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AUSTIN
— As of Monday, Labor Day, anyone building or remodeling a home must have the
fruits of his labor inspected at least three times if the project does not
require inspection by a city building official.
Rural
and unincorporated areas have to date been able to escape the long arm of
code enforcement but the Texas Legislature has changed all that, at least for
home construction.
House
Bill 1038, passed by the 2007 Legislature, created a county inspection
program for all homes built or remodeled if the work was performed in
unincorporated areas or in cities that do not offer municipal inspections.
The
three new inspections include a foundation inspection before concrete is
poured, a framing and mechanical systems assessment before wallboard is
installed and a final inspection upon completion.
The
inspections must be performed by a fee inspector that is either a licensed
engineer, a registered architect, a professional Texas Real Estate Commission
inspector or a third party inspector certified by the Texas Residential
Construction Commission.
To
access a list of inspectors that have already registered with the commission,
visit cics.trcc.state.tx.us/login.aspx.
Commission
Executive Director Duane Waddill said the new program works toward providing
quality construction for Texans by bridging an oversight gap that, until now,
existed for new homes or remodeling jobs where the home had no city inspector
to evaluate the work.
“This
program will ensure that inspections are performed throughout the state of
Texas, leveling the playing field for consumers,” Waddill said. “These
inspections will provide homebuyers in unincorporated areas or in cities that
do not offer municipal inspections with the protection that their home was
constructed with the same standards as a home within city limits.”
The
News Leader tried without success several times with questions for
Rep. Pete Gallego of Alpine but Sen. Carlos Uresti’s office responded
quickly.
“For a district as large and diverse as mine, it is crucial that
legislation preserves local input and control,’ he said. “Our state is too
big to use cookie cutter approaches and HB 1038, as passed, should prevent
that.
“I
will be monitoring its implementation to ensure that it strikes a balance
between regulation and economic growth,” he said.
Uresti’s office said new construction begun after Labor Day is
subject to the law as does any renovation “that changes the overall square
foot of a structure” or costs $10,000 or more.
The law does not affect construction that began before September
1. It only applies to construction or agreed contracts that become effective
after the effective date.
We asked
about the extra cost to rural communities far from a potential licensed inspector.
“There are a number of various
certified inspectors – both state employees and third-parties – located
across the state which can be found by visiting the Texas Residential
Construction Commission’s website,” a comment from Uresti’s office said.
Gas
leak interrupts commerce
ALPINE – Open valves on three Union Pacific tanker train cars bled
argon gas in Brewster County Saturday, causing more than 500 people to be
evacuated from eastern Alpine.
“We
evacuated homes, stores, motels and the dorms at Sul Ross,” Brewster County
Emergency Manager Tom Santry said. “The wind was blowing from the southeast
and we couldn’t take a chance.”
Clyde
Curry of Marathon, who was in route to Alpine Saturday morning, noticed a
large white cloud of gas escaping from the top of the tanker as the train chugged
west between Marathon and Alpine.
“I
drove down a ranch road about seven miles west of Marathon and parked my
truck about 50 yards from the tracks and waved down the train,” Curry said.
“I flashed my headlights and they acknowledged me. They slowed down but they
didn’t stop.
“I
didn’t have a cell phone so I raced into Alpine and called 911 from McCoy’s,”
Curry said. “Why they continued on to Alpine with a leaking tanker, I don’t
know.”
Sheriff
Ronny Dodson and local police stopped the train near the eastern city limits.
They
quickly shut down Old Marathon Road and the Cemetery Road before determining
that evacuation was necessary.
“Two
State Troopers came into the store about 12:15 and said we needed to evacuate,”
Holly Kelling, a sales associate at Johnson’s Feed Store said.
Argon
gas is an asphyxiate. It quickly absorbs oxygen and will take your breath
away but it is also inert.
The
gas is used in refrigeration and direct contact can also cause frostbite.
“We
were afraid the leaking gas could cause a torpedo effect and rupture the
tanks,” Dodson said. “There were other rail cars on that train with toxic
chemicals.
“The
Alpine Volunteer Fire Department sprayed down the leaking tanks,” he said.
“Then after some negotiation we got Union Pacific to back up the train. Their
Haz-mat team came out from El Paso to investigate.”
“They
[Union Pacific] said we were stopping commerce,’” Santry said. “But we didn’t
want them to take that train through town.”
