Helping Local Libraries Gettysburg Casualty Best … ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EDITION APRIL 2016 Helping...

LOCAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EDITION APRIL 2016

Helping Local Libraries Gettysburg Casualty Best Pies. Yum!

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TexasCoopPower.com April 2016 Texas Co-op Power 3

Cowboy Hatters Texas artisans crown your cranium ina grand and storied tradition Story by Gene Fowler | Photos by Tadd Myers

Community Anchors Enlivening libraries establishesan environment for learning, sharing and loving literacyBy Dan Oko

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April 2016Since 1944

F A V O R I T E S

5 Letters

6 Currents20 Local Co-op NewsGet the latest information plus energyand safety tips from your cooperative.

33 Texas HistoryGettysburg’s Last CasualtyBy E.R. Bills

35 RecipesYour Best Pies

39 Focus on TexasPhoto Contest: Swings

40 Around TexasList of Local Events

42 Hit the RoadTaking in TylerBy Melissa Gaskill

O N L I N ETexasCoopPower.comFind these stories online if they don’tappear in your edition of the magazine.

ObservationsTough Kid, Tough BreaksBy Clay Coppedge

Texas USAThe Erudite Ranger By Lonn Taylor

F E A T U R E S

T E X A S E L E CT R I C C O O P E R AT I V E S B OA R D O F D I R E CTO R S : David Marricle, Chair, Muleshoe; Mark Tamplin, Vice Chair, Kirbyville; Bryan Lightfoot, Secretary-Treasurer, Bartlett; Mike R. Hagy,Tipton, Oklahoma; William F. Hetherington, Bandera; Mark Rollans, Hondo; Anne Vaden, Corinth • P R E S I D E N T/C E O : Mike Williams, Austin • COMMUNICATIONS & MEMBER SERVICES COMMITTEE: Jerry Boze, Kaufman; Rick Haile, McGregor; Greg Henley, Tahoka; Billy Marricle, Bellville; Mark McClain, Roby; Blaine Warzecha, Victoria; Kathy Wood, Marshall • M AG A Z I N E STA F F:Martin Bevins, Vice President, Communications & Member Services; Charles J. Lohrmann, Editor; Tom Widlowski, Associate Editor; Karen Nejtek, Production Manager; Andy Doughty, Creative Manager;Grace Arsiaga, Print Production Specialist; Chris Burrows, Communications Specialist; Christine Carlson, Communications & Member Services Assistant; Paula Disbrowe, Food Editor; Suzanne Halko,Communications Specialist; Jane Sharpe, Senior Designer; Ellen Stader, Communications Specialist; Shannon Oelrich, Proofreader

O N T H E C O V E R J.W. Brooks handcrafts hats for cowboys and cowgirls at his shop in Lipan. Photo by Tadd Myers

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N E X T M O N T H New Directions in FarmingA younger generation seeks alternatives to keep the family business thriving.

B I G G A R S : TA D D M Y E R S . P L A N T: C A N DY 1 8 1 2 | D O L L A R P H OTO C LU B

Jeff Biggars applies steamas he shapes a hat.

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TEXAS CO-OP POWER VOLUME 72, NUMBER 10 (USPS 540-560). Texas Co-op Power is published monthly by Texas Electric Cooperatives (TEC). Periodical Postage Paid at Austin, TX, and at additional offices. TEC is thestatewide association representing 75 electric cooperatives. Texas Co-op Power’s website is TexasCoopPower.com. Call (512) 454-0311 or email [email protected]. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE is $4.08 per year forindividual members of subscribing cooperatives. If you are not a member of a subscribing cooperative, you can purchase an annual subscription at the nonmember rate of $7.50. Individual copies and back issues areavailable for $3 each. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Texas Co-op Power (USPS 540-560), 1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701. Please enclose label from this copy of Texas Co-op Power showing oldaddress and key numbers. ADVERTISING: Advertisers interested in buying display ad space in Texas Co-op Power and/or in our 30 sister publications in other states, contact Martin Bevins at (512) 486-6249. Advertisementsin Texas Co-op Power are paid solicitations. The publisher neither endorses nor guarantees in any manner any product or company included in this publication. Product satisfaction and delivery responsibility lie solely withthe advertiser.

© Copyright 2016 Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. Reproduction of this issue or any portion of it is expressly prohibited without written permission. Willie Wiredhand © Copyright 2016 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Dig This StoryMartha Deeringer’s article The First Texans? [February 2016]

was most interesting. I always enjoy and learn

from her articles.

I’m always looking for places

to find arrowheads. Cooper, in

East Texas, had a neat place to

hunt arrowheads.

GLENN SNYDER | BLUE RIDGE | FANNIN COUNTY EC

Editor’s note: Picking up arrowheads onpublic land is illegal. Be sure you know thelaw before you begin your search.

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pines, which are softwoods, nothardwoods. There’s a big differ-ence botanically, visually andcommercially, as softwoods aregymnosperms that are mostlyevergreen conifers with narrowneedles and soft wood. Hard-woods are angiosperms thatare mostly deciduous trees withbroad leaves and hard wood.Oaks and hickories are goodexamples of hardwoods. GREG GRANT | CENTER

DEEP EAST TEXAS EC

PINEYWOODS NATIVE PLANT CENTER

Flooded With MemoriesI live in Alvin, and we were inthe process of having our housebuilt when the rains hit [Alvin’sDeluge: It Reigns, October 2015].No water came into the house,but we had to chase down lumber and materials that hadfloated away. We had built 2 feetabove the road grade, whichprobably saved us. Later, thecounty decided to build the roadup 2 feet, so we have had waterin our house twice. I don’t wishthat on anybody—no fun. DONNA AMERSON | ALVIN

SAM HOUSTON EC

Pride in the MilitaryThe September Pick of theMonth [Around Texas, Septem-ber 2015] was Remember OurFallen, a display of 600 photosin Cameron honoring Texanswho died in the wars on terror-ism. The pictures of the menand women who lost their lives for our freedom were

A Crooner and His CronyGene Austin’s family connec-tions gave us another greatmusician [The Original Crooner,February 2016]. Austin gave hismuch younger cousin, TommyOverstreet, the opportunity toperform with him when thefamous crooner came to per-form in Houston in the ’50s,when Overstreet was a teen-ager. This experience, Austin’smentoring and Overstreet’s natural talent allowed him tobloom into a great entertainerand Music Row executive.

Overstreet was a true Texastreasure. His story is told in hisautobiography, A Road LessTraveled (Roots and Branches,2013).SCOTT CAMERON | LAGO VISTA

PEDERNALES EC

Kolache and TreesI just read East Texas Outdoors[January 2016] by MelissaGaskill and was bothered by her use of the term “kolach” asa sausage wrapped in yeastybread. She ate a pig in a blanket,not a kolach.

My husband is Czech, and heknows his kolache. They arealways filled with fruit. Prune istraditional. Sometimes they arefilled with cottage or creamcheese, but they’re never savory.I remember a very good articlein Texas Co-op Power devotedto kolache [The Kolach Trail,January 2014].DANIELLA SPANN | HONDO

MEDINA EC

I especially enjoy the Hit theRoad stories at the end of themagazine. Somebody probablyalready pointed out that the BigThicket picture [right] was of

GET MORE TCP ATTexasCoopPower.comSign up for our E-Newsletter formonthly updates, prize drawingsand more!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

ONLINE: TexasCoopPower.com/share

EMAIL: [email protected]

MAIL: Editor, Texas Co-op Power,1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701

Please include your town and electric co-op.Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

Texas Co-op Power Magazine

overwhelming. This exhibit is traveling

through Texas, and I wouldencourage everyone to see it[rememberingourfallen.org/texas]. Your heart for our military will never be the same again. LORENA HADLEY | SCHERTZ

GUADALUPE VALLEY EC

LETTERS

FOR ANTIQUES ADDICTS who can’t contain themselves at the sight of rotary

telephones, apothecary bottles or windup doorbells, Antique Alley Texas might

be the perfect stop. Antique Alley, April 15–17, can’t contain itself to Grandview

and is spread out over 30 miles of back roads—toward

Cleburne, Alvarado, Venus and Maypearl.

