Brick & Elm | November/December 2021

S TO RY B R I D G E + I M A G I N AT I O N L I B R A RY

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N O V/ D E C 2 0 2 1

A Few Words

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806-513-1120 | www.marinerwealthadvisors.com 7971 SW 45th Ave., Suite 100, Amarillo, Texas 79119 *Barron’s awarded the 2021 and 2020 #5, 2019 #4 and 2018 #3 Top RIA Firms ranking to Mariner Wealth Advisors based on data compiled for Mariner Wealth Advisors and the 2017 #2 and 2016 #1 rankings to Mariner Holdings based upon data compiled for Mariner Holdings’ registered investment adviser subsidiaries. The number of firms included in the rankings were: 20 (2016), 30 (2017), 40 (2018), 50 (2019) and 100 (2020 and 2021). Barron’s publishes rankings based upon a number of criteria and the firms’ filings with the SEC were used to cross-check the data provided.

The listing includes numbers of clients, employees, advisors, offices and state locations. The award is not indicative of future performance and there is no guarantee of future investment success. For additional information visit www.barrons.com.

Mariner Wealth Advisors (“MWA”) is an SEC registered investment adviser with its principal place of business in the State of Kansas. Registration of an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. For additional information about MWA, including fees and services, please contact MWA or refer to the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website (www.adviserinfo.sec.gov). Please read the disclosure statement carefully before you invest or send money.

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co n t e n t s

40 | cover story A FEW WORDS ABOUT WORDS

A local look at libraries, language and literacy.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

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PHOTO BY LAUREN AND JEREMY PAWLOWSKI, NEIGHBORS CREATIVE

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CA N’T MISS

The top things on our radar

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SO CIA L SEEN

Who did we spot at area events?

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SPOTLIGHT The Turn Center

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B IZ

Get up in the city’s business

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THE CHA SE

With Andy Chase Cundiff

32

FO RWA R D

With Patrick Miller

34

M INDSET

With Jim Womack

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SPACES

Holiday Pet Safety

38

SPACES

Christmas Lights

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ELEVATE YO UR PL AT E With Ruthie Landelius

62 | HOODOO PROVES A HIT

58 | POETIC LICENSE

Amarillo filled a downtown block of Polk Street during the Hoodoo Mural Festival on Oct. 2.

Area poets Seth Wieck, Chera Hammons and Yvonne Perea inspire images from local photographers.

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PHOTO BY VENICE MINCEY

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K I TC H

Sourdough Bread

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K I TC H

Versatile Shortbread

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F +D

Flamingo’s Latin Bar & Grill

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ROA D TRI P Turner Falls Park

PHOTO BY DESMOND INC.

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LISTEN

Recently on the Hey Amarillo Podcast

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IN FO CUS Carter Perky

106

B ACK WHEN Past Christmases

108

FINISH

Featuring Denise Blanchard

PLUS: 79 | B & E’ S I NAU G U RAL HO LIDAY GIF T GUIDE Shopping local this Christmas is more important than ever.

AMARILLO’S PREMIER L I AF R E SI LTLYOL’ES M AG A ZI EI N AM PR EM RE LIFEST YLE MAGAZINE P U B L I S H ER S Michele PU B L I S McAffrey H ER S mm@brickandelm.com

Michele McAffrey

Jason Boyett mm@brickandelm.com jb@brickandelm.com Jason Boyett

jb@brickandelm.com D E S I G N ER

Kayla Morris

km@brickandelm.com

D E S I G N ER Kayla Morris

BRICKANDELM.COM M AY | J U N E 2 0 21 BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

CONTRIBUTING km@brickandelm.com

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P H OTO G R A P H ER S Jim Livingston CO NAngelina T R I B UMarie TING Venice PH OTO G R AMincey PH ER S Jeremy and Lauren Pawlowski Angelina Marie Shannon Richardson Scott Thomas Shannon Richardson CMason O N T RDudley IBUTING W Gillman R I T ER S Gray Chip Chandler Andy Chase Cundiff COMaddisun N T R I B UFowler TING Grimm WMolly R I T ER S Ruthie Landelius Chip Chandler Miller AndyPatrick Chase Cundiff Wes Reeves Wes Reeves Jim Womack

TO S U B S C R I B E:

TO S U B S C R I B E : brickandelm.com brickandelm.com Print subscription: $14.94/year Print subscription: $34.99/year Digital subscription: $8.94/year A DV ER T I S I N G I N Q U I R I E S:

A DV ER T I S I N G I N Q U I R I E S: mm@brickandelm.com mm@brickandelm.com 806.414.5235

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by Edgebow Media LLC, 1610 S. Washington St., Amarillo, Brick & Elm Magazine is published TX 79102. Periodicals Postage paid at Amarillo, TX. POSTMASTER: address changes to Edgebow Media bimonthly bySend Edgebow Media.

All rights LLC, PO Box 2104, Amarillo, TX 79105.

reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited.

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ooks were my refuge as a shy, hen I lookyoung back over past hours few introverted girl.the I spent months, it feels ages since I last each summer day like at the Southwest wrote an editor’s andinthen Branch of the public library,note, nestled a corner aton other times thereading weeks to have by.content.

In the I a beanbag, myflown heart’s middle of January, it seemed my days of typing volunteered in our elementary school’s library upand myadored last-minute thoughtswho priorbecame to printing the librarian, a PenaPal magazine over. schools And then when shewere changed (I … wasa miracle. heartbroken).

The wonderful smell of older books takes me My longtime partner Boyett back to those writing quiet days filled Jason with learning became my new business partner and and imagination.

Brick & Elm was born. This “hyper-local” magazine was created in meetings My parents were both readers.at Myour dad in particular, who was a history buff and respective and it’s the compilation of everything everof hoped collectedhomes, books about World War II, the Egyptians, andwe’ve a favorite mine,aEveryday Panhandle-focused publication could The community outpouring for our new Life in Ancient Times.

I pored over hisbe. books, fascinated by cultures that were so project hasfrom beenmy overwhelming in the best way. My friends and local businesses have different own. sentToday, streams of encouraging messages support.

Now I truly know what means to especially in isolation during of COVID, I have found more time to itlose myself say cup I’ve overflows. inmy books. read more over the past couple of years than perhaps any other time in Thislife. is the firstwith of many fantastic created by a true my So it’s delight that weAmarillo-centric share this issue issues dedicated to words and dream reading. team—Jason and the incomparable Kayla Morris.you I’mtothrilled beyond measure to As winter approaches, we hope it encourages support our local bookstores, share Elm with you. Thanks for reading. find Brick a new&favorite author, and experience the world from another’s point of view.

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don’t give out a business card very often, myfront career began butll Ithe dobest haveparts one. of The of it shows the Amarillo College Journalism myinname and contact information, but the Department. the is midmost prominent visualThere, on theincard an extra1990s, I learnedWORDS. to write fast.

I learned to I do. bold, all-caps Words are what edit. desktop publishing, design I’mIalearned writer and editor.

I’m immersed in words and photography.

But what I learned most every day. of all is that I really liked magazines. I ended up the AC’sthe award-winning campus Buteditor that’sofbeen story of my life.

An early magazine, , and fellby in the lovebooks with the reader, I AC can Current mark vacations I read process creating a publication, start to House finish. on theof road (California, 1984, the Little

on the Prairie series). I spent my elementary years with the Hardy Boys in Bayport Herethe I am again, more than quarter-century later.and ForSam years, MicheleEarth. and I have and Pevensie children in aNarnia and with Frodo in Middle I went worked together telling stories aboutclasses our city.and A few months ago degrees we decided the on to love my high school literature pursue college in Mass time was right to launch a new, sophisticated, independent magazine about Amarillo.

Communications and English.

It feels appropriate thatand ourlibraries first issue covers trail-building, business Today, bookstores remain mytopics happylike places.

That makes this issue reopenings, creative breathing new structures. a special one to me.problem-solving From publishingand poetry inspired by life thisinto areahistoric to celebrating We feel like all those are metaphors Brick & Elm,the and maybe print magazines the power ofof reading, we’ve built thisfor issue around things wefor love.

Language. in Literacy. general. Learning. We hope you enjoy reading these pages as much as we’ve enjoyed So here’s tothem. fresh starts and a new way to shine a spotlight on the city we love. assembling Thanks for reading. We’re honored that you’re here with us, at the beginning.

AMARILLO, TX | ROCKWOODFURNITURECO.COM

KAYLA MORRIS

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

Kayla has been designing professionally for local businesses and nonprofits for more than 10 years. Kayla was raised in the Panhandle and graduated with a design degree from West Texas A&M University. When not designing she loves spending time outdoors with family and friends.

SHANNON RICHARDSON

Shannon has been a commercial/advertising photographer for almost 30 years. His work can be seen at shannonrichardson.com.

ANGELINA MARIE

Angelina Marie has been a photographer in the Amarillo area for 11 years. She specializes in food and drink, architectural, and creative portrait photography. She has a passion to capture the true character of the Panhandle in all its beautiful and unique variety. Angelina is the founder of the Amarillo Women’s Collaborative, which promotes local, women-owned businesses. See her work at shorteareddog.com or find her on Instagram.

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VENICE MINCEY

Venice is a natural light photographer, specializing in senior, family and child photography. Her passion is photographing high school seniors, especially those who might not have the opportunity to have professional photos taken. Venice has been taking photos for more than 20 years. See her work at veniceminceyphotography.com.

CHIP CHANDLER

Chip is the senior communications specialist at West Texas A&M University. A Canadian High School graduate and award-winning journalist, he has covered arts and entertainment in Amarillo since 1998 and is a member of the Amarillo Convention and Visitor Council arts committee.

He is a 2020 Golden Nail Award winner and a 2017 National Philanthropy Day award winner. He is a member of the national GALECA critics group, has seen every Best Picture Oscar winner and watches way too much television.

