just drank from the hose and played outside), then you know what a real Coke should taste like. Coca-Cola, that magic elixir and supreme concoction created by John Pemberton in the 19th century may be considered the classic American drink. It is, of course, now consumed in mass quantities worldwide. Baseball, apple pie, and Coca-Cola – all are part of America.
Foremost among my vices is an appetite for carbonated beverages. I try not to drink in excess, and most days completely refrain, but I very much enjoy an icy cold Coke (or Dr. Pepper, or black cherry soda) on occasion. And, as long as I enjoy in moderation, I refuse to feel guilty about it. I often tell my wife things could be worse. I could be slumped in the corner of our kitchen smashing empty beer cans into my forehead instead.
Back to being old – if you were ever blessed to enjoy a Coke back when Nixon was in office, you probably remember that they tasted really good back then. As a kid, it was a joy to retrieve a frosty glass bottle from the cooler at the back of Englehardt’s store. Coke tasted like it came from heaven. But if you stumble into a crowded convenience store today and purchase a plastic bottle Coke, it doesn’t taste as good. Why is that? And what is about to change? We have good news from our grand orange leader on the Potomac. Real Coke, until now only found in parts of Europe and Mexico (where it is still made with real sugar), will soon be in our stores. This is good news out of Washington. Mexican Coke is coming to America. Here is the backstory.
In 1971, a ginormous sale of U.S. grain to the Soviet Union triggered a boom in corn prices. These rising corn prices then touched off a massive increase in corn production by American farmers. Even after corn prices settled, government subsidies buoyed prices and farmers kept gleefully planting corn. Access to monstrous quantities of corn prompted companies like Archer Daniels Midland to develop new space-age corn products and markets. Enter ethanol (a topic for another column) and High- Fructose Corn Syrup.
To produce High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), a “wet-milling” process is used to isolate the starch in corn. An enzyme is then added to the starch, transforming some of the corn’s glucose into fructose. This creates a syrup with a sweetness profile similar to sugar. This development in “food science” produces a cheap sweetener, but HFCS doesn’t taste as good as real sugar.
Arther Daniels Midland had hoped to capture the big soda market with HFCS, but by the early 1980s inexpensive foreign imports had driven sugar prices way down. HFCS could not be made cheaply enough to compete. But political maneuvering soon changed things. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan, along with Congress, placed quotas on imported sugar, raising the price of sugar in the U.S. Suddenly, HFCS was a lower-cost alternative for soft drink companies, and they almost fell over themselves starting to use it. Note – Many credit the use of HFCS with the rise in obesity in this country. Today HFCS is found in almost all U.S. processed food and beverage products. Besides weight gain, HFCS has been linked to the increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, insulin resistance, inflammation, and uric acid build up. HFCS is not good for you. Some have described it as liquid Satan. Although there is some debate regarding the use of HFCS vs. sugar, numerous studies show that HFCS is metabolized to produce fat, while sugar is metabolized to produce energy. I don’t have a bowtie and clipboard, and lack a science degree, but I do know this. Every time I drink HFCS regular Coke, I feel like I’m wearing it around my waist the next day. When I enjoy a refreshing Mexican Coke, made with cane sugar, I don’t feel it.
Up until now, the only practical way to enjoy old-school good-tasting cane sugar Coke, if you could find it, was to drink Mexican Coke (sometimes available in Mexican restaurants and in select grocery stores). With the new administration’s push to Make American Healthy Again, the use of HFCS appears to be fading, which is good news. And recently, President Trump announced that the Coca-Cola Company will soon be offering again in the U.S. Coke made with real cane sugar. Look for it soon. Mexican Coke is coming to America!
© 2025 Jody Dyer
typewriterweekly.com

By Kathleene Runnels

Growing up in a close-knit family in South San Antonio, Franklin Runnels had only two first cousins, John and Charles Schweers, sons of Aunt Doris, his mother’s sister. Every Sunday-after-church dinner included the grandparents, the Runnels, and the Schweers families. The two Schweers boys grew up to follow quite different dreams: Charles became a coach; John pursued a more unique career.