Nita Redmon, a member of HILCO Electric Cooperative

and one of Antique Alley’s organizers, says it never gets old

when a visitor tells her, “This was my first Antique Alley

Texas, but it won’t be my last.”

The flea market-style event started in 1999 and includes

stops in pastures along FM 916, FM 4 and Texas Highway 81.

Redmon warns that bargain hunters must not park

along the road because police will ticket them.

Free parking is provided at each pasture sale.

INFO a (817) 240-4948, antiquealleytexas.com

CURRENTSHAPPENINGS

Is This UpYour Alley?

NATIONAL L INEMAN APPRECIAT ION DAY

THE MEN WELOOK UP TO NATIONAL LINEMAN APPRECIATIONDAY is April 11. It’s not prudent toclimb a pole and shake theirhands, but remember to thankthem when you meet them eye-to-eye. They are among the18,000 full-time linemen at elec-tric co-ops across the country.

Linemen keep your lights on.When nasty storms hit and youseek shelter, they grab their gear, charge into the teeth of the worst weather, repair damage and restore electricity.Who doesn’t appreciate that?

Co-op linemen also readily volunteer through NRECA International to help establishinfrastructure in developingcountries, including Haiti,Guatemala and Ethiopia.

Since 2008, these Texas co-opshave sent volunteers overseas: Bandera, HILCO, Pedernales andWood County electric coopera-tives; CoServ Electric; Mid-SouthSynergy; and United Cooper-ative Services.

“We take electric power forgranted now, but it was incredi-ble the way it transformed rural Texas in the ’30s and ’40s,” says Kerry Kelton, CEO of Mid-South Synergy and aboard member of NRECA’s International Foundation. “We’re doing the same thingnow around the world. My line-men who go work in developingcountries say the work is hard,but the personal reward is greatwhen you give a communityhope for the future.

“The NRECA international pro-gram is in Africa, the Philippines,South America, Bangladesh, allover the world.”

6 Texas Co-op Power April 2016

FLEA MARKET firstappeared in English in1922, a translation ofthe French market’sname for secondhandgoods, which in the1800s sometimes con-tained fleas. Anotherstory is that used-goodsmerchants were forcedfrom central Paris and,after fleeing, set upshops outside of town.

rough

TexasCoopPower.com

Find more happenings all

across the state at TexasCoopPower

.com

41.7 PERCENT


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HISTORY LESSON

FOOLED TO THE BRIM? When you read Cowboy Hatterson Page 8, you’ll learn aboutthe skilled craftsmen aroundthe state who make hats for aliving. It’s a serious endeavor—for the artisans and theirclients. Less serious is themythology of the 10-gallon hat,as cowboy hats are often called.

Notion Doesn’t Hold WaterFirst of all, no hat could hold 10 gallons. The folks at Stetson,one of the leading hat brands,say a cowboy hat can hold 3 quarts of water, tops.

The Origins A couple of theo-ries exist involving AnglicizedSpanish. One is that the phrasetan galán, roughly translated as “very gallant” or “reallyhandsome,” evolved into “tengallon.” Another idea involvesthe galónes—braided bands—on sombreros. A large sombrerocould hold 10 galónes.

Heads Up Notable cowboysand Wild West outlaws oftenpreferred not to wear 10-gallonhats because they were tooeasy to spot and made themeasy targets.

Since 2007, the third Saturday in Aprilmarks Record Store Day, a global eventcelebrating music on vinyl and the independently owned record stores that sell it. Two of the most acclaimedrecord stores in Texas—and some would say the U.S.—are Forever Young Records in Grand Prairie and Waterloo Records in Austin.

After decades of being pronounceddeader than disco, records are on the rise. Vinyl sales in the U.S. have grown 260 percent in six years, totaling $9.2 million in 2014 and making vinyl thefastest-growing music format sold today.

STARTING IN 1989, newalbum releases arrived in record stores on Tuesdays in the U.S. That all changed July 10, 2015, when the record industrymoved the record release day to Fridays.

;Did you know?

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Don’t Skip It

As April 10 marks the 150th anniversary of the AmericanSociety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, thegroup can celebrate the fact that more cats and dogs are today acquired through rescue and shelter services—41.7 percent—than by any other means.

Nearly half of U.S. pet owners found their furry friend at a shelter, according to the 2015–16 national pet ownerssurvey. That’s almost 70 million four-legged friends.

BY THE NUMBERS

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you played a record on a turntable? You might want to dust it off by April 16, in time for RECORD STORE DAY.

AMAZON SOLD MORE

TURNTABLES THAN

ANY OTHER HOME AUDIO

PRODUCT DURING THE

2015 HOLIDAY SEASON.

8 Texas Co-op Power April 2016 TexasCoopPower.com

COWBOYCOWBOY

Here in Texas, we might even be tempted to think that the first humans to setfoot within present state boundaries wore the distinctive headgear upon arrival.

While that perception stretches the blanket, it’s not an exaggeration to saythat—despite the fickle flights of style and trend—the classic cowboy image isas popular as ever. And when it comes to “goin’ cowboy,” whether fauxpoke orgenuine article, much of the mystique is all about the hat.

Many of the store-bought Stetson and Resistol hats sold in the state areproduced at the Hatco factory in Garland. For a more exacting fit, you canorder a cowpoke chapeau custom-made by an expert independent hatter.Either way, when you crown your cranium with a cowboy hat, you’re struttin’your stuff in the bootsteps of a grand and storied tradition.

Tracking the origins of that tradition, as one Texas hatter put it in a previouscentury, is “like following a twisting coyote trail.” Spanish and Mexican vaqueroswore versions of the wide-brimmed hat as they spread cattle culture northwardinto Texas and across the Southwest. Westering settlers adopted the protectiveheadwear, too, and in 1865, Philadelphia hatmaker John Batterson Stetsonintroduced his “Boss of the Plains” hat. By the cattle-drive heyday of the 1870s,Montgomery Ward catalogs offered the “Texan Chief Cow Boy’s Mexican StyleSombrero Hat” for $5.34.

Western movie stars established the cowboy hat as an American culturalicon in the 20th century, and country-western singers further solidified itstimeless appeal. When one of Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours asked if hecould perform sans Stetson, Tubb offered to let him off the tour bus. GeorgeStrait continued the tradition when he first went to Nashville in the early1980s, though record executives tried in vain to get him to “lose the hat.”

Not long ago, when hatmaker and aspiring country singer Brooks Atwoodwore his hat into the Nashville offices of MCA Records, an executive smirked,“All we need is another Texas hat act.” Bristling, the East Texas cowboy shotback, “This hat ain’t no act.”

Story by GENE FOWLER Photos by TADD MYERS

IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE A PERSONAL ACCESSORY

MORE WORLD-FAMOUS THAN THE COWBOY HAT.


R

HATTERSHATTERS

Previous spread: J.W. Brooks irons a hat. This page, clockwise from top left: Jeff Biggarshand-sands the felt. Biggars blocks a crown, one of the first steps in crafting a hat.Brooks applies an iron to a hat. Biggars uses a conformateur to get a precise fit. Brooks draws a custom stitch design that will adorn the underside of a brim.


The songwriting buddy who had accompanied Atwood to themeeting recognized a hit lyric hook when he heard one. “Don’t saythat phrase out loud again!” he whispered. “We gotta write thatsong!” This Hat Ain’t No Act is the title track on his 2014 release.

Like many hatmakers, Atwood, whose family and businessare members of Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative, began appre-ciating cowboy hats as a toddler, romping around wearing thehat and boots of his father, Dick Atwood. An 84-year-oldFrankston-area rancher, the elder Atwood says he started makinghats after years of looking for one that would work hard in thehay fields and branding pens and then still look good on trips totown. One of the few Texas companies that makes hats in bulkfor retail stores and custom hats specially fitted to a customer’shead, Atwood Hat Company started out with three styles in 1996and now offers more than 125 styles with names like Van Horn,Sweetwater, Langtry and Rodeo Del Rio.

“Some of the designs these days are different and crazy,” says hatmaker Jeff Biggars, who opened his western wear andcustom hat outpost, Biggar Hat Store, on the Decatur square in 2013. “The vast majority of straws used to be plain white, inthree styles. But when I worked as a designer for American HatCompany in Bowie, we started doing more colors and some wild-er weaves.”