JEREMY AND LAUREN PAWLOWSKI

Jeremy and Lauren are product and food photographers who focus on bringing light, color and playfulness into every photograph. For the past 10 years, they have lived in Austin and then Portland, Oregon, all while crisscrossing America in search of new scenery and experiences. They recently moved back to Lauren’s hometown of Canyon with their newborn son and dog. See their work at neighborscreative.com.

PATRICK MILLER

Patrick is President of the Amarillo Branch NAACP and assistant principal at Eastridge Elementary. In 2021, he completed a 6-year term on the Amarillo College Board of Regents, to which he was elected at the age of 25. He has earned Master’s degrees in both teaching and educational leadership from WTAMU and has served in a variety of leadership roles within the Amarillo Independent School District.

ANDY CHASE CUNDIFF

Artist, singer-songwriter, music producer and humorist Andy spent many years traveling the U.S. and abroad, but calls Amarillo his home. A longtime resident, Andy’s house is on a red brick street in Oliver-Eakle that is lined with elm trees.

RUTHIE LANDELIUS

Ruthie owns Black Fig Food catering and is proprietor of the online cooking platform Elevated Plant Plate. She has a degree in fine art but has been cooking professionally for more than two decades as a caterer, personal and private chef, college cooking instructor and certified plant-based chef. Learn more about Ruthie at blackfigfood.com and elevatedplantplate.com.

co n t r i b u t o r s

ADAM BAKER

An Amarillo native, Adam Baker graduated from University of North Texas School of Fine Arts.

He spent the past decade of his career based in Dallas, where he worked with clients including the Dallas Cowboys and Joanna Gaines. A few years ago, he introduced rare, historic tintype photography to our region through his business, Perry's Tintypes. You can catch him at pop-ups throughout the city as well as at Hotel Turkey in Turkey, Texas. Find Adam on Instagram at @perrystintypes.

JIM LIVINGSTON

Jim moved to Amarillo seeking a career change in 2013. He attended Amarillo College’s Photography Program and has been chasing pixels ever since. He has been widely published in everything from magazine layouts and book covers to CD jacket covers. He has decorated offices from Chicago to L.A. with his fine art photography. His work has been featured in more than 35 solo gallery exhibits and five museum showings. Visit Jim’s gallery on Sixth Street or learn more at jimlivingstonart.com.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

WES REEVES

Wes was raised in the Texas Panhandle and has been a resident of Amarillo for almost 30 years.

He has been active in the Amarillo Historical Preservation Foundation for the past 15 years, and works in his spare time to bring history alive through historical preservation and engaging new generations in the appreciation of the region’s colorful history.

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MADDISUN FOWLER

Maddisun is the student media coordinator and a mass media instructor at Amarillo College, where she also helps advise the nationally award-winning magazine, The Current, and the newspaper, The Ranger. Maddisun has years of experience in mass communication, working in print, radio, television and multimedia news.

MALLORY GRIMM

Mallory is a senior public relations and advertising major at West Texas A&M University. She is currently a marketing intern with the WT Enterprise Center, helping create social media and creative content. In her free time, Mallory enjoys watching movies, drinking good coffee, collecting vinyl records, and curating her Spotify playlists to perfection.

SETH WIECK

Seth’s stories and poems can be found in Narrative Magazine, The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and Broad River Review where he won the Ron Rash Award in fiction. His latest book, Ulysses Arrives in Amarillo, is available at Aunt Eek’s Books & Curiosities on Sixth Street.

CHERA HAMMONS

Chera is a poet and novelist. She is a winner of the Southwest Book Award in Poetry through PEN Texas and the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award through the Texas Institute of Letters. Her writing appears in Beloit Poetry Journal, Baltimore Review, Poetry, Rattle, The Sun, The Texas Observer, and elsewhere. She lives in Amarillo, Texas, with an assortment of horses and donkeys

YVONNE PEREA

Yvonne is a singer/songwriter who, in the past 15 years, has released three solo albums and five albums with her band hONEyhoUSe. She merges folk, blues and rock, capturing her audiences through memorable melodies, relevant lyrics and soulful, earthy vocals. Autumn recently won Best Americana song at the New Mexico Music Awards.

digital

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rick streets and elm trees are tangible parts of our city, but Brick & Elm definitely has a digital component. In fact, there’s much more to this publication than the physical copy you’re reading now. We’re building a platform to provide the most comprehensive local coverage in the city, including the following:

BRICKANDELM.COM At our online home, we offer the digital version of Brick & Elm for free, courtesy of Palace Coffee. At brickandelm.com, you can also subscribe to the print magazine or give a gift subscription ($34.99 per year). Keep an eye out for regular, digital-only content at our website.

SOCIAL MEDIA Yes, of course, you can find us on Instagram (@brickandelm), Twitter (@brickandelm) and Facebook (@brickandelmmag). Follow us for a glimpse of what’s happening behind the scenes, first looks at our photo shoots and features, and fun gift-card giveaways from local businesses. The print magazine is a finished product. Our social media lets you into the process—with personality.

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BRICKLY This issue is packed with content, but we realize there’s a lot more happening in Amarillo than we can include in these pages. That’s why we’ve created Brickly, a free weekly email newsletter dedicated to Amarillo. Subscribe to it today for business and entertainment news, links to important stories, and updates from local businesses. (To subscribe, visit brickandelm.com.)

Subscribe today.

HEY AMARILLO While not technically part of Brick & Elm, one of our founders is the host of this popular local podcast. Every week since 2017, Jason Boyett has been interviewing the most fascinating people living in and around Amarillo, Texas—including in-depth interviews with folks you’ll read about in these pages. Find the show at heyamarillo.com or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

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Burrowing Owl RECOMMENDS

Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel

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et in Constantinople in the 15th century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s gorgeous third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope—and a book. In Cloud Cuckoo Land, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflect our vast interconnectedness—with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.

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aybe it’s just me, but 2020 felt like it lasted 60 years and 2021 has felt like about 60 days. Nevertheless, the end of the year is fast approaching, a time when entertainment options lean toward the sweet and celebratory. Here’s a sampling of what to expect; for weekly roundups of your best bets, make sure to subscribe to the Brickly newsletter.

November

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

CHRISTMAS ROUNDUP: Amarillo Museum of Art Alliance’s holiday shopping expo returns—a fundraiser for the Alliance’s educational efforts, and an easy way to finish out your Christmas shopping. (Or start it, if you’re like me.) It’ll run Nov. 6 and 7 in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex, 401 S. Buchanan St. Other community events include the National Philanthropy Day luncheon at 11:30 a.m.

Nov. 17 in the Civic Center Heritage Ballroom, celebrating generous and hard-working neighbors; and Lone Star Ballet Guild’s Nutcracker Ball at 6 p.m. Nov. 20 in the Civic Center Heritage Ballroom and Regency Room.

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AMARILLO SYMPHONY: Conductor Jacomo Bairos lifts his baton for a final time as the orchestra’s music director with a special concert featuring Mozart’s Requiem and a world premiere of a new work by composer-in-residence Chris Rogerson, featuring the sublime vocalist J’Nai Bridges. Concerts are scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 19 and 20 in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts.

Other arts highlights this month: The 5 Browns, young sibling pianists performing five-part arrangements on Steinways at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 4 in the Globe-News Center; Chamber Music Amarillo’s That’s Not Tango: Astor Piazzolla, a Life in Music at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Globe-News Center; Amarillo Little Theatre’s Defying Gravity, an artistic dramatization of the 1986 Challenger explosion from Nov. 11 to 21 in the Adventure Space, 2751 Civic Circle; and Falling into Dance, the fall dance concert from West Texas A&M University from Nov. 18 to 21 in the Happy State Bank Studio Theatre.

WORKING RANCH COWBOYS ASSOCIATION WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RANCH RODEO: The top working cowhands in the country return to the Amarillo Civic Center Complex from Nov. 11 to 14 for some of the best rodeo action you’ll ever witness.

Other entertainment options this month: Perryton native and worldclass singer-songwriter Ryan Culwell on Nov. 6 at Golden Light Cantina, 2906 S.W. Sixth Ave.; Christian music star Michael W. Smith on Nov. 9 in the Globe-News Center; Americana greats Reckless Kelly on Nov. 18 at Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road; the rescheduled “Beatles vs. Stones” tribute show on Nov. 20 in the Civic Center Auditorium; and Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, a holiday version of the stage show about the recording adventures of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley at Sun Records, on Nov. 23 in the Civic Center Auditorium.

ETERNALS: Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) brings her intimate filmmaking style to the bombastic Marvel Cinematic Universe with this epoch-spanning tale of immortal superbeings.

(Nov. 5) Also opening this month: Pablo Larraín’s Princess Diana

biopic Spencer (Nov. 5 limited release); Irish working-class family drama Belfast (Nov. 12); sports biopic King Richard (Nov. 19); franchise-restarter Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Nov. 19); and Disney animated film Encanto (Nov. 24).

December THE NUTCRACKER: After its first year off in decades, Lone Star Ballet’s holiday tradition returns to the Civic Center Auditorium for performances Dec. 10 to 12. Other holiday entertainment options include Amarillo Little Theatre’s A Doublewide, Texas Christmas from Dec. 2 to 12 on the ALT Mainstage, 2019 Civic Circle; Amarillo Symphony’s presentation of Handel’s Messiah on Dec. 3 in the Globe-News Center; Christian singer Zach Williams’ I Don’t Want Christmas to End tour Dec. 7 in the Globe-News Center; High Plains Choral Society’s Christmas concert Dec. 12 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2525 Wimberly Road; and Amarillo Symphony’s Happy Holiday Pops concerts Dec. 18 in the Globe-News Center.

BLACK TIE AFFAIR: North Side Toy Drive’s annual holiday fundraiser returns for a sensational evening of fun with Brassaholics and DJ Cleve. Formal attire is required, and so is a toy—you won’t get in without one. Limited free admission (without reserved seating) is available for the party, set for 6 p.m. Dec. 17 in the Civic Center Complex Heritage Ballroom.

Other community holiday events will include West Texas A&M University’s Festival of Lights on Dec. 2; Center City of Amarillo’s Electric Light Parade on Dec. 3 in downtown Amarillo; and Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum’s Christmas Open House on Dec. 4.

