Flying With Lindy
Thank you for the story about “Unlucky Lindy” in your February 2015 issue.
It was especially interesting for me because my dad, Homer Fitzgerald, was a teen when Lindbergh stayed in their family hotel/home for a number of days until the plane was repaired.
Lindbergh even gave my dad a short plane ride that was more scary than fun for my dad at the time, but the experience provided a great story for many years to come.
Jo Ann Fitzgerald Eastman | Kingsland
Central Texas EC
Life Jackets
The article about the University of Texas Marine Science Institute [“Immersed in Learning,” January 2015] covers a great learning program for middle students, but something is missing in one of the photographs: It looks like someone missed the importance of wearing a life jacket on the boat. It appears that three adults are not wearing them, just the students. Safety first starts with the instructors!
Jerry and Tish Swiggart | Canton
Trinity Valley EC
Response from the University of Texas Marine Science Institute: Safety is our top priority. Our education programs on the research vessel Katy require all persons under the age of 13 to wear life jackets while on board. We also strongly encourage older youths, adults and chaperones to wear life jackets, but by law this is not required on vessels as large as Katy, and we respect personal preferences.
Remembering the Uprising
The article about the San Diego uprising [“Plan of San Diego Uprising,” January 2015] certainly caught my attention. This uprising was probably the reason my grandparents, John and Eula Black Harding, and their three sons, Otis, Dixie and Travis, left almost everything behind except the old family Bible and evacuated from Sinton by train in 1915 to Inez, where they lived on the Baldwin property south of Inez. My dad and grandmother always told stories of how they had to hide in the fields because of the raids going on.
Jeannette Mullenix | Houston
Victoria EC
Fashion Sense on the Farm
I enjoyed “Feeding Their Fashion Sense” [February 2015]. It reminded me of one time in the early ’50s that my sister and I went to the store with Mama for something special. Would it be an ice-cold Grapette from the box by the door or maybe a Baby Ruth candy bar? No, Mama had something else in mind.
We entered the store, and she steered us toward the back corner, where there was a mound of flour-filled cloth sacks on pallets. Mama wanted each of us to choose one for a flour sack dress. How hard it was to choose just one from all of the pretty printed sacks!
We finally made our choices and hurried home ready to wear our new dresses. It seemed an eternity before all of that flour had been used and we could actually wear our special dresses.
Ann Bost | Elkhart
Houston County EC
I was one who wore feed sack dresses and underwear. I was always so happy to see the new prints and loved them. After I married, my
first maternity dress was feed sack material. That was the good old days. If you never had that privilege, you don’t know what you missed.
Nell Larremore | via Facebook
Bitten by Memory
“Gone But Not Forgotten” [February 2015] really brought back memories from long ago during my childhood on my grandparents’ farm in Brenham (serviced by Bluebonnet EC). There were many horny toads that I played with, and I cannot remember how many times those big red ants bit me. My father or grandpa would put tobacco juice on the bite to help with the pain.
That was back in the 1940s. I still have a recollection of when electric power came to our farmhouse. Thank you for the memories.
Charles Skweres | Magnolia
San Bernard EC
