Cooperative Commerce
When you flip on a light switch this October, you’ll be celebrating, in your own small way, National Co-op Month.
The countryside was dark in Texas and across the U.S. decades ago, until rural folks combined their resources to build cooperatives, changing communities with electricity. The flip of a switch was a big deal back then.
Today, these local, member-owned businesses provide tremendous economic boons, according to a recent study by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Co-ops provide an average of 53,437 jobs per year and $23.1 billion in wages in Texas counties served by co-ops. That leads to nearly $50 billion in value added to the local economy.
National Hispanic Heritage Month encompasses the cultures that originate in several Latin American countries.
Marek Bubenik | iStock.com
Latin America Celebrates
Ever wonder why National Hispanic Heritage Month, commemorated each September 15–October 15, spans two calendar months?
The celebration begins in the middle of September to coincide with independence days in several Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua celebrate theirs September 15, followed by Mexico on September 16, Chile on September 18 and Belize on September 21. The month also overlaps with Día de la Raza, a Latin American holiday that for some replaces Columbus Day, October 12, to celebrate the region’s mixed Indigenous and European heritage.
When the sun sets on Lago Vista, residents can know they enjoyed streetlights long before it became the bustling community it is today.
Ryan Conine | Adobe stock
Night Vision
Lago Vista, a community nestled along Lake Travis in Central Texas, made history 65 years ago this month. The town, northwest of Austin, became the first rural community in the U.S. to get streetlights, October 20, 1959, thanks to Pedernales Electric Cooperative.
Have a Slash Bash
Turn your Halloween into a scary celebration of nostalgia by watching The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which premiered 50 years ago this month—October 1, 1974, in Austin. Much of the classic horror film was shot in Central Texas.
The house in the film was relocated in 1998 from its original location in Round Rock to Kingsland, about 60 miles northwest of Austin. Hooper’s, a restaurant inside the house, will host an anniversary celebration October 26 that will include some of the original cast members.
