Sly Catchers How the Big Thicket's carnivorous plants trap and feast on tiny victims
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RECYCLING AN JAPANESE AMERICANS FOCUSING ON
AIRCRAFT CARRIER TO THE RESCUE FIRST RESPONDERS
F O R E L E C T R I C C O O P E R AT I V E M E M B E R S FEBRUARY 2023
Sly
Catchers
How the Big Thicket’s
carnivorous plants
trap and feast
on tiny victims
contents
February 2023
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
Rescue of the
Lost Battalion
By W.F. Strong
30 TCP Kitchen
Cupcakes
By Megan Myers
34 Hit the Road
Important Entry
12
By Chet Garner
37
08 Caught Breaking Up
Focus on Texas
Photo Contest:
First Responders
Cuisine Sailors offer bon voyage and
38
watch the USS Kitty Hawk’s
Four of the five species of final journey—to a South Observations
carnivorous plants in the U.S. Texas recycling yard. T-Shirt Weather
are found in the Big Thicket. By Lori Grossman
By Eileen Mattei
By Pam LeBlanc Photos by John Faulk
Photos by Dave Shafer
ON THE COVER
A pitcher plant awaits
its next meal.
Photo by Dave Shafer
ABOVE
Bob Hope entertains
aboard the USS Kitty Hawk
in the Philippines in 1962.
Photo by Corbis | Getty
Images
T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 3
Currents
Walk This Way
HOW’S THIS for a carbon footprint?
The state’s severe drought last summer mostly dried up the Paluxy
River that runs through Dinosaur Valley State Park, exposing dinosaur
FINISH THIS
tracks from around 113 million years ago. SENTENCE
Scientists say 15-foot-tall Acrocanthosaurus left tracks in sediment
that hardened into what is now limestone in the park, about 60 miles RAINY DAYS
southwest of Fort Worth. MAKE ME …
Tell us how you would finish that
sentence. Email your short responses
to letters@TexasCoopPower.com or
comment on our Facebook post.
Include your co-op and town.
Below are some of the responses
to our December prompt: I can’t
believe I used to wear …
Bib overalls, no shirt, a straw hat
and I went barefoot.
OTIS LINAM
VICTORIA EC
VICTORIA
Blue suede cowboy boots.
L E O N C A S TA N E D A J R .
PA N O L A - H A R R I S O N E C
MARSHALL
White lipstick in the ’60s—and
we thought we looked good.
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GWEN SPIESS
BLUEBONNET EC
BRENHAM
Underwear with no slot in front—
made by my mom from flour sacks.
JAC K H OWA R D
WOOD COUNTY EC
WINNSBORO
Parachute pants.
GLENN QUESENBERRY
H A M I LT O N C O U N T Y E C
HICO
Leisure suits and platform shoes.
JOHN MONK
U N I T E D C O O P E R AT I V E S E R V I C E S
GODLEY
Visit our website to see more responses.
4 T E X AS C O - O P POW ER FEBRUARY 2023 T E X ASC O O P POWER .C O M
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988 Saves Lives
PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP or counseling in a crisis can now call or text
988 to reach the national suicide prevention lifeline from anywhere in
the U.S. The hope is that the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline becomes
synonymous with mental health care, just as 911 is with public safety.
Electrifying Suicide rates in rural America were 18.9 per 100,000 people compared
Fact
to 13.2 in urban areas in 2021, according to the National Institutes of
Health. And the difference in suicide rates between rural and urban
In 1935, when the Rural Electrification areas widened between 1999 and 2019.
Administration was established, Stress and anxiety from raising crops or livestock, depression from
just 1 in 10 U.S. farms received being in a remote setting, and the stigmatization of mental illness are
electricity. By 1947, electrification factors that sometimes lead to suicidal thoughts, according to Rural
had spread to more than half the Health Information.
farms in the country. Your electric
cooperative continues a tradition
that’s 88 years strong.
T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 5
TCP Talk
A Raw Deal
“My mom would make
meatloaf, and once all the
seasoning was mixed in,
she and I would eat a tiny
bite before she cooked it.”