The
6,200-foot-long train with 91 cars loaded the three tanker cars with argon
gas in Houston. It was destined for West Coltan, CA.
Union
Pacific spokesperson Raquel Espinoza said the gas leaked from valves on the
tanker cars because “they were not secured properly at loading.”
She
said the argon leak “began as the train approached Alpine.”
But
she said she didn’t know why the reaction was as great as it was.
“Argon
is a harmless gas and something we breathe everyday,” Espinoza said. “Local
officials erred on the side of caution.”
Dodson
planned an “after-action meeting” Tuesday at noon. “We want to determine why
the train made it into town,” he said.
The
Union Pacific also plans to review the incident.
“It’s
a learning opportunity for everyone involved. We plan to set-up a review,”
Espinoza said. “Its an opportunity to critique the Union Pacific and tell us
what we can do better in the future.”
The
real danger was not so much the Argon gas but the petroleum product tanker
cars behind it.
“Why
they continued on to Alpine with a leaking tanker, I don’t know,” Curry said.
Argon
gas is an asphyxiate. It quickly absorbs oxygen and will take your breath
away, but it is also inert.
Back
Put ‘ICE’ on cell phones
An e-mail making the rounds suggests
that people enter an “ICE” number, for “In Case of Emergency,” on their cell
phones.
The number could be for a spouse, a
friend or just someone to call if the person is in an accident and cannot
speak for himself.
The e-mail says the ICE was the idea
of a paramedic who found that, when he went to the scenes of accidents, there
were always cell phones with patients but the EMTs didn't know which number
to call.
He said an “ICE” message could save
valuable time or even a life.
The “ICE” contact should know things
about the person including medications, allergies and the like along with
next of kin.
For more than one contact, the
messages suggested they be listed as ICE1, ICE2 and so on.
Back
Bringing
the music back home
By CANDACE COOKSEY FULTON
Brownwood Bulletin
Reprinted with
Permission
The
1968 Sanderson Eagle Band earned “Sweepstakes,” an accomplishment very rare
and perhaps singular up to that point in the history of Sanderson High School
and not repeated too very often since.
I
think I’ve mentioned before, I was a bad saxophone player in the band.
In
fact, the band marched a nine-by-nine and I’m sure if it had been possible
for our young just-out-of-McMurry band director Kirke McKenzie to find an
82nd kid with any musical talent whatsoever, I’d have been relegated to the
sideline as an “alternate.”
My
brother Eric Cooksey, however, was — without question — the best in the band.
Eric,
a senior in 1968, played cornet. Actually, he still does.
I
don’t write about Eric often. He’s shy and, though he grew up to be a nice,
fairly patient individual, I remember too well my amazing ability for ticking
him off.
I
was at the peak of my “irritating Eric” skills in 1965-’66 when I was an
eighth-grader and Eric was a sophomore.
We
had our share of problems anyway that year. Our dad, the Terrell County
sheriff, had been shot and critically wounded and was in the hospital for
months.
Our
mother and baby sister were with him and our grandmother was trying to ride
herd over the four older Cooksey children, age 2 to 15.
You
all know the code of the west — that a West Texas boy, a sheriff’s kid,
should probably have been playing football. But for numerous reasons, that
wasn’t the scenario.
I
don’t know how much of all of that Kirke McKenzie realized.
He
might have just figured if he was going to be band director, he was going to
need a strong cornet player and, since one wasn’t right there, he’d take a
120-pound sophomore with an attitude and teach him to play the cornet well.
Being
in band isn’t just about playing an instrument well. It’s learning to stand
straight and polish brass buttons on a band uniform.
It’s
learning to have pride, and working hard to be good enough at something you
can be proud of.
It’s
about being a part of something bigger than yourself.
I
remember our Veterans Day halftime show in 1967 when they darkened the field
and Kirke McKenzie read “In Flanders’ Fields” over the loudspeaker.
Then
they spotlighted the center of the field where each band member had planted a
small white cross and stepped away so the field replicated the World War I
graveyard.
As
a finale, Eric played “Taps” from one bank of the field and, from the
opposite bank, Vernon Munson played the echo.
We
learned lots of good-to-know-in-life kinds of things in band. My brother
learned a life skill.
Eric
became a musician and played in bands in lots of po’ dunk and some fairly
impressive places, managed a music store for a long while and about 11 years
ago started teaching music at Bel Air High School in El Paso.