Taller crowns with smaller brims used to be more popular,too, but today’s tastes often reverse those dimensions. Biggars’Red Dirt Special custom felt design features a big 5-inch brim.“We call it a super punchy hat ’cause it’s preferred by cowpunch-ers,” Biggars says. But his favorite custom hat is his Eighter FromDecatur, named for a classic gambling expression that becamethe title of a song by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.

Western hats for women also have surged in popularity. Hat-maker J.W. Brooks of J.W. Brooks Custom Hat Co. in Weatherfordand Lipan gets artsy with his Neon Cowgirls line inspired by DaleEvans and Roy Rogers and other sagebrush fashionistas of the1940s and ’50s. Brooks creates designs on the undersides of hisupturned brims that give his women’s hats a blingy zing. HatmakerJohn Davis of Limpia Creek Hats in Fort Davis adds that bolero-style hats, with a flat top and brim, are also in demand. “Theydress ’em up with bound edges and triple bows,” Davis says.

Despite style trends that come and go, any custom hatter willstill build you a basic, old-school cowboy hat. “Our own style hasnever changed,” testifies James Andrae of Capital Hatters in

Stephenville. “We specialize in good old quality western hats.”That “old” theme is reflected not only in the tried-and-true

hatmaking process but also in the antique equipment used byhatters. First, they measure your head with a sci-fi-looking gizmocalled the “conformateur.” At Spradley Hats in Alpine, JimSpradley’s conformateur was made in Paris in the 1850s. Thenthe hatter “builds” the hat from a “blank,” a hairy, conical pieceof raw felt that hatters buy from hat-body factories. Pure beaverfur makes the best and most expensive felt hats, but wild harefur and wool are also used.

Placed in a blocking machine, the hat body is pulled in all direc-tions as steam latches together the microscopic barbs on the furto create the hardened felt. A poplar block is inserted to createthe hat’s size and crown height, and then the fibers are reshrunkwith a blast of cold air. After a two-step ironing process, the felt issanded, and the brim is trimmed on a plating machine. Finally,the hat is hand-shaped with the customer’s head template.

In addition to making hats, some hatters also restore them. “Alotta old hats have been whooped up bad,” says 23-year-old hatterSeth “Johnny” Bishop of Johnny’s Custom Hatters in Longview.“As long as it’s beaver and the color isn’t gone, we can usuallybring it back.” Biggars recently restored a cowboy hat that hadbeen crushed and magic-markered by its owner’s angry ex.

Conversely, some hatters will distress a hat—make a new hatlook old. Biggars distressed the hat Daniel Day-Lewis wore in thefilm There Will Be Blood. “He won an Oscar for the role,” jokesthe hatter, “and I think I should’ve gotten an Oscar for the hat.”

Many customers request a hat like one they’ve seen in a movieor one that is worn by a favorite musician. “I get a lot of ordersfor John Wayne hats and the hat worn by Tom Selleck in QuigleyDown Under,” says Murchison hatter Rex Fleming. “Anotherfavorite is a hat worn by the late blues guitarist Stevie RayVaughan, and I also get requests for hats like the one I made forsinger Ray Wiley Hubbard.” The high-crowned “Gus hat” wornby Robert Duvall in the television miniseries Lonesome Dove isalso a perennial favorite.

“A cowboy hat is an extension of your personality,” Biggarssays. “I can tell a lot about a person just by lookin’ at their hat.”

Gene Fowler is an Austin writer who specializes in history.

WEB EXTRAS at TexasCoopPower.com See a slideshow and find contactinformation for independent Texas hatmakers.

IN ADDITION TO MAKING HATS, SOME HATTERS ALSO RESTORE THEM. JEFF BIGGARS RECENTLY RESTORED A COWBOY HAT THAT HAD BEEN

CRUSHED AND MAGIC-MARKERED BY ITS OWNER’S ANGRY EX.

TexasCoopPower.com

BY DAN OKO

SMALL-TOWN

LIBRAR I EScreate an

environmentfor learningand sharing

April 2016 Texas Co-op Power 132014 Government-In-Action Youth Tour participants at the U.S. Capitol.TexasCoopPower.com

you haven’t visited your local public library lately, now is thetime. What you find may surprise you. This is especially true in rural communities.

Take the Silverton Public Library in the Texas Panhandle, a half-hour driveeast of U.S. Highway 87 between Amarillo and Lubbock. There, across from thehistoric Briscoe County Courthouse, stands a former Masonic Lodge built in the1950s, which, after extensive renovations, reopened in mid-2015 as a model 21st-century library.

Step inside and you’ll find a hive of activity rather than a hushed and dustyquiet zone. Seniors and students alike occupy the well-lit rooms, relaxing in com-fortable chairs, scanning freshly installed shelves filled with books or taking advan-tage of the high-speed wireless Internet at computer terminals.

“Before, we had a tiny room in the basement of the courthouse,” says TinaNance, one of the 25 volunteers who devote their time to operating the Silvertonlibrary. “Nobody used it. But with this new building, the new books and new com-puters, we are seeing a real increase in people coming in.”

The lively scene at Silverton is repeated across the state, says Patricia Smith, executive director of the Texas Library Association, which has 7,000 members rep-resenting all kinds of libraries, from small collections to large public institutions.“The modern library is a little bit of everything,” she says. “In these small towns, theyare the intellectual hub, community center and a major resource for social services.”

As such, Smith says that rural libraries could not have a better friend thesedays than the Austin-based Tocker Foundation, a family-run nonprofit. Providingfinancial assistance to libraries in towns with fewer than 12,000 residents is chiefamong its philanthropic efforts. The renovations in Silverton, for instance, werepaid for with grants from the Tocker Foundation, one of several nonprofit groupsin Texas that provide financial support to the state’s libraries.

“The Tockers have been an inspiration,” Smith says. “They are true visionariesand agents of change, and they have given rural libraries real hope. In its way, theTocker Foundation is every bit as powerful as the Carnegie Foun-dation. Their help with technology, especially, is helping theselibraries to be the very best they can be.”

Darryl Tocker, the foundation’s executive director and nephewof founder Phillip Tocker, says the desire to help small-town librariesgrew directly out of his late uncle’s own experiences growing up asthe son of immigrant parents near Waco. Young Phillip Tockerlearned to read and write at the local library and eventually uncov-ered resources for filing property contracts and managing bank-books—skills he taught his mother and father. “He learned all thatwith the help of librarians, and he wanted to give back,” Tocker says.“He did not necessarily believe in entitlements, but he did believethat with unfettered access to information, anybody could achieveanything they wanted.

“We build collections, but we do a lot more,” Tocker says. “Weare helping cut down on the digital divide, solving a lot of connec-tivity issues for people who don’t necessarily have broadband accessin their homes. In some cases, we even have permission to beamWi-Fi into the parking lot so that the library doesn’t have to be open. There willalways be a need for books, but a lot has to do with the patron experience.”

Texas Writes, a program from the Writers’ League of Texas, brings publishedauthors to small-town libraries statewide for half-day seminars on topics thatinclude memoir writing, memorable dialogue and improving productivity. TheTocker Foundation also supports Texas Writes. “The purpose of the program is

Grant money helped the PottsboroArea Library buy new furniture andshelves, opposite page. LibrarianDianne Connery, above, stands inthe computer lab, which was a mailroom in the old post office.

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TexasCoopPower.com14 Texas Co-op Power April 2016

for us to connect with writers across the state,” says Becka Oliver,WLT executive director. “In these communities, the library isoften the place where you find the writers, and we have peoplechecking our website for events and driving 30, 50, even 80 milesto be there.”

In 2015, Texas Writes ushered writers to 30 rural libraries, pay-ing a stipend to the authors for their time. “It’s so rewarding for usto go into the libraries and see what they’re doing,” Oliver says.

The Tocker Foundation’s biggest individual library grants runto $50,000, and the foundation encourages applicants to aimhigh with their requests so they can make a greater impact. Asmany as 350 libraries are eligible statewide, says Karin Gersten-haber, Tocker grant director.

“The more rural it is, or the more remote it is, the more impor-tant it is as a community anchor,” says Gerstenhaber, noting thatmany small-town libraries double as community centers, notjust offering an educational setting for youths but also providingemployment resources and skills training for adults, and in somecases, even health screenings. “The goal is to update them for21st-century use.”