WEST SIDE STORY: Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the classic musical snaps, leaps and sings its way to big screens.

(Dec. 10) Also opening this month: arty thriller Wolf (Dec. 3); Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley (Dec. 17); webslinging action flick Spider-Man: No Way Home (Dec. 17); animated sequel Sing 2 (Dec. 22); action prequel The King’s Man (Dec. 22); and reboot The Matrix Resurrections (Dec. 22).

ly Visit brickandelm.com for Chip’s expanded event coverage and movie reviews.

Better yet, subscribe to our newsletter, Brickly, for breaking entertainment news every week!

C H I P C H AN D L E R Chip is the city’s arts and entertainment expert, having covered area events since 1998. Stay up to date on local happenings with Chip’s Can’t Miss picks in every issue.

STI R RE D A portion of the sales of Rosemary Haze will benefit the Amarillo Little Theatre.

Look for Rosemary Haze on the menu at Royal and learn how to make it on Studio 4 next month!

2 6 4 6 W O L F L I N AV E .

R OYA L B A R .C O @ R OYA L B A R .C O

RO S E M ARY HAZE 1 ½ ounces cinnamon-infused Still Austin Gin ¾ ounce rosemary simple syrup ½ ounce allspice dram ½ ounce lime juice Smoked rosemary Build all ingredients in a shaker with ice; shake.

Strain into a vessel over one large rock. Strip off some rosemary leaves and place in a cocktail smoker; light with torch and place over glass to allow the smoke to fill up glass; remove the smoker and enjoy!

Makes 1 cocktail

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JOSH DAVIS TRAINING EVENT

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

On Sept, 17 and 18, the four AISD high schools participated in a training camp with three-time Olympic gold medalist, Josh Davis. Davis worked with the swimmers on techniques and motivated them as they started their swim season. (provided photos)

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MONTE CARLO NIGHT 2021 Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle hosted its third annual Monte Carlo Night on Sept. 18 at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church. The fundraiser included dinner, casino games, music by Esquire Jazz, dancing, and live and silent auctions. (provided photos)

social seen TRI-STATE FAIR & R O D EO PA R A D E

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

The annual kick-off to the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo was held in downtown Amarillo on Sept. 18. The parade theme was “Let Freedom Ring,” and parade goers were treated to nearly 100 floats, groups and school bands that participated this year.

(Photos by WTAMU Ag Communications students)

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A M A R I L L O C O L L E G E F O U N D AT I O N ANNUAL MEETING The AC Foundation honored J. Pat Hickman of Happy State Bank at its annual meeting on Sept. 22. During the meeting held at the Amarillo Club, Hickman was honored for his contributions to AC’s Culture of Caring. (provided photos)

social seen THE GREAT EPILEPSY STEAKOUT

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

The annual Great Epilepsy Steakout took place on Sept. 25 at the Amarillo Civic Center Complex. The annual event featured a steak dinner, live music, silent and live auctions, casino games and dancing. Funds benefited the Epilepsy Foundation Texas. (provided photos)

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STORYBRIDGE LIVE! Storybridge brought children’s book characters to life at its LIVE! Event on Oct. 1 at Hodgetown. Presented by Amarillo ISD, the event featured 10 beloved storybook characters, who signed autographs, posed for pictures and met young readers. (provided photos)

Read more about Storybridge on p.42.

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AMARILLO WOMEN’S MARCH

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

On Oct. 2, the Amarillo Women’s March was held in downtown Amarillo. Beginning at Ellwood Park, the march for reproductive rights wound its way to the courthouse, culminating with speakers, music and a show of local support. (photos by Adam Baker)

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20TH ANNUAL BUDDY WALK On Oct. 2, the Panhandle Down Syndrome Guild hosted its annual Buddy Walk at Sam Houston Park. The advocacy event celebrated its 20th anniversary, and featured resources and fun activities for families and individuals with Down syndrome. (provided photos)

social seen AMARILLO CHAMBER GOOD TIMES C E L E B R AT I O N B A R B EC U E C O O K- O F F

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

The Amarillo Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual Good Times Celebration in a new location this year. More than 80 cook teams competed for bragging rights in the Amarillo National Center parking lot at the Tri-State Fairgrounds. The event included all-you-can-eat-and-drink barbecue and beer, plus live music from Insufficient Funds. (provided photos)

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PA R T Y AT T H E PA R C On Oct. 9, the PARC hosted its annual celebration and fundraiser, Party at the PARC. The event included a tour of the facility, live music from The Band Monarch and food

by Cocina on the Go. (provided photos)

social seen CANYON CHAMBER CHOWDOWN

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

The Canyon Chamber of Commerce rounded up area barbecue competitors and fans for its annual Chowdown cook-off on the Canyon square. Barbecue aficionados enjoyed barbecue, beer and live music. (provided photos)

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BEST OF TEXAS The Tri-State Fairgrounds was the place to dance the evening away on Oct. 15, at the Junior League of Amarillo’s annual Best of Texas, featuring LOCASH. The Coors Cowboy Club provided VIP dinner and musical artists Ed Montana and Lindsay Lane joined as entertainment. (provided photos)

Wednesday – Saturday: 11 am to 5 pm & Sunday: 1 pm to 5 pm | amoa.org 2200 S. Van Buren Street | Amarillo, Texas 79109 | 806.371.5050 SEASON SPONSORS Anonymous, Dr. & Mrs. Michael Engler, Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Smith, David D. & Nona S. Payne Foundation, and Dr. Kent Roberts & Ilene Roberts Balliett Foundation

EXHIBITION SPONSORS

IMAGES (First Row, Left to Right): RAUL GONZALEZ, Over Worked Under Paid, 2016•TERE GARCIA, Anti-Monument, 2020•PHILANA OLIPHANT, Becomng Wilded, 2021•ALEJANDRO MACIAS, El Güerito, 2020•(Second Row, Left to Right): BORYANA RUSENOVA-INA, From the Iron Mountain Road, 2021•ANGEL CABRALES Ce ittaliztli tlen axihuical- Una Visi n en Paralelo (image still), 2019• BERNARDO VALLARINO, Souls Carved With Help (detail), 2019•ANN JOHNSON, OCTOROROON ... From The Auction Block series, 2021•(Third Row, Left to Right): CHRISTOPHER BLAY, Power Light series-8-9-14, 2021•ELIANA MIRANDA, Textile Waters, 2019•(Fourth Row, Left to Right): RHONDA URDANG, Georgia O’Keeffe (Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1977), 2020•DAVID ALCANTAR, The American, 2021•DARE AKINWOLE, an allegory of struggle, 2021•OLANIYA AKINDIYA, INMATE 001AK, 2020

spotlight

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PROVIDED PHOTOS

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TURN CENTER

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N I N E D E CA D E S O F T H E R A P Y s the Turn Center celebrates its 90th year, the nonprofit finds itself settling into a new building while also taking important steps toward its future.

The organization was founded in 1931 and has since been known by a variety of names. It became the Turn Center in 2010 after the Amarillo Speech, Hearing and Language Center merged with the Children’s Rehabilitation Center. Today, it provides comprehensive therapy services for children with special needs. “This is a big year,” says Callie Holton, the Turn Center’s director of communications. “We feel like that shows the legacy of both the need and the support in the Panhandle.”

With a total staff of 53 employees— including 37 therapists—the organization serves children in all 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle.

The most recent fiscal year saw more than 16,000 outpatient therapy visits to address 200 different diagnoses, including Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and more. The Turn Center is the only nonprofit in this area that provides physical, occupational and speech therapy under the same roof.

That roof is mostly new, thanks to a successful capital expansion project. Outpatient visits nearly doubled between 2010 and 2016, so earlier this year, the organization opened a 24,000-square-foot facility at 1250 Wallace Boulevard. “We nearly doubled our square footage,” says Holton. “We added treatment and consultation

spaces and expanded and remodeled our lobby and waiting areas.”

The construction project also added a full-size gymnasium, indoor play space, and functional living apartment. “We finally have a space that’s more befitting our population,” Holton says.

Construction was already underway when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “The need for more space obviously became that much more important [during the pandemic],” Holton says. But a need for space wasn’t the only COVIDinduced change.

After closing its doors in March 2020, the Turn Center implemented telehealth services so therapists could continue their work. “Within a week, we were up and running again with HIPAA-compliant software, which our therapists taught themselves to use,” says Holton. “We are still using it when kiddos are sick or have a travel issue. Far beyond the pandemic, telehealth will have a far-reaching impact.”

The organization is also in the process of hiring a new executive director this fall. “We’re not rushing into it. It’s such a big job, such an interesting little niche of health care-meets-nonprofit.

You want someone with a heart for children with special needs, who can also run a big organization,” Holton says. Learn more at turncenter.org.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:

Our Mission: Open and Affirming Congregations of the Texas Panhandle serves as a portal to assist members of the LGBTQIA communities and their families and allies in locating a congregation where they will be welcomed and affirmed.

Our Congregations: Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 4901 Cornell St., Amarillo 355.9351 | uuama.org Facebook: AmarilloUUFellowship First Christian Church of Canyon 2011 4th Ave., Canyon 655.3512 | fcccanyon.com Facebook: disciplesofcanyon First Presbyterian Church of Canyon 904 19th St., Canyon 655.7087 | fpccanyon.org Facebook: FPCCanyon,TX

Metropolitan Community Church 2123 South Polk St., Amarillo, 372.4557 | mccamarillo.com Facebook: MCC of Amarillo St. Andrews Episcopal Church 1601 S. Georgia St., Amarillo 376.6316 | standrewsamarillo.org Facebook: St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Amarillo St. Luke Presbyterian Church 3001 Bell St., Amarillo 355.6253 | stlukeamarillo.com Facebook: St. Luke Presbyterian Church of Amarillo

AMARILLO UNITERIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP 4901 Cornell, Amarillo, Tx 79109

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church 4714 NW 4th Ave., Amarillo 353.9594 | stpetersofamarillo.com Facebook: St Peter’s Episcopal Church Amarillo TX Unity Spiritual Center of Amarillo 2224 S Taylor St., Amarillo 376.9746 Facebook: Unity Spiritual Center Amarillo

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

Jason Crespin became the Managing/Artistic Director at Amarillo Little Theatre on July 1 of this year, after leading the ALT Academy. Mikayla Green will join ALT as the new Academy Director. Green is herself a product of the Academy.