This
fall, he’ll be the director of music education at Sanderson, a program that
has dwindled to about 25 students, too few for an impressive halftime show.
Eric
agonized over for the decision for weeks. We, his siblings weren’t altogether
encouraging with our, “You can’t go home again” warnings.
Our
younger brother cautioned, “Remember, Sanderson doesn’t have fancy
restaurants, concerts or anything else to do besides the Fourth of July.”
But
he also remembered, “Oh wait, you don’t go to fancy restaurants or concerts
and, every Fourth of July, you go to Sanderson.”
The
rumor was Terrell County schools would have to discontinue its music program
unless they could find someone to fill the position. That, more than
anything, sealed his decision.
“I
couldn’t let that happen on my watch,” Eric said. “I couldn’t let the place
where I began my musical education go without a musical program.”
I
didn’t write this column just to say how proud I am of my brother. The
message is between the lines and it is for teachers everywhere who wonder if
they make a difference.
Sometimes,
a small encouragement and a suggestion of need are a difference that blooms
some 40 years later.
Please
believe it.
Candace
Cooksey Fulton is a staff writer and columnist for the Brownwood Bulletin,
where this column originally appeared on July 27. She is a 1970 graduate of
Sanderson High School, and a former editor of “The Claw.”
Back
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“I
will be monitoring its implementation to ensure that it strikes a balance
between regulation and economic growth,” he said.
Uresti’s office said new construction begun after Labor Day is
subject to the law as does any renovation “that changes the overall square
foot of a structure” or costs $10,000 or more.
The law does not affect
construction that began before September 1. It only applies to construction
or agreed contracts that become effective after the effective date.
Kids
given ‘hot air’
By KIM RAPP
News Leader Production Manager
MARATHON
– The students of Marathon ISD were treated to a close up look at a hot-air
balloon last week, courtesy of the Texas Propane Educational & Marketing
Foundation.
Phillip
Bryant and his crew of Mike Terry and Rick Hatzel from Austin were on their
way to the Labor Day Balloon Bash in Alpine and stopped by to show the kids
how it’s done.
There
was about a 20-minute window where the kids could see the Propane balloon inflated
and the crew quickly blew it up. But winds forced them to fold it up again.
The
team goes around to different schools in the area to educate about the uses
of propane.
There
are propane-powered vehicles and more houses are being built with propane for
heating the house as well as hot water instead of electricity.
The
students asked questions about the huge balloon such as “how do you use the
bathroom?”
“Well,”
Bryant said with a smile, “we go before we take off.”
He
told the kids that sometimes they go up in a balloon and stay for two or
three days and then they have a bucket for that purpose.
Bryant
explained to the crowd that there is no way to steer the balloon and that
they “go where the wind takes them.”
The
change in density of the air in the envelope is what makes the balloon elevate,
he said.
Hot
air is less dense than colder air so, by heating the air, it becomes less
dense and the balloon goes up.
They
send a small balloon filled with helium to watch and track its travels and
then they program data into the computer and it reveals wind turbulence and
other information for flying.
Some
instruments used include an altimeter, Global Positioning system receiver,
hand held radios and computers.
Mustang
Propane owner Ruben Ortega was on hand to help tether the gas bag while the
winds were tossing it to and fro.
Though
tethered to two trucks and two men holding the lines, Bryant explained that
the balloon could actually lift the trucks off the ground.
Bryant
told the students that although flying was fun, safety is everything.
Sometimes
they plan a flight and Mother Nature changes their plans, as she did in Alpine
last weekend for the Big Bend Balloon Bash.
Winds
and low clouds kept the balloons on the ground Saturday morning as they
prepared to launch at Sierra La Rana south of town.
A
few balloons did manage to take to the skies Sunday and Monday.
Back
Big
Bend Balloon Bash busted
ALPINE
– The Big Bend Balloon Bash got off to a slow start last weekend when winds
and low clouds kept the entrants on the ground Saturday and only a handful
took to the skies Sunday and Monday.
About
17 balloonists showed up for flight at the 13th Annual Big Bend Balloon Bash
here but Mother Nature said no flying.
But
that did not stop at least some of the crowd from having a good time anyway.
On
Sunday, there was about a 20-minute window and four balloons took advantage
of the small chance to get airborne.
Sunday
evening there was a “fire concert” at Buck Stadium where the balloons orchestrated
a concert, so to speak, with the propane burners.