A dditional organizations aid small-town and rurallibraries in Texas. Tocker paid for a new drop box at the BonhamPublic Library northeast of Dallas and provided grants for com-puters and tablets that brought the staff’s electronics suite up todate. However, Bonham has also received grants from the Laddand Katherine Hancher Library Foundation in Columbus. Thefoundation, which serves communities of fewer than 50,000 people,bought furniture to replace the 1970s décor at Bonham. The MWand Fair Miller Foundation in Bonham provided $13,000 for thelibrary to buy four child-friendly computers loaded with educa-tional games and featuring touch-screen displays that aim to helpkids ages 2 to 12 prepare for school and get a leg up on classwork.“Before, we were just maintaining the status quo,” says KimberlyBowen, Bonham’s library director. “Now we are a bustling com-munity center—and business center. Our patrons are very excited.”

Tocker Foundation grants pro-vided a lifeline for the PottsboroArea Library, which occupies a for-mer post office not far from LakeTexoma. Just a few years ago, saysDianne Connery, volunteer presi-dent of operations, Pottsboro faceda budget shortfall that could havemeant the library’s demise. “Itlooked like what it was, an old 1960spost office, and the only people whocame here were seniors who wantedlarge-print books,” Connery says.

Today, the online calendar includes an old-school video gamenight with first-generation console games and a celebration ofWorld Juggling Day. “With the help of the Tocker Foundation,we were able to reinvent ourselves,” Connery says, noting thatthe Tocker monies acted as a magnet for other grants.

“We bought new furniture and got another grant from theHampshire Foundation for new shelves. And we were able to buynew desktop computers and tablets, and now teens and tweensall hang out here, too. The Tockers are our cheerleaders,” shesays. “They are such strong supporters, we feel like we can go tothem anytime we have a new idea.”

That explains why the grants have been used not only for elec-tronics, stylish renovations and plush furniture to draw morelibrary visitors, but also, in some cases, upgrades to infrastructure.Installing e-books and automated circulation systems meansthat librarians don’t have to track which books are overdue, whoowes fines or what volumes remain on the shelves. The TockerFoundation initiated a program for uploading old newspapersand microfiche systems to the Internet, creating a vast databaseof historic news reports that might have disappeared withoutsmall-town libraries, which have kept the papers. “The librariesare frequently the last repository,” says Gerstenhaber, notingthat as more newspapers fold, this information is endangered.

It’s all part of fulfilling a vision that Phillip Tocker first had inthe 1960s, says Darryl Tocker. After graduating from the Uni-versity of Texas at Austin in the 1930s and then earning a lawdegree, Phillip Tocker became a powerful lobbyist and made afortune in billboards and outdoor advertising, which led him tothe presidency of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Amer-ica. By 1992, the Tocker Foundation—which also underwritesthe Texas Reads license plate program and backs the annualTexas Book Festival—turned its energy to helping rural libraries.

“My uncle felt he had taken a lot of money out of these smalltowns,” explains Darryl Tocker. “Helping the libraries was hisway to repay them.”

Dan Oko is a Houston writer; his website is danoko.com.

WEB EXTRAS at TexasCoopPower.com See photos from a Texas Writes pro-gram in Johnson City.

The Silverton Public Libraryremains open thanks to many volunteers, including, from left,Tina Nance, Sheryl Breedlove and Mary Beth King.

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CONSERVATION AND SAFETY INFORMATION

Electric Notes

TORNADOES ARE AMONG NATURE’S most violent and unpre-dictable storms, and Texas regularly sees plenty of them. Sur-vival is a matter of planning and preparation.

In Texas, tornadoes are more prevalent from April throughJuly, with April and May being the peak months. But remem-ber: Like thunderstorms, tornadoes can form any time of theyear and occur in every state in the country.

One of the most alarming aspects of a tornado is its random-ness; there’s no telling whose home it will miss, and whose itwill hit. Your best defense is to be alert and prepared.

Be Prepared Pay attention to local weather reports. You can get reliable infor-mation from broadcasts on a National Oceanic and Atmos-pheric Administration weather radio and via free alerts byapps on your mobile phone or other devices. If you use amobile app, plan to use it sparingly to save power on yourdevice if the electricity goes out.

Develop a family emergency plan. Make sure everyone inyour family knows where to go in case a tornado warning isissued while they’re at home, school or work, or on the road.

Assemble a family emergency supply kit. Make certain every-thing you need is in one specific, easy-to-access location. Per-ishable items should be changed or replaced every six months.More information on assembling a kit can be found on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s website, ready.gov.

During any emergency, always pay attention to the instructionsissued by local emergency management officials. Take timebefore bad weather season to learn about emergency plansestablished in your area by state and local governments.

Stay Alert AfterwardIn the aftermath of a tornado, potentialhazards must be considered duringresponse and recovery efforts. Keepyourself and your family members alertwith these general precautions:

Continue to monitor local radio or TVstations for emergency information andthe potential for additional storms.

Be aware of possible structural, electri-cal or gas leak hazards in and aroundrecovery sites. If you see these hazards,report them to the proper local authori-ties and/or utilities.

Do not touch downed power lines orobjects that are in contact with them.Call your electric cooperative.

Wear proper clothing, including bootsand gloves, when walking on or near debris.

Use the proper safety precautions when operating genera-tors, chain saws or other power tools.

Take steps to prevent heat illnesses and dehydration in your-self and others.

Take Advantage of Resources The following websites and apps can help you stay informed,connected and prepared before, during and after a tornado.

EMERGENCY WEBSITESa National Weather Service:nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoesa Red Cross: redcross.org/prepare/disaster/tornadoa Federal Emergency Management Agency: ready.gov/tornadoesa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/tornadoes/index.aspWEATHER APPSa Nixle: Collects and distributes weather advisories from morethan 9,000 public safety agencies, including local fire depart-ments and emergency management agencies.a American Red Cross Tornado: Find step-by-step instructions onhow to prepare for and recover from a tornado. Provides live tor-nado warnings and a map, plus an “I’m Safe” button that allowsthose affected by recent tornadoes to notify family and friends.a American Red Cross First Aid: Offers safety tips specifically forbad weather and natural disasters, including tornadoes. Allinfo is downloaded with the app so an Internet connection isnot required, and a 911 integration feature allows emergencyphone calls to be made directly from the app.

Tornado Season Approaches Are you and your family ready for severe weather?

Spring is tornado season, so make sure thatyou and your family are prepared beforehand.

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SOME OLDER HOMES don’t have exhaustfans in the kitchen or bathrooms. Othershave old fans that are so noisy, nobodyever turns them on.

Adding or upgrading exhaust fans canmake a home safer and more comfortable.

An exhaust fan’s primary purpose isto remove moisture from the room, butthey also remove bathroom and cookingodors and reduce fumes from cleaningchemicals.

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Exhaust Fans: More NecessaryThan You Know

Exhaust fans don’t just clear the air ofsmoke and odors, they also perform theimportant task of removing moisture.


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SPRING HAS SPRUNG! Put mild springtime temperatures to work for your energy billwith these easy suggestions:

Hire a heating and air-conditioning professional to check out your air-conditioningsystem and window AC units. Annual spring maintenance can keep your AC runningsmoothly. Ask the pro to change or clean the filters while there.

Open the windows. As soon as it’s warm enough to feel comfortable indoors with-out heat, turn it off and invite inside the warm outdoor air. Natural breezes willfreshen a stuffy house that’s been closed up all winter. Keeping the heat and ACturned off for as long as possible can save you a bundle on energy.

Let in the sunshine. Throw open the drapes or blinds to let bright, warm sun raysinto your rooms on mild days. When summer heat arrives, close those drapes duringthe day to keep the sun from overheating your house.

If you have a programmable thermostat, use it. Set it to automatically adjust thetemperature so you’re not cooling an empty house.

Switch the direction of ceiling fans. During spring and summer, fan blades shouldrotate counterclockwise, pushing cooler air down into the room. Using ceiling fanswill allow you to increase your thermostat’s temperature setting by up to 4 degreeswithout sacrificing comfort.