Jonathan Thompson, an Analytical Chemist, joins Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine as an associate professor of analytical chemistry. He began on Sept. 1.

He also serves as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation (NSF), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), and a host of academic journals.

Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson was chosen to be part of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative—a select educational opportunity for 38 mayors chosen for the intensive education program.

The yearlong program provides mayors with world-class executive training and coaching to help deliver results for cities.

Nurse Practitioner Jason Hathaway, FNP-C has joined Creek Stone Integrated Medical, located at 3501 SW 45th, Suite T. Hathaway will provide primary care, hormone optimization, medical weight loss, IV therapy, platelet-rich plasma treatments, trigger point injections and more.

Premier Vision welcomes Dr. Lauren Denton to its practice. Dr. Denton received her undergraduate degree in biology from Baylor University.

She received her Doctorate of Optometry from the University of Houston.

Rich Gagnon has been named the City of Amarillo Managing Director/Chief Information Officer. In his most recent position with the city, Gagnon was CIO and director of Information Technology.

Andrew Freeman has been named Assistant City Manager for the City of Amarillo.

With more than a decade of experience in various city government roles, he has served Amarillo citizens for more than four years.

Claudia Burkett, a 32-year veteran of Education Credit Union, has been promoted to President of the Canyon Market and Executive Vice President.

Burkett currently oversees the Lending and Marketing and Business Development teams as well as the Canyon market.

Marcus Glass has been promoted to Vice President of Operations at Education Credit Union. Glass will continue to lead the Payments team and assume responsibility for Project Management.

Johnny Harris has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Education Credit Union.

Harris will be leading ECU’s Member Support Center and retail branches. Harris joined ECU in 2004, as a Member Service representative at the Hillside branch.

Lindsey Murphy was recently promoted to Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Education Credit Union.

Murphy began as Director of Marketing in 2009 and will continue to lead ECU's marketing efforts. She is currently building a Business Development program.

Adrian Alejandre has joined Education Credit Union as the Senior Vice President of Lending. Alejandre comes to ECU with 14 years of banking and credit union experience.

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biz

Jarred Cooley has been named Xcel Energy’s Director of Strategic Planning for the Texas-New Mexico region. Cooley will be based in Amarillo.

BSA Health System has recently promoted four team members. After three years as the Nurse Manager at BSA Harrington Cancer Center, Natalie Hall, RN, BSN, OCN has been promoted to Director of Oncology at BSA Hospital. Jessica Van Winkle, RN has been promoted to Director of the BSA Orthopedics and Neurology Department after three years as Nurse Manager for the BSA Medical-Surgical department.

After 10 years in various roles for the BSA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Jamie Milton, RN, BSN has been promoted to Manager of the BSA NICU. Amy Rambo has been promoted to Manager of the BSA Human Resources Department after serving in the same department for two years as Senior HR Generalist.

West Texas A&M University announces new hires and promotions:

Dr. Russ Teweleit and Dr. Betty Coneway were among TAMUS professors who joined the Chancellor’s Academy of Teacher Educators, honoring faculty members who have had a significant impact on the preparation of teachers.

Dr. Nathan Howell was named the Bell Helicopter Professor of Engineering.

Callie Hisek has been named the new Royal R. Brantley Professor of Theatre, and Jon Revett is the new Doris Alexander Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts.

Dr. Xiaolin Lin is the new Philip J. Gensler Professor of Computer Information Systems.

Dr. Jeffry Babb, previous holder of the professorship, recently was named the Stan Sigman Professor of Business.

Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum announces new curators: Deana Craighead has begun work as the Curator of Art and Jenni Opalisnki is the new Curator of History.

Craighead will be responsible for curation, preservation and collection of art for PPHM in addition to teaching art history-focused courses at WTAMU.

Kristin Westbrook has been named the Dr. Wesley L. Langham Professor of Nursing, and Austin Wiseman has been named the Mary Wendler Professor of Nursing Practice.

Alee Friemel has been named the Northwest Texas Healthcare System/Eunice King Professor in Nursing.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

Center City of Amarillo has received designation as a 2021 Accredited Main Street America program. This designation marks the 19th consecutive year of accreditation for Center City.

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R IBBO N-CUT TING S

biz UPCOMING EVENTS AMARILLO

CANYON

AMARILLO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FALL MEGA MARKET

2021 HOLIDAY STYLE SHOW

Nov. 18 Fairfield/Four Points Downtown Amarillo 1911 I-40 East

AG APPRECIATION LUNCHEON Dec. 1, 11:45 a.m.

Amarillo Civic Center Grand Plaza

CHAMBER ANNUAL BANQUET & BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS Dec. 9, 6 p.m.

Amarillo Civic Center Grand Plaza

Nov. 2, 6 p.m.

Legacy Hall, WTAMU

WOMEN IN BUSINESS BREAKFAST Nov. 3, 8:30 a.m.

Guest Speaker is Jarah Mendoza

PANHANDLE GREAT 25 NURSES Nov. 4, 5:30 p.m.

Polk Street United Methodist Church, 1401 S. Polk St.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS BREAKFAST Dec. 1, 8:30 a.m.

We want to hear from you! To highlight your business, promotion, awards and ribbon-cuttings in this section, email a press release or your business brief to mm@brickandelm.com.

the chase

NEEDS A LITTLE WORK am one of the thousands of Americans stricken with an all-consuming, time-devouring, nasty habit. Well, several actually, but the one I am writing about today is specific—a passion for four-wheel drive vehicles.

Big, honking trucks. Love them like I loved my childhood Tonka toys.

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We don’t really go four-wheeling much. My doctors all tell me that my bumping through the mountains, hills, mud and water days are pretty much over. But I still have a truck. Since about 1982, when I figured out that you could drive a pickup, Blazer or Jeep anywhere you could take a car, I have had at least one four-wheel drive at the house.

Besides, you can’t take a car everywhere you can take a truck. That’s how I always defend my position, anyway.

After about three Jeeps, two Dodge Ramchargers, a K5 Jimmy, three K5 Blazers, and an International Harvester Travelall that have all come and gone in the past 30 or so years, I still have an old Blazer (the big one) that I picked up in Colorado a few years ago. It’s really just something to work on—a “project” as we disturbed truck enthusiasts call it. A labor of love, something to improve on as life matures.

I know lots of people who say, “There is no reason to own a fourwheel drive vehicle in Amarillo, Texas.” These are the kind of people I tend to avoid for their lack of sound reasoning. At one time or another, most of us go to the mountains, where there is snow. Some of us seem, strangely, to bring that snow back with us to Amarillo.

In addition, we have the distinction of being in an area that can get a year’s worth of rain in two minutes. This equals flooding. When you need wheel clearance around these here parts, you need it BAD. Those little shorty-sporty cars do not make good boats.

Inordinate amounts of my time are spent scouring all sources available for trucks and parts. It’s a lot easier these days, with technology in every room. You can go looking for cars while seated comfortably in your recliner. Suits me right down to the ground.

So here are some tips that I have learned over decades of study (I can feel my wife, somewhere, rolling her eyes at my use of the word, “study”): 1. Read ALL the print that is there. Do NOT look at the pictures first.

You will be very tempted, but go directly to the written words.

Ask for help if there are big words. If any or all of the words are misspelled, move along to the next truck. Trust me on that one.

2. Don’t even proceed with your consideration if there is only one picture. If they don’t show all sides of the truck, you can rest assured they are showing a good side, possibly the ONLY good side.

3. Keep moving if the only picture of the truck contains a trailer.

Especially if the truck is ON the trailer.

4. Beware of dead giveaway phrases like. “It ran when we parked it.”

“We” may mean their grandfather, who may have parked it after the war.

5. “Missing a few parts” means “missing all parts except what you can see in the photos.”

6. If no odometer mileage is given, scroll on. The common variation of this is, “the odometer may have rolled over.” This means the odometer has rolled over at least twice.

7. Anything that says “new tires,” forget about it. You can bolt new tires onto a decrepit fence gate. The new tires could very well be the only part of the vehicle that works, and they may not even be the ones you like. “New tires” are the least of your troubles.

8. “Fresh paint” equals zero. See rule 7. Get a truck that has NO new paint. You will be able to see all its flaws, and to pick your own paint color, if paint is in its future.

9. “Needs a little work.” Scroll with both hands away from this.

Unless you are retired and plan to spend the rest of your life on one “project.” Some people do. Not knocking it, just something to consider.

10. “Just testing the waters.” It may occur to you that this is a fishing term. Guess who the fish is.

11. “I bought this for my (son, daughter, cousin, niece, nephew, exwife, grandfather who fought in the war ... you get the idea) but then he or she decided to go to (college, medical school, law school, beauty school … you get the idea).” Way too much family history and not enough truck info.

12. “Runs and drives.” Well, pop the cork. And pardon my presumption that was already the case.

13. “Clean owner’s title.”

Great, because I think most of us are tired of those pesky AN DY C H A S E C U N D I F F cartel trucks with all of those Andy is an artist, singerrepo and law enforcement songwriter, music producer auction complications. and musician. In every issue, his column explores the parts of his 14. And finally—“Has a little rust in life that don’t always make it into the usual places.” his songs, accompanied by his That’s another column. own illustration.

f o r wa r d WITH PATRICK MILLER

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merican psychologist Abraham Maslow once surmised, “In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.”

Oftentimes, we take the latter option over the former out of mere convenience. The truth is too hard to accept when we do not want to acknowledge what is uncomfortable and growing requires effort we generally try to avoid. We live in a time where we find ourselves comfortably behind screens, posting things onto our favorite social media platforms to make statements about the people we value or the things we believe. Despite having myriad resources and an abundance of communication methods, the way we Americans have utilized social media has been nothing short of divisive.