Pilot
Phil Bryant said the weather was “beautiful” on Monday and they enjoyed another
ride.
At
the site at Sierra La Rana south of here, there was music provided by DJ
Jacob Stringer of Odessa.
The
GFWC Woman’s Club in Alpine offered donuts and coffee for sale, local restaurant
Alpine City Limits had burritos and other delicacies for sale and there was
even a clown.
David
Gish was on hand making animals for the younger crowd from small, rubber balloons.
At
9 a.m. a couple was married in the balloon basket of the “Too Much Fun”
balloon club. They were supposed to take their vows in flight but were unable
to because of the weather.
Balloon
burners provided a backdrop to the grounded wedding.
Balloon
groupie Tara Wein of Odessa was on hand to help in any way she could.
She
travels to different balloon shows and said she “absolutely loves it.”
The
High School geometry teacher has attended about 20 or more balloon events
over the past five years and the self- proclaimed “balloon stalker” goes to
as many events as she can.
“It
is not uncommon to cancel a flight, but for the whole weekend event to be
canceled is highly unlikely,” she told the News Leader.
Back
Dawson worker dies
FORT
STOCKTON – Edsel Garcia Acosta 30, an employee of Dawson Geophysical Company
and a resident of Fort Stockton, was found dead at the Piñon Gas Field 25
miles north of Marathon in southern Pecos County last week.
Acosta
was working the night shift as a gate guard when his body was found.
“There
are no signs of foul play,” Pecos County Sheriff Cliff Harris said. “Men came
through the gate and he was fine. They came back 30 minutes later and he was
dead.”
An
autopsy was being performed in El Paso to determine the cause of death.
Back
Friends
of Marathon Library News
By ARLENE GRIFFIS
Library Friend
MARATHON
– The rain we have been receiving recently has been great for many reasons,
not the least of which is that it makes for ideal reading conditions.
I
can imagine few things more enjoyable than lying in my front porch swing with
a roof over my head to deflect the rain, yet being so close that I can reach
out and touch the raindrops from time to time.
We
have even had a few afternoons with temperatures cool enough to send me
inside in search of a blanket, and in August, no less.
The
book I am going to review this week is “How Perfect Is That” by Austin-based
writer Sarah Bird.
If
parts of this sound vaguely familiar to you, that is because Sarah was one of
our featured authors at the Way Out West Texas Book Festival in August and I
briefly touched on this novel, which is her latest work, when I was
spotlighting the festival authors in this space.
At
that time, however, I had not actually read the book in its entirety so, now
that I have, I would like to write a bit more about it.
Also,
during the festival I had the opportunity to get to know Sarah a little
better and to meet her husband George and her son Gabriel, whom together she
dubs her “G-men.”
I
had the privilege of introducing Sarah before her session at the book
festival, in which she had her audience practically rolling in the
aisles.
The
topic of her talk revolved around creating humorous fictional characters and,
let me tell you, in “How Perfect Is That,” she does not fail to deliver.
A description of the book from the publicist states that “How Perfect
is That” is the story of Blythe Young—a
wannabe Texas princess, a heroine as plucky, driven and desperate as Vanity
Fair’s Becky Sharp—is plummeting precipitously from up- to downstairs,
banging her head on every step of the Austin social ladder as she falls.
Not unlike the country as a whole, Blythe has surrendered to a
multitude of dubious moral choices and is now facing the disastrous
consequences: bankruptcy, public humiliation, a teensy fondness for the pharmaceuticals
and no Pap smear for ten years.
But worst of all, she is forced to move back into the fleabag
co-op boardinghouse where she lived when she was a student at the University
of Texas.
One thing that Bird included in her session on creating a
humorous character is that sometimes you end up with an unlikeable character
and that, as an author, you have to decide whether or not that works.
While Bird herself seemed to feel that most readers would find
Blythe Young not only unlikeable but reprehensible, it was the opinion of
several in the audience who had read the book that Blythe was more
misunderstood than mean or selfish.
After reading the book myself, I have to agree. To understand Blythe, it is necessary to
look at every facet of her persona through every single phase of her life.
Although Blythe’s most recent years before her fall from grace
reads like an episode of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” she has also
been through periods of what sounded more like “My Big Redneck Wedding.”
Although the heroine at times seems heartless and self-centered,
the reader finds that she is able to be genuine and a real team player when
it really counts.
