Noemi and Dan and, below, Maiya Kareli, all out in the Summer of ’19 to celebrate Father’s Day.
Welcome to our site!
On journeying to parts unknown!
Maiya Kareli Bodine, summer of ’19.
Hello, I’m Dan Bodine, former journalist who logged almost 20 years in the trenches of Texas newspapers once — before ditching it all and starting life and another culture anew 500 miles away, in Presidio, on the border, deep in the Big Bend country of far West Texas.
I ended up marrying the former Noemi Fierro (seen beside me above), who I’d sought out as a Spanish teacher for my work, but — thanks to God — managed instead to convince her to marry me. The most wonderful blessing of my whole life, it was! She’s always argued it was easier for her to marry me than to teach me Spanish! She became a few years later, too, a mother to our daughter — Maiya Kareli Bodine, now 19 (right, above). A true gem for both of us.
And (of all things, too, for me) I became that remote community’s sole judge, Justice of the Peace, Pct. 2, Presidio County — and supplemented my income as City of Presidio Municipal Court Judge.
And thru it all — in addition to life in the Catholic Church, even — the only other thing common in my life thru these transition years was plants. They have an even longer history with me! For I spent much of my boyhood years working after school at a plant nursery. They’re like family to me!
My second day in Presidio in fall, ’89, i.e., I went to a local variety store and bought the only plant I could fine — an Asperagus Fern basket — named it Methuselah (for my hope for stability), and it’s been with me since. (Read on to find out more on this particular side of me!)
But I retired from Presidio County there in Presidio in 2009, after serving as Pct. 2 Justice of the Peace for 17 years; and, concurrently, Municipal Court Judge for the City of Presidio for 13 years. I enjoyed both jobs immensely — e.g., just helping people work thru various problems or stages in their lives.
But old age was coming on. And in 2010 our family moved to El Paso to be closer to health care professionals. Learned, i.e., thru V.A. Health Care (I’m a Vietnam Era U.S. Navy veteran, too), that I’ve got dementia — on top of lung problems also.
But this blog isn’t about my health; it’s about Life! It gets into some of my “raised in the sticks” home-grown philosophies, especially on conservative politics that’ve gone wild — as well as this passion for plants and gardens as a hobby.
I’m really weird on plants! Do you think plants have feelings, i.e.? I certainly do. They can communicate! A movement is afoot to increase their stature under the law.
In my little backyard garden — especially in the dead of winter when things aren’t too active in the plant world — I’ll go out late afternoons and talk to some, just to let them know Ol’ Bo is still here; still caring about them, i.e.!
Thus — as an off-the-wall political topic, i.e., — could Plant Rights follow Animal Rights as the next step in Humanism’s progressive revolutions? How does that sound?
Hee, hee! I stirred up enough anger in my journalism career on such evolution’s Quest for Peace thru Justice themes; I’ll be quiet (for now) on this new one! But, yes, I do feel it’ll be chompin’ at the bits soon. Post Trump’s era a ways, of course.
Noemi, my true soulmate to my strangeness, also is a former director of the Senior Citizens Center in Presidio. I absolutely could not be functioning the same without her.
And our daughter — Maiya or Kareli, who goes by two first names, depending on if she’s with family or a school group — attends the University of El Paso on academic scholarships.
She’s a ’17 graduate of El Paso’s El Dorado High School, and a true apple of her father’s eye — for soon she’ll be leaving her teen years behind and taking on maturity of early adulthood! Talk about strange new worlds!
Thanks for dropping by to visit us and we hope you’ll return often to check on us. With the health concerns, I don’t post often, of course. But I do appreciate readers. And their comments.
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Dan, I’m eager to read your blog or anything you write, you ol’ dog you… still miss ya a bunch… have a framed photo of you and my brother Tom and myself standing under the CTR sign… the photo is in my kitchen. We all look young and fabulous. Tom is still writing up a storm and would love to send you something (a sports story involving Cleburne he thinks will interest you). If you want to share email addresses with him, his is thomascurtis576@yahoo.com. BTW, I’m carolyn@carolyncurtis.net, if you want to shoot anything to me. I do get your blog. Please put Tom on your blog list too… he would enjoy it. He has always regretted that he did not stay with you longer, seeing you as a real newsman mentor. (But you know about the lure of more $$$…!) Can’t tell you how many times he’s asked me to re-tell the story about how you rolled your chair over to mine when we were at the Temple Daily Telegram and shared with me your secret about the new job at Cleburne, and I made that suggestion to you about Tom. He gets a kick out of that story, and I love telling it. Anyway, he’s an in-demand sports reporter and an especially colorful writer. Best to you, my friend… I’m happy for not only your professional success, of course, but your personal success. I’m thrilled for your happy home life and your deep faith. You’ve got it all, Dan. Carolyn Curtis. carolyn@carolyncurtis.net, and on Facebook. 817-991-7602. I do a good bit of writing and speaking these days on C.S. Lewis, a special interest of mine. Let’s stay in touch.
