HARLINGEN — “I can feel it. I can feel it in my bones.”

These words evoke feelings of excitement and anticipation, but there’s one pesky little varmint that can creep into your bones without you knowing it until years later. And if you did suspect his presence, there would be no excitement.

The very mention of osteoporosis can cast a shadow of foreboding, with fears of fractures from falls or other accidents.

Osteoporosis, which is the loss of bone mass, affects women more than men, says Dr. Susan Hunter, an obstetrician/gynecologist affiliated with several hospitals including ValleyBaptistMedicalCenter and HarlingenMedicalCenter.

Women often experience osteoporosis after menopause because their bodies stop producing estrogen, a hormone which helps keep bones strong. The decrease in this hormone can lead to osteoporosis, which causes bones to become weak and brittle.

Dr. Diana Lozano, an internist at Valley Medical Associates, said osteoporosis is common in the U.S., but not as prevalent as it is in other parts of the world.

“It has a lot to do with diet and exercise,” she said.

About 30 percent of the U.S. population has the condition, she said. It’s more prevalent among Asians and Caucasians, indicating a genetic link.

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HARLINGEN — Rogelio Rangel isn’t a gambler and he’s never bought a lottery ticket in his life.

But he’ll be plunking down a few dollars for a shot at what’s being called the biggest jackpot in the history of the world — the estimated $1.3 billion Powerball prize.

“With that kind of money, you can take a chance,” Rangel, a 52-year-old carpet layer and handyman, said yesterday outside an F Street convenience store.

“It’s big odds, but it’s even bigger if you don’t buy one (ticket). I’ll take my chances,” he said with a laugh.

No one matched Saturday’s winning numbers — 16-19-32-34-57 and Powerball number of 13. So all eyes are now on Wednesday’s drawing and its astronomical prize.

Judging by Saturday’s lottery crowd, store clerk William Euceda says he’s going to need some help when he goes to work Wednesday.

He said his sales at the K&W store on Tyler Avenue are largely in beer. So Saturday, he was surprised by the number of customers coming in to buy Powerball tickets.

But his parents’ store in San Benito, the BNA Quickstop on South Sam Houston Boulevard, was even busier.

“Wow. It was completely packed. They had two registers and both were packed with lines of people,” said Euceda, 23. “It was so crazy.”

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The arrest of Tax Assessor Tony Yzaguirre only enforces my philosophy of never re-electing anyone to public office. Once they learn how to eke out a life through public service they fall victim to being human.

The poor are susceptible to bribery and the rich are susceptible to greed. And when I say poor or rich it doesn’t mean in terms of money. It is about how they feel about themselves. However evidence shows the poor and the rich are more susceptible to crimes.

The poor lose their jobs and the rich buy their way out.

It is the in between with a high moral conscience that make the best elected officials. It is the well educated with an understanding of life that serve their communities best.

So the next time you want to vote for someone, let it not be for the incumbent. Because once they know how to take advantage of the system they get into problems for themselves, their families, and the community.

I am not saying there is guilt or innocence. I am telling you, “I told you so” because I have written about this before.

Santiago Perez, San Benito

BY NORMAN ROZEFF

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part in an ongoing series on Sam Robertson. The other parts can be found at www.valleystar.com.

As the line from Robstown to Brownsville neared completion, more and more people badgered Robertson to take them and their goods to the Valley. Perhaps they sensed the opportunities and wished to get in on the “ground floor”.

In any event, the Johnston brothers discouraged such hitchhikers. Sam, however, could always use the extra income and allowed the smuggling, if you could call it that. In fact, the first item of commercial freight over the line occurred when the line reached Lyford in March 1904.

Sugar refiner John Closner of San Juan Plantation had purchased sugar factory machinery from the state farm in Fort Bend. When the three carloads reached Lyford, Closner then hauled the bulky machinery cross-country in ox carts.

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A well-documented labor problem occurred as the line neared Combes. The surfacing gang walked off the job when its wages were cut from $1.50 to $1.25 a day. Their absence was quickly filled by new recruits from south of the border. There was a problem though; they didn’t want to be paid in US currency. They wanted pesos. A compromise was reached that the worker found acceptable. They were paid in chits redeemable from the Henry E. Field store in Brownsville. Field was the son of the famous civil engineer Matthew Dickerson Field and the nephew of the renowned Cyrus Field, layer of the trans-Atlantic cable.

