Count on Lineworkers
Electric co-ops proudly celebrate their lineworkers, even proclaiming the second Monday in April—April 11 this year—as National Lineworker Appreciation Day.
Co-op members, too, are quick to look up to lineworkers.
When we asked readers to finish this sentence—“The hardest job in the world has to be …”—Pablo Sanchez, a Magic Valley Electric Cooperative member, was the first to respond: “Being a lineman during cold weather. Knowing someone is counting on Magic Valley to keep us warm.”
Don’t be caught off guard when disaster strikes: Have supplies on hand. And remember that hurricane season starts June 1.
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Emergency Tax Break
Texas merchants will participate in a sales tax holiday for emergency preparation supplies this month, allowing tax-free purchases of items that can alleviate hardships after natural disasters like hurricanes, flash floods and wildfires.
More than a dozen products, such as portable generators, hurricane shutters, batteries and fire extinguishers, can be purchased without incurring sales tax April 23–25. Details are available at comptroller.texas.gov.
Cheers!
April 7 is National Beer Day. Celebrating is easy: Texas Feels a Draft from January 2020 includes a map of 96 craft breweries in mostly rural and suburban Texas.
Worth Repeating
“Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”
— Thomas Edison
Guard Against Surges
Your electric cooperative reminds you of two ways you can protect electronics in your home from power surges: using power strips that include surge protection and installing a whole-home surge protector.
Have You Heard?
Before the Industrial Revolution, roughly 1760–1840, the principal sources of loud noise were thunder, church bells and cannon fire.
Quinn’s Quest
The oldest historically Black liberal arts college in Texas was founded 150 years ago this month.
Paul Quinn College opened April 4, 1872, in Austin before relocating to Waco a few years later and then to Dallas in 1990.
The school’s original purpose was to educate formerly enslaved people and their children.
Brooklyn via Texas
This month marks 75 years since Jackie Robinson became the first Black baseball player in modern major league history. But before his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, Robinson was a basketball coach in Texas.
After leaving the Army and Fort Hood, Robinson jumped at the chance to coach at Austin’s Samuel Huston College, now Huston-Tillotson University. His stay lasted just one season, 1944–45, before his baseball career took off.
The university has no photos or detailed records of that basketball team, but sources have said it lost more than it won.