A simple disagreement over a trivial concern erupts into a chasm between the most and the least privileged among us. We vehemently dispute everything, from constitutionally protected rights to the issues of basic humanity. Many of us claim to love our neighbors, but we have a difficult time caring about our neighbors who do not worship, vote or look as we believe they should. As we move to put a bow and a final stamp on the calendar year of 2021, it is time for us all to do some introspection.

Throughout the pandemic, we have learned a lot about the various forms of adversity. While some of us may have continued to make mortgage or rent payments without any hesitation, others were fortunate to receive assistance and an extended eviction moratorium to provide their families with shelter. While some families easily adjusted to the virtual learning environment for their school-aged children, others relied on the increased broadband connectivity options and technology provided by their respective neighborhood schools. While it may have been convenient to order merchandise or clothing from a giant retail store via online shopping, small family-owned brick-and-mortar businesses suffered financial losses we cannot fathom.

Though it may have been easy for some to consent to receive vaccinations for a virus previously unknown, others—such as myself— reviewed data and consulted with medical professionals prior to submitting to receiving the Moderna vaccination. Though some may decry the dissemination of COVID relief stimulus payments, families across America received the opportunity to afford another meal or keep the electricity on during a crisis for which we were inadequately prepared. Just recall how vulnerable most of us Texans were

during the winter storm power outage in February 2021. With schools and other public places wide open, it may seem as if we are back to normal. However, it would be unwise for us to assume all families are physically, emotionally or financially in the same place as before.

This pandemic has taken a lot from a lot of people. Some of our loved ones are physically gone, our emotional health is waning, and our finances are stretched thin. The last thing we need tends to be the first thing we see when we scroll through social media platforms— judgment for the personal decisions we make. I know I am guilty of it myself. Perhaps we all need to remember to presume positive intent, especially during the holiday season.

American psychologist and university professor Adam Grant posits, “Learning requires the humility to admit what you don’t know today. Unlearning requires the integrity to admit that you were wrong yesterday.” Regardless of our perceived level of expertise on any issue, let us strive to understand and be tolerant of another person’s viewpoint.

I personally love a fact-based debate. However, I believe we all need to spend more time listening to rather than shouting at one another.

This pandemic and the political rancor within it have already taken far too much of our empathy and civility. It is time for us to return to the table of brother- and sisterhood and learn from one another again. The only way forward is to work together. Growth usually occurs in discomfort.

This year, like the last, was mentally, spiritually and physically exhausting for most of us. But we fortunately find ourselves PAT R I C K M I L L E R possessing a resilient faith and a A passionate local educator and relentless volition to do more than President of the Amarillo Branch simply survive. Let us press forward NAACP, Patrick writes in every issue about education, faith and collaboratively to identify ways and forward momentum. create systems which enable us all to thrive.

Cancer treatment in half the time.

Cancer can be relentless, but so are we in our commitment to bringing advanced cancer-fighting therapies to the Texas Panhandle and surrounding area. With the region’s most precise radiation therapy in many cancers, we are reducing the number of treatments by half. This new, state-of-the-art cancer treatment gives physicians the ability to target and destroy cancer with pinpoint precision while leaving healthy tissue unharmed. More accurate and effective cancer treatments are helping more patients return to a cancer-free life — faster. BSA for life.

Learn more about a shortened course of radiation therapy.

BSAHarrington.com

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS W

hen I get what I want, then I will be happy.

I’ll be happy when I’m rich. I’ll be happy when I have an expensive vehicle. I’ll be happy when there is a Trader Joe’s in Amarillo and when the construction is done on I-40.

It’s easy to believe that happiness will come when you get whatever you want. But these ideas are known as “conditional happiness,” and rarely, if ever, work.

LET GO OF ANXIETY AND REGRET Research shows that letting go of resentment and regret as we grow older increases contentment and happiness, and holding on to these grudges and regrets causes us to take more aggressive and risky actions. The healthiest and happiest people become aware of the negative emotions they have held on to, and then choose to let them go.

There are better ways to live a happier life, including techniques rooted in ideas that have been around for centuries. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a modern counseling technique that is very effective for depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, marital problems, eating disorders, and much more. The basis of CBT can be traced back several thousand years to a philosophy known as Stoicism.* Many of the techniques used by the Stoics can still be very effective today when searching for a more meaningful, fulfilling life.

The Stoics sought the ability to be content with whatever life hurled at them. Can you bravely face life’s challenges, can you bounce back from adversity, can you be a source of strength and inspiration to others when they are facing life’s challenges?

Below are a few of the strategies that were used way back then to be truly happier—and are still proven effective today:

DO GOOD FOR OTHERS TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF Every person we cross paths with presents us with an opportunity for kindness. Consequently, they also provide us an opportunity to find happiness. If you want to feel better today, be of service. Think less about your own problems and try to help others with theirs. You’ll be amazed at the effect this can have—on both you and them.

FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL We can control some situations, but we can’t control everything around us. Focusing on things you can’t control does not increase your happiness. In fact, it can lead to what Buck Owens and Roy Clark described as “gloom, despair, and agony on me; deep, dark depression, excessive misery.”

So put your best efforts into focusing on what you can control and try not to worry about what may—or may not—happen later.

EXERCISE We know exercise is good for your physical health. It also releases endorphins that minimize stress, depression and anxiety. Getting out of your head and into your body can be very valuable for your mood.

Any daily physical activity that helps a person get away from the noise of everyday life is valuable. Walking, fitness classes, lifting weights, yoga, running, riding your bike … all of these are ways to improve your mood.

CONNECT WITH OTHERS Starting a conversation with a stranger has been shown by research to have positive effects on the mood and well-being of the person who initiates the conversation. Research also shows that the person with whom the conversation was initiated was equally positively impacted. Try stepping out of your comfort zone and engaging someone in conversation.

mindset DO LESS So many of the things that we think we must do, and so much of what we end up doing, turn out not to be important. We do it out of guilt, laziness or even out of greed. Take some stress off of yourself and figure out what you can cut out of your routine. And don’t feel guilty about saying “no” if someone asks you to do something when your plate is already full.

LAUGH Stressful experiences in everyday life suppress the immune system, which increases the risk of infectious illness and heart disease. A good laugh can help prevent stress from accumulating and affecting the immune system, protecting you from disease. Research has found that laughter can increase oxygen to the heart, lungs and muscles, increase endorphins, improve your mood and reduce physical pain.

We think we need a lot to be happy. However, we’ve seen other people achieve what they think is the perfect dream life, and we find out they are miserable. You already have what you need to be more fulfilled, and happiness will not be decided by outside events. The person who can be grateful and focus on what is good in their existence will lead a more fulfilling and happier life. *“Stoic Philosophy as a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy” By D. Robertson and T. Codd, The Behavior Therapist, vol.

42, no. 2, Feb 2019

MERRY

Christmas from

2611 Wolflin Village (806) 331-2002 marcellas.com

J I M W O M AC K Jim is the chief executive officer of Family Support Services of Amarillo (FSS), a notfor-profit agency that traces its roots back to 1908, offering counseling and behavioral health services; advocacy services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking (including Amarillo’s only Safe House for survivors), education and prevention programs for at-risk children, families and adults; and a full-service Veterans Resource Center for veterans, their family members and surviving spouses. Jim has worked in the behavioral health care field for more than 20 years, and has undergraduate and graduate degrees from WTAMU.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

TAKE TIME TO BE GRATEFUL Stop and notice what is going on around you. There is a lot that we take for granted. Feeling and showing gratitude has been shown to help people feel more positive emotions, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. There are many opportunities to say thanks, so try and take them.

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his is the season,” veterinarian Dr. Ryan McKnight says in late October. “Starting with Halloween, every day we see a dog or cat that got into something they weren’t supposed to.”

McKnight is part of the team at Hope Veterinary Clinic, where he focuses on internal medicine and surgery. He says the holiday season— especially Christmas—can be a risky one for dogs, cats, and other household pets.

We asked him for suggestions to help minimize risks for pets.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

PROTECT YOUR PLANTS.

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Classic Christmas greenery like natural holly or mistletoe can be poisonous to those furry family members. “No one ever thinks about mistletoe. Real mistletoe can actually cause cardiac effects and [damage] the heart muscle, which can lead to heart failure and sometimes death,” McKnight says. “If a pet eats enough of it, it can be really problematic.”

And while a Christmas lily may be beautiful, it’s harmful to cats. If ingested, toxins in the plant can cause kidney failure.

As for poinsettias, which many homeowners have heard are toxic, they actually aren’t as dangerous as commonly believed. “Over the years, they’ve bred out a lot of the toxicity in poinsettias—those chemicals that make them toxic. Most, nowadays, are pretty safe,” McKnight says. But he still recommends artificial plants as a safer stand-in for the real thing.

DITCH DEADLY DECOR.

“Every year, a cat that has been playing with tinsel or ribbon gets it caught in the intestinal tract and causes obstruction,” McKnight says. “It basically acts as a saw in the intestine and causes perforation or ulceration. It can be fatal.”

A homeowner might bring in a cat that keeps vomiting over and over. “We’ll look under their tongue and there’s a piece of ribbon or tinsel that starts under their tongue and goes all the way into the intestinal tract,” he explains.

“Sometimes it works out and we catch it in time.

But sometimes it doesn’t.”

He’s also seen dogs eat shattered pieces of glass ornaments, which can require emergency surgery. Keep those decorations out of reach or protect the tree behind a puppy pen.

WATCH THE WIRING.

Christmas lights are a big part of holiday decor, but they need to remain off limits for

animals likely to chew on them. Dr. McKnight says that cats and “pocket pets” like guinea pigs or rabbits love to chew on electric wires or cords.

So do puppies. Christmas light cords are rarely well insulated. “They’ll electrocute themselves,” he says. Outcomes include mouth ulcers, infections and even death. “Every year I see one of those cases,” adds McKnight.

