BRAZOS WHERE TEXAS BEGAN q FEBRUARY 2022
MONTHLY
Texas twist on Mardi Gras favorites Changing the focus at historic sites People get what they deserve
It’s their
Business Success is about the dream
Meet
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Brazoria County Assistant District Attorney
Michelle Townsend
STORY BY LESLIE CARTER
After only a few minutes of visiting with Michelle, it’s evident why she’s been so successful in her career- determination, hard work, and grit. She’s clearly earned her seat at the DA’s office with her impressive education and professional experience that far surpass most in her field. Her distinction as a member of the Texas Bar College, Board Certification, and former judicial experience have poised her as the clear front-runner for the upcoming Judge of the 149th District Court elections. With endorsements from State Representative Cody Vasut, Constable David Thacker, and countless other elected officials, her reputation proceeds her. Her competitive nature, combined with her passion for learning, make her a force to be reckoned with in the court room, but you wouldn’t know it when you first meet her. Her warm personality and home-town-girl demeanor win you over long before you learn of her impressive background. What brought you to the Brazoria County District Attorney’s Office? MICHELLE: I began my professional career practicing civil law with a medium-size firm, and it was an incredible opportunity to work in multiple facets of civil litigation. The hands-on experience was invaluable. At the time, my husband, Travis, was working as an assistant district attorney for the Brazoria County District Attorney’s office. Every night when he came home I was enthralled by his “true-crime” stories, so I went to work for the Harris County District Attorney’s office as a prosecutor to get a taste of it for myself. I began in the Harris County District Attorney’s
misdemeanor division and quickly progressed to their Felony Trial Bureau, Family/Criminal Law Division, and then to the Post-Conviction Division. The Post-Conviction Division was my favorite assignment because it allowed me to dig deep into the law and research areas of the law that many attorneys are never exposed to. I truly believe this made me a much better trial lawyer because I knew the law so thoroughly. When Travis and I decided to begin a family, I transitioned back into private practice, opening my own firm in order to have more flexibility. It was then that I was approached by the Brazoria County District Attorney, Jeri Yenne, to contract with the county to handle their
post-conviction work. After serving in this capacity for several years, the current district attorney, Tom Selleck, asked me to work for the county as a full-time assistant district attorney, and I was excited to join the team! With multiple judgeship seats open, why did you choose the 149th District? Wouldn’t it have been easier to run for a position with less competition? MICHELLE: I do appreciate healthy competition- I think it causes us to work harder and strive to be our best. But I honestly chose the 149th District Court because I believe it’s the best fit with my experience and passion. The 149th District Court hears a mixture of cases from civil to criminal, and my professional experience has given me a relatively even exposure to both of those areas. Neither of my opponents have the breadth or depth of experience in both of these legal arenas that I possess, and I believe my experience will serve the citizens well. The other factor that played heavily in my decision was that this court is the home of Brazoria County’s Veterans Court, meaning it is an intervention and treatment court for our county’s veterans struggling with various issues arising from their honorable service to our country. Descending from a long line of veterans, those who have sacrificed in that way for our country have a special place in my heart. Witnessing my uncle’s personal struggles as a veteran [tearing up] has made me passionate about serving this population. Many of our veterans now struggle with injury, mental illness, or addiction as a result of their selfless service. It would be an honor to provide a support system for them. Tell us about Michelle Townsend at home. I hear you have chickens! MICHELLE: It’s true [laughing], I do have a brood of chickens at home, most of whom have been named by my kids. Beyond that, my
husband is also an assistant district attorney for Brazoria County, and we have 4 children between the ages of 13 and 2. I have a wide range of interests from baking to crocheting to raising my chickens. Our family enjoys being active. We love to spend time outdoors from playing soccer, to hiking, biking, skiing, anything outdoors…except running. I hate to run! The primary elections are coming up on March 1st. I know readers will have 2 questions: First, what are your political views? MICHELLE: I was raised by a working class family with conservative Christian views, and I have never deviated from that. Judicial candidates aren’t allowed to take an official stance on certain key issues in order to ensure they consider each case fairly and impartially. And I believe it is important judges be fair and openminded, weighing each case on the facts in front of them and not preconceived notions or beliefs. Secondly, why should voters choose you as the next 149th District Court Judge? MICHELLE: The 149th Court is a court of general jurisdiction, meaning it hears a wide array of cases, and the judge has to have a breadth of experience. I have that breadth of experience including civil, criminal, trial, appellate, including death penalty cases. Death penalty cases can be tried in this court, and I’m the only candidate that has handled cases in which the death penalty was assessed. I also have a depth of experience. I’ve drilled down and studied each area of law in which I have practiced. Secondly, I’m the only candidate with prior judicial experience. I’ve previously served as a municipal judge for the city of Angleton. I would love to combine my civil and criminal litigation and post conviction background with my experience as a judge to serve our community at the district court level. 2022 Political Advertising paid for by Michelle Townsend for Judge.
