Texas Co-Op Power • December 2020

2012_local covers custom.qxp 11/11/20 2:11 PM Page 7 GERMANS TRANSFORM GIVING TEXANS HOLIDAY MEAL HiLL COUNtry tHE HEAvENS MAiN EvENt FOr PEDErNALES EC MEMbErS DECEMbEr 2020 Sweet Life Panaderías serve up pan dulce and traditions held dear in Mexican American culture ENROLL IN PEC’S POWER OF CHANGE PROGRAM SEE PAgE 18 PLUS 20 Create a Safe and Efficient Holiday Lights Display 21 Enter PEC’s Home Holiday Lights Contest 22 Access PEC’s New EmpowerU Education Program Online contents December 2020 04 currents The latest buzz 06 tcP talk Readers respond 18 co-op news Information plus energy and safety tips from your cooperative 29 Footnotes in texas History He Gave Us the Stars By W.F. Strong 30 tcP Kitchen The Main Event By Megan Myers 34 Hit the road Ghost Town Hangout 12 By Chet Garner 08 37 Focus on texas Sweet Burgs in a Photo Contest: Memories New Land On Wheels visits to panaderías for pan A wave of German immigrants dulce create cherished family 175 years ago transformed 38 observations bonds for mexican Americans. the texas hill Country. Hooked on Worms By Tom Widlowski By Vianney Rodriguez By Dan Oko Photos by Eric W. Pohl Illustration by David Vogin Illustration by Tim Carroll On the COver vianney rodriguez with her favorite pan dulce selections. Photo by Jason David Page AbOve traces of German culture in the hill Country. Illustration by David Vogin texAsCOOppOwer.COm deCember 2020 TEXAS COOP POWER 3 Currents “Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.” —CHarles m. sCHUlz Park Pride texas has two of the best state parks in the country. Palo duro Canyon state Park, in the panhandle, and Brazos Bend state Park, about 45 miles southwest of downtown houston, rank second and third according to a national rating by hometoGo. Looking Brighter as the Northern sure, nigHts Are getting longer Hemisphere approaches the winter solstice, December 21 —but there’s a bright side. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, holiday lighting makes American suburbs up to 50% brighter than usual, even after midnight, The New York Times reports. Those PAlo duro cAnyon stAte PArK strings of lights and blinking reindeer, which use enough electricity to power 800,000 homes for a year, can be observed from space. the vacation rental website ranked parks based on soli- start counting tude, activities, wildlife and you’d need 2,683 led lights on your roof for nearby accommodations. them to be seen from letchworth state Park in space, say researchers new York took the top spot. at england's University of leicester. spACe: serG-dAv | shutterstOCk.COm. stAte pArk: ChAse A. FOuntAIn | tpwd 4 TEXAS COOP POWER deCember 2020 texAsCOOppOwer.COm FinisH tHis sentence I WISH That Frozen I COULd ... tell us how you would finish Concoction that sentence. email your short responses to letters@texas , Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville peaked at No. 8 Cooppower.com or comment on during tHe suMMer oF 1977 on the music charts. The defining song of his career has a place in the Grammy our Facebook post. Include your Hall of Fame for its cultural and historic significance. It tells of the first huge co-op and town. here are some wave of tourists to hit Key West, Florida, decades earlier and the laid-back of the responses to our October lifestyle they discovered. prompt: the best christmas gift And it was written in Austin. Buffett enjoyed the titular refreshing beverage i ever got was … in 1976 at Lung’s Cocina del Sur on Anderson Lane, which inspired him to wax lyrical at a friend’s house about “that frozen concoction that helps me hang on.” A majorette record player that my dad bought for me three days before he died. beCkY hOlzhAus m e d I n A e C CAstrOvIlle when the neurologist removed a tumor from my son’s pituitary gland in his brain and found no cancer. F r A n b A C A C O s e r v CrOss rOAds my brothers coming home from world war II and the korean war. d O n m A s O n heArt OF texAs eC G At e s v I l l e my adopted son, born dec. 22 and received in our arms dec. 26. dee susAn mAGellA AzeredO vIA FACebOOk my brother, who was born on Christmas eve 1957. w. GrAnt brAlY GuAdAlupe vAlleY eC C u e r O A texas-shaped waffle maker. I was so happy I cried. susAn prOkOsCh vIA FACebOOk z did you Know? to see more responses, read oh, and Buffett turns Currents online. 