Don’t light the lower branches of your tree. If you keep cords on the floor, keep them covered.

PAY ATTENTION AT PARTIES.

Holiday get-togethers are often the biggest safety offender for pet-owners, simply because guests may leave food or drink where a pet can access it. “By far our biggest caseload is animals getting into things they’re not supposed to,” McKnight says. Everyone knows chocolate is poisonous to dogs, but artificial sweeteners can also be toxic. Xylitol, which is common in sugarless gum, is particularly harmful. “You might also find it in sugar-free peanut butters,” he says. McKnight recommends reading labels to make sure you’re not accidentally serving the chemical to a pet—or leaving it accessible in baked goods.

Grapes, raisins, garlic and onions are also toxic for animals, so don’t flavor a turkey with garlic or onions and then give your dog the leftovers. “If a 50-pound dog eats half an onion, it’s in trouble,” McKnight says. “I’ve seen it kill dogs.”

Adult drinks are also bad for pets. Alcohol leads to disorientation, which can push an animal into a coma or respiratory distress. High levels of caffeine—found in coffee or energy drinks—can cause heart problems and neurologic disease.

AVOID UNKNOWN TREATS.

Dogs love bones, but bones bring a lot of pets to the vet. “We see people during the holidays give a big knuckle bone to their dog,” McKnight says. The dog can grind it up into shards, swallow the pieces, and experience gastrointestinal issues. “We just are not fans of animal bones, rawhide or pigs’ ears,” he says.

Rope toys that fray and plush toys that can be shredded into stuffing can also cause intestinal trouble. Instead, the vet recommends only giving treats that break down easily, like Milk-Bone treats that crumble.

“Your dog doesn’t care if it’s getting a new toy for the holidays, so don’t go out and buy something your dog has never been in contact with,” he says. Buy a familiar toy your dog can enjoy safely.

REDIRECTION EDUCATION

It’s clear that pet-owners need to keep their animals away from human food, dangerous plants and other holiday decor. But exactly how do you do it? First, provide pets a quiet room or crate during holiday parties. “When lots of people are around, it’s hard to keep an eye on them,” says Liz Gray, who co-owns Amarillo Fetch, a boutique dog resort that offers private training sessions and train-andboard services.

But Gray also suggests using redirection and substitution to help dogs avoid bad behaviors. “We like to suggest positive reinforcement,” she says.

For instance, the Fetch team uses clicker training to redirect a dog away from a negative behavior—like chewing on a string of Christmas lights—and toward something more positive. Rather than scolding when a dog does something bad, a clicker communicates when the dog does the right thing. Then, a reward follows the click. That reward might be a small treat, a belly rub, or a Kong toy filled with peanut butter.

“Any type of puzzle games for dogs [are good ways] to keep them busy and away from things,” says Gray.

Dogs will almost always repeat behavior that gets rewarded in some way, she adds, even if that reward is attention rather than food. But reward training doesn’t just help dogs make the right choice. It allows a pet owner to avoid yelling or punishment, which can stress out both the dog and owner.

Training a dog takes time, though, so Gray advises starting now, weeks before putting up Christmas decorations or planning parties.

I where GIVE I LIVE November 22-30 thepanhandlegives.org

s p a ce s

T HE L I GHT ST UFF

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hristmas lights deliver holiday magic. Christmas lights make homes inviting. Christmas lights are, suddenly, big business in the Texas Panhandle.

With the holidays approaching—and Christmas lights flying off the shelves—we reached out to Cleat Bell of Jingle Bell Christmas Lights, whose seasonal business will install lights at more than a hundred residences and businesses this season. Bell brings to his work a lot more than a catchy yuletide name or experience with ladders and lightbulbs. He actually graduated from what he calls “a Christmas-light school” in the Metroplex before starting his business 10 years ago. “They showed you all the latest colors, technology and products,” he says. “It was a lot of hands-on experience.”

He’s since built a customer base from Spearman to Plainview, and has had teams installing light arrays since midOctober. For those not leaving the decorating to experts, Bell sheds a little light on his best practices: Make the switch. If you’re still using incandescent lights, it’s past time to replace that outdated technology. LED lights are safer. They last longer. They are far more efficient.

“Yes, incandescents are a lot cheaper, but you have to consider replacement cost year to year. LEDs last forever with proper care and storage,” Bell says. “Also, you can do a whole lot more lighting with LED from a single power source.”

In fact, Bell says homeowners can string together up to 700 feet of C9-size LED lights from a single outlet, compared to around 100 feet of incandescent bulbs. That’s why professional installers use LEDs almost exclusively.

Plan ahead. Don’t just grab a balled-up tangle, climb onto the roof, and start unspooling lights. “Do as much prep work on the ground before you get on the roof or climb a ladder,” Bell says.

Unwind the lights. Plug them in. Test the bulbs and make sure they’re secure. Attach roofline clips. “The last thing you want to do is get it all up and then notice something’s wrong,” he says.

Stay organized. Watch for any excess light strands or extension cords hanging off the roofline. Those become easy victims of a strong north wind, explains Bell. “I like to use zip ties to tie cords against a downspout so they don’t flap in the wind or come unplugged.” He also suggests labeling lights upon removal, so you know what goes where next season. “Like ‘this bulb goes in the northwest corner,’ or ‘that goes above the window,’” he says.

Give yourself time. Some aspects of lighting, like wrapping trees, can’t be rushed. “Trees are the most frustrating and expensive thing there is to do because it just takes so much light and because of the wind here,” he says. The wind makes draping lights from branch to branch a bad idea, so most installations involve spiral or branch wrapping. Doing it well requires many, many strands of lights.

Use common sense. Most lighting injuries occur because of impatience, bad gear or inclement weather. First, don’t stand on the top rung of a ladder. “That’s when accidents happen—people reach too far to stretch to put on one more bulb,” Bell says.

“You might save 30 seconds by not moving the ladder, or you might spend five hours in the emergency room with a broken arm.”

He won’t allow his teams to hang lights in rainy or snowy weather, because slippery conditions always cause trouble. Also? “Don’t get on the roof with your cowboy boots,” he adds. “Make sure you’re wearing a flat-soled tennis shoe or hiking boots that will grab the shingles and give you a good footing.”

Avoid exposed sockets. A lot of homeowners will loosen a bulb or remove it completely to keep their lighting display nice and neat. Bell says it’s better to remove a socket altogether than to leave an exposed one. If you’re not able to do that, cover any exposed sockets with electrical tape. “Otherwise, you can get moisture in there and the strand could short out,” Bell says. He also advises reading the instructions on a light strand to make sure you haven’t plugged too many lines into a single outlet. “You’ll blow fuses or filaments and then you’ll get frustrated trying to diagnose what’s wrong,” he says.

Consider convenience. The market now boasts plenty of lights or outdoor extension cords that can be powered on and off using a smartphone app. Some bulbs are dimmable or change colors, allowing even more control. But Bell also likes less futuristic technologies. “The old-school, plug-in timers are pretty efficient as far as keeping you from forgetting to turn off or on the lights,” he says.

Over the past few years, most new houses in Amarillo are being built with soffit outlets installed under the roofline. “Nine out of 10 new homeowners won’t know what that switch does in the closet,” Bell says with a chuckle. “That’s probably the switch that turns on the soffit plugs that run the Christmas lights.”

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A Few Words about Words

BY JASON BOYETT

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e produce a print magazine, so while we get excited about photography and ink and paper and advertising, we also love words. We’re passionate about language. We spend every day immersed in words. As professional communicators, we write and edit for a living.

We are also avid readers. Few things bring us more joy than cracking open a physical book.

From the cover design to the paper stock to the story inside its pages, books warm our magazinepublishing little hearts.

So as we end Brick & Elm’s first year of operation, we wanted to dedicate this holiday issue to the local world of words, language and books. We are celebrating local bookstores. We are highlighting reading and literacy programs. We are introducing new programs at Storybridge—a beloved community organization—and calling attention to those Little Free Libraries you see all over town.

We are investigating English as a Second Language classes and the new Amarillo residents seeking to add to their vocabulary.

This issue is all about words. Like a good book, we hope you’ll read it cover to cover.

Meet Our Cover Model Kaniya Barringer, an AISD middle-school student, graciously served as our cover model for this issue. The setting was the always-delightful Burrowing Owl Books in Canyon, and Kaniya was photographed by Jeremy and Lauren Pawlowski, the husband-andwife duo known as Neighbors Creative.

An avid reader, Kaniya identifies herself as a big fan of fantasy and YA books. Her favorite series include two by Rick Riordan: the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and The Kane Chronicles.

She’s a devotee of The School for Good and Evil series by Soman Chainani and has just begun wading into the magical world of Hogwarts and Harry Potter. Whether checking books out from her school library or stepping into Burrowing Owl for a new title—true to form, Kaniya left our photo shoot with a new book—she claims to read just about anything.

“I just kind of go for it,” she says. We hear you, Kaniya.

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PHOTOS BY LAUREN AND JEREMY PAWLOWSKI, NEIGHBORS CREATIVE

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The Gift of Reading

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H O W C H A N D R A , J I M , A N D D O L LY T E A M E D U P TO G I V E AWAY C H I L D R E N ̓ S B O O KS

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veryone talks about the “small world” nature of life in Amarillo. Board a flight to Amarillo from Love Field and you’re all but guaranteed to know someone on the plane. But incredibly, Jim Whitton and Chandra Perkins hadn’t met each other until 2020.

Whitton spent most of the 1980s running a talent agency in New York City, then came to Amarillo to help market Hastings Entertainment in the 1990s before dedicating the next 15 years of his life to The Hunger Project as a regional director for funding. He retired from his multi-hyphenate career in 2017.

In the spring of 2019, Whitton attended the Zero to 5 Summit in Amarillo, an event designed to promote early education initiatives. There he heard Harvard professor Ron Ferguson stipulate that the biggest opportunity to make a difference in a child’s education was before they reached the age of 5. “That piqued my interest in the age range,” Whitton says.