Editor’s note
SOMETHING F OR
everyone!
If I’m going to have something sweet with a prize inside, it’s going to be Cracker Jack, not a plastic baby in a glitter-covered cake. Having grown up as a Yankee, Mardi Gras always was a bit of an oddity. There aren’t parades in February around the Great Lakes, given the snow and ice, and it’s just too darned cold to do what many women in New Orleans do to have someone on a float toss them beads. We stuck to Valentine’s Day celebrations, made even better by a cozy fire. Galveston has its version of Mardi Gras and a signature parade, but we don’t hear much about the pre-Lenten festivities elsewhere around Texas, making our coastal neighbor to the east the symbolic plastic baby in the Lone Star State king cake. And let’s be honest, Mardi Gras is more about drinking than it is anything else, and we have a treat this month that combines the taste of the king cake with hard liquors suitable for celebration. Writer Raven Wuebker is responsible for that shot of inspiration as she makes her first foray into our food feature. She also visited with a couple of Black business owners who shared their success stories, and Addison Howell returns to spotlight how the stories of the enslaved people who worked on local plantations are being given expanded attention at area historic sites. You’ll also find John Lowman’s take on people’s sense of entitlement enlightening.
Michael Morris Brazos Monthly editor
ShopB razosMall.com 4 BRAZOSMONTHLY | FEBRUARY 2022
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Publisher Yvonne Mintz Editor Michael Morris
18
Writers Addison Howell John Lowman Corinna Richardson Raven Wuebker
ontents
Photographers Jeremy Hill Addison Howell Averi Kent Advertising director Cindy Cornette Advertising representatives Laura Davis Crystal Edwards Bobbie Greer Andrew Myers
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Editorial 979-237-0148 Advertising 979-237-0130 Circulation 979-265-2999
VOL. 6, NO. 1 All material herein c. 2022, Southern Newspapers Inc., dba The Brazosport Facts, 720 S. Main St. Clute, TX 77531. No material herein may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without written permission of the publisher. Brazos Monthly is a publication of
720 South Main Street P.O. Box 549 Clute, Texas 77531 979-237-0100
24 34 6 Starting point A book club made up of friends isn’t
24 Artifacts Historic sites are putting a bigger
really about the book.
spotlight on the enslaved who made the plantation system work.