Have a cookout. Prepare dinner on your outdoor grill on nice evenings rather thanusing the stove or oven. Appliances that create heat tend to heat up the whole house.

Run the dishwasher and clothes dryer after dark. No need to add heat to your home’sair during the day when it’s warm outdoors.

Caulk and weatherstrip windows and doors. You read about this every springbecause you should do it every spring. Caulking doesn’t last forever.

Dress for the weather. Shed the sweaters and socks when it’s warm outside so youcan delay the start of air-conditioning season inside.

Turn down the water heater. If you snuck it up a couple of degrees during the winterto make your showers extra steamy, it’s time to lower it to 120 degrees. Not only isthat hot enough, it’s also a safer temperature than anything higher, especially if kidsor older family members are showering in your home.

Enjoy SpringtimeWith Energy Savings

As part of your spring cleaning, hirea professional to conduct annualmaintenance on your AC unit.


Observations

My boyhood pal Ricky was either anaccident waiting to happen or a pretty faircountry football player, depending onwhether he was injuring himself or some-one else. His aggression made him whatthe coaches liked to call a “headhunter,”but he also became something of a fall guy.

Like a lot of us back then, Ricky and Igrew up watching the Dallas Cowboys longbefore they were “America’s Team.” Withstiff competition from the Dallas Texansof the American Football League, therewas some doubt in the ’60s as to whetherthe Cowboys were even Dallas’ team.

We watched anxiously each Sunday tosee if quarterback Don Meredith would beknocked unconscious before he could lofta deep ball to Robert Lee “Bullet Bob”Hayes, or if Cowboys linebacker Lee RoyJordan would knock the stuffing out of anopposing running back, putting him outof the game and giving Dallas a chance forone of its few victories that season.

Jordan was Ricky’s hero from the start.“I want to hit people,” Ricky said. “I wantthem to wake up the next morning in painand remember me.”

That wasn’t hard for me to believe. Thefirst words Ricky said to me when wemoved into a northeast Lubbock neigh-borhood were, “You wanna fight?”

So we fought. Instead of declaring awinner, each of us declared the other tobe our best friend. Neighbors advised myparents to keep me away from Ricky. Hewas a bully, they said, and something of atroublemaker in school.

When the time came to “suit up” for seventh-grade football, Ricky appeared to

be a natural. He had enjoyed a bit of agrowth spurt and was nothing if not aggres-sive. The qualities that made him such aliability in the neighborhood and the class-room endeared him to the coaches.

But Ricky’s road to gridiron glory wouldbe full of detours. A week before workoutsbegan, Ricky took it upon himself to climba tree outside the local skating rink toimpress an older girl of 16. He happened tobe wearing roller skates at the time, whichdoctors and parents said caused his fallfrom the tree and the breaking of his twofavorite arms. So much for that season.

The next summer, Ricky was workingin his father’s woodshop when a girl walk-ing down the street in a miniskirt caughthis eye. His attention wavered and thenext thing anybody knew, he had sawedoff two of his favorite fingers.

Some time later, we were in his garagewhen Ricky used two of his remaining fin-gers to grab some doughnuts that he foundon top of the washing machine. I took onetoo but threw it away when I found a deadant curled up in the icing.

“Hmmm,” Ricky said, helping himselfto a third one. “That’s weird.”

A few minutes later his mother camehome from the store and broke the badnews: She had laced those doughnuts with ant poison. “You’ve killed me!” Rickywailed, but yet another trip to the emer-gency room, this time to have doctors pumphis stomach, put him back in the ball game.

Eventually, the coaches were glad to getRicky back, swaggering around the practicefield without a splint, cast or sling of anykind, but Ricky had fought his battle with

Tough Kid, Tough BreaksLubbock pal with an ax to grind achieved fleeting football fame

BY CLAY COPPEDGE


the world at an early age and didn’t care asmuch as he once had for knocking his peersinto next week. Frustrated coaches yelledat him, which inspired Ricky not at all.

When he fell off a skateboard and broketwo more fingers, keeping him out of con-tact drills for an entire week, Ricky cameup with a plan. He unveiled it to me fol-lowing a particularly grueling practice.

“Here’s the deal. I’m accident-prone,right?”

“’Maybe a little,” I allowed.“All I have to do is get hurt. The guys

who get hurt don’t have to work out. Theyjust sit on the sidelines or go see thetrainer, and that’s it. How hard can it beto get hurt playing football?”

While most of us aspired to be a first-string player, Ricky’s fondest desire wasto go on the injured reserve list.

Ricky set out to do just that. The resultswere truly startling. He threw himself into

workouts with such reckless abandon thathe finally came to resemble the headhunt-ing linebacker he had fancied himselfwhen we were younger.

Results were mixed. While trying tohurt himself, he hurt a lot of other people,mostly his teammates. He became a start-ing linebacker and struck terror into thehearts of opposing teams. Even the highnumber of unnecessary roughness andpersonal foul calls were not enough to off-set the damage he did to the psyche andbodies of our opponents. People tooknotice of him for the first time.

The same neighbors and friends whowarned us about Ricky now sang hispraises. “That boy’s a natural,” they said.“A real headhunter, that one.”

Ricky’s call to gridiron glory came toan abrupt end halfway through the season.One of his favorite knees got twisted dur-ing a pileup, and the doctors said it would

be best if he took the rest of the season off. While convalescing, Ricky discovered

the electric guitar. He also discovered thatgirls liked guitar players as much or evenmore than they liked football players—notthat it was easy to play the instrumentwith two missing fingers.

“The thing is, I don’t have to get mybrains beat out every day just to meetchicks,” he told me. “I just have to strum afew chords.”

And that was pretty much the story ofRicky’s football career.

As a postscript, it should be noted thatRicky, the man who worked hard to be afootball casualty and who was the mostaccident-prone person in the history ofLubbock County, grew up to be a construc-tion worker.

On nuclear power plants. Clay Coppedge, a member of Bartlett EC,

lives near Walburg.HO

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Texas USA

Not long ago I was prowling aroundthe shelves of the Wildenthal Library atSul Ross State University, which I oftendo when I have gone over there to looksomething up and have some spare timeon my hands, and I stumbled on a clutchof English fox-hunting memoirs, bookswith titles like Trencher and Kennel: SomeFamous Yorkshire Packs, published in Lon-don in 1927, and The Eighth Duke of Bad-minton and the Badminton Hunt, London,1901. These seemed to me to be odd vol-umes to encounter in the library of a WestTexas cow college until I rememberedTexas Ranger Captain Roy W. Aldrich,whose library and papers were acquiredby Sul Ross in 1958. Then it all made sense.

Roy Aldrich was undoubtedly the mostliterate Texas Ranger in the history of theranger force, and surely one of the mostintellectually curious. By the time of hisdeath in 1955 he had assembled a library of10,000 volumes, which took up the entiresecond floor of his large Austin home. Thefirst floor was stuffed with collections ofIndian pottery, arrowheads and stone arti-facts, horns, spurs, firearms, and otherWestern memorabilia. The 20-acre groundsof that home, which was out east of townon Manor Road, included several gardensof native plants and a private zoo. Aldrichwas an omnivorous reader who spent mostof his salary on books, as the receipts in hispapers show. The largest part of his libraryconsisted of volumes on Texas and theSouthwest, but he also formed respectablecollections on ornithology, natural history,hunting and outdoor life (thus the Englishfox-hunting memoirs), and travel.

Aldrich’s life was as varied and colorfulas his library. He was born in 1869 in Illi-nois and grew up in Golden City, Missouri,where his father owned a bank. He neverwent to school. He was educated at homeby his mother, who had been a teacher.When he was 17 he left home and went toIdaho, where he worked as a lumberjackand steamboat hand. In the 1890s he spentsome time as a horse trader and deputysheriff in Oklahoma Territory, as theowner of a coffee plantation in Mexico,and as a stagecoach driver in Arizona Ter-ritory. During the Spanish-American Warhe served as a second lieutenant in theSecond Missouri Volunteer Regiment inthe Philippines, and when that war wasover he took a load of horses to SouthAfrica for the British Army’s remountservice in the Boer War. He was sheriff ofKiowa County, Oklahoma Territory from1903 to 1907, when he came to Texas andwent into the real estate business, first inCorpus Christi and then in San Antonio.When the border troubles broke out in1915 he couldn’t stay away from the actionand, at the age of 45, he joined the TexasRangers as a private in Company A, sta-tioned in Rio Grande City. His talents werequickly recognized and by 1918 he hadbeen promoted to captain and appointedQuartermaster and Paymaster of theRangers, a position he held for 28 yearsuntil his retirement in 1947.