74 on Christmas day. Contests and More let’s all send him shakers of salt. on texAscooPPower.coM $500 reciPe contest potluck dishes Focus on texAs PHotos storms web extrA how ut’s mcdonald Observatory mArGArItA: edFOtO | dreAmstIme.COm. buFFett: AmAndA edwArds | GettY ImAGes. stOrm: vAldezrl | dOllAr phOtO Club grants visitors access to the cosmos. texAsCOOppOwer.COm deCember 2020 TEXAS COOP POWER 5 TCP Talk why Horses wear shoes “I was reminded of my great- grandfather Smith. He was the town’s blacksmith and farrier back in Pennsylvania. His forge was fired with Pennsylvania coal. ” f r a n k o T T ConCHo valley eC e o l a krIstIn tYler co-ops count encountering srv bittersweet Keepsake Who knew our electric employees “are I was a limo driver in the The best Christmas gift I ever so much more than power providers”? they wear shoes so 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. One got was a cassette player with How can so few get so much done in all they don’t hurt their of the approximately 100 a cassette still in it, which my types of weather year after year, often feet when kicking celebrities I met was Stevie parents had used Christmas under treacherous conditions [By the their owners [Why Ray Vaughan [Letters, Eve while setting out presents Horses Wear Shoes, Numbers, October 2020]? [Finish This Sentence, Octo- October 2020]. October 2020]. I picked him and his mother up in Oak ber 2020]. On the cassette they bObbY bArrOn Jane patterson vIA FACebOOk Cliff. This was the same were laughing, joking and bowie-Cass eC month that he died in the talking about us three girls. I texarkana helicopter crash. never told them about the cassette, nor did I tell my younger vance k. Apple sisters. I am the oldest of three Coserv girls and was 10 then. Frisco The reason this is so very special is that on March 30, 1975, just three months later, Daddy was murdered, and those were the only words write to us I could hold and continue [email protected] to have of him. My youngest sister was only 2, and for her editor, texas Co-op power 1122 Colorado st., 24th Floor these were the only words Austin, tx 78701 she would ever hear from her father. Please include your electric co-op and town. letters may be edited for clarity and length. dedria tanton sam houston eC shAw nIelsen texas Co-op power rye texAs electric cooPerAtives boArd oF directors texas co-op power volume 77, number 6 (usps 540-560). Texas Co-op Power is published chair robert loth III, Fredericksburg • vice chair Gary raybon, el Campo monthly by texas electric Cooperatives (teC). periodical postage paid at Austin, tx, and at additional secretary-treasurer kelly lankford, san Angelo • board Members Greg henley, tahoka offices. teC is the statewide association representing 75 electric cooperatives.Texas Co-op Power’s website is texasCooppower.com. Call (512) 454-0311 or email [email protected]. billy Jones, Corsicana • david mcGinnis, van Alstyne • doug turk, livingston subscriPtions subscription price is $4.20 per year for individual members of subscribing coop- President/ceo mike williams, Austin eratives and is paid from equity accruing to the member. If you are not a member of a subscribing coMMunicAtions & MeMber services coMMittee cooperative, you can purchase an annual subscription at the nonmember rate of $7.50. Individual marty haught, burleson • bill hetherington, bandera • ron hughes, sinton copies and back issues are available for $3 each. boyd mcCamish, littlefield • John ed shinpaugh, bonham • robert walker, Gilmer PostMAster send address changes to Texas Co-op Power (usps 540-560), 1122 Colorado st., buff whitten, eldorado • brandon Young, mcGregor 24th Floor, Austin, tx 78701. please enclose label from this copy of Texas Co-op Power showing old address and key numbers. MAgAzine stAFF Advertising Advertisers interested in buying display ad space in Texas Co-op Power and/or in vice President, communications & Member services martin bevins our 30 sister publications in other states, contact elaine sproull at (512) 486-6251. Advertisements editor Charles J. lohrmann • Associate editor tom widlowski in Texas Co-op Power are paid solicitations. the publisher neither endorses nor guarantees in any Production Manager karen nejtek • creative Manager Andy doughty manner any product or company included in this publication. product satisfaction and delivery re- Advertising Manager elaine sproull • senior communications specialist Chris burrows sponsibility lie solely with the advertiser. © Copyright 2020 texas electric Cooperatives Inc. repro- Print Production specialist Grace Fultz • communications specialist travis hill duction of this issue or any portion of it is expressly prohibited without written permission. willie Food editor megan myers • communications specialist Jessica ridge wiredhand © Copyright 2020 national rural electric Cooperative Association. digital content Producer Chris salazar • senior designer Jane sharpe Proofreader shannon Oelrich 6 TEXAS COOP POWER deCember 2020 texAsCOOppOwer.COm Bad to the Bone Full tang stainless steel blade with natural bone handle —now ONLY $79! he very best hunting knives possess a perfect balance of form and Tfunction.

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