10 Business builders Creating a successful African American business is about the passion, not the skin color.
18 A shot of cake Enjoy the experience of a Mardis Gras tradition in a glass.
34 Final thought John Lowman takes on the modern sense of entitlement.
38 Snapshots Local photographers share beautiful pictures of the world around us.
ON THE COVER: Suzette Kyle, who co-owns Dack Shack in West Columbia with good friend Denee Davis, said they are proud to be setting an example that Black women can succeed in business. Photo by Jeremy Hill
FEBRUARY 2022 | BRAZOSMONTHLY 5
6 BRAZOSMONTHLY | FEBRUARY 2022
ie
STARTING POINT
for reading Book club is about more than the books
commentary by
CORINNA RICHARDSON
I passed! My first attempt at the personal training certification practice exam, anyway. The real one still looms, and I’m still working my way through the textbook. Just about all writing and reading has been put on the back burner while I do that, and to that end, I’m not sure I’ll finish — or start — the book club book in time. We’re reading “Magnolia Wednesdays” by Wendy Wax. A brief summary according to the back cover: Vivian Armstrong Gray is 41 years old and after being shot in the back during an exposé, the investigative journalist
learns she’s pregnant and without a job, so she moves back home to Georgia for a “dreadful” job writing a column covering suburban living. Then, of course, more stuff happens, because if it didn’t there’d be no “Magnolia Wednesdays.” While I have not started the book, I have noted it has an excellent first sentence: “Wellbred girls from good southern families are not supposed to get shot.” It was chosen by a good friend of mine, Diana; there’s also Darlene, Jeanne, Jeri and Samantha, and every six weeks or so we gather
FEBRUARY 2022 | BRAZOSMONTHLY 7
for wine, usually something sweet and bubbly, book discussion, occasionally dessert and always companionable conversation. In recent months, there were plenty of meetings that I was not prepared for at all. With all that I had going on, sometimes I just didn’t have the time, and especially did not have the energy, to do anything at home in the evening except shove comfort food in my face and watch movies I’ve already seen. I tend to favor supernatural horror movies like “The Conjuring” or “Insidious” universes, or Marvel’s “Captain Marvel.” Recently, I’ve also been favoring “Black Widow.” Rarely did I feel like turning off the TV to pick up a book, and the weeks until book club ticked down more quickly than I might have thought they would. I never tried to pretend I read the book; I texted our group chat to let them know that I hadn’t read it, hadn’t had time, but that I still wanted to come hang out and
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not to worry about any spoilers — carry on with the discussion questions as usual. “We’d love to see you!” they replied. I don’t want to say I expected that response but I didn’t expect them to tell me not to come, because they’re wonderful, kind people, and the best thing about book club isn’t the book — blasphemy from a writer, I know — but spending time with friends. Occasionally, there’s food: we celebrated a Friendsgiving in November, and every now and then, somebody will provide a dessert. I saw Brew-n-Bake post a photo in May 2020 of Neapolitan mousse cups and immediately thought, “I’m going to pick up some for book club.” I called to place a to-go order and rushed from the office to the coffee shop and then our gathering. They were delicious. I’m sure the apple tart Diana made one month was delicious, as well — I missed that meeting. Gonna have to beg her to make it again. And Jeri’s chocolate pie with scratch whipped cream, and Darlene’s scratch cookies — YUM. Sounds like I’m going to have to treat myself to something sweet while finally cracking open the pages of “Magnolia Wednesdays.” The book is sitting next to my bed, waiting patiently for me, whenever I’m ready.
Richard Erickson, DO
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ion
fruits Business success comes from a love for the creation, owners say Story by
RAVEN WUEBKER Photos by
JEREMY HILL
10 BRAZOSMONTHLY | FEBRUARY 2022
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Being a business owner requires a thick skin, determination and grit, and that’s just to get the business started. For African American business owners, the climb historically has been even steeper, but it did not dissuade those with dreams from pursuing America’s promise, including entrepreneurs in Brazoria County. Part of their drive for success is because, just as they ask others to do, they do not view the world by the color of their skin.
Sista White’s Café That’s the case with Sista White Café’s Previn White, who doesn’t make African American part of his title of business owner. “I never looked at it from that perspective,” White said about being a Black businessman. “It was a matter of what I wanted to do. I have a lot of families here, so between the biological and church family, they have kept up alive through some difficult times. It’s all about the food for me; I love doing this.” White has owned Sista White’s in Freeport for about eight years and has never thought about doing anything else, he said. “The 300-foot view of this place is quite simple,” White said. “This was a passion project. I love it.” Being Freeport born and raised, he grew up not far from where the restaurant sits at 503 S. Gulf Blvd. Sista White’s is named after a family member and in a building that’s been around since he was young, White said. “This was named after my
12 BRAZOSMONTHLY | FEBRUARY 2022
grandmother,” White said. “This place has been here for about 62 years. It was a barbecue restaurant way back when, and I’ve known it my whole life. I always wanted to do this. It was always, ‘When I get a barbecue restaurant … when I get a barbecue restaurant … when I get a barbecue restaurant.’” After years of dreaming, White’s wife Racheal pushed him to make it a reality, he said. “Finally my wife said, ‘Let’s get a restaurant,’” White said. “About eight years ago, on Jan. 6, we started running the place. It was a passion project and we love doing it. This is what I want to do for a living, and it has always been what I wanted to do.” The business has prospered because of the determination he put into it. “Given the opportunity, we got to work,” White said. “We started with two old smokies and a barbecue pit that’s no longer here. It was too big, too arduous, and too hot and too smoky and would cloud the restaurant.” After outgrowing the pit, the pair got another one, he said. “We outgrew it and bought another pit,” White said. “It was here for two years and we outgrew that and finally got ‘Big Bertha.’ It will hold up to 30 briskets.” With this being a joint venture, the Whites made the restaurant come to life. “I get to do nothing but focus on the meat,” White said. “I don’t pay bills, I don’t shop, so my wife has made it possible that all I have to do is concentrate on producing a quality product.”
