Summer's-end slouching has ended (?)

Well, dear reader, I've been informed that today, the Twenty-third of September, is the first full official day of Autumn. Remember my two previous blogs (see 25 August and 7 September) about how seemingly the Summer of '06 was slouching toward its ending or terminus?

One certainly couldn't detect this from the weather here in San Antonio! At least, not unless one gave heavy emphasis to the fact that we are seven or eight degrees cooler than we were in much of August; that is, we're in the mid-nineties for the high rather than over 100 F.

Oh, but then we ARE well into high school and university football, which is automatically associated with the Autumn season. Speaking of which, I finally decided to take the VÍA bus(es) way out northeast to suburban-rural Converse and see the Judson Rockets game versus the Churchill Chargers. It all started out nicely; prior to the game and teh requisite raaising fo Old Glory to the strains of the National Anthem, the visitors, Churchill, were invited to sing their school song, followed by host Judson and their school song.

The Rockets stopped Churchill on their first possession, and then in few plays took the pigskin into the end zone for a touchdown. Things were starting out very well for the home team, which made me glad for coach Rackley and his "boys". However, Churchill came back to first tie the game and then with a later score to go ahead. Judson sent the game into overtime with a last-minute field goal. But two overtimes later the same field goal kicker missed as over-time ran out, to hand the game to the visiting Chargers.

Did you notice that I described Converse, Judson High School's hometown, as "suburban-rural"? For the most part, the Judson ISD appears much like any other way-out-from-S.A. suburban area, such as Loopland to the west. Square miles of fairly new and soul-less residential development "all made out of ticky-tacky, and they all look just the same". Dozens of fairly new strip-shopping constructions "all made out of ticky-tacky, and they all look just the same". Etc. However, here and there large areas spreading across double-digit acres remain in pasturage or cropland. And what makes Converse "rural" for me is a little area to the north of the high school, where several very old business buildings still stand, some still in use for something, and a FEW used for the original purpose, e.g. along the lines of farm suppy. Whenever the VÍA bus takes me along the two streets that pass these, I get a STRONG sense of rural Texas -- even stronger than I got in Devine during my years of living there!

Hence, Converse retains some of its rural community roots, even as it morphs into a typical suburban entity much like Loopland.