Mr. Wisely’s Kindness
In 1959 my bus driver, Mr. Wisely, gave me a Standing Liberty quarter when he saw me crying over losing my Big Chief tablet [Roll Call, September 2022].
Dan King, Lamar Electric | Paris
Logan Bell and Geer Gillespie feed goats grass freshly picked from their fields at Low Gear Farmstead.
Scott Van Osdol
Returning Home
I loved the article showcasing young people returning to the family farm as entrepreneurs [Connecting With the Land, September 2022]. I am in a similar circumstance with my rancher father in a San Saba nursing home.
We have been in the area for five-plus generations, but I have lived all over and find I, too, am a “weirdo.” Glad to see I am not alone.
I was also pleased to see the article highlight how one family set up a business inviting more diverse communities, including LGBTQ and people of color, to the area to camp.
Michelle Pollock, Hamilton County EC | Lometa
Homemade Popper-Topped Burger
Megan Myers
Can’t Top This
This is a delicious burger [Homemade Popper-Topped Burgers, August 2022]. And the topper can also be tweaked into a topper for something hot off the grill. Yum.
Melinda Wood Sasarak | Via Facebook
Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry talks with running back Tony Dorsett during a game at Texas Stadium in the 1970s.
Focus on Sport | Getty images
Landry’s Followers
As I traveled around the country, I tried to schedule trips to coincide with a Cowboys game [The Most Glorious Autumn, August 2022]. I watched Coach Landry sign autographs in every hotel lobby for almost 30 minutes before he could make it to the elevator.
Bill “Cowboy” Lamza, San Bernard EC | Hempstead
Big Thicket Mystery
Many a weekend we would walk to Bragg Road [Creeping Along, July 2022]. Always spooky. I have seen the light only once in my life.
Candace Mazac, Pedernales EC
The South Plains region around Lubbock devotes more land to growing cotton than any other part of the world.
Julia Robinson
Costly Payoff
Kirk Tidwell’s statement, “I only get paid once a year, and this is my payday right here,” shook me [Prized Fibers, July 2022]. I guess I have always known that farmers only get paid when crops are sold, but seeing it in writing made it so real. Farmers and others in agriculture should be the most appreciated workforce in this country.
Roberta McLaughlin, Heart of Texas EC | Lorena
I have a list of the original shareholders (1913–14) of the Burton Farmers Gin Association, which includes my grandfather, Bethel Dement, as a holder of 28 shares.
Mary Beth Coward, Bandera EC | Boerne
Your story brought back memories of working part time at a cotton gin my dad managed in Tahoka in the 1970s and ’80s. Lots of good life lessons learned while suctioning a trailer full of cotton at 25 degrees at 2 a.m.
Delwynn Sherrill, Tri-County EC | Keller
When I was about 4, my daddy left his wife and three girls in the Valley and went to South Texas to seek work. My mother picked cotton to make ends meet. I trudged along behind her carrying a sugar sack to put my cotton in.
When Mother received a letter from Daddy saying he had a job in the oil fields around Benavides, I threw my sack on the ground and announced, “I am not going to pick any more cotton. My daddy can give me all the nickels I want.” And so he did.
Bettie W. Cashion | Picayune, Mississippi