Aldrich first came to the Big Bend onRanger business in 1920 and returnedmany times over the years, sometimes onofficial business and sometimes to collectplants and natural history specimens. He A

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The Erudite Ranger Texas, My Texas book excerpt: Sul Ross library preserves Roy Aldrich’s collection

BY LONN TAYLOR


made many friends here, including SulRoss president Horace Morelock. In 1940Morelock started trolling for Aldrich’slibrary and collections, hoping to bringthem to Sul Ross. He wrote Aldrich a letterdescribing the new museum building onthe campus, saying that it was “fireproofand had steel doors, every one of which iskept locked.” He pointed out that ex-Rangers James B. Gillett and Everett

Townsend had recently donated their col-lections to the museum, adding that “weare specializing in this type of material.”When Aldrich failed to take the bait, More-lock got Harry Anthony DeYoung, who ranthe Sul Ross summer art program, to paintAldrich’s portrait on horseback to hang inthe museum. He persuaded a graduate stu-dent to write Aldrich’s biography for hermaster’s thesis. Aldrich donated several

items to the museum, and told Morelockseveral times that he wanted his libraryto eventually go to the college, but he couldnot bear to part with his books during hislifetime. Aldrich never married and whenhe died in 1955, he left his entire estate,including his library, to his housekeeper,a Mrs. R.M. Riley of Austin.

Friends of Sul Ross immediately mobi-lized to bring Aldrich’s library to Alpine.Dudley Dobie, a San Marcos booksellerand a long-time friend of Aldrich, offeredto inventory and appraise the books. Mrs.Riley agreed to sell them for their $50,000appraised value. Legendary Big Bendrancher Hallie Stillwell and Virginia Madi-son, the woman who had written her the-sis on Aldrich, set out in a Sul Ross stationwagon to raise the money. It was in themiddle of the drought and no one had anyspare cash. In a letter to the Alpine Ava-lanche, Stillwell told how they drove allover West Texas and came back to Alpinetwo days before the deadline with pledgesfor $47,000. That night she and Madisonran into H.L. Kokernot, Jr. at the AmericanLegion Hall and told him their story. Hereached into his pocket, pulled out hischeckbook, and wrote them a check for$3,000. Because of his impulsive gen-erosity the collection was in the bag. Today Aldrich’s books form the core of the Texas and Southwestern Collection ofthe Wildenthal Library.

Lonn Taylor is a writer and historian wholives in Fort Davis. He can be reached at [email protected]. Excerpted from Texas, My Texas:Musings of the Rambling Boy, TCU Press [Originalcolumn: March 15, 2007].

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In 1938, veterans of the AmericanCivil War gathered in Pennsylvania toacknowledge the 75th anniversary of theBattle of Gettysburg. Some 200,000 peoplewitnessed the event, from June 29 to July 6, including two dozen veterans ofthe battle itself and 1,845 veterans of theCivil War in general (1,359 representingthe Union and 486 representing the Con-federacy). It was an amicable commemo-ration, characterized by goodwill andheartfelt handshakes.

Congress appropriated $1.7 million forthe reunion to cover transportation, lodg-ing and meals, as well as the cost of oneattendant or caretaker to accompany eachveteran. The caretaker was necessary, inpart, because the average age of the vet-erans was 94. The attendees’ quarters inthe fields north of Gettysburg College con-sisted of 3,800 tents connected by board-walks and wired for electricity.

On July 3, President Franklin DelanoRoosevelt addressed the crowd at theunveiling and dedication of the EternalLight Peace Memorial, which still sits onOak Hill just northwest of Gettysburg. His comments were conciliatory. “All ofthem we honor,” he said, “not asking underwhich flag they fought then—thankful thatthey stand together under one flag now.”

James Hamaker, a 94-year-old residentof Aledo, attended the festivities. His wife,Bettie, had passed, and his children hadall died. Hamaker’s final wish was to revisitthe tree under which he had been shottwice during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Hamaker had served under StonewallJackson and then was part of the disastrousPickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863, during theBattle of Gettysburg. His wounds incapac-itated him, and he was captured by Uniontroops and transported to a hospital.

Hamaker spent the final two years of

the war as a Union prisoner and was freedJune 20, 1865, two months after the CivilWar ended. He returned to his home stateof Virginia. He married Bettie 20 yearslater and moved to the Aledo area in 1894,where he served as the foreman of the Hig-bee Ranch in East Parker County.

In late June of 1938, Hamaker beganhis long trip by train to Pennsylvania, look-ing forward to the gathering. Just beforehe reached Gettysburg, however, he suf-fered a mishap, falling from a train berthand breaking his shoulder.

When Hamaker arrived in Gettysburg,an attentive medical staff was on hand. Hewas sent to Walter Reed Hospital, built onthe site of the hospital where he was treatedin 1863. The locals did everything theycould to make Hamaker comfortable andfulfill his last wish. “If I could get to thattree,” he told them, “I could die happy.”

Medical attendants, fellow veterans andcurrent U. S. soldiers transported Hamakeraround the battlefield in an attempt tolocate the tree where he was shot, but theterrain had changed too much in the inter-vening three-quarters of a century, andthey were not able to find it. In the end,

Hamaker conceded defeat. “I guess I betterget home to my rocking chair,” he said. Hisjourney was delayed two weeks for treat-ment at Walter Reed.

After his return from Gettysburg,Hamaker never fully recovered. In the daysand weeks after his ill-fated trip, he madethe most of his rocking chair, enjoying theearly autumn breezes on the front porch ofhis home as he attempted to convalesce.

On September 5, 1938, Hamaker’shousekeeper checked on him and said thatshortly after he got up from his rockingchair, walked to the bathroom and thenreturned, she found him motionless. Hehad survived being shot twice during Pick-ett’s Charge, but it was his third Gettys-burg wound, incurred as he traveled for apeaceful reunion, that dealt the fatal blow,allowing him only a few final days until hedied on his porch in Texas.

His passing was noted in newspapersaround the state, and he was buried along-side Bettie in Aledo’s Brown Cemetery.

E.R. Bills is a writer from Aledo.

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Your Best Pies What makes a home (or roadside café) more inviting than homemade pie? Becausefew desserts inspire more devotion, we asked for your favorite ways to fill a crust. Whetheryou prefer a lattice topping or a cloud ofmeringue, buttermilk custard or fresh fruit,you’ll find a recipe here to make your familyswoon. This Cherry Pie recipe is from therecently published The Best of Typically TexasCookbook ($29.95; price includes tax, shippingand handling), Texas Co-op Power’s collection of over 700 recipes that celebrate the legacy of Texas home cooks who have been making great food, and plenty of pies, for decades.

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Cherry PieELAINE PEARSON | O’DONNELL, LYNTEGAR EC

This recipe has long been a family favorite, says Pearson, although she’s tweaked the old standby over the years. “I have added and taken away until it is just right for us,” she says.

1 can (14 ounces) sour cherries, drained and chopped2½ tablespoons tapioca1 cup sugar½ cup cherry juice¼ teaspoon almond extract⅛ teaspoon saltRed food coloring (optional)2 9-inch pie crusts, unbakedGround nutmeg, to taste2 tablespoons (¼ stick) butter, cut into small chunksCinnamon to tasteSugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 2. Combine the cherries, tapioca, sugar,cherry juice, almond extract, salt and food coloring, if using, in a mixing bowl and let mixture stand for a few minutes. 3. Pour into an unbaked pie crust that has beenlightly dusted with nutmeg. Dot with butter. 4. Cut second crust into strips and make lattice-type top crust. Sprinkle generouslywith cinnamon and sugar. 5. Bake until bubbly and nicely browned.

NOTE To order by mail, send a check or money order for $29.95 to The Best of Typically Texas Cookbook, 1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701.