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Previn White describes how his Freeport restaurant has changed over its eight years in business years. The pair plan on continuing the restaurant for many more years. “I think we’re having a great time,” Racheal White said. “It’s one of those things where people come in and enjoy and it’s great for us. We get to do exactly what we want every single day, and we’re happy to be able to serve some good food.”
Dack Shack Good things seem to come in pairs, and business partners Denee Davis and Suzette Kyle are no exception. The duo runs The Dack Shack in West Columbia
14 BRAZOSMONTHLY | FEBRUARY 2022
where they serve daiquiris. “It means a lot,” Davis said. “We’re representing our community and our heritage. A big plus for us is being women. So not only African Americans, we are African American women business owners.” Dack Shack opened Sept. 3, and they have been having fun ever since. “We have our moments when we’re booming and other times we’re slow, but we’re good and have been blessed,” Davis said. Kyle brings business experience as owner of a hair salon, and her friendship with
Davis has helped accomplish the rest. “It means quite a bit, especially for friendship,” Davis said. “We’ve been friends for over 15 years and have a lot of things. Our girls played basketball together. It’s easy to do something like this with someone you vibe with and get along with is a plus.” It’s been a blessing to run the business, Kyle said. “We wanted to get into business together, she threw out a little something and I threw out something and mine was a daiquiri place,” Kyle said. “The reason why is I’ve always said if I opened
Sista White’s Cafe is in a 60-year-old Freeport building that has a long history of restaurants.
FEBRUARY 2022 | BRAZOSMONTHLY 15
Dack Shack is owned by Denee Davis and Suzette Kyle and is located in West Columbia. another business, it would be a daiquiri business.” The two would go to Houston to their drive-thru daiquiri place or make them at home, Kyle said. “I thought this would be a great adventure for us and something good for West Columbia because they’ve never had anything like this to bring something new into our community,” Kyle said. Although running a business can be challenging, the two had guidance, they said. “This means a lot because Kyle’s father and my husband were well-known businessmen,” Davis said. “So we’re kind of doing this in their footsteps and trying to leave some more legacy behind. We don’t have sons, we have daughters, and this shows women can do this, too.” Because of growing up with a father in business, Kyle said she knew what was needed to operate her own. “It’s been in my blood,” Kyle said. “With my vision of having this business and for it to manifest is a blessing.”
16 BRAZOSMONTHLY | FEBRUARY 2022
Essence Kyle, left, and Kayvonna Davis are proud to be a part of the business their mothers have built in West Columbia.
It’s not all work and no play for the women. They each have a favorite daiquiri they serve. For Davis, hers is called “Feeling Peachy” because it has a kick to it but is not too sweet, she said. For Kyle, it’s one she made up herself that honors West Columbia, she said. It combines three other daiquiris into one. “My favorite is the Roughneck,” Kyle said. “I created that one. It was hypnosis, strawberry and octane, and we mixed the three together and it comes out a perfect burgundy maroon color.” As the pair look to the future of the business, they will also be looking to add food items to the menu soon, Davis said.
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y’all
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Story by
RAVEN WUEBKER Photos by
JEREMY HILL RAVEN WUEBKER
A traditional bowl of gumbo can bring some Cajun flair to your Mardi Gras celebration.
FEBRUARY 2022 | BRAZOSMONTHLY 19
Put a Texas twist on some traditional Mardi Gras favorites Being from Central Texas, Mardi Gras was something I occasionally heard about but never celebrated or truly understood. I knew beads, New Orleans and some kind of baby in a cake were involved, and that’s as far as my knowledge went, although the themed colors always stood out to me. Something else that also stood out was the food. Anytime I’ve ever heard Mardi Gras mentioned, elaborate, over-the-top food covered in green, gold and purple surely followed. Never having been to New Orleans, and just graduating from college, making traditional Louisiana-style food was out of the question, so I decided Texas-style Mardi Gras recipes were the way to go. The food and drinks I chose to make are a non-traditional take on classic, wellknown Mardi Gras foods such as gumbo, king cake and festive cookies.