BROOKE ZUCHA
COURTESY CHET GARNER
V I A FAC E B O O K
Fish Fanfare The Wonder of Waylon Under His Guidance
Nowadays the accepted way to display I like a rare steak, but The Arable Twos [November In 1980, Bill Steele took our
a bass is to grip it by the lower jaw and I’m not sure I could 2022] was happy, positive, coed Scout Explorer post
allow it to hang perfectly vertical [Lakes’ try this [A Raw Deal, beautifully written and, for and a few of us sponsors on
December 2022].
Allure, November 2022]. Alternatively, me, quite uplifting. I could a winter trip to Bustamante,
you can grip the lower jaw and support JANELLE picture Waylon doing all those Nuevo León, Mexico, to
OV E R H O U S E
it under the belly if you want to display V I A FA C E B O O K things Martha Deeringer so explore the caves there [Un-
it horizontally. perfectly described. It had me charted Territory, October
In either case, you do not want to twist smiling the entire time. 2022]. We learned so much
the fish’s jaw to force it open, as the two an- and have many great memo-
Art Farias
glers on Page 14 [below] seem to be doing. ries of that trip.
Pedernales EC
Lampasas
Alan Buckner Ed Palmer
CoServ Pedernales EC
The Colony Dripping Springs
We raised our two boys this
way (in Ohio, not Texas), and
These events have exploded I know this is how children be-
in popularity in the past 8–10 come accomplished and confi-
years and offer a great expe- dent men and women. Adults,
WRITE TO U S
rience for many kids who no matter what job they hold, letters@TexasCoopPower.com
don’t play traditional sports. have the roots that built them
You mentioned a few of the strong from childhood. Editor, Texas Co-op Power
1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor
organizations but left out the The story is worded so pro-
Austin, TX 78701
Southeast Texas High School foundly that it brought tears
COURTESY JULIAN CLEPPER
Fishing Association. to my eyes. Please include your electric
co-op and town. Letters may
Randy Hanna Jody Brown be edited for clarity and length.
Houston County EC Tri-County EC
Zavalla Perrin Texas Co-op Power
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B Y PA M L E B L A N C • P H O T O S B Y D AV E S H A F E R
Caught
Cuisine The Big Thicket’s four
species of carnivorous
plants entice then
consume unwary insects
H undreds of slender, funnel-shaped plants
line a boardwalk at Big Thicket National
Preserve, where I’m trailing biologist Andrew Bennett on
a warm April morning.
They look hungry.
The lime green, red-veined throats of the foot-tall plants
gape, like baby birds awaiting a worm delivery from a
parent. But these unusual plants have other plans for din-
ner: unsuspecting insects.
Four of the five types of carnivorous plants that grow in
North America—the pitcher plants we’re now admiring,
along with sundews, bladderworts and butterworts—are
found here and elsewhere in East Texas. (Venus’ flytraps,
whose eating parts resemble a hinged lima bean with teeth,
don’t grow in Texas; they’re endemic to the Carolinas.)
I’m on a quest to find all four Texas natives, and Bennett,
acting chief of resource management at Big Thicket, has
offered his help.
We’re off to a good start. We have no trouble finding these
trumpet-shaped pitcher plants, which grow by the thou-
sands along the mile-long, aptly named Pitcher Plant Trail
in the Turkey Creek Unit of the 113,000-acre preserve.
Carnivorous plants, Bennett says, thrive in soils that are cross between a Venus’ flytrap and a butterwort, and it
low in nutrients. They’re not endangered, but they do require needed human blood—not just a few insects—to survive.
a very specific habitat, and these East Texas bogs provide it. Unlike Audrey Jr., pitcher plants don’t feed on humans. They
First, pitcher plants need wetlands. The groundwater in don’t use quick movements to hunt their food, either. And
this part of the preserve is close to the surface, so the they’re a lot smaller than the theatrical version of the plant.
ground tends to stay wet. They also need periodic fire, to Insects are attracted to pitcher plants because of their
create a more open understory and to recycle nutrients into color, nectar and scent. When a bug lands on the waxy lip
the soil. Rangers at the Big Thicket use prescribed burns to of the plant’s funnel, it slides down into the tube, where
do that. And finally, they need insects, which provide downward-pointing hairs keep it from climbing out and
WASP: ALEKSS | STOCK.ADOBE.COM
nutrients in soils without much nitrogen. The Big Thicket
has no shortage of those.