April 2016 Texas Co-op Power 35

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Recipes

Your Best Pies

THIS MONTH’S RECIPE CONTEST WINNERSPRING CABINESS | MEDINA ECWhat’s not to love about fresh apple pie drizzled with an aromaticmaple glaze? For the best flavor and texture, Cabiness makes a crustthat uses both shortening and butter. She recommends slicing theapples as thinly as possible and using a mixture of sweet (GoldenDelicious, Pink Lady) and tart (Granny Smith, McIntosh) varieties.

Maple-Frosted Apple Pan Tart

CRUST 3 cups flour½ cup vegetable shortening½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter1½ teaspoons salt6–12tablespoons cold water

FILLING6 cups peeled, thinly sliced apples1 cup sugar2 tablespoons flour1 teaspoon cinnamon

GLAZE½ cup powdered sugar3 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. CRUST: Using a pastry blender oryour fingers, combine flour, shortening,butter and salt thoroughly until themixture has the texture of pebbly,coarse meal. (Alternatively, you can

Creamy Coconut Pie WithDivinity-Style MeringueKERI SMITH | JASPER-NEWTON EC

What we love about this pie: the rich, creamycustard made by a clever method (it’s cooked in the microwave!) and the billowy texture ofSmith’s “divinity-style” meringue that relies on a secret ingredient (pass the marshmallowcrème, please).

FILLING1½ cups sugar3 heaping tablespoons cornstarch¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted3 egg yolks1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 cup milk1 cup evaporated milk1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sweetened, flaked coconut, divided use

MERINGUE 3 egg whites¼ teaspoon cream of tartar½ teaspoon vanilla extract1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow crème

CRUST1 9- or 10-inch deep-dish pie crust, baked and cooled

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.2. FILLING: Whisk together sugar andcornstarch in a large, microwaveablebowl until the mixture is smooth and freeof lumps. Add melted butter, egg yolksand vanilla, and whisk until smooth.Whisk in the milk and evaporated milk.3. Microwave the mixture on high about8 minutes, stopping to whisk everyminute or so, until thickened. When thecustard is thick, whisk in 1 cup of flakedcoconut and set aside. 4. MERINGUE: While the custard cools,beat the egg whites and cream of tartarwith a mixer on high speed until the eggsare very foamy, and then add the vanilla.Continue beating until the whites reachthe soft-peak stage, then add the marsh-mallow crème. Continue beating untilthe whites are stiff and glossy. Do notunderbeat. 5. Pour the custard filling into the bakedpie crust and top with meringue. Use arubber spatula to gently form peaks.Sprinkle the remaining coconut flakesover the top.

pulse the ingredients in a food proces-sor until just combined.) 3. Add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time to the dough until the flour mix-ture pulls together in a ball that’s neither too dry nor too sticky. Dividethe dough in half. Roll out the first half on a floured surface and line thebottom of a pie pan with dough. 4. FILLING: Place the apple slices, sugar,flour and cinnamon in a mixing bowl and toss to combine. Pour the apple mixture into the dough-lined pie pan. 5. Roll out the remaining half of dough.Drape dough over the fruit and panedges, fluting or crimping edges asdesired. Cut several slits in the top dough to allow steam to escape.6. Bake pie 45 minutes to 1 hour, untilthe crust is golden brown and the applesare tender. 7. GLAZE: While pie is baking, whisktogether the powdered sugar and maplesyrup until smooth. Drizzle syrup over thepie while it’s still warm. Pie can be servedwarm, at room temperature or cold.

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September’s recipe contest is One-Dish Dinners. Send us your favoriterecipes for a quick and tasty one-dishdinner by the April 10 deadline.

ENTER ONLINE at TexasCoopPower.com/contests; MAIL to 1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701;FAX to (512) 763-3401. Include your name, address andphone number, plus your co-op and the name of thecontest you are entering.

$100 Recipe Contest

6. Bake until the meringue is lightlybrowned, about 30–35 minutes. Allowthe pie to cool at least 15 minutes beforeserving. Can be served at room tempera-ture or chilled to serve cold.

Buttermilk PieJUDY GWIN | BLUEBONNET EC

This classic, easy-to-prepare pie is a third-generation recipe from Gwin’s grandmother,Helen Kappas, who lived in Minnesota. The fillinghandily makes two pies—one for you and one to share.

1 cup buttermilk½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted2½ cups sugar2 tablespoons all-purpose flour1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut1 cup chopped pecans6 eggs1 tablespoon vanilla extract2 unbaked pie crusts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 2. Combine all the ingredients except

crust in a large mixing bowl and stirtogether until smooth. 3. Divide the mixture among the two piecrusts and bake 1 hour, or until a knifeinserted in the middle of each pie comesout clean.

COOK’S TIP For a filling that is less sweet,reduce the sugar to 2 cups and use unsweetenedcoconut.


WEB EXTRAS at TexasCoopPower.comFinding more recipes is easy as pie at our website.

PIE BIRDS They’re more cute than essential, but what’s wrongwith that? Pie bird steamers might have nested inyour mother’s pantry, but they hatched in Englandfor venting meat pies: The open mouths allowsteam to escape, averting a soggy crust. (Cuttingslits in the top crust accomplishes the same goal.)

To use a pie bird, place it in the center of the bottom uncooked crust. Place filling around bird.Cut a circle in center of top crust for the bird to peek through, then top pie, crimp, and bake.

Even if you don’t use them regularly, a collec-tion of pie birds makes a cheery addition to any kitchen. Look for vintage birds at antique fairs orthrift shops. You can find new pie birds at Sur la Table (surlatable.com) or King Arthur Flour(kingarthurflour.com). —PD

Look for additional content online TexasCoopPower.com

N E X T M O N T HNEW DIRECTIONS IN FARMING A younger generation seeksalternatives to keep the familybusiness thriving.

VINTAGE BASEBALL Players turn back the clock to the days before the game becameAmerica’s pastime.

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We hope that everyone will have a chance to purchase this special U.S. government-issued gold at this price before gold could make its predicted move to higher price levels. Order immediately before our allotted inventory sells out completely! Call toll-free 1-855-426-7168 today. If you would have taken $150,000 of your money and bought gold in 2001, then that initial purchase would have been worth over $1 million exactly 10 years later in 2011!† This means

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SwingsBuilt for relaxation and for play, these swings soar up, up and away!

GRACE ARSIAGA

WEB EXTRAS at TexasCoopPower.com Hang around for more photos online.

a WAYNE WILKERSON, CoServ Electric: Near Drop, in southwest Denton County


Focus on Texas

o LISA EFFREN, Pedernales EC: Daughter Emily, 16, on a family trip

o LAUREN MCCLAIN, Cooke County EC: Gianna, 3, soars high at a park in Lake Dallas.

d GARY OTT, Pedernales EC: Although Prairie Mountain School closed in 1948, it serves as a commu-nity center, and the playground swings have been maintained for area youth and the young at heart.

d SEAN RIEDEL, Guadalupe Valley EC: Lake McQueeney

UPCOMING CONTESTS

AUGUST RESTORED DUE APRIL 10

SEPTEMBER GONE FISHIN’ DUE MAY 10

OCTOBER CREEPY CRAWLIES DUE JUNE 10

All entries must include name, address, daytime phone andco-op affiliation, plus the contest topic and a brief descriptionof your photo.

ONLINE: Submit highest-resolution digital images at TexasCoopPower.com/contests. MAIL: Focus on Texas, 1122 ColoradoSt., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701. A stamped, self-addressedenvelope must be included if you want your entry returned(approximately six weeks). Please do not submit irreplaceablephotographs—send a copy or duplicate. We do not acceptentries via email. We regret that Texas Co-op Power cannot beresponsible for photos that are lost in the mail or not receivedby the deadline.