Easy one-pot gumbo Every year, my boyfriend’s grandmother makes gumbo for Christmas, so when I thought to make this, I immediately went to her for the recipe. When I told family members I was attempting to make this myself, skeptical looks and half smiles hit their faces while they looked around for the fire extinguisher. However, this one-pot gumbo is easy to make and can also be changed based on preferred taste and dietary needs. In the recipe, it calls for andouille sausage, which gives it the Cajun feel, but I only used chicken in mine. I was also cooking for one when I made this and was able to alter ingredients to my needs.
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Ingredients 1 chopped onion 1 chopped bell pepper 2 cloves, garlic smashed 2 tablespoon butter 1 can diced tomatoes 1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning or any type of Cajun seasoning 1/2 pound andouille sausage 1 pound diced cooked chicken 1 pound uncooked medium shrimp 2 boxes Zatarain’s gumbo base mix 12 cups water White rice Instructions In a large stock pot, sauté butter, onion, and bell pepper until soft. Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. Add sausage and sauté for 2 minutes. Following that, add diced tomatoes, Old Bay seasoning and gumbo mix and water. Let it boil and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes and continue to stir. Lastly, add the cooked chicken and shrimp and let it cook for 5 to 8 minutes, until shrimp are fully cooked. Serve over cooked white rice.
King Cake Shot We already established I am not from New Orleans, so making a traditional king cake wasn’t realistic. The bread-type cake that has cinnamon, nutmeg and takes more than four hours to make would have been a bit of a challenge. Instead, I decided to combine two very Mardi Gras things — king cake and drinking. These king cakes shots have the sweet cinnamon flavor the cake has as well as an afterbite. Ingredients 1 bottle RumChata 1 bottle Fireball Set of shot glasses 1 tub vanilla icing
Green sugar Purple sugar Gold/Yellow sugar 1 can whipped topping Cinnamon Instructions Take the shot glass and coat a thick layer of vanilla icing around the rim with a butter knife. Put the three colored sugars on different plates and roll the rim of the glasses on the plates until you get a coat of the preferred color on the rim. Fill the shot glass halfway with RumChata and the other half of Fireball. Add whipped cream to the top. Finally, top with more cinnamon. The liquid should end up a mocha color from the RumChata.
FEBRUARY 2022 | BRAZOSMONTHLY 21
Sugar Cookies Now sugar cookies might not exactly scream Mardi Gras, but these uber simple cookies paired with royal icing can be dressed for any type of celebration and is a fun way to get the kiddos involved as well. As a child, I was never a huge fan of icing. It was also just way too sweet, so my mom began making these instead. Despite royal icing being purely sugar, it doesn’t overpower the cookie. With cookies and icing being decoratiion-friendly, maybe use this recipe less as the typical Mardi Gras food show-stopper and use it as a fun decoration piece for people to have some fun with the green, purple and gold element of the occasion. Ingredients 1 cup unsalted butter 1 cup white sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1 egg 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 cups all purpose flour Cookie Cutter Cookie pan Cooking spray Green, Purple and Gold/ Yellow Sprinkles Decorations Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, add 1 cup of butter and 1 cup sugar and
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mix until smooth. Once the mixture is smooth, add in both the vanilla and almond extract and egg. In a different bowl, combine the baking powder and salt with flour. Once combined, add to the wet mixture. Tip: Mix ingredients well. When making this I had to combine everything as well as I could before dumping it on my counter and started kneading the mixture before it became a dough-like texture. One you get the right
texture, separate into small batches, roll into a ball and softly flatten. A cookie cutter can be used here if you prefer. Place cookies on a cookie sheet after it has been sprayed down with cooking spray and bake for 6 to 8 minutes.
Cookie Icing Ingredients 3 egg whites Powdered sugar 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar or vanilla extract
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Food coloring Instructions Separate eggs from the egg whites into a mixing bowl. Mix the egg whites until light and fluffy. Add the cream or tarter or vanilla extract. Both will work, but it depends on the color of the icing you desire. If you don’t plan on using food coloring and are looking to use the white color, I suggest using cream of tartar. Vanilla extract has an off-brown color and will affect the look of it. Add 4 cups of powdered sugar. Stir until you have a toothpaste-like consistency. Add food coloring if you plan to do so. Decorate how you like and enjoy.
