Bass Lines
Christian Wallace’s piece on Bass Reeves [“The Resurrection of Bass Reeves,” July 2021] was the kind of history I most appreciate: peeling the onion, giving the facts and myths their telling, revealing all sources and deficits. I’m grateful to know all of the stories embedded in this excellent article.
Coincidence: I graduated high school in Shreveport, class of 1967, with an Arthur Burton. [Unrelated to the Art T. Burton quoted in the Reeves feature, who is a retired history professor and a leading authority on Reeves.] He was a brave young man. He was the school’s first Black student, the sole volunteer to desegregate it. The alumni association awards a scholarship in his name.
Janice Donalson, Bellaire
Y’all Can’t Cut It
Whoa, cowboy! You’re telling me that when I hang my hat at the County Seat cafe, in Linden, I ought to order up “a generous slice of peach cobbler” [Dining Guide, July 2021]? Ain’t no such thing. I can order a dish of cobbler. A bowl of cobbler. A scoop of cobbler. Heckfire, I might even order a heapin’ helpin’ of cobbler. But in all my 74 years of living in Texas, I’ve never heard of anybody selling, serving, or eating a slice of peach cobbler. You guys city slickers or something?
Jean Groce, Duncanville
Editors’ note: Jean, I wish we could cobble together a good excuse for such half-baked phrasing, but we don’t have one. You’re a peach for calling us out with a sense of humor.
An Unlikely Tail
I read your article “Down Dog Rising” [July 2021] with curiosity, wondering what this engaging dog Benji did to warrant an article in Texas’s premier magazine more than my own favorite little Austin native, Kaxan, the stray found outside the KXAN-TV newsroom and adopted by the station’s weatherman, Jim Spencer. Does Benji (who seems to be capitalizing on another famous dog’s name) perform yoga with his owner on her YouTube videos? Despite the one photo of him doing downward dog pose, which dogs do all the time naturally, it does not seem so. Spunky Kaxan works his furry butt off as a therapy dog and fund-raiser extraordinaire. My congratulations to the author, though, for writing a charming article without having much to go on. I am going to call Kaxan now and console him for this oversight on your part.
Linda Blalock, Fredericksburg
Corrections: The Meanwhile, in Texas column in the August 2021 issue misidentified the age of the Fort Worth boy collecting books for disadvantaged children. He is ten years old, not eleven. Elsewhere in the August 2021 issue, the article “The Death and Rebirth of Pecos Jane” incorrectly stated that in 1966 Sandy Moore’s grandparents owned the Ropers Motel. In fact, they only managed the property. Also, the article “Texas’s Radio Matriarch” misspelled Charley Pride’s first name.