As the story unfolds, I saw Blythe’s character evolving on every
page. As the avid reader that I am, I enjoy the writing style of the author
almost as much as the story itself so, every time I read a book, I like to
spend some time thinking about what this author did so well that perhaps sets
him or her apart from the crowd.
In the case of “How Perfect Is That,” I felt that Bird had
almost written me into the novel as a silent observer by creating in me a
sensation of submersion, so much so that, as I was forming in my own mind
what it meant to be Blythe Young, I felt that Blythe herself was making that
same discovery along with me.
As you know if you have read Sarah Bird’s other novels or her
Texas Monthly magazine column, she is quite a wordsmith.
I don’t feel that she writes over her audience’s head
deliberately but she sometimes delights us with words we don’t hear when
reading the comics or surfing the internet.
I consider myself to have a better-than-average vocabulary but I
don’t mind admitting that I find it helpful to have a dictionary nearby when
reading anything Sarah writes. That is part of what makes her writing style
so unique.
I like humor in general, whether it is in the form of books,
movies, e-mail jokes or whatever, but Sarah’s style of humor is different because
she doesn’t just make me laugh. She makes me think.
Happy
Reading.
Arlene
Griffis is a volunteer at Marathon Public Library, which is a branch of
Alpine Public Library.
Back
‘Goofus
glass’ exhibition opens
ALPINE
– “Goofus Glass” from the Yana and Marty Davis Collection will be on
exhibition at the Museum of the Big Bend beginning tomorrow, Sept. 6.
Sul
Ross State University graduate student Elizabeth Jackson will present the exhibit,
which was given to the museum in October, 2006.
When
he made the gift, Marty Davis
requested that the collection be made available to students for this purpose.
Commonly
confused with other glass forms, Goofus Glass was manufactured at the turn of
the century and only lasted until the early 1920s.
Goofus
is a cold-painted and molded glass that is considered one of the last American
handicrafts in the glass industry because each piece was hand-painted.
So
why is it called Goofus Glass? The paint on the glass has a tendency to
chip off and collectors claim a lady once remarked, “Oh! They are just trying
to goof [fool] us.”
Goofus
Glass was extremely popular as promoters bought it “by the barrels,”
collector, David Ballentine said.
The
main buyers were businesses, not household consumers.
Promoters
for carnivals, medicine show owners, movie houses and filling stations purchased
Goofus as incentives for buying other products.
“Buy
10 gallons and get a bowl and a plate,” a typical offer said. “Buy a movie
ticket and get a bowl.”
Goofus
Glass was given away at almost every sort of business.
The
market soon became flooded and many pieces found their way into attics or
boxed up in a garage.
Museum
hours are 9 a.m. to 5 pm. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Admission
is free but donations are welcomed.
For more information,
call 432/837-8143.
Back
|
We asked
about the extra cost to rural communities far from a potential licensed inspector.
“There
are a number of various certified inspectors – both state employees and third-parties
– located across the state which can be found by visiting the Texas
Residential Construction Commission’s website,” a comment from Uresti’s
office said.
Back
Longhorn
Museum opens
By MARK GLOVER
Marathon News Leader
LAJITAS
– Under a moonless evening sky, longhorn aficionados stood on the patio of
the Old Lajitas Trading Post as the Texas Longhorn Museum officially opened
Saturday night here with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Rita Yates, widow
of third generation longhorn rancher Fayette Yates.
Fayette’s
grandparents, Ira and Ann Yates, namesakes of that famous conjuncted Texas
town, Iraan, bought rough country along the Pecos River in 1915 and barely
survived with their nine children until 1926 when black crude bubbled out of
their ground.
Instantly
rich, they focused on their first love, ranching, and their favorite breed,
the endangered Texas Longhorn.
Shipped
over the Atlantic in the belly of Spanish Galleons, the longhorn was introduced
to America at the port of Vera Cruz on Mexico’s east coast in about 1521.
Gnarly
and un-keen to be domesticated, many feraled and worked the low shrub and cactus
country with their long legs and nearly hairless bellies north and east up to
Texas.
Multiplying
profusely in a fenceless land, they used their horns to fend off predators
like the big cats and grey wolves of the time.
They
became part of the territory and their hides, originally black from Spain,
mutated, turning out brindles, speckles, reds and whites that blended with
the earth and rock.
