Stark Memories
My family lived in Orange during the mid-1950s [Firmly Rooted, May 2020]. I recall a classmate was the grandson of the Stark-Lutcher marriage. I recall being invited out to a huge plantation house by his parents to spend the day with him playing and exploring the land.
Bill Wheeless Jr., Evant | Hamilton County EC
One thing the article did not mention is the church that Frances Ann Lutcher built. Known as the Lutcher Memorial Building, it was built for the First Presbyterian Church of Orange. It was built around three stained-glass windows, made by Lamb Studios, which Lutcher purchased at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The granite was quarried in Llano.
David and Patty Mouton, Meadowlakes | Pedernales EC
Horse Sense
I enjoyed Martha Deeringer’s history of the Spanish mustang in Texas [Horses’ Roundabout Trail, May 2020]. This history is alive and well in East Texas. Vicki Ives of Karma Farms in Marshall has dedicated her life to the preservation, promotion and love of America’s first horse.
Chuck Waters, Marshall | Rusk County EC
Ripple Effect
In response to Splash Across Texas [Currents, May 2020], there is also a Texas-shaped pool in Hilltop Lakes. My grandmother lived there, and the best memories were made at that pool.
Ashley Phillips, Broaddus | Sam Houston EC
We’ve had fun through the years teaching our kids and now grandkids Texas geography by swimming around the pool at Hilltop Lakes.
A favorite memory was a big family celebration of the Texas sesquicentennial in 1986. My sister was living in Wyoming, and we joked about our wonderful Texas-shaped swimming pool and the baby pool being in the shape of Wyoming—boring rectangle.
Jana Vick, DeSoto | Navasota Valley EC
Name That Snake
Thanks to the article [Common Snakes of Texas, April 2020], I was able to correctly identify a snake that my dogs attacked. I was afraid it was a water moccasin, but it was a nonvenomous diamondback water snake.
Cindy Lutkenhaus, Gainesville | PenTex Energy
Snakes are friends, never foes. The snakes are simply trying to survive in a home that was taken from them, in a world that is constantly changing at the hands of human beings.
Richard Clay Crowell, Via Facebook