Dan is Nooner, I just found your site. Looks like you have touched many lives in your past and I was one of them. I remember the first time I saw you walking down the hall at the Temple Police Department. I recognized you from your hair and voice. Ran into you many times while you worked on the Crime Beat. Had some good times there. But we both knew our days in Temple were numbered. I went to elementary school with your brother, Marshall, in good ole Cleburne. I retired out of Law Enforcement after 26 years. My last stint was Sheriff of Johnson County. Itwit was good to hear from you.
Gosh, just noticed this, Nooner! Thanks for the good words. In our political climate now, there’s certainly a need for more of them. I think running into you and Robby in Temple was the best thing that happened to me there. My first story was reporting on a Belton School Board bond issue one night in fall of ’74, and I had to dictate it from notes from the first public phone I found. In the office, the person taking the dictation got rattled with my stuttering, made some crucial mistakes, and the Belton school board president raised holy hell with the story! One of the desk editors there — a conservative stiffneck all the way — wanted me fired from that moment on. But the managing editor saw something good in me from the features I was writing — I’m guessing, anyway — and wouldn’t do it then. Instead moved me from the Belton bureau over to the Temple office as a fire and crime reporter. Thanks to you and Robby I felt I had a lifeline, and frantically developed as many sidebar tips as I could into feature stories. And that’s what saved my butt. Thanks again and hope you’re doing well.
Hey Dan! Remember the Somervell Sun? Rey gave me the sign from the front of the Talley building and I still have it. Fancy finding you with your very own website! Mark Grear and I muse occasionally about what became of you – the last we ever knew was that you were JP in Presidio County. Then came the bright idea to search for Dan Bodine in Duck Duck Go and there you were, Danbodine. com. First hit! Mark is publisher of the Valley Mills Progress, has been for 30 years. I retired from the grind in 2011 and ended up on a patch of land near Brackettville in the hills, where just last week I powered up an off grid solar system. It sounds like you’re happy and that’s what counts. And Jeff, I remember that paycheck incident. Yours bounced, mine didn’t. P.S. Dan, Mark said you were the best reporter he ever knew.
Carolea, OMG, thanks! What a surprise! And Mark “soldiering on” still in Valley Mills. Tell him hello for me. Spent two summers out of high school as a student-trainee meteorologist at the Waco Airport Weather Bureau, while enrolled at Texas A&M. Really does bring back old memories! And you’re in Brackettville now? That’s beautiful, wealthy country, Carolea! And off-grid solar, too? Happy for you!
Apologize for being so late to respond here. Don’t check the site often, obviously. And the Somervell Sun…Another dream down the drain. I still think The Southwest Times could’ve soared in 1-2 more years if we’d just had the time, and funding. Excellent idea to tie in newspaper advertising from that Southwest part of the Metroplex, though. Don just got antsy about the debts, though. Bank note to the previous Bulletin owner was way, WAY too much, the biggest thing. That’s what I’d originally balked at. Don didn’t know newspapers though and had convinced me we could make it. Had “deep pockets”. Then later with the red ink he wanted to put it off on me. I’m too much of a survivalist for that. Told him hasta la vista and ran for the border, literally! Started life over! Hurt some, yeah. But I found a new life. And glad of it. Thanks for your comment. Hope you subscribed to the blog. I still haven’t given up on writing, yet. Just that I’m much slower than the old days. Thanks again. – Dan
Dan you still alive and kickin? We have both done some traveling since the Alvarado Bulletin. Digital cameras make it so much easier…and don’t have to remember to put in film…lol
I’m down south Florida living on a sailboat. Traveling from port to port.
Take care……
Jeff, you rascal! “Living on a sailboat. Traveling from port to port”! OMG, how’d you end up in “that”?! You didn’t get a last paycheck from the Bulletin either! You went to the water; I went to the desert! And sorry for not responding earlier. I’m legally “slowed” now with Lewy Body dementia, btw. Had it 12-13 years. But apparently I’m too stupid now to figure out how to enable the comment responder on this blog. I posted earlier this evening and was coming back checking for comments and noticed an old Johnson County newspaper photographer had checked in. Interested in how you ended up in S. Fl.! Stay in touch! And thanks for checking in, too!
Hey there, Dan Bodine! Just a nod from a former “Yankee” employee…Cleburne Times-Review….
Barbara Griffith…education editor, obit, features…catch was as catch could. 1982..brief as my stint was,a multitude of experience was gained!
Best wishes and thanks.
Peace.
Hello, Barbara! Good to hear from you! The ol’ CTR…How did you escape? I can’t remember. Seems those days, there was a crisis every 10-15 minutes. And waiting on photos from Sam! A photographer who wasn’t on the payroll! Cleburne is where the Sunbelt slung what was left of civilization’s past headlong into the always moving present — and the resounding thud felt especially hard on newspaper employees! It still reverberates in my head some, in fact! Sounds like you remember a little of that, too! Once again, thanks for the note. Sign up. I’ve got dementia now and have really slowed down — but still enjoy telling a story or two! And of course welcome all readers. Except those who spit in my face, that is. Hee, hee! Haven’t had any of those since leaving Johnson County.
Kay gave me your email so I thought I’d send some Merry Christmas wishes y’all’s way. Love the photo on your website. All are looking good. Paul and I are still hanging in there out here on Lake Proctor. Was traveling some but not so much anymore; just enjoying doing only what I want to with my retirement.