Paradise Found
My wife and I recently spent part of a day rummaging around Booked Up in Archer City, Larry McMurtry’s bookstore.
The 200,000-volume bookstore south of Wichita Falls would have been one of those best-kept secrets without Jeff Tietz’s article (“A Bookish Paradise,” August 2009 issue). The soft-spoken manager, a persistent purring black and white resident cat that welcomed us, an immediately recognizable musty smell of old books, row after row of really old and not so old one-of-a-kind books of all sorts, sizes and shapes was a unique and memorable event.
In addition, our Dairy Queen lunch, where one of the local pearl-buttoned cowboys showed my wife how spurs are fastened to cowboy boots, will be one of those moments never to be forgotten.
Mike and Deanne Silverstein, Farmers Electric Cooperative
Coupon Websites Save Dollars
In your August 2009 Recipe section (“Have a Plan Before You Go to the Store”), you gave information about cost-saving tips while grocery shopping. I have been clipping coupons for the past year using two websites that basically did all the pricing work for me. One site is www.thegrocerygame.com. There is a nominal charge for this site. The other is www.couponmom.com, a free site. These sites do all the homework for you, so no notebook or research is needed.
Just buy the Sunday paper and keep the coupon booklets in a folder, as sales are cyclical. Each website references the Sunday date of the coupon and from which flier it can be clipped. For products not listed with coupons, say meats and produce, the websites list all those items on sale that week and the percentage savings on those items. You’ll also discover there are some weeks when items with coupons are actually free!
Ginger Belsha, Houston
Bravo for Bandanas
“An Ode to the Bandana” by Kenneth L. Canion in the August 2009 issue was a great story. I’ve been a tomboy bandana user since I can remember. I still use them today. I once tied one to a calf’s tail out in the pasture because at the moment we didn’t have a way to mark it for special treatment later. When working, I like old, soft, worn-out ones and camouflaged colored for hunting and sharp-colored ones for dressing up. And add hunting face mask, trail marker, animal tag and fashion accessory (other than Western wear) to Canion’s list of uses.
Thank you for reminding folks of another simple thing that seems to be falling by the wayside. I can’t leave home without one!
Judy Bishop Jurek, Wharton County Electric Cooperative
Editor’s note: “An Ode to the Bandana” did not appear in all editions of Texas Co-op Power.
Pandemic Might Be Worse Today
I appreciated the article by Shannon Oelrich (“The Forgotten Pandemic,” August 2009 issue), which brought out many important facets about the 1918 pandemic. However, one important fact seems to have been omitted. As I understand, the virus actually began at Fort Riley, Kansas. When American soldiers went to Europe, they introduced the virus to the European continent. The virus then mutated into its most deadly form, and the returning soldiers brought back with them the more dangerous strain.
The lesson here is that the same critical result could apply to the H1N1 virus (swine flu). However, the world is much smaller today, and interaction between people around the world heightens the prospect of international exposure and the potential of a mutation may be greater than that of the 1918 virus.
Ramon C. Noches, Austin
Grandmother Survived 1918 Influenza
The article about “The Forgotten Pandemic” in the August 2009 issue reminded me of a story I heard my grandmother tell. She was born in 1904 and had “the influenza” as she called it, when she was 14, which would have been in 1918.
When Maggie Adeline (Hayes) Emerson had the influenza at 14, she was so ill that her parents took her to the hospital in Ada, Oklahoma. Maggie saw funerals every day from her room, but she remembered one day in particular when she watched six funeral processions go by in the same day. Thankfully she recovered, but came home to find that two of her friends had died.
Thank you for helping me to make a family connection to “The Forgotten Pandemic.”
Jan Greenlee Hayes, South Plains Electric Cooperative