The laborers were familiar with these chits, and they were even accepted on both sides of the border as currency by local establishments.

One of the oft repeated stories involved Mrs. Donna Hooks Fletcher of Donna. Upon receiving word of a sick relative in Beaumont, she wished to travel there but not by the slow and bumpy stagecoach nor was a Morgan Line ship scheduled soon at Point Isabel. She contacted Sam and convinced him to make her an exception.

The line had reached Barreda, just south of San Benito. Mrs. Fletcher turned up there early on a Sunday morning. She had to wait all day before the swing train would return to Robstown.

Sam placed her in an empty boxcar but provided a bucket of ice water, a few sandwiches, a wire cut mattress and a pillow. He then padlocked her in as protection against anyone with evil intent. She arrived safely in Robstown the next morning, none the worse for wear, and continued her journey to Beaumont via Corpus Christi.

The first consignments into Brownsville were two pianos destined to J. B. Sterns and brought in on March 10, 1904, fully three months before the official opening of the route to Brownsville. J. B. Weller, who would come to own a series of saloons in Harlingen and then rise to become the town’s first banker, brought down his belongings on a swing train and had them dropped unceremoniously in the brush.

A Houston lumber dealer also inveigled what would be the first lumber load ever shipped to the Valley by rail. Robinson even set up a tariff table at the time. A car with any type of contents would be charged $30 to go between Robstown and Kingsville and $50 between Robstown and Brownsville. One way fare between Robstown and Brownsville was $10 for a passenger. Passengers rode in the old reliable caboose nicknamed “Loblolly”.

At one point during the construction Sam would act out a scene straight out of a movie. He was riding his horse outside of Harlingen when he spotted a loaded run-a-way flatcar.

Galloping along side he jumped on the car and managed to set its hand brake to stop the car. If Robertson had not done so the train would have crashed into the camp of the concrete gang just ahead and the campsite occupied by the George E. Badger family. Sam never publicized his heroic action.

On the occasion of Lon C. Hill’s 70th Birthday Celebration on July 21, 1932 Robertson himself recounted his first meeting with Lon C. Hill, who would become the founder of Harlingen. He relates in Javalina Hog on Menu:

“In May 1904, I was laying the track and building the bridges of the St. Louis-Brownsville and Mexico R.R., now Missouri Pacific from Robstown to Brownsville. When the point of steel reached Stillman’s ranch we sent a bridge crew ahead to build a temporary trestle over the Arroyo Colorado. Three days later, when the point of steel had reached Chas. Combes ranch, I mounted my white horse, Caballo Blanco, to go ahead to the Arroyo to inspect the bridge work. At the time I was on crutches with a broken leg and old Caballo Blanco would lay down so I could get aboard.

As I rode along the new made grade south of Combes two big bull Mexican lions dashed across the grade one chasing the other; three or four droves of wild deer scampered across the right of way. About where the Southern Pacific R.R. Now crosses the Missouri Pacific, a herd of Javalina hogs had a drove of wild turkeys on the run. When I got up to about where the old frame depot of the Missouri Pacific now is, I noticed a bunch of Mexicans, clearing a plot of land about 30 acres in extent. I noticed a canvas fly, buckboard horses, and some Americans around a camp fire. I rode over to this camp and met Lon C, Hill, Sr. for the first time, Gordon his son, a youth of about 17, Mose, John, and Nick, his young sons.

Had No Tents Their camp was about 200 feet north of where Reese-Wil-Mond Hotel now stands. They had no tents, only a fly, no cots, bedrolls were on the ground, saddles for pillows. They had rolled in two barrels of water from the Rio Grande. Lon was supervising two or three Mexican servants in the preparation of “stew”, a leg of venison being barbecued on the coals, young Javalina pig was stewing in an earthen pot, Mexicans were making tortillas and roasting sweet potatoes and green corn in ashes. A drove of chachalacas (Mexican pheasants) were sounding off in a nearby mesquite as coyotes howled and fought over the offal of a deer, Gordon had just shot, and dressed in the jungle, only a few hundred feet away.