For some people, carnivorous plants call to mind the off- OPPOSITE Pitcher plants grow by the
thousands in Big Thicket National
Broadway show Little Shop of Horrors, based on a 1960 film
Preserve in East Texas. ABOVE The
about a ravenous bit of vegetation. Audrey Jr., as it was entrance to the preserve’s Pitcher
called in the original film (it was remade in the 1980s), was a Plant Trail is outside the town of Warren.
8 T E X AS C O - O P POW ER FEBRUARY 2023 T E X ASC O O P POWER .C O M
T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 9
escaping. Eventually, it winds up in a tiny pool of fluid at It’s a 20-minute drive to our next stop down a quiet, narrow
the bottom of the funnel. Enzymes in that fluid slowly eat road inside the preserve, where we pull off and squirt a
away at the wasps, ants and other foraging insects that land little bug spray on our ankles to fend off the mosquitoes
there, and the plant absorbs nutrients from the “bug soup.” before striking out into the forest.
Cut one open and you might find several disintegrating The going is slow. There’s no trail to follow here, so we slog
insects stacked up inside it. our way through thick underbrush and around tall trees.
During our walk, the sun lights up the pitcher plants like Everything looks the same to me, and it’s hard to maintain a
rows of bright green candles. Bennett and I admire them for straight line, so Bennett consults his GPS. He knows the
a while, strolling up and down the boardwalk. Then he leans exact coordinates of where we’ll find the bladderwort.
over, pointing out something low to the ground. I follow his At one point a flash of movement catches my eye, and I
finger and see it: a small, roundish plant hugging the spring back just in time to avoid a copperhead, a venomous
ground. It’s made up of small arms, each one tipped with a pit viper with beautiful gray and rust-colored markings.
fingernail-sized fleshy paddle flocked in glistening red hairs. The snake blends into the ground cover so well that it dis-
Those hairs secrete a sticky substance—and beware any appears from sight a moment later.
insect that sets foot in it. The sundew, like the pitcher plant, Soon we reach a swamp the size of a baseball diamond.
uses enzymes to slowly absorb any prey that gets caught. The ground squishes underfoot at its edges, and the place
The best time to see both plants is late April and May. smells organic and earthy. Emerald-colored moss covers
“It seems like people always expect them to be a lot logs like velvet, and tannins have turned the shallow water
bigger, especially sundews, or to trap more actively, like the color of tea. A barred owl hoots in the distance. The
Venus’ flytraps do,” Bennett says. “These are more passive. whole place feels primordial. I wouldn’t be surprised to see
They wait for bugs to fall in or get stuck.” a dinosaur emerge from the gloom.
Still, they’re charismatic plants, and this concentration of A shaft or two of light filters through the leaves into the
them is among the largest in the U.S. bog in front of us, where tupelo trees stand knee-deep in
“I don’t know of a bigger stand in Texas,” Bennett says. the water. Bennett, who is wearing boots, sloshes in. A
With pitcher plants and sundews checked off our list, moment later, he’s found what he’s looking for.
Bennett and I head back to our trucks to continue our hunt. Bladderwort, which looks like delicate strands of dill
fringed with clusters of pinhead-sized balls, floats on the
surface of the brown water. Those tiny balls are the plant’s
Biologist Andrew Bennett scoops namesake bladders, and they not only keep the plant afloat;
bladderwort from a swamp. they trap the tiny aquatic bugs that it needs to survive.
1 0 T E X AS C O - O P POW ER F EBRUARY 2023 T E X ASC O O P POWER .C O MTAKE A HIKE
If you want to examine East
Texas’ flesh-eating flora, hit
these trails.
The Pitcher Plant Trail in the
Big Thicket National Preserve’s Turkey
Creek Unit is a 1-mile loop about 40
miles north of Beaumont that’s free
to the public.
The Nature Conservancy’s Roy
E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary
is just down the road. The 6 miles of
trails there are also free to access.
C LO C K W ISE FROM TOPTiny, colorful sun-
dews use enzymes to absorb insects
that get trapped in their glistening hairs.
