I won’t research a family just for fun, especially if I’m not interested. Throughout my studies, I have mostly investigated individuals, not whole families. Wait a moment—that’s a lie! I have looked into the Kishi, Kondo, Rowley, and Norvell families because of what I found in terms of history. I’d say that the Rowley family research is second to the Stratton family research, which I will present to you below, as a result of many triggers. Gene was the initial spark. I went down many rabbit holes to trace her short life history. Then, it was her father’s untimely demise. Thanks to a family member, I found out about the story of Vera (Dido) and her brother Jerry, who were local musicians. They made George Jones, the “Possum,” write about them in his autobiography.

Last week, while searching for more information about Louise Stratton, I came across a census from 1880 that contained all the Stratton family members: Asa (the father), Louisa (the mother), Emily (the oldest sibling), Berta (the middle sibling), and Louise, who was three years younger than Berta. I may have seen this mentioned once in my more than twelve years of research on Florence Stratton, but I’ve never found the smoking gun to make my historical work accurate. To digress a bit, I never met the historian Bill Quick, but he is definitely in my head when I’m studying something, and everything I find is analyzed based on his rule. You must have at least three sources to paint an accurate picture of what is happening. I believe it wasn’t a coincidence that I attended my first Jefferson County Historical Commission meeting in 2012, a year from the day he passed. Mr. Quick had a plan to be accurate in his research, and if I’m bringing up the rear in his absence, then that’s what I will do!

My research on Florence Stratton has shifted from her to her mother and father. In her father’s newspaper archives, I still haven’t found substantial information on Louisa, but I did discover more on Berta, including census pages and city directories concerning where she lived. Unfortunately, Berta was invalid (like Louise), and she died in 1902. As far as I know, Florence did not speak about her or Louise in Susie Spindletop’s Weekly Letter, which was published in The Beaumont Enterprise from February 28, 1926, to January 23, 1938. This is an epic find, but further research on the family is required.

Regarding Florence’s story, a master researcher—we’ll call her Kate H.—found a map of railroad stops in Texas from 1908. This haunts me a bit, but I was glad to learn that Florence’s niece, Eunice Stephens, was right when she said that a town had been named after her aunt in an interview in the 1980s. It wasn’t really a town, though; it was a railroad stop. Still, Florence Switch did exist. It had nothing to do with Florence in Texas, north of Austin. I’ll give Eunice kudos for this.

I wasn’t going to get into this, but since my whole feed has been yelling about the upcoming snow/ice/freeze/rainmageddon, I want to put my tinfoil hat on and rile you up even more. Forget that the government is releasing something via the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program and that there are drones in Orange County peeking into people’s rear windows. I want to talk about the fact that recently, every time it has snowed, we’ve had a hurricane. Actually, we’ve had one before and after the snow, so I have no idea what the future holds.

Growing up, there were a few times when it snowed, but they only closed the school because the heater wasn’t working. I’m not going to give a shout-out to the nuns or any other Peace Corps teacher at St. James because I hated that school. The only time I enjoyed being there was when I was in first grade and we had to sit in the hallway with the seventh graders. Bad weather ensued, and the seventh graders were crying that their homes had been destroyed by a tornado. Nothing major happened that day, and I made fun of those seventh graders. Yes, I was probably an a-hole, but I was in first grade!

I remember when it snowed on Christmas Eve, 2004. The cat was elated, but he wasn’t that happy when we evacuated on September 22, 2005. He lived through Rita, and when I came back, he had a girlfriend and kittens. I couldn’t catch him when we evacuated, but he found an alternative home for his family.

I also remember when it snowed in December of 2008. I remember this because I laid sod at an undisclosed government facility (we’ll call it MARAD). Of course, no one watered it, but we did get a considerable amount of snow around that time, which did the job. Thank you, mother nature, and not the government! On a side note, this week, during the US National Weather Service briefing for Lake Charles, Louisiana, I saw someone post that we are in the “snow cone of uncertainty!” Sometimes, I watch the briefings just for the comments.

I found out more about the spring cemetery tour this week, and there will be alcohol. So, stay tuned!

Stay safe this week. I hope that the snow cone of uncertainty doesn’t do too much damage.

Until next week, I yearn for Mr. Heat Miser to bless us again because his brother, Mr. Snow Miser, sucks!