They
became regular denizens in northern Mexico and were known as “Corrientes,” a
Spanish word meaning “common.”
At
the age of 12, in post-civil war Texas, Ira ran longhorns more than once up
the Goodnight-Loving trail to Dodge City where buyers bid cattle, primarily
for tallow and hides, because meat and refrigeration had not yet co-mingled
successfully.
Up
to 1890, it’s estimated that 10 million of the feral beasts were rounded up
by free-lancing cowboys and driven north to the slaughterhouses.
New
breeds gened into existence with more grease and larger hides.
These
hybrids such as Charolais, Hereford and Santa Gertrudis displaced the pure
scrawny Texas Longhorn, quickening its route to oblivion.
Ira’s
son Cap, born in 1886 and buried in a rock mausoleum, allegedly standing up
near the top of a peak in the Glass Mountains, was a main part of the family
effort to preserve the Texas Longhorn.
Finding
few pure strains in the southwest, Cap traveled to Mexico and rounded up descendants
of those first four-legged Spaniards that walked down the gangway onto the
docks of the Americas nearly 400 years earlier with the Conquistadores.
Cap’s
eventual 1,500-strong longhorn herd became the seed stock for most of the
Texas Longhorn living today.
Cap’s
son, Fayette Yates, continued the family tradition, keeping records, becoming
the first charter member of the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of
America and collecting horn specimens that were revealed Saturday night at
the Old Lajitas Trading Post.
What
other state would have a museum dedicated to cow horns?
Outside,
under the patio’s ramada, the two-piece “Bent Lovehandles” band covers
country songs while the beer flows.
With
the ribbon cut, longhorn lovers herd into the old adobe to discover walls covered
head to toe in skull racks, pure horns and stuffed bevos taking half a room.
There
are more than 500 sets of horns in the five-room museum, excluding the bathrooms
where you can also find them on the walls, light fixtures and in the mirrors.
There
is longhorn furniture in the corner but the toilets are white porcelain.
Steers
are the biggest part of the collection. Once castrated, nature pacifies the
neutered beast by allowing the horns to grow extreme, some with spans beyond
a fathom.
It
is a great display of calcium but I am later informed that it’s only the horn
cap that is similar to our fingernails in mineral content.
Inside,
the horn cap is bone, protecting a vestibule of blood that, under certain conditions,
can light up from a St. Elmo’s fire, a devilish turbine of static,
electrifying a herd of cattle, trailing through a dark desert in a primal display
of nature’s authority.
I
step back from the wall and look for the shrimp cocktail.
The
Texas Twist, as it is known, is part of the art of the horn.
“Twisted
like taffy,” John Galle, a former director of the Texas Longhorn Registry and
a friend of the late Fayette Yates, says.
Studied
closely you can see the growth lines in the horns spiraling laterally from
the poll, stretching, bending, twisting, out and up.
“Bass
Brothers bred for the longest horns on their south Texas ranches,” he says
with a quirked eyebrow. “They got ’em long but they didn’t have the twist.”
He
puts his hand to his mouth and lowers his voice.
“That
don’t count.”
Together
we search for bull horns and find only three in the collection.
They
have a slight hook, curved forward at the tips and are short in comparison to
the steers and cows.
“Imagine
those matadors.” Galle pumps his fist into his stomach.
In
the main room a set of horns curved backwards like a ram, but wider and more
irregular, the right horn higher with a tight curve and the left horn
truncated abruptly – a Texas Twist gone mad.
“Lightening,”
Galle says.
Some
of the horns on display are over 100 years old, but most are much younger.
“I
knew this one,” Frank Sharp says. He is a Texas Longhorn breeder with a ranch
outside of Brownwood.
He
follows the growth line of the horn from his old friend as it double twists
to the tip. Then he pulls the horn cap off and shows the white calcified bone
underneath.
“You
can always tell if the caps are original,” Sharp says. “They have to fit just
right.”
In
front of the roast beef, I meet Rita Yates and ask if it’s true that her
father-in-law Cap Yates was buried standing up in a mausoleum inside a mountain.
“Standing
up?” She questions. “I don’t know about that. I mean why?”
She
searches my face for an answer then says, “But he is buried in a rock
mausoleum in the Glass Mountains.”
She
shows me a painting, signed, Eva Lena Hill, 1960. A blue-gray triple peak
shaped like a cathedral centers the oil painting with a white caliche road
leading up to a dark cleft in the limestone just below the peaks and in the
brush below a white longhorn feeds.