Delicate strands of bladderwort. The
elusive butterwort escaped the author’s
eye, but our photographer spotted one.
sticky ooze. Bugs looking for water get stuck in the butter-
wort’s secretions, triggering enzymes that break down their
And unlike the pitcher plants, which passively trap their soft body parts.
food, the bladderwort moves using a reflexive process That’s OK. Now I have another reason to return to East
called thigmotropism. As insects are lured into openings on Texas: to continue my search for these unusual little plants.
the tiny bladders, they close, trapping the prey inside. I glance at the vegetation around me. Until now, I’ve
That leaves just one plant on my checklist: The wily and thought of all these flowers, bushes, trees and vines as a
elusive butterwort. sort of soft green wallpaper to the outdoors. Now, the car-
This time, we’re out of luck. We can’t find any of the nivorous ways of some of these plants have given me a
plants, with their taco-shaped leaves dotted with droplets of new jolt of respect. D
T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 1 1— — — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — — —
BREAKING
UP
Sailors offer bon voyage and
watch the final journey of the
beloved USS Kitty Hawk—to
a South Texas recycling yard
1 2 T E X AS C O - O P POW ER F EBRUARY 2023 T E X ASC O O P POWER .C O MB Y E I L E E N M AT T E I • P H O T O S B Y J O H N FA U L K
D
avid Gross stands among about 5,000 men
and women who served on the USS Kitty Hawk
between 1961 and 2009 as the towering super-
carrier is towed through Brazos Santiago Pass.
They’re crowded onto South Padre Island’s south shore
to pay their respects and reminisce about the extraordinary
aircraft carrier that had been their home away from home.
That home moved around: Vietnam and Afghanistan, in
the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, but mostly in the western
Pacific, until it was retired 14 years ago as the last conven-
tionally powered American carrier. But today, after 48 years
of active service, the decommissioned ship arrived at the His sentiment was echoed by Joseph Houck of Somerset,
Port of Brownsville, never to sail again. who was aboard 1989–93. He came to South Padre to see the
Watching the Kitty Hawk head to the recycling yard is first ship on which he had served and recalled watching
“kind of like having the house you grew up in torn down,” dolphins racing alongside as the carrier reached 30 knots.
says Gross, who came from San Diego to see the carrier one “For fun, we had roller chair derbies during sea trials,” he says.
last time. He served as a roof rat—part of the flight deck Jet engines once roared as catapults launched Phantoms,
crew—40 years ago. A-6s and Hawkeyes from the carrier’s short deck. Coupled
Veterans—from the Silent Generation, baby boomers, with the shrill whines of fighters and reconnaissance
Gen Xers and millennials—roar in pride and appreciation planes landing and coming to abrupt stops as their tail
as Gross raps out a long, proud tribute: “We are the Kitty, hooks caught a cable on the deck, sailors’ attempts at
and we ride the back of a Hawk. We were young. We were sleeping could get complicated.
strong, working day and night long—12 on and 12 off, jet Another complication occurred in March 1984, when a
exhaust we did cough. Yeah, we’re the crew of the Kitty, nosy Soviet sub passed directly in front of the Kitty Hawk
and we walk the walk.” in the Sea of Japan. The carrier plowed over the nuclear
vessel, which rolled underneath it. The sub remained mostly
OCEANFRONT HOME
T
intact but left behind a propeller in the carrier’s bow, a
he Kitty Hawk, a small floating city (population Cold War triumph still celebrated by the Kitty’s crew.
5,280) with a major airport, housed the ship’s com- Sailors fondly remembered, too, the superb seamanship
pany, deployed air wing and the admiral’s staff. of the captain who heeled over the Kitty Hawk to pass under
Essential duties of those onboard ranged from air traffic the Golden Gate Bridge without taking off the antennas.
controller, jet mechanic, roof rat and parachute rigger to Rich Orth was onboard for the Kitty Hawk’s first voyage
pilot, electrician and cook working in 12-hour shifts. Many around the Horn of Africa in 1961, and he was among the
sailors were teenagers when they first came aboard and 68 civilians invited on board for its last powered cruise,
formed enduring bonds with their ship and shipmates. from San Diego to a reserve fleet at Bremerton, Washington.