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ARTIFACTS
Ens ed legacies of the
Historical site leadership working to expand stories of those who worked on local plantations
Lead educator Kennedy Wallace talks about Rachel Patton, an African American women who had the rare duty of running the house during the Patton era of Varner-Hogg Plantation.
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Despite setbacks due to the pandemic, the Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historical Site in West Columbia is experiencing big changes in the upcoming months and years. The site recently hosted a temporary exhibit created by students at Rice University in Houston that delved deeper into the lives of the enslaved people on the plantation. “We are trying to expand the narratives of the people that were formerly enslaved who built the architecture around here and created the landscape,” said William Polley, educator and interpreter for Varner-Hogg and its sister site, the Levi Jordan Plantation. “They created the wealth for this place.” The exhibit featured the history of the main house, life and labor, food, religion and oral traditions. It was located in the big house after all the furniture was removed. “This was our first traveling exhibit and it’s an example of what we can do instead of just having Ima’s furniture in here,” Polley said. “We want to have traveling exhibits and use the artifacts we have here to tell a story and make it
Lead educator Kennedy Wallace goes through the list of names of those enslaved on the Varner-Hogg Plantation. more receptacle to the public.” One thing showcased in the project that the staff at Varner-Hogg want to look more into is the practice of convict leasing. “This site did operate under convict leasing, and it was pretty much worse than slavery,” Polley said. “Police could arrest minority peoples off the street for vagrancy crimes and they could be enslaved back on those same plantations they were just freed from.” The educators want to stress the narrative that being enslaved was not the site’s entire identity.
“Culture that we tie to plantation life was more complex than what we think it is, and that’s why it’s important we have these type of exhibits and that we rotate them out,” said Kennedy Wallace, lead educator and interpreter. “Yes this was a plantation, but there was a deeper substance and we want people to be more aware of that when they come here.” A recent focus of the Varner-Hogg staff has been humanizing the enslaved people who worked on the plantation and telling their individual stories.
FEBRUARY 2022 | BRAZOSMONTHLY 25
“We want to change the narrative that these people were not just slaves but enslaved,” Wallace said. “There were some of these people who understood medical practices, who understood architecture, they have knowledge that wasn’t learned in normal or traditional ways.” Varner-Hogg staff, working with the Texas Historical Commission, plan to open the Levi Jordan Plantation in Sweeny to the public this summer. “We have a new learning lab there and an archaeology lab, so it’s set up for the visitors’ experience now,” curator
Educator and interpreter William Polley explains the importance of oral tradition in Black culture from one of the panels of the exhibit done by students from Rice University.
One of the posters from the temporary exhibit featured information on convict leasing in the area and the brutality of it.
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Curator Angela Pfeiffer walks through the collections facility, which contains hundreds of artifacts from a few local plantations. Angela Pfeiffer said. “We want to focus on the African American experience and the archaeology.” Although there is still more work to be done, the staff are excited to discover artifacts at the site and open it to the public. “It’s more of a hands-on experience,” Pfeiffer said. “People will be able to get involved with the archaeology and watch them get excavated. The two sites will be working together.”
Curator Angela Pfeiffer slides out a panel in the collections facility at the Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historical Site that contains paintings and wall art taken from the plantation.
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Curator Angela Pfeiffer reiterates the stories of significant individuals who lived and worked on the Varner-Hogg Plantation. Along with presenting the history of the plantation, the staff also are trying to navigate a way to tell the history of the Native Americans who also lived on the land. “We are still trying to figure out how to interpret the indigenous history here because that is something we feel is important,” Wallace said. “It’s not like nobody was on this land. We want to appropriately project and share this history.” In Ima Hogg’s house, there is a permanent exhibit featuring many of the people who lived and worked on the plantation, as well as artifacts found in the area. “We have identified people who we thought were significant, and we want to expand on their history and experience on the plantation,” Wallace said. “The plantation was a business, so we have several of the enslaved people very well documented in the probates for the
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Patton family.” Varner-Hogg also has its ongoing Descendants Project, where members of the local African American community are invited to bring things they want scanned and preserved. “We want to document African American history in the local community, so we want people to bring us items they want preserved and we’ll digitize them,” Pfeiffer said. “We have over 800 artifacts so far and our goal is 1,600.” All the furniture in the big house has been removed due to renovations, and the staff are contemplating the best way to fill the house back up after they are completed. “We’re trying to get a plan on how we should present everything in the plantation house,” Pfeiffer said. “We’re working with Rice University and the public on what is the best way to tell the story out here.”