“That’s
where he’s buried,” she says, pointing to the cleft. “They were digging his
hole before he died.”
I
head toward the bar. There’s a lot of tucked in shirts and big belt buckles,
women in tight fitting blue jeans and a few children overcome with the adult curiosity
in horns.
Dallas
oilman, host and proprietor of the collection and owner of the Lajitas
Resort, Kelsey Warren, mingles confidently in the crowd.
The
ever-ready operator of the resort, Edwin Leslie, stands near the door with a
walkie-talkie at his mouth.
A
young UT Austin student explains to me how his English professor is using “Alice in Wonderland” as a metaphor
and guide for students to find themselves.
And
later amongst the longhorns I hear someone mutter.
“Personally
I’m a Hereford man.”
Out
on the patio, the Modelo’s cold, people are visiting and the band is playing
“Whisky River.” The sweet scent of wet creosote floats in the air.
Straight
out, across the river, a Mexican mountain looms dark and a night hawk dips
below a floodlight.
In
the distance a lone cow bawls.
Texas.
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Sullivan reappointed to committee
ALPINE
– Sul Ross State University professor of Education Dr. Kip Sullivan has been
reappointed to the Higher Education Committee of the Texas Association of
School Administrators.
The
11-member panel is responsible for developing recommendations to the TASA
Executive Committee and staff regarding areas of study, projects and programs
that should be considered by the association.
The
committee, working with the Texas Council of Professors of Educational Administration
and TASA, has established a conference within a conference for professors and
graduate students during the January Midwinter Administrators Conference in
Austin.
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Fossil
named for SR director
ALPINE
– A new species of a 425-million-year-old snail has been named Haplospira
craigi in honor Kendall Craig, head of the Science Initiative at Sul Ross
State University.
Sul
Ross Professor of Geology Dr. David Rohr chose the name for a rare shell from
Alaska, writing in the Journal of Paleontology.
Rohr
wrote that the group of snails to which the new species belongs is unusual
because it is found in the Czech Republic, but is not known to occur anywhere
in North America.
Because
of the type of preservation, it was possible to etch the fossil from the
limestone matrix with acid and preserve the fine details.
Rohr
named the species after Craig because of Craig’s interest in modern marine
invertebrates.
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Endowment
established
at
Sul Ross
ALPINE
– Sul Ross State University graduates Baldemar and Araceli Garza of Rio
Grande City have established a scholarship endowment at their alma mater.
The
Baldemar and Araceli B. Garza Academic Scholarship Endowment and Fund will
initially provide one $1,000 scholarship per academic year with $500 to be
awarded each in the fall and spring semesters.
Applicants
must be undergraduates who have completed at least 60 semester credit hours,
be full-time students in good standing, maintain a minimum 12 semester credit
hour load and a grade point average of 3.0 or higher for continued
eligibility.
Award
recipients are eligible to re-apply.
The
fund’s income and the University Scholarship Committee will determine the
number and amount of scholarships to be awarded each year.
“The
Garzas’ gift is another generous indication of the positive sentiments countless
graduates feel for their Sul Ross experiences,” said Sul Ross President R.
Vic Morgan. “We are grateful for this endowment, which provides additional
opportunities for present and future students.”
Sul
Ross endowments now approach $13 million with 215 separate endowments.
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Fans need split personality
GRANDFALLS – It will be brother versus brother and coach versus
former coach when the Sanderson Eagles take the field here tonight, Sept. 5,
against the Grandfalls-Royalty Cowboys.
On
the hometown sidelines will be new Cowboy defensive coordinator John
Benavidez, staring across the field at little brother Jacob wearing orange
and black as the Eagle’s starting quarterback.
Beside
the older Benavidez on the Cowboy sidelines will be former Sanderson Coach Art
Rodriguez, now the head coach of the Cowboys.
Eddie
and Dora Benavidez of Sanderson will need split personalities.
Not
only are they the parents of the Benavides brothers but Eddie is vice
president of the Terrell County School Board and Dora the librarian aide at
Sanderson Elementary School.
Both
teams are going for their first win of the new season.
Sanderson
lost to Grady 34-30 last week while Balmorhea downed the Cowboys by a similar
score of 38-32.
Go,
Eagles, er, Cowboys.
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