“The Kitty was by far my favorite ship. Everyone had a “It was a different Navy back then,” he says. “Nothing com-
can-do attitude,” says Gordon Wilcox, a 21-year veteran who pared to the Hawk.”
served two tours on the carrier. The Alvarado resident and
GONE FROM SIGHT
L
United Cooperative Services member initially photographed
shipboard events for news releases. Later he worked with ooming 140 feet above the water, taller than most
reconnaissance cameras used by pilots. island condo buildings, the Kitty Hawk slid past its
Aviation electrician A.J. Reynolds served two tours on devotees May 31, 2022, en route to the Brownsville
the carrier. “I was 18 or 19 when I first went on the Kitty Ship Channel while tour boats and fishing boats flitted
SAILORS: KOICHI KAMOSHIDA | GETTY IMAGES
Hawk,” says the Bandera Electric Cooperative member. around it like tiny remoras nibbling on a whale.
“It was special. I’ll never forget it.” The Kitty Hawk came to rest at International Shipbreaking
Limited after being towed almost 17,000 miles from Bremer-
ton. ISL is one of three companies in the U.S., all in Browns-
OPPOSIT E The USS Kitty Hawk, home to 130,000 ville, that meet the strict environmental, safety and health
sailors in its history, sails in Texas waters for its
final journey. ABOVE Sailors wave American flags
standards required to dismantle Navy and U.S.-flagged ships.
as the supercarrier returned to a Japanese port ISL counts the aircraft carriers Independence, Ranger and
in 2003 after operations in the Persian Gulf. Constellation among more than 80 U.S. Navy and Maritime
T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 1 3Kitty Hawk veterans sign a
commemorative flag near
Brazos Santiago Pass.
Administration vessels it has recycled since 1995. towering structure known as the island, or mast, was the
ISL has a service contract with the Navy for each ship, first section cut loose and lowered to the ground. The
secured by a penny payment, says Bob Berry, the company’s sections swung from the ship to shore weigh up to 10 tons
co-founder and vice president. “We don’t own the ship.” But each. Hydraulic shears and torches reduce the metals to
once pieces are cut up and set on the ground, they do own manageable chunks. The carrier’s four main steam-driven
the salvaged metal. “Salvage material goes out by barge, rail engines, which supplied up to 100,000 horsepower each,
and truck all over the world, depending on the best prices must be cut into segments before removal. Armaments
on the steel scrap market,” he says. Armored steel plating, are demilitarized and then cut into unidentifiable pieces.
made with special alloys, is destined
for a Pennsylvania mill that will
remake it for use in other Navy ships. Watching the Kitty Hawk head to the recycling yard is
By May 2024, 60,000 tons of metal “kind of like having the house you grew up in torn down.”
(a remarkable 95% of the ship) will
have been recycled from the Kitty
Hawk, according to Berry. “We’ve done enough ships that ISL donated switches and gauges from the Kitty Hawk to
we know exactly how much metal comes out,” he says. With the USS Lexington Museum in Corpus Christi.
all their stainless and structural steel, aluminum, brass, and While former Kitty Hawk sailors and aviators had hoped
copper, ships are among the most recyclable manufactured the carrier would become a museum, they can console
products. (Cars are 65% recyclable.) themselves with challenge coins cut from its brass and
A monitor over Berry’s desk shows views of the busy, available from ISL. Hefty chunks of the flight deck have
noisy 80-acre recycling yard. He explained the Kitty Hawk been cut into brick-sized mementos as well.
first underwent environmental and safety inspections The public can see the dismantling progress only during
before a contractor removed asbestos and flammable the winter months, when South Padre tour companies offer
materials. Then rectangles, 8 feet by 10 feet, were cut into ship channel cruises. The Kitty Hawk and the USS John F.
the hull superstructure and folded outward like a sardine Kennedy are among the eight ships ISL is breaking up in 2023.
can lid to provide work crews with natural light and ventila- “With the remaking of her earthly frame, her spirit will
tion. After removing wiring and pipes for recycling, ISL live on,” says Chris Green, ISL president.
