Fly the skies or sail the seas… if you’re in Texas this New Year’s eve, don’t forget those black eyed peas.
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December 30, 2018
Seen at a Waco fast food joint last week.
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December 29, 2018
The magic of television and camera framing. You can’t tell I’m using a wired up device to roll the TelePrompTer.
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December 28, 2018
My goal was to lose 15 pounds this year.
Only 20 more to go and 3 days left.
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December 27, 2018
The other day on one of the social media pages, I remembered back when we covered the damage left by a tornado that had touched down on the banks of Lake Livingston on December 26 some years back. I think it was 2002, but I can’t remember. Several lake houses were destroyed and we were sent to get video and interviews.
While we were there, it started sleeting. The temperature had dropped 40 degrees in just a few hours. It seems the day after Christmas is usually a bad day for weather.
Overnight, Hearne was hit by high winds. It even blew a Christmas tree from a bank into the street. The tree is still standing tall.
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December 26, 2018
While it may be Boxing Day in parts of the world, we don’t celebrate it here. Though I did get my wife a pair of boxing gloves (by request) for Christmas.
Yes, Christmas is over.
But why not one more Christmas story?
Deanville resident Tommy Ryan remembers when the Germans came to Burleson County. The Bryan/College Station Eagle printed the story and it’s worth sharing with you.
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December 25, 2018
Christmas at Carl’s Corner?
Absolutely. Just for a few minutes.
https://charliehaldeman.com/2018/12/25/christmas-at-carls-corner/
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December 24, 2018
Christmas can sometimes be a blur after it’s all over. 😉
Some of you may not remember this, but there was a time when you had no idea if the picture you took turned out blurry until a week later when you got your roll of film developed at the drug store.
And you still had to pay for all of your prints. Usually 24 of them. Even the blurry ones.
Happy Christmas Eve to you. And you. And you. And you? Yes, especially you.
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December 23, 2018
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December 22, 2018
John Henry Faulk told a classic Christmas story to NPR in ’72.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5028755
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December 21, 2018
Fun fact about today:
It is NOT the shortest day of the year. It’s 24 hours long, just like all the rest of them.
Yes, it’s true. We’ll experience the shortest amount of daylight of the year.
Welcome to winter.
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December 20, 2018
Just like a scene out of Goodfellas, this really happened.
Five people were arrested at Dallas Love Field because they are believed to have been carrying a lot of marijuana in their luggage. All the way from California.
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December 19, 2018
KJAC is long gone. Packed up and moved out of Port Arthur and into Beaumont. Once it moved there, it ended up part of another station as a .2 channel.
Beaumont-Port Arthur once had FOUR television newsrooms. Now it has two, though you can find local news on the big four channels.
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December 18, 2018
“Pretty Paper… Pretty ribbons of blue… wrap your present… to your darling from you…”
The simple song by Willie Nelson has its roots in Fort Worth.
The man who inspired it was a mystery to most but in one of the great examples of journalism, the folks at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tracked down the back story.
https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article190507394.html
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December 17, 2018
As previously reported in this space, I mentioned last week that I was filling in on the desk as an anchor at work. I also mentioned something about being rusty.
Boy howdy.
Regardless of the tongue-tied moments and deer-in-the-headlights facial expressions, it was a joy to return to a job I once had full-time. While reporting in the field is my favorite out of all of the tasks I’ve been assigned over the years, anchoring a newscast comes in at a very close second.
Even if I had to report to work around 1 a.m. each day, it was a good time to work with our overnight and early morning colleagues.
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December 16, 2018
I believe we are well past the start of the countdown, but this vintage card is worth sharing. 
Meanwhile, my living literary hero Leon Hale has a thought about Christmas in Houston.
“Everything in this town, even the trees and shrubs, is plugged into a light socket. Houston is so Christmas-lighted it doesn’t get dark anymore when the sun goes down.”
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December 15, 2018
The Texanist over at the Texas Monthly answers a question worth sharing in this space.
Take a look at a fascinating back story of why we all love the Texas Chili Parlor:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/the-texanist-texas-chili-parlor-special/
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December 13, 2018
This is a true statement
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December 12, 2018
My view at 4:48 a.m.
After an absence of around 2 years, I’ve returned to the air as a substitute anchor. Let’s see if the rust will fall off the hinges.
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December 11, 2018
I bought makeup today for the first time in around 2 years.
Stay tuned.
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December 10, 2018
From hometown friend Jordan Peek:
You can’t make this stuff up!
At a funeral today, a poem called “The Journey” was recited. At the end of the reading, someone’s phone had the maps app open, and Siri loudly proclaimed, “you have reached your destination.” 😂
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December 9, 2018
Mama and I shared a “friendversary” today, which is a made-up word by the folks at Facebook. She and I have been Facebook friends for 10 years now, according to the notifications.
In honor of the occasion, I borrowed a dispatch of hers to share with you. Let’s call it “The house next door.” You can read it here.
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December 5, 2018
12 years had passed since I last climbed the stairs of the Sparks Building in College Station to get a haircut.
Just as every week for almost a decade, there stood Jesse Medina with a pair of clippers and a comb working away at a soon-to-be clean cut young man sitting in the barber chair.
I’d been away a while. First to Sherman, then to Lake Charles, and on to Waco.
“You still on the radio?”
“Well, I switched to TV a while back,” I said as he shook my hand.
“Oh yeah, I remember now! You got an RAF cut and I’d see it on the news! Are you here for the funeral?”
I was there for the preparation and had the time to stop by.
Jesse is 85 now. Still cuts hair every day. He doesn’t have to climb the stairs if he doesn’t want to.
“They got an elevator now. It lets you out at the bar downstairs though.”
While his Aggieland Barbershop still looks exactly the same, downstairs has seen a drastic change. The camera shop on the first floor is now a bar and yes, it has an elevator.
While we caught up on each other’s lives, the TV in the corner announced that Special Airlift Mission 41 would soon fly over College Station. In a hurry, the shop emptied. Customers and the proprietor himself scurried down the stairs outside and on to the sidewalk of Highway 60 to watch for the jet airplane carrying the casket of George H.W. Bush from Washington to Houston. A fly-over the library was planned.
The timing. The moment. Couldn’t have been more perfect to witness.
https://videos.files.wordpress.com/gSVCjFVf/img_3786-trim-1.mov
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December 2, 2018
The last time a former president died was Gerald Ford in 2006. 12 years ago.
A lot has changed since then, but telling the story hasn’t changed much.
Of all the stories circulating about the life and death of George H.W. Bush, the New York Times has one that stands out.
This one is an account of the former president’s final words.
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December 1, 2018
Posts from previous months have been archived:
Read posts from November 2018 here
Read posts from October 2018 here
Read posts from September 2018 here
Charlie Haldeman 
good to go! Papa had them ready at 9:30am.
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