When I rode up on old “Caballo Blanco” Lon invited me to “light” and have coffee. Introductions followed to his boys. My horse was tired and very dry. Mose (Lon C. Jr.) made a lifelong friend of me by stealing from the cook a half-bucket of water which was scarce as hen’s teeth, to give to my dear friend, Caballo Blanco.

Plans For City As we drank coffee, Lon explained to me his plans for building a great city on the land, the center to be about where they were now sitting cross-legged on the ground. He explained how he would build canals to bring in water from the river, put out great sugar plantations and build sugar mills and other industries to support the proposed city. And he carried on his improvements campaign as long as he could raise a dollar, and he raised more than a million of them. At that time he owned 25,000 acres of land reaching from the Rio Grande out to the Arroyo and beyond Harlingen several miles, 45,000 acres running from the Rio Grande 16 miles including the present townsite of Mercedes. The original townsite of Mercedes was started as Lonsboro, one and a half mile east of where Mercedes now stands.

He had over 30,000 acres west of Raymondville, a big rice plantation at Rincone (sic), north of Brownsville, a cotton plantation in the Tully Lake bed not far from his rice plantation. His wife and young daughters lived in Brownsville; no finer, more refined or better ladies ever lived than the women of this household. Lon and his boys were full of idealism to make many blades of sugar cane and other crops grow where none were growing. The jungle covered the townsite and the whole country was infested with ticks, peniles, fleas by the billions, rattlesnakes and scorpions, and other pests in countless millions.

Rattle Snake Junction My construction and train men soon christened Lon’s future city Rattle Snake Junction. At his time there was not a house in sight of the R.R. right of way from Robstown to Olmito and from Rattle Snake Junction to Havana, three miles east of Sam Fordyce.

A few days after my first visit to Lon’s camp we reached the Arroyo Colorado with the point of steel and we were held up a few days on account of finishing the bridge over the Arroyo. At this time Mr. B. F. Yoakum, Col. Lott, Ben Johnson, Col. Sam Fordyce, Tom West and Mr. Breckings and others of the Construction Syndicate, who were financing the R.R., came down from St. Louis on a special train of about eight or ten special cars of eastern capitalists including W. K. Vanderbilt. Lon took Mr. Yoakum and other capitalists on a number of buckboards drawn by four mules each, fording the Arroyo Colorado and winding through the jungle striking the Military road about where Los Indios now is and on to Brownsville, a drive as it was necessary to travel of about 50 miles. The result of this trip was the financing of the Hidalgo branch to Sam Fordyce.

Donated Property Lon gave thousands of acres of his property to the construction syndicate to make possible the construction of both main line and Hidalgo branch. Had it not been for the liberality of Lon Hill, John Closner, and Tom Hooks, the Hidalgo branch construction would have been delayed many years.

In 1906 Lon started the construction in a small way of the Harlingen Canal, and I, having obtained in 1904 an option from James Landrum and Oliver Hicks on the 12,000 acres surrounding Bessie, now San Benito, started the construction of the San Benito canal in Dec. 1906 and was joined by Haywood Bros. and others in 1907.”

Recent research studies show that a bit of peer pressure and small cash incentives help people lose weight.

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine (2013) showed that companies that offer employees a monetary award based on a group’s — not an individual’s — weight loss performance may be the most successful at getting people to shed pounds. So a group effort, providing a bit of friendly peer pressure, can really help.

This makes sense. When we go it on our own it’s pretty easy to give up because we are only accountable to ourselves.

There are some people who have a lot of willpower, and are particularly self-motivated. But many of us need social support, encouragement and even some pressure to keep us on track with lifestyle changes.

And the science on behavior change is pretty clear about the effectiveness of rewards when trying to make a change.

The Challenge RGV, started back in 2010 as Brownsville’s Biggest Loser Challenge. This city and now county-wide 13 week weight loss challenge has motivated thousands of local residents to make healthy changes and lose some weight.

The Challenge emphasizes healthy weight loss, recommending simple lifestyle changes, not diets, and no more than 2-3 pounds of loss per week.

The City of Brownsville and the UT School of Public Health are the organizers of The Challenge, and many local businesses, gyms, organizations and even local council members and city leaders support and sponsor the free initiative, offering free classes, events and benefits. Winners in several categories are awarded small cash prizes, up to $1,200 for winning the large group team Challenge and less for small group and individual winners.