employees use cutting torches to break up the 1,047-foot- After the carrier reached its final mooring, one former
long ship into sections. sailor remarked on Facebook, “She got to go out with her
Gawky cranes with giant magnets and grapples remove kids all around her showing their love.” D
modular sections of the ship in the reverse order of their
assembly 60-plus years ago at a New Jersey shipyard. The
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Electric Notes
Points To Consider Before Replacing Windows
I F YO U R H O M E ’ S W I N D O W S are very old, and if you can feel a grease to get them back into shape. Wooden windows, even if
chill when you stand near them when the weather is cold, you they were built before 1960, can last the life of the home.
might consider replacing them. Just be sure to prepare your- If your existing windows don’t open or are hard to clean,
self for a bit of sticker shock when you get your first bid for replacing them might be your best bet.
replacing windows. To help you decide if replacement is the
right move, you’ll want to consider a few factors. Resale Value
Windows are a major point of interest for some prospective
Increased Comfort homebuyers, which is why we often hear that window replace-
When you’re near a cold surface, such as a window, you can ment is good for resale value. But a 2019 study by the National
feel chilly even if the temperature inside your home is over Association of Realtors found that on average across the U.S.,
70 degrees. The inside surface of an inefficient, single-pane installing new vinyl windows cost about $22,000 per home but
window will be much colder on a winter night than that of a increased resale value by only $16,500. Only 4% of realtors said
double- or triple-pane window. that new windows helped close the sale.
Window coverings are one approach to increasing the com-
fort level of your home. Curtains and blinds are very effective Energy Savings
at reducing radiant heat loss in the winter and can even block Companies that sell new windows sometimes advertise greater
some unwanted heat gain in the summer. energy savings than the new windows can actually deliver. The
Another consideration is the sun. If you have lots of winter amount of energy you save really depends on the efficiency of
sunshine, you should take this into account as you ponder your existing windows compared to the efficiency of the replace-
window replacement. Some windows are better at letting the ment windows. An energy auditor can estimate potential savings,
sun’s heat into the home than others. but most audits show that there are much more cost-effective
energy-saving investments than replacing windows.
Appearance and Function On average, according to Energy Star, replacing single-pane
If your windows are older, you may be considering new wood- windows in a 2,000-square-foot home with Energy Star-certified
or vinyl-framed windows for an exterior facelift. But keep in windows will produce average savings of $125–$340 a year,
mind that if you own an older home with classic wooden depending on where you live. At this rate, it would take a
windows, vinyl replacements might look out of place. It’s decade or more to pay off your initial investment. D
possible to buy new windows that match the style of some older
wooden windows, or you could decide to apply a little elbow
1 8 T E X AS C O - O P POW ER F EBRUARY 2023 T E X ASC O O P POWER .C O MWorking Alarms
Could Save Your Life
I F YO U R H O M Ehas a fireplace or any gas appliances, you should install
carbon monoxide alarms in or near every bedroom.
The CO alarm will react when it senses that carbon monoxide levels in
your house are too high, usually because an appliance is malfunctioning.
CO alarms do not detect natural gas leaks.
NO IRC HO C O L ATE | ISTO C K .C O M
Here are eight tips for ensuring your CO alarms work when you need
them:
1. Most warranties cover only five years, so replace your alarms at least
that often.
2. Replace batteries at least once a year or when the device starts making
a chirping sound. That’s usually the indication of a low battery.
3. Test the alarms regularly according to the manufacturer’s instruc-
tions—often by pressing and holding the test button for 20 seconds.
4. Install CO alarms at least 10 feet away from sources of humidity like February Is
showers and bathrooms, where steam can trigger false alarms.
5. Place a CO alarm on every level of your house and at the top of the American
basement stairs, even if there are no bedrooms on those floors.
6. Do not put an alarm in the garage or kitchen or a room with a gas
Heart Month
furnace. AMERICAN HE ART MONTH isn’t about
7. If your alarm goes off too often, it probably means it’s too close to a romance. It’s about keeping your heart
fireplace, gas furnace or stove. It also could mean that your gas appliances healthy by eating nutritious food and
are not burning the fuel completely. If you see a yellow or orange pilot regulating blood pressure and choles-
light, that could be the case. Call a plumber to check it out. terol levels.