In their childhood, both boys were given violin lessons and were admonished to continue to study into their teenage years. While Charles fell in love with football, John picked up a guitar, even though his mother had said, “My boys will never play a guitar,” as though that would be a disgrace to the family.

John was 15 when he began to apply his violin training to learning the guitar, and his talent blossomed. While attending college at Sul Ross, he performed in a rock group that toured throughout Southwest Texas. Next, he moved to California and began developing his songwriting skills while playing in various bands.

Fortuitously, in 1972 and at the age of 26, John moved to Nashville without any money but with a pocket full of hopes. Soon he began to catch the notice of such notables as Tom T. Hall, Charlie Pride, Ronnie Milsap, and many other super stars in the music world.

Ultimately, John Schweers became one of the finest country music writers of his generation, responsible for such iconic songs as Charley Pride’s “Amazing Love,” Ronnie Milsap’s “Daydreams About Night Things,” Dave & Sugar’s “Golden Tears” and Trace Adkins’ “I Left Something Turned on at Home.”

The first No. 1 hit penned by John Schweers was Pride’s “Don’t Fight the Feelings of Love” in 1973. Pride’s follow-up single was “Amazing Love,” which also topped the country hit parade. In 1975, Nick Nixon charted with the Schweers song “She’s Just an Old Love Turned Memory.” Pride recorded it two years later and turned it into another No. 1 hit. Ultimately, Charlie Pride recorded more than 20 of Schweer’s songs.

Ronnie Milsap had a No. 1 hit with Schweers’ “Daydreams About Night Things” in 1975. The superstar repeated the chart-topping feat with the Schweers’ songs “What Goes On When the Sun Goes Down” (1976) and “Let My Love Be Your Pillow” (1977). Milsap recorded 15 John Schweers compositions.

The songwriter’s other No. 1 hit during the 1970s was “Golden Tears” by Dave & Sugar in 1979. During the decade, his songs were also recorded by Eddy Arnold, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, David Wills, Johnny Russell, Mel Street, Susan Raye, Jim Ed Brown and Jeanne Pruett, among others. Sixteen of his songs made the country popularity charts in the ‘70s.

In 1978, on Nashville’s Master Songwriters Sing Their Hits, Schweers performed his versions of “Daydreams About Night Things,” “She’s Just an Old Love Turned Memory” and “Early Fall,” all of which he wrote solo.

During the 1980s, Schweers wrote such top 10 hits as Steve Wariner’s “Your Memory” (1981), Janie Fricke’s “Do Me With Love” (1982) and Mandrell’s “No One Mends a Broken Heart Like You” (1986).

Others who recorded Schweers’ songs during the 1980s were Louise Mandrell and Tom T. Hall, The Oak Ridge Boys, Tanya Tucker…and many more.

John Schweers continued to create hits in the 1990s. Two of his biggest were “Born Country,” sung by Alabama in 1992 and “I Left Something Turned on at Home,” sung by Trace Adkins in 1997. His songs were also recorded in the ‘90s by George Jones, Mel McDaniel, Roy Clark, Travis Tritt, Johnny Rodriguez, to name some. And into the 2000s, John Schweers’ songs have been sung by Mark Wiils, George Strait, The Mississippi Mass Choir, Marty Raybon, Con Hunley, Don Everly, Brother Slade, Buck Owens and Joe Nichols, among others.

Songs that Schweers wrote from 25-50 years ago continue to receive airplay to this day. It is also noteworthy that of his 12 Top 10 hits, only three were co-written, an amazing feat in an environment of mostly co-writers.

Here’s a fun fact. In the late 80s when John had come home for a visit at the family cabin at Alto Frio, on an excursion into Leakey there was a band performing on the square, and he overheard them playing his song, “Don’t Fight the Feeling.“ He walked up to the band members and introduced himself as the writer of that song! They were elated.

John’s mother was wrong. Needless to say, the family is proud of this amazing kid who grew up on San Antonio’s south side and who used to pester his older cousin Franklin and me, the girlfriend at the time.

John Schweers passed away in Franklin, TN, in May of this year, 2025.