The following summer, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church invited Amarillo’s Black community leaders to share (via Zoom) with Sunday School classes. Whitton attends St. Andrew’s, and remembers Dr. Tamara Clunis, vice president of academic affairs at Amarillo College, answering a particular question.

Someone asked what St. Andrew’s could do to make a positive difference in the Black community. “[Clunis] offered that providing books to kids would make the biggest difference,” Whitton recalls. The class took that recommendation seriously. Over the next few months, Whitton raised money to buy books, and right before Christmas, St. Andrew’s delivered 400 books to Carver Early Childhood Academy—one per child.

In the process, Jim met Chandra.

“That was my first connection with Storybridge,” he says. Perkins’ organization helped Whitton get those books into the right hands. Having looked her up after hearing about Storybridge, Whitton downloaded Perkins’ early 2020 interview on the Hey Amarillo podcast. “I was just

knocked out how she had basically created this organization that had this book-gifting horsepower. I was bowled over by her enthusiasm and passion for getting books to kids,” he says.

Not long after, Whitton had a phone conversation with a friend on the North Carolina State Board of Education.

“I knew he had a passion for early childhood education,” Whitton says of the friend. “When I told him about our book gifting to Carver, he said, ‘Well, if you’re serious about giving away books, there’s only one game in town: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.’”

A Perfect Match

Perkins, of course, was well aware of Dolly Parton’s organization. The music icon launched the nonprofit in 1995 to provide books for children in rural east Tennessee. It has since expanded into five countries, giving away a million free books each month to children who register with the organization.

The idea is simple: Parents in a selected coverage area enroll their children into the program, regardless of income.

Imagination Library covers overhead and administrative expenses, along with fulfilment, while a local 501(c)3 affiliate raises $2.10 per child, per month, to cover the wholesale book purchase and mailing costs.

Kids get a free, high-quality book sent to them in the mail every month.

Having just learned about the Imagination Library, Whitton asked Perkins if she was aware of it. At the time, Storybridge was in its fourth year of providing free books to Amarillo children through book fairs and its Little Free Library program (see page 46).

“It was new to him,” Perkins says of Whitton. “He said, ‘Have you heard of Dolly Parton’s thing?’ Oh, yeah. We knew all about it.”

In fact, Imagination Library had been on her radar since Perkins started Storybridge.

But in 2020, Storybridge had only just begun hitting its stride. Perkins still worked part time as an educator and mostly volunteered her time with the organization. Becoming an Imagination Library affiliate was a big future goal, but Storybridge wasn’t yet ready. “As is typical of a grassroots

nonprofit that just accidentally grew, there was no nest egg for a giant program like that,” she says. An affiliation with Parton’s organization would require significant funding. Perkins had questions: “Do we spend years saving up for it? Or do we start doing what we can, right now, with what we’ve got? If we had tried to bite that off in 2016 or 2017, we would have choked on it. We didn’t have the infrastructure to protect it or to service it well,” she explains.

So Storybridge started small. It hosted free book fairs. Perkins recruited sponsors to install Little Free Libraries. She dreamed. And by the time Whitton came around, Storybridge had given away more than 160,000 books in the Texas Panhandle.

“Book gifting was their DNA,” Whitton says. “It’s what they did.”

Storybridge had been focusing on elementary-aged kids.

Imagination Library sent books to kids from birth to age 5. Apart from the financial need—$25 per child annually, for the 17,000 children younger than 5 in Potter and Randall counties—it seemed like a match made in heaven.

Good thing Whitton had spent the past 15 years as a professional fundraiser.

An Easy YES

Early in 2021, Whitton made Storybridge an offer. “If Chandra and Storybridge would take responsibility for signing up the kids and promoting the program community-wide, I would take responsibility for being the point person for the fundraising,” he says. The duo came to a handshake agreement, then reached out to the Imagination Library representative for this area. Storybridge became Dolly

Parton’s official affiliate for the Texas Panhandle.

Then Whitton created what he labeled a Founders’ Circle: a dozen individuals, families and family foundations to commit at least $1,250 per year—at the entry level—over the next three years.

That’s enough to provide 12 books a year to 50 children a month.

Some Founders’ Circle donors agreed to much more, supporting up to 1,000 children a month ($25,000 a year) through the Storybridge affiliation.

“We welcome and will make great use of contributions at any and all levels,” Whitton says, “but this Founders’ Circle has gotten us here, where we are today. They got this thing launched in a really substantial way.”

Before long, Storybridge had raised $250,000, enough to register 2,000 children in Potter and Randall counties for Imagination Library.

Those 2,000 kids are covered for the next two years of the program, which is still growing.

Perkins is thrilled at the response, but not surprised.

“It’s such an easy, tangible gift for the community,” she says.

“I can give you $25 and that pays for a year of free books for a baby or toddler? That’s an easy yes.”

Families Waiting

She then turned to the administrative aspect of the Storybridge partnership with Dolly Parton’s organization. “I had to register every zip code in our geographic area,” Perkins says. “I didn’t realize there are about 30 different zip codes in Potter and Randall counties.”

One at a time, she had to enter those zip codes into an Imagination

PHOTO BY ANGELINA MARIE, SHORT EARED DOG PHOTOGRAPHY BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

PROVIDED PHOTO

JIM WHITTON AND CHANDRA PERKINS

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Library database. 79101. 79102. 79106. “As I entered every zip code, I would get this pop-up alert on the screen. It would say, ‘There are 12 families waiting for this program in this zip code.’ Or ‘There are 40 families waiting.’”

When a parent visits the national Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library website (imaginationlibrary.com), they can search, by zip code, to see if it’s available in their area. If not, the child gets put on a waiting list. Imagination Library promises to notify those families when their region finally has an Imagination Library affiliate.

Across every zip code, as it turns out, hundreds of local families had already been waiting for Imagination Library to come to Amarillo.

“I got chills with every pop-up,” Perkins says. “This is something people had been looking for and waiting for.”

it’s impossible. In fact, I think it’s necessary. And I think we are the ones to do it.”

With a little help, of course, from Dolly Parton.

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Five years after launching Storybridge in 2016, Perkins has now taken big steps toward her original mission: for every child in Amarillo to own 20 books, regardless of their age or their families’ income level. “No matter what zip code they’re in, we want that to be part of growing up in Amarillo. It’s a birthright. If you live here, you get books.

It’s what we do for our neighbors so they can be successful.”

Thanks to the Imagination Library affiliation, that dream is becoming a reality in Amarillo. But Perkins and Whitton aren’t done. “We’re on a roll in Potter and Randall, but now I’m thinking about the kids in Cactus and Hereford,” Perkins says.

“They need it too, and we can take steps to get there. All these programs working together mean we’re going to get there faster.”

She points to the Storybridge trailer, parked downtown so it’s visible to southbound drivers on Taylor Street, outside the former AIG building where Storybridge now operates. “That trailer’s the first thing we bought in December 2016, right after we became a 501(c)3.

We needed a place to store and move books around,” Perkins says.

“My husband talked about making me a little office inside the trailer.”

Her early ambitions were only trailer-sized.

“It’s always humbling to look back and think how limited your predictions can be sometimes,” she adds. “But at the same time, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have dreams and visions of serving the whole Panhandle. I don’t know how long that will take, but I no longer think

“

I̓ D BE LYING IF I SAID I DIDN̓ T HAVE DREAMS OF SERVING THE WHOLE PANHANDLE. AND I THINK WE ARE THE ONES TO DO IT.

”

— CHANDRA PERKINS

The Power of Children’s Books • The No. 1 factor influencing a child’s early educational success is being introduced to books and read to at home before entering school.

• Regardless of their parents’ education level, children who grow up in homes with at least 20 books finish three more years of schooling than children from bookless homes.

• In middle-income neighborhoods, the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1.

In low-income neighborhoods, the rate is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.

• Two out of 3 low-income families have zero children’s books in their home.

• Two out of 3 children who can’t read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.

(Statistics courtesy of Storybridge)

PROVIDED PHOTOS

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Beyond the Trailer

Fave book spot:

BY MALLORY GRIMM

This hidden local gem is a booklover’s dream. Owner Dallas Bell first opened Burrowing Owl Books in January 2016 with a quaint, narrow shop on the Square in Canyon. After high demand from Amarillo customers, she expanded into Amarillo in 2019 with a location in the Summit Shopping Center.

Burrowing Owl prides itself on being the “friendly neighborhood bookstore,” according to Bell. Her shops focus on the local “recreational reader”—readers for pleasure—with a diverse collection of mostly used books. Bell’s staff will also special-order books for customers, especially DALLAS hard-to-find titles. She says the Canyon Square location attracts summer BELL tourists and locals alike, and customers are especially drawn to the shop’s curated Texas regional section. “You can’t find many bookstores like this anymore!” is a common phrase the staff hears.

The Amarillo store provides a more contemporary Texas regional section, and both locations boast an impressive collection of youth titles. Burrowing Owl also offers children’s literacy programs—including a summer reading program—plus storytimes for children. The shops also work alongside Storybridge, which aims to improve children’s literacy in the Amarillo area (see page 42). In addition to the youth section, Burrowing Owl carries a large selection of young adult and mainstream titles.

Dallas Bell is especially proud of her employees. “We have the best staff,” she says. “They love sharing their wealth of knowledge with each customer.” It’s true. These book lovers are always ready to give recommendations to customers or strike up a conversation about their favorite reads. That’s why these two locations are among our favorite places in Amarillo and Canyon.

Learn more at burrowingowlbookstore.com.

PHOTOS BY NEIGHBORS CREATIVE

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Burrowing Owl

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LOCAL CHILDREN ARE ABLE TO READ MORE THAN 12,000 BOOKS A YEAR THROUGH THE STORYBRIDGEMAINTAINED LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES.

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n late September, local author Andrew J. Brandt stepped into Burrowing Owl Books intent on buying a few spooky titles for kids as Halloween approached.

The books weren’t for him, though, nor for his young daughter. Nevertheless, he spent close to $100 at the local bookstore.

Then, before the calendar rolled into October, Brandt took the books out into his yard and gave them away.