8. Leave alarms plugged in all year, not just during heating season. Your
Even if your New Year’s resolution to eat
gas stove, clothes dryer and water heater are potential sources of dangerous
healthier and exercise regularly is already
leaks. And a running vehicle in the garage can cause deadly gas buildup in
a distant memory, February is a great time
the home. D
to kick-start your healthy heart routine.
Electric appliances you might already
have in your kitchen can help. Some
kitchen appliances can even help you
save energy.
A multicooker like an Instant Pot can
steam and air-fry meat and vegetables
without oil. A slow cooker can prepare
chicken and beef dishes without added
fats, too, if you simmer them in broth,
juice or another liquid and let the meal
stew all day.
A blender makes it simple to whip up
smoothies for breakfast, and an electric
indoor grill draws the fat from meat into a
drip pan below the grate instead of using
it to cook the dish.
This February, redefine “romance” to
include helping yourself and your partner
get and stay heart healthy. D
F IZKES | ISTOCK .COM
T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 1 9Beachcombing
at home.
Texas Co-op Power presents an illustrated
Seashells of Texas poster by artist Aletha
St. Romain, 20x16 inches, suitable for framing.
Order online at TexasCoopPower.com
for only $20 (price includes tax, shipping
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Give friends and family
T OF
the Best of Texas.
THE BES
LY
TY PI CA L Texas Co-op Power presents a collection of best-loved recipes
TEXAS
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OOK—
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2 0 T E X AS C O - O P POW ER F EBRUARY 2023 T E X ASC O O P POWER .C O MLower Your
Thermostat,
Lower Your Bill
Conserve electricity and
avoid higher winter energy
bills. Setting the thermostat
to 68 degrees when home—
and lower when away—
saves money.
Save even more!
Turn off and unplug unused
lights and appliances.
Close shades and blinds at
night to reduce heat loss.
Open them to capture solar
heat on sunny days.
Avoid using electric space
heaters.
Change furnace filters.
ALE KSAN DARNAKI C | ISTOCK .COM
Weatherstrip or caulk doors
and windows.
Your electric cooperative
encourages you to always
use energy efficiently.
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T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 2 3Texas USA
A Subtle Champion
Remembering Texan Emmett Jay Scott and his advocacy during Black History Month
BY GE NE FOWLE R E M M E T T J AY S C OT T,
a Texan born 150 years ago this month, established
a remarkable record of achievement, mostly out of the public eye. His long
life was so full that a biography of the writer, educator, government official
and right-hand man to Booker T. Washington took author Maceo Dailey
some 50 years to complete.
Scott’s name doesn’t come up often in tributes during Black History
Month, yet decades ago his significant championing of African American
rights warranted a commentary in The Pittsburgh Courier, a Black news-
paper that potently pegged him as a quiet leader.
“He exhorts an influence upon public men which is unique and inim-
itable; but the basis of his influence is subtle, intangible and difficult to
COU RTESY LI BR ARY O F CO NGRES S
define. … He holds no public office, does not manipulate any political or-
ganization, nor does he arouse public emotion by any spectacular appeal.
He does not possess great wealth nor profess great learning; he carries no
votes in his vest pocket. But nevertheless his counsel is sought and
heeded by men who do things and want things done.”
