September 14,2026-Hana spent the afternoon singing and dancing. I am not sure what prompted this, but in between the songs and dances, she called out “Ha!” and stood without any support. She kept at it, at one point staying upright for 8 seconds. My granddaughter has a plan, an agenda.

Her mother is working from home, this week, on-boarding for a new position. So, Hana also is taking up a position in the play pen with a view of Yunhee’s office. Maybe that’s the reason for the songs and dances. She knows how much this ne job means to her mother.

HANA’S NOTE– I am glad for Mommy. I felt like singing, so I just sang a tune that came into my head.

EXPANDING CIRCLES– East Texas- This area is indeed “a whole ‘nother Texas, as a friend from Palestine (pronounced Pal-es-TEEN) once told me. The Turf- East Texas also is watered by the Red River, its northern border with Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Sabine also waters this vast sectorof piny woods and wetlands. “East’ comes to a southern end, of sorts, with Big Thicket National Preserve.

I’ve never been to the Thicket, but would like to include it on my itinerary some day. My experience with East Texas has been in Texarkana, which at the time I was there had worse traffic than our Collin County. A local who knew a shortcut was in front of me, saw my then-out-of-state plates (Arizona) and waved to me to follow him. I did so, and we drove past a three-mile line of stalled traffic. I’ve also been to Tyler, a nice, small city; Palestine, where I almost went to a child’s birthday party-until it was postponed because of a storm;and to Grand Saline, where a video store was opening and the owners were giving away hot dogs-by the dozen. Those are all in the middle of East Texas. I passed through Longview, a bit east of Tyler, as well as Marshall, Sulphur Springs and Greenville. We stayed overnight in Tyler, in the 2000s and I’ve recently been invited to go back there. There is a fine Rose Garden in Tyler, that Hana may well like to see. I’d also like to bring her along to Marshall’s Festival of Lights, one year soon.

To the south, on the way to Houston, are East Texas’s southern tier towns: Nacogdoches and Lufkin. Hana’s parents have friends in Nacogdoches, so I can see us heading down that way, at some point in the near future. It is also the “oldest town in Texas”, and Sam Houston hung his shingle in Nacogdoches, so I am sure there is a wealth of historical treasure there.

At the northern edge of “East” lies Paris,TX. It has had a history of particular tension between Blacks and Whites. I would like to go by there at some point, and talk to folks, as I did a few years ago in Philadelphia and Ruleville, MS, to see what the situation is now. That’s probably not something I’d do with Hana along, though, at least not until she is in her teens.

NEXT: Houston and the Texas Bayous.