Everyone who registers, weighs in and completes The Challenge receives a calendar, t-shirt, motivational text messages, online support, access to free fitness programs and other small incentives throughout’ The Challenge (January to April).

Since the first year, 5, 126 people have joined The Challenge, most from Brownsville but many from all over Cameron County! An average of 4% of weight per person has been lost by participants completing The Challenge, and a total of 10,154.2 pounds. That’s over 5 tons!

So many lives have been changed by The Challenge. It seems like a simple concept, but that team support, friendly competition and incentive to make healthy lifestyle changes can really make the difference. Debbie Cox has participated since the first Challenge, back in 2010.

“The first year I didn’t lose much weight, but it got me thinking about what I was eating. I was a little disappointed in myself but I still went to the final weigh in. The Finale motivated me to keep trying because I saw real people who had made up their minds, changed their lives, habits and improved their health, despite many barriers. Sometimes just being around people who are working on being healthy motivates you to make changes yourself. The third year was a charm. I used the weigh-in information to figure out what I needed to do to set goals. I used a phone app to record what and how much I was eating and it offered healthier alternatives. I had no idea the amount of calories I was consuming on sweets and portion sizes. I actually participated and took advantage of the great programs offered during the challenge and that’s what made me FINALLY break the mental barrier that was my biggest obstacle. Losing 29 pounds improved my health, energy level and the way I felt about myself. Four years later I have kept 25 pounds off of the 29 I lost. I still join The Challenge every year because it keeps me motivated and on track! I recommend everyone participate in this great, free community program!”

So join The Challenge in 2016 and join others in some friendly peer pressure. Who knows, you may even win a prize. But the greatest reward is a healthier, happier year, because Tu Salud ¡Si Cuenta! (Your Health Matters!).

The Challenge is on Facebook The Challenge-RGV, Twitter @TheChallengeRGV and Instagram @TheChallengeRGV. Registration and weigh-in will be Friday January 15th anytime between 5-8 pm at either of two locations, the Southmost Library and the Central Library in Brownsville, or you can come to Linear Park Saturday, January 16th between 9 am and noon.

You must weigh in to be part of The Challenge, be 18 years or older, not be underweight or pregnant, and not have had weight loss surgery in the last year.

Always consult with your doctor before starting a weight loss program. You can pre-register online to save some time at the weigh-in here http://tinyurl.com/prergv2016 but you must be present at weigh at one of the above locations/times to be eligible for prizes.

Jude had been in room 623 for over two years. He had come from a PPCD unit (preschool program for children with disabilities) but he had less than a year in that program. The parents thought Jude would outgrow his delayed communication and limited academics so they decided to wait to start school.

The fact was, Jude had needed early intervention. His autism was so severe that it held Jude back in all academic areas. Even so, the teacher could see a spark in Jude’s eyes from the moment he came into the room. The challenge was how to reach him.

The teacher had learned over the years that some children need several years of intervention before their abilities come all together. Jude was a child with an incredible smile. Every day the boy came into the room with the biggest smile the teacher had ever seen on a child. Rarely, would the boy look sad or upset. When the Jude was corrected, a quick frown briefly appeared on his face but it quickly turned back into a smile.

For the first two years in the class, Jude progressed very slowly. He was afraid of making mistakes. The teacher worked to overcome that hesitance by simply giving the boy a gesture assist to be successful on answering.

The teacher would point to the correct answer that he was afraid to touch. Over time, that prompt would be removed as he gained more confidence.

After the first two years of constant repetition, the teacher began to doubt if Jude was going to progress as much as she had hoped.

Even so, she and her staff continued to do the daily routines with the boy.

They had Jude follow the daily schedule, review letters, combine words with pictures and go over the numbers. Numbers weren’t really clicking but the words, something was happening with the words.

Jude began to recognize that a certain group of letters matched with a certain picture. The change was slow. Then, it was more consistent. Jude would read out loud sentences such as “I see a horse. The car is yellow. I see a boy.” He began to match pictures to the sentence.

Typical of ASD children, Jude would follow one step directions and match a horse to the word horse and car to the word car. When he saw the phrase “I see a yellow ball,” he would pick up any ball, not just a yellow one. Gradually, pictures with two step words like green ball and yellow car were correctly selected. Jude was coming out of his academic block more and more.