Those words, published in 1936, were an unlikely testimonial to a man
2 4 T E X AS C O - O P POW ER F EBRUARY 2023 T E X ASC O O P POWER .C O MEmmett Jay Scott worked behind the scenes in academia, govern- ment and industry to advance African Americans’ rights. born February 13, 1873, to formerly enslaved people and support roles, Scott documented their combat heroism in raised in the Freedmen’s Town section of Houston. Scott his books Scott’s Official History of the American Negro in attended Wiley College in Marshall from 1887 to 1890. (He the World War and The True Story of the Harlem Hellfighters dropped out to give other members of his family the same in World War I. educational opportunities he had.) Some 15 years after the war, Scott addressed Black veter- To help fund his education, he carried mail, chopped ans, decrying the ingratitude of the nation for their sacrifices. wood, fed hogs and kept books for the college’s president. “I have always contended that a country worth fighting Back home, he worked his way up from janitor to journalist for is worth living for,” Scott was quoted as saying in the at The Houston Post. In the 1890s, Scott co-founded and ed- New Journal and Guide, an African American newspaper in ited The Texas Freeman, one of the first Black newspapers Virginia. “At the same time, I have always contended that a west of the Mississippi. man who is brave enough to carry a gun in defense of his The biography by Dailey, Emmett J. Scott: Power Broker of country’s honor should be honored with all of the rights the Tuskegee Machine, describing Scott as a Renaissance and privileges of untrammeled citizenship.” man, scholar and political fixer, is in the works at Texas Noting the exodus of Black southerners that intensified Tech University Press. during World War I, Scott wrote Negro Migration During the Scott’s influence grew beyond Texas when he met Wash- War. Nearly a half-million African Americans left the South ington for the first time. Washington, the distinguished during the Great War, and over the next half-century, par- educator and foremost Black leader at the turn of the 20th ticipants in the Great Migration swelled to 6 million. century, presented the commencement address at what is “They left as though they were fleeing some curse,” he now Prairie View A&M University in 1897, and Scott was wrote, describing the “solemn ceremonies” performed by there. Washington recruited the Texan to assist with his 147 migrants from Mississippi as they prepared to cross the work at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Ohio River. “These migrants knelt down and prayed; the For the next 18 years—until Washington’s death in 1915— men stopped their watches and, amid tears of joy, sang the Scott served as his closest confidant, adviser, ghostwriter familiar songs of deliverance.” and unyielding champion. Scott himself took his family north after the war. From Washington and Scott sought to produce a film based on 1919 to 1934, he served as secretary-treasurer and business Washington’s autobiography. That project ended with manager of Howard University in Washington, D.C. Washington’s death, but Scott pursued another film proj- During World War II, he was hired to oversee recruiting ect—a counter to the racist stereotypes presented in D.W. by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Chester, Penn- Griffith’s 1915 blockbuster epic The Birth of a Nation. sylvania. According to one source, more than half of the Scott envisioned a film that would present “the true story company’s 35,000 workers were Black. Sun was reportedly of the Negro—his life in Africa, his enslavement, his free- the world’s largest shipyard during the war. dom, his achievements—together with his past, present Sun’s shipyard No. 4 was staffed fully by African Ameri- and future relations with his white neighbor. It will bring cans. Scott emphasized the valuable role that vocational close the future in which the races—all races—will see each training could play in improving race relations. And he was other as they are.” quoted as saying that Black workers’ accomplishments in The project soon morphed into a three-hour epic rebut- the shipyard would help to remove the “doubts and fears tal, Birth of a Race. Sadly, the version that eventually was regarding the capability of the Negro craftsman.” made—a lone print of which survives in the Library of Con- Scott advocated for education as one of the strongest tools gress—bore no relation to Scott’s vision. for lifting his people out of poverty. He later returned to But Scott’s focus soon changed as the U.S. moved closer Wiley College and earned a master’s degree, and all five of to war. Woodrow Wilson was elected president, and Scott his children achieved college degrees. He and his wife also was named to the War Department in 1917. Among his raised his five younger sisters, who also earned their degrees. duties were improving the morale of Black troops and inves- Elaine Brown, a granddaughter, inherited his passion for tigating racial incidents and charges of unfair treatment. racial justice, becoming chairwoman of the revolutionary Though the nearly 400,000 Black soldiers who went Black Panther Party. D overseas faced racism (the Marines banned Black people from enlisting, for example) and many were relegated to T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 2 5
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Clogged, Backed—up Septic System…Can anything Restore It?
DEAR DARRYL: My DEAR CLOGGED AND SMELLY: As a reader of my column, I am
Dear
home is about 10 years old,
and so is my septic system.
I have always taken pride
sure you are aware that I have a great deal of experience in this
particular field. You will be glad to know that there IS a septic solution
that will solve your back-up and effectively restore your entire system
Darryl
in keeping my home and
property in top shape. In
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T E X ASC O O PPOW E R .COM FEB R UA RY 2023 T E X AS C O - O P POW E R 2 7You can also read