15Burton [15–16] Cotton Gin Festival,(979) 289-3378, cottonginmuseum.org

Carthage [15–16] Piney Woods Quilt Festival, (903) 754-3263,carthagetexas.us/main-street

Coleman [15–16] Petticoats on the Prairie,(325) 625-2163, colemantexas.org

April8San Augustine [8–9] San Augustine Garden Club’s Gala Garden Fair,(936) 675-1072, sagardenclub.org

Groesbeck [8–16] Limestone County Rodeo, Livestock and Horse Show,(254) 747-2120, limestone-co-fair-grounds.com

Silsbee [8-9, 14-16, 21-23] Silsbee Little Theater Spring Production: Dearly Beloved, (409) 385-5562, facebook.com/silsbeelittletheater

9Gallatin Gopher Fest, (903) 262-0130

Hamilton Spring Fling, (254) 372-3120

Lewisville ColorPalooza: A Celebration of Spring, (972) 219-3401, lewisvillecolorpalooza.com

Chappell Hill [9–10] Bluebonnet Festival, (979) 836-6033, chappellhillhistoricalsociety.com

G E R M A N FO O D : KA RA N DA E V | D O L L A R P H OTO C LU B . P L A N T: T E T I A N A Z B R O D KO | D O L L A R P H OTO C LU B . SW I M M E R S : PAV E L 1 9 6 4 | D O L L A R P H OTO C LU B

Pick of the MonthGermanfestMuenster [April 22–24]

(940) 759-2227, germanfest.net

Muenster, founded by German settlers in 1889,celebrates its heritage with a festival featuringfood and music, a fun run and bicycle rally,and a cook-off. Cooke County EC is a sponsor,and more than half of its employees volunteerat Germanfest—a demonstration of Coopera-tive Principle No. 7: Concern for Community.

Around Texas Event CalendarApril 8–9San AugustineSan Augustine Garden Club’sGala Garden Fair

8TH ANNUAL

Helping Hand Project

www.muellerinc.com877-2-MUELLER

(877-268-3553)

Mueller strongly believes in giving back to organizations that always give to others. For the 8th year in a row, we are extending

One deserving organization will receive a FREE Mueller steel building through our Helping Hand Project.

We will be accepting applications April 2 - May 16, 2016. To apply, go to www.muellerinc.com/hh


Henderson [15–16] East Texas AntiqueTractor & Engine Club Show, (903) 889-2671,etateci.org

Neches [15–25] The 1836 Chuckwagon Race,(903) 721-9111, 1836chuckwagonrace.com

16Port Arthur Carnival des Cajuns,(409) 835-2787, setxac.org

22Linden [22–23] Wildflower Trails Festival,(903) 756-7774, lindenwildflowertrails.net

Grand Prairie [22–24] Main Street Fest,(972) 237-8110, facebook.com/mainstreetfest

Montgomery [22–24] Concours d’Eleganceof Texas, 1-877-426-6763, concoursoftexas.org

23Mineola Spring Fling, (817) 455-4599, mineolanaturepreserve.com

Weches Mission Tejas State Park Folk Festival, (936) 687-2394,tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/mission-tejas

24Yorktown Garfield Spring Feast,(361) 550-9391,facebook.com/garfielddance.hall

Find More Events Online!Submit Your Event We pick events for themagazine directly from TexasCoopPower.com.Submit your event for June by April 10, and itjust might be featured in this calendar!

May 1AustinCap 2K Open Water Race & Pledge Swim

28Kerrville A Night in Old Mexico,(830) 792-7469, symphonyofthehills.org

30Livingston Downton Tabby Cat AdoptionEvent, (936) 327-7722, spcaofpolkcounty.org

Lubbock Blue Ribbon Rally Classic Car andCustom Motorcycle Show, (806) 747-5577,familyguidancecenterlubbock.org

Port O’Connor Crawfish Festival,(361) 983-2898, portoconnorchamber.com

Waco [30–May 1] Gem and Mineral Show,(254) 548-6839, wacogemandmineral.org

May1Austin Cap 2K Open Water Race & PledgeSwim, (512) 327-0955, cap2k.com

Bandera St. Stanislaus Parish Festival,(830) 460-4712, ststanislausbandera.com

6Temple [6–8] Central Texas Air Show,(512) 869-1759, centraltexasairshow.com

7Hemphill Garden Club Flower Show,(409) 787-1524

Pattison German Sausage Dinner and Auction, (281) 934-8218, christlutheranchurchpattison.org

Stephenville Cowboy Capital MS Trail Ride,(254) 592-1895

36th Annual

Just 30 minutes south of Downtown Dallas/Fort Worth in Waxahachie

Get your Tickets at SRFestival.com TODAY

April 9 thru May 30, 2016Saturdays, Sundays & Memorial Day Monday

Step Back in Time for the Time of Your Life

42 Texas Co-op Power April 2016

I have traveled to Tyler a number oftimes, enjoying such diversions as New YorkTexas Zipline Adventures, Rick’s on the Squarerestaurant in historic downtown, top-ranked Jucys Hamburgers, Discovery SciencePlace and the famous Rose Garden Center. Butthree destinations top my list.

First, sprawling Kiepersol Estates in-cludes vineyards, a winery, a distillery,tasting rooms, a restaurant and lodging.Guided tours of the distillery and wineryproduction facilities are offered Saturdayafternoons and by appointment.

Wine tastings include a selection offour to six wines, and if you’re staying onthe premises, I recommend happy houron the veranda, which overlooks some ofKiepersol’s 63 acres of vineyards. I alsorecommend strolling the 1-mile trailthrough the vineyards. Watch for a flockof large grey guinea fowl prowling the rowsof vines, eating insects and providing nat-ural pest control.

Just across a tranquil pond from thewinery, the Restaurant at Kiepersol fea-tures one wall lined with windows andother walls lined with wine bottles, whiteschilling on the bottom floor and reds agingon the second. My most recent dinner herestarted with jumbo lump crab cakes, fol-lowed by black pepper and honey-glazedsalmon and buttery green beans. I notedthe juicy filet mignon and Colorado lambchops at a neighboring table for my nextvisit. The wine list contains more than 20Kiepersol wines and hundreds of others.“Servers can recommend how to best pairyour meal with a wine from our list,” ownerPierre de Wet says. “But most importantly,we want you to drink what you like.”

Five bed-and-breakfast rooms line anearby hall, and other lodging optionsinclude the five-bedroom Stable Houseand the two-bedroom Caretaker’s Cottage.

Next, Tyler State Park ranks as one of the

best places to enjoy this area’s outdoorbeauty because it encompasses the junc-tion of Pineywoods and Post Oak Savannahbioregions, mixing shortleaf and loblollypines with oak, sweet gum, pecan and blackwalnut. The park contains more than 13miles of hike-and-bike trails, but I oftenopt for the three-quarter-mile WhisperingPines Nature Trail. It loops through pinesand hardwoods and passes enduring struc-tures from the Civilian ConservationCorps, which created this park between1935 and 1941. Beauchamp Springs formsa 64-acre lake in the center of the park.Circle the water on the 2.1-mile LakeshoreTrail, which passes fishing piers, picnicareas, campgrounds, boat docks and a play-ground. You could enjoy a day on the eastshore of the lake, with its swim beach andbathhouse, well-equipped store and boatpavilion that offers canoes, paddleboats,kayaks, bike boats and johnboats for rent—daily in summer and weekends year-round.And it’s just a short walk to a fishing pierand shady picnic area.

The park offers tent and recreationalvehicle camping, screened shelters and cab-

ins, as well as several group camping areasand facilities. Rangers offer a variety ofguided activities, including birding and sto-ries around the campfire, and kids can keepbusy with Junior Ranger Explorer Packs.

My third fave is Lago del Pino restaurant,created by locals Randal and Donna Brookswith sons Trey, Derek and Daren, whichoverlooks a 40-acre, tree-lined lake. Therestaurant offers an expansive menu andlive music on the patio every Friday andSaturday night. There’s an eclectic Sunday brunch menu accompanied bymore live music. In addition to steaks andseafood, the chef creates smoked jalapeñomeatloaf, shrimp and grits, and beer-battered chicken tacos. Don’t miss thecocktail selections made with unusualingredients such as habanero-infusedtequila, fresh lemongrass and lavender gin.

And the sunsets can be spectacular.Melissa Gaskill is an Austin writer who spe-

cializes in travel and nature topics.

Hit the Road

Taking in TylerBeyond the roses, top options include wining, dining and Tyler State Park

BY MELISSA GASKILL

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TexasCoopPower.com

WEB EXTRAS at TexasCoopPower.comPlan your trip and learn more aboutthese locations.

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