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Hall of fame quarterback Joe Namath poses Feb. 2, 2014, before Super Bowl XLVIII in East Rutherford, N.J.
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FINAL ThOUGHT
ese e
what you
People should expect nothing more than what’s coming to them
commentary by
JOHN LOWMAN
If there’s one word today that has earned a rest, it’s the word “deserve.” But if 1970s athletes, former Starship Enterprise captains, some politicians and paid spokespeople for law firms are to be believed, every human deserves the latest and greatest of whatever they’re selling. Most of the promises peddled by those aging pitch-folks are what Lincoln Intermediate School coach and principal Warren Norvell called “bull hockey.” This might not be the most popular notion in today’s safe-space society, but we deserve what we earn, good and bad. Webster’s defines “deserve” as doing something or showing qualities worthy of reward or punishment. Having a pulse is great but does not make us special, even if Joe Namath guarantees it. If a doctor or hospital does the right thing and saves our lives, why sue them? Lose some hair due to cancer treatment? We’re sympathetic, but are you alive? And how
FEBRUARY 2022 | BRAZOSMONTHLY 35
can folks who smoked cigarettes (or anything) for any length of time and develop any type of cancer be surprised? We knew that could happen way before Jimmy “J.J.” Walker was born to shout “dyn-o-mite!” That’s not to say there are no genuine cases of malpractice and other abuses which must be remedied by lawsuit or arrest. There are drug dealers, unscrupulous doctors and selfserving charlatans filling society with harmful substances, slapdash plastic surgery and lies. Companies large and small taking advantage of workers and pushing inferior or unsafe products. Violent people leaving scars on bodies and hearts. Those people do deserve to be held accountable for their actions. But we must realize Broadway Joe is chasing an easy buck when he carries the ball for Medicare add-ons. Profit is the motive when a well-groomed spokeswoman tells us we should sue the manufacturer of everything from medication to the company that employed our grandfather. Greed drives a TV preacher to passionately promise grandma her $1,000 is a seed planted in a well-deserved spot in Heaven. When politicians insist we all should have the same outcome, their motive is power. And very misleading. As Americans, we should have access to the tools needed to succeed. But the truth is we don’t all deserve the same outcome because we don’t give the same effort. We don’t all have the same talents or goals. We’re not all the same. There’s one valedictorian. One champion. One winner in a presidential election or Super Bowl. Joe Namath didn’t become famous by saying he’d win. He won. Participation trophies feel good, but removing incentive because everyone “deserves” the same outcome dilutes accomplishments to the lowest common denominator. William Shatner didn’t boldly go where no man had gone before without acting a ton of bit parts first. At the time, even that job was a bit part. In the age of ridiculous political correctness, we’re afraid to admit that success, wealth, recognition, sobriety, lasting relationships and
even good health almost always take ongoing work and dedication. The vast majority of success stories are built on years of midnight oil and the redirection of multiple failures. As a result, there are scads of emperors parading around in invisible clothes while we tell the child to hush and swindlers walk away with the loot. There are many unfair things in the world. Tall men with millionaire parents. Beautiful women who skate by on big lips and a pretty smile. Guys with perfect hair and girls with perfect figures. But the feeling that we deserve what they have isn’t a right. It’s jealousy. It is good to help others, and we all should. But too many of us buy into the “you deserve everything” hockey shoveled by out-to-pasture athletes, old actors and dishonest politicians. The simple, time-honored, Warren Norvell truth is we do not all deserve the same outcome. Good or bad, we deserve what we earn.
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Snapshot
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Join in! o you have a ca era ant to share so e of your favorite pics end the our way and we ight run the in an upco ing issue of ra os Monthly ust e ail your photos to co unity thefacts co and include your na e and town
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erson, Clute
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