The boy’s smile and self-confidence was growing too. Jude’s sweet smile seemed to have a sureness about it. He wasn’t just trying to get our attention by smiling. He was proud of himself. It was fun to watch the change in the boy. The teacher moved the boy from the Smart board to paper and pencil work too. He was able to transition what he learned on the Smart board to another medium, a worksheet. The black and white words like yellow car and yellow ball challenged Jude.

He would cut the ball and paste it on the space next to the word. The teacher would ask him to read the words again. Jude would correctly read the phrase yellow ball. “Is that yellow?” she would ask. Jude would repeat “yellow ball, yellow ball.” The teacher would place three different crayons in front of him. At first, he didn’t know what to do.

With a little verbal directions of saying, “Color the ball yellow ball,” Jude would pick up the yellow crayon. Over time, the boy got better and better at knowing what to do. More two word phrases were slowly added such as little ball, green fish, and yellow car. The more words Jude understood while reading, the more his comprehension of the world around him improved too. Reading is a gift that can make such a wonderful difference in any children’s lives, especially a child with ASD.

Pamela Gross Downing, a special education teacher, can be contacted at [email protected].

“Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

Alfred Lord Tennyson

While thinking about writing this article, I reminisced about my flying days in the Air Force, and working on electronic compass systems in the field of avionics. The compass systems demanded 100 percent accuracy, as did all the other systems on the aircraft. The Navigators’ and Pilots’ lives depended on it being so. Without the compass systems being accurate, the intended course of flight would be altered. The heading always had to be true. There was no room for error.

Our lives are like those compass systems also, although we have the human factor involved we all strive to keep our headings true as we follow through with our life’s journey — our “life’s flight.” As a Navigator and Pilot plan for that flight, we make plans along our journey, with hope that the plans will be met with successful results.

At this time of year many of us are making resolutions for the New Year, with hope that they be fulfilled.

Most of us know that we may have to make deviations from our plans, course corrections if you will, due to the many events we may encounter. And, for most of us, we do so without much difficulty.

We simply realize that the plan as we originally intended was not to be fulfilled.

We just delay the plans, or simply shrug them off with hope that they will be fulfilled — not now, but later. Or, we may abandon the plan altogether and devise a different plan.

If you are like me, as I know many of you are, I contemplate my plans for the New Year — taking that vacation, following my health plan, etc., with knowledge that not all my plans will be fulfilled. You may resolve to quit smoking, to lose weight and eat more healthy, to exercise more, to visit with friends and family members more, to cut down (or quit) ethyl alcohol beverage consumption, to attend church services more often, to take that trip you always wanted to take, to resolve to give your employer 110 percent, to do volunteer work, to change your “dis-ability” to “ability…” and so on. For some, following through with the plans is most frustrating and often unattainable…but for most (even though the plans may not be completely fulfilled) the heading will remain true and the plans will be obtained if not, at the very least, will begin to unfold.

I suggest to you that “the journey begins with the first step.” No matter what our planned goals are, we cannot begin to obtain them without taking initial action. Talking about it does not mean action. We must be motivated and determined to initiate the action. It should be mentioned that probably over 90% of the people who make New Year’s resolutions fail to follow through with their plans, so having motivation to begin your process is certainly very important.

In my many counseling sessions, wherein change is a most important issue, I first empathized the need to define just what it is that the person wishes to change. This is equally important in making realistic plans for the year (the word “realistic” is most important), and involves writing down all the goals one wishes to achieve in the year; whether it is in losing weight, stopping smoking, a vacation; or other goals. One should question whether the goal is really realistic for them. Everyone is different, of course, and one should not assume that their goal is something they really believe they can obtain. Talking it over with family and friends will be most beneficial.

Once the list is completed, the next step which will logically follow is what it will take for one to reach each of the goals and the time necessary toward the completion of the goal. Perhaps it will take saving money for the vacation or other similar actions, or having a support system in play for stopping smoking, cutting down or quitting ethanol beverages, etc.

Third, is the monitoring of where one is at on their path of achieving the particular goal. This continuous review is important as it keeps one on course with the goal, and allows for any modification that needs to occur. As examples, monitoring ones weight and following a menu is important toward losing weight; monitoring ones saving finances toward that vacation, etc.

Quite often we set ourselves up for failure when we concentrate on the ultimate goal instead of concentrating on just how we are going to accomplish the goal. This is a trap that one can avoid by keeping things simple, taking baby steps toward the goal and not concentrating on the ultimate picture. This could be most frustrating, and may tend to have one give up as “it is just too hard for me to do!” The good news here is that there exist a lot of support groups to help you along your path…if food is a problem there is Overeaters Anonymous, Weight Watchers, and other supportive groups; if the problem is alcohol there is Alcoholics Anonymous; there are financial planners in the community to help with setting up a budget or financial plan; there is a lot of help out there.

Most importantly one should not be frustrated and unhappy about not obtaining a particular goal or resolution. Being honest and realistic toward oneself are the most important components of reaching a goal, and one must keep their “heading true” in this regard. Until next time, Stay Healthy my Friends!

BY LAUREN OLBETER

You are the best landscape designer – for your own yard, that is. Nobody knows your likes and dislikes better than you do, and nobody knows more about your outdoor habits. That makes you the best suited for the task of designing a landscape you will love.

Who doesn’t want a well-balanced and thriving landscape surrounding their home? You could hire a professional to walk you through the process, but you may enjoy the outcome even more if you do the work yourself and you are sure to save a lot of money.

According to home.costhelper.com, homeowners spend and average of $11 a square foot and closer to $20 if you throw in a water feature, a more formal design, or a wall or two, but since this is the information age, you already have all the help you need.

As long as you don’t mind taking the initiative and taking a little time to pull together design inspiration and information, you can have a beautiful design for free. And you can install it in stages as time and budget allow.

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The key is a plan! To get the most out of your outdoor space you will need to organize your ideas into a plan. For help generating sketches you can find a free online service called Plan A Garden at the Better Homes and Gardens website, BHG.com. You can also shop for software that ranges from $20 – $400, if you want a little extra help getting everything organized and onto paper.

With or without a landscape design program, doing a little homework will get you ready to put together the perfect landscape design for you and your outdoor space. Go to extension.missouri.edu and select the Lawn and Garden tab to read about steps to successful landscaping. The steps include: making a list of existing and desired outdoor features, drawing a base plan over which you can outline the major landscape areas (i.e. public areas, private areas, and service areas), designating locations for the desired features, and lastly, putting it all together in the final landscape plan. You can read about another take on the process at Williamson.agrilife.org, under the “Landscape” section. This article goes into even greater detail about these steps, breaking them into 12 separate steps.

Take some time to consider the unique conditions you have to work with – soil types, sun and wind exposure, slopes and drainage, orientation of property and structures, and view points from windows and walkways. This will help you to select plants and hardscapes that are right for each area of your yard.

To read more about the visual aspects of landscape design, check out Basic Principles of Landscape Design from the University of Florida website at edis.ifas.ufl.edu. And Remember: a couple days before breaking ground, call 811 to have all utility lines marked.

After doing a little reading and drawing out a plan for yourself, you can have a custom landscape design, tailored to your preferences and needs. The work will be well worth it when you are able to enjoy your outdoor space, designed perfectly for you, by YOU!

HARLINGEN — Some may be so bold as to exercise their right to openly carry their handgun.

So police officers in the community are switching gears and preparing how to react when encountering lawful citizens wearing their firearms in shoulder or hip holsters.

Harlingen police Sgt. David Osborne said since the law went into effect Jan. 1, there have been no calls or concerns about citizens with concealed or open guns in town.

Officers are aware they are going to see citizens openly carrying legally, and it doesn’t mean Texans toting guns are going to be criminals.

“We’re making sure that the officers are aware of the spirit of the law and what it’s trying to accomplish,” Osborne said. “Our officers have a firm under-standing of the open carry law.”

He said police are trained to “articulate” to a certain level whether or not they need to approach a citizen openly carrying a handgun.

Under the law, officers can approach and ask to see identification and a gun permit.

But he said officers who see a citizen openly carrying a gun will use their judgment and assess the situation to determine whether they need to approach the person.

“We’re not in the business of disarming lawfully carrying citizens who are not violating the law,” Osborne said.

“We are using our good judgment.”

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Subscribe to it for only $6.99 per month or purchase a print subscription and receive the online version free, which includes an electronic version of the full newspaper and extra photo galleries, links and other information you can’t find any-where else.