He lives in the Ridgecrest neighborhood and hosts a Little Free Library in his front yard. The brightly colored box sits on a post near the street, with two shelves behind a glass door.

The top shelf is mostly filled with books for adults. The bottom shelf is stocked with middle-grade stories and a few novels by young adult authors.

“I always try to keep it stocked full of new stuff,” Brandt says. “I’ll get popular books, or themes for whatever’s going on seasonally like Halloween.” His home sits between Ridgecrest Elementary and Crockett Middle School, which means the little library sees regular foot traffic before and after the school day. And that means plenty of local kids opening the door to see what’s new, or even to replace a book they’d borrowed.

Andrew and Jennifer love it. “What’s really cool is watching kids stop on a daily basis to see if there’s anything new,” he says. “It’s a blast.”

Brandt is the author of several novels, including the YA books Mixtape for the End of the World and Palo Duro: A Thriller, which debuted at No. 1 on Amazon’s YA Thriller chart. And he’s no stranger to traditional libraries—he grew up in Vernon, Texas, where his grandmother worked at the public library.

He and his wife, Jennifer, installed the Little Free Library in their yard in 2019 after she gave birth to their son, A.J., who was stillborn at 20 weeks. “I thought a Little Free Library would be a perfect memorial for our lost baby, our angel baby, and serve a purpose to give something to kids in our neighborhood,” he says. He ordered a kit from the Wisconsin-

Little Movement based Little Free Library organization and assembled it.

Jennifer painted the box with blue sky and green grass.

Then they filled it with books.

“It’s gotten a lot of community support,” Andrew says.

“Neighbors are putting in books too. The last thing I want is for this to be a repository of old books, but these are not old or unwanted things. They’re new releases.” He points out that books, especially hardcovers, can be expensive. That hasn’t stopped his neighbors from contributing. “That’s always nice to see. We want people to find new releases and exciting books.”

In the two years since its installation, he also gets a thrill when old books get returned. “You don’t mind if people keep the books—it’s a gift from my family in memory of our angel baby—but it’s always exciting to see a book go out and come back,” Brandt says.

Little and Free

The first known Little Free Library (LFL) originated with a former public school teacher in Hudson, Wisconsin, who designed a box to look like a schoolhouse to honor his late mother, who also taught school. That was in 2009. The idea soon spread across Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest.

Before long, Little Free Library had been incorporated as a nonprofit in 2012. And then the idea really took off.

Today, local parks, sidewalks and front yards host more than 100,000 LFLs across the United States and in another 100-plus countries. According to the organization, 42 million books are shared annually from these neighborhood book exchanges. While the organization sells kits and tries to register and map the locations of LFLs worldwide, it relies on volunteers like Brandt—known as “stewards”—to maintain the boxes.

In Amarillo, the concept also solves one of the biggest challenges faced by Storybridge, a nonprofit dedicated to improving book access for local children. Former teacher Chandra Perkins founded Storybridge in 2016 to distribute books to children in need, armed with statistics showing

The Power to Transform

The Zambranos both grew up in small Texas Panhandle towns—he’s a native of Hereford, she’s from Pampa—and both represent first-generation college graduates within their families. Today he works as an attorney and she’s an

TWO RETIRED SCHOOL TEACHERS CHECK UP ON THE CITY’S LFLS ONCE A WEEK TO RESTOCK BOOKS OR NOTE ANY NEEDED REPAIRS.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

a child’s educational success can be directly tied to early introduction to books and reading. Perkins began collecting new and gently used books and distributing them through schools in low-income areas. Her grassroots effort quickly made progress.

“But when we debriefed after those free book fairs, in the back of my mind were the kids we weren’t catching,” she says, “kids who rode a bus and couldn’t stay after school, or who were only 3 or 4 [years old] and couldn’t go to school yet. It was those families who just lived a block away from the school but couldn’t make it to an event.”

She recognized Little Free Libraries as a stopgap to reach those kids. “It solved the problem of kids having to be in a certain place or certain time on our schedule [to receive books],” she says. By placing libraries within walking distance of schools Storybridge was already serving, families also didn’t have to rely on transportation. Storybridge installed the first of its LFLs in the summer of 2019.

While locals like Brandt discovered the value of LFLs through the national organization, others have invested in the idea in collaboration with Storybridge. For a $650 sponsorship fee, the Amarillo nonprofit can put a little library in one of Amarillo’s high-need neighborhoods.

As a result of those partnerships, the organization has installed and maintains 18 Little Free Libraries, with seven more in various stages of construction, painting and sponsorship. “It’s been wildly successful,” Perkins says of the Storybridge library project. “That program has attracted more people to our mission than any other program. It’s such a tangible way for a business, a family or even an individual to get involved. It’s so rewarding,” she says.

Just ask Alfonso and Britny Zambrano.

PHOTOS BY JASON BOYETT

WHILE THE FIRST LFLS WERE CONSTRUCTED BY BUILDERS, TODAY, A LOCAL, RETIRED HANDYMAN DONATES HIS LABOR TO BUILD EACH LITTLE STORYBRIDGE LIBRARY.

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THE FIRST STORYBRIDGE LFL WAS INSTALLED AT WARFORD COMMUNITY CENTER IN THE NORTH HEIGHTS, SPONSORED

BY JOHNSTON HOMES. “THE FIRST FEW WERE SPONSORED BY LOCAL BUILDERS,” PERKINS SAYS. STORYBRIDGE RELIED ON THE BUILDERS TO DESIGN AND BUILD THOSE FIRST BOXES.

IN THE RIDGECREST NEIGHBORHOOD, ANDREW AND JENNIFER BRANDT MAINTAIN A LITTLE FREE LIBRARY IN THEIR FRONT YARD AS A MEMORIAL TO THEIR SON, A.J.

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BRITNY AND ALFONSO ZAMBRANO SPONSOR A LITTLE FREE LIBRARY INSTALLATION THROUGH STORYBRIDGE IN THE GLENWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD.

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accountant. “Education changed our lives,” Britny says. Both graduated from Texas Tech. “It was the only way for us to get out of our circumstances and change the direction of our family trees.

Education has always been something that’s very important to us.”

The couple moved to Amarillo in 2010, living at first in a townhouse near South Mirror Street, which borders both Glenwood Elementary School and Glenwood Park. “We loved the area, but we saw that the resources weren’t necessarily there like other parts of town,” Britny says. When they learned in late 2019 that Storybridge was looking to install a Little Free Library at Glenwood Park, the couple jumped at the chance to sponsor it.

“That’s a special area to us,” Britny says.

By early 2020, the library had been designed, built and installed.

While Storybridge gives sponsors as much authority as they want in stocking the libraries, Britny says she’s happy to let Chandra Perkins and the Storybridge team select the books. “That’s what we love so much about it, because we didn’t feel qualified to make those decisions about what’s appropriate or what’s educational,” Britny says, laughing. “It’s much better for us to leave that to the experts.”

She and Alfonso do check on the library from time to time, particularly paying close attention during the early days of the pandemic, when kids were out of school. “We wanted to be sure they had access to books, should they want to read. But the [Storybridge] volunteers kept it stocked up,” she says.

The Zambranos are now thinking of sponsoring another one.

A Post and a Box

Andrew and Jennifer Brandt wanted to honor their baby. The Zambranos wanted to support a neighborhood.

Charles D’Amico, who owns and operates Amarillo’s three Jimmy John’s locations and is the founder and president of Blue Handle Publishing, just wanted to solve a problem.

Blue Handle published Brandt’s most recent two books, and D’Amico had heard about the Little Free Library concept from the author. When news arrived that Storybridge was looking for Little Free Library sponsors, D’Amico reached out to the organization.

PHOTO BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

“They were hoping maybe we could sponsor one,” he remembers. “One! I don’t do anything ‘one.’ I’ve always tried to make as big an impact as possible. I thought, ‘Let’s see how many we can do.’”

In the spring of 2020, D’Amico and Jimmy John’s had partnered with Access Credit Union to feed health care workers during the pandemic. So D’Amico called up John Hays, the credit union’s president and CEO, to see if Access would be interested in another collaboration. Would they possibly match any funds Blue Handle contributed to the LFL project? Hays agreed to it, and the partnership ended up sponsoring not one but five Little Free Libraries across Amarillo.

“The two biggest things that slow a kid’s education are access to books and access to the internet,” D’Amico explains. He’s heard conversations about bringing wifi connectivity to underserved areas and supports those efforts. But the Storybridge approach seemed to have fewer hurdles. “With a book, you don’t need the internet. You don’t need wifi. So this [project] felt like it cut through a lot of that red tape. It was really hard not to support it,” he says.

Most of all, D’Amico appreciated that Storybridge had committed to installing the libraries in areas where kids could easily access them. The children wouldn’t need a ride to or from a public library. They wouldn’t need a phone or wifi-enabled device.

They just needed books, and they could walk right over to the neighborhood LFL and grab one.

“Sometimes the easiest solutions are the things that solve a big problem,” he says. “Just put a post and a box and give kids some books while we work on the other things. Start with a book and inspire some kids. There’s something beautiful and romantic about that.”

The national Little Free Library organization hopes to see a book exchange in every community—especially high-need ones—with books available 24/7 for any reader who wants one. Thanks to Storybridge, businesses like Blue Handle publishing, and individuals like the Brandts and Zambranos, Amarillo continues making significant progress toward that goal.

Fave book spot:

Aunt Eek’s Books & Curiosities

One of the quirkiest new bookstores on the Amarillo scene, Aunt Eek’s opened in January of this year on Sixth Avenue in the San Jacinto ANGELA neighborhood. This quaint shop is owned and operated by Angela WORKMAN Workman—”Aunt Eek” herself—as a welcome addition to the local retailers on this historic stretch of Route 66. Aunt Eek’s specialty is visible immediately upon entrance. The whole shop is a profusion of curiosities.

Somehow both spooky and friendly, it boasts a fascinating selection of books, antique furniture, vintage clothing, art prints, and collectibles.

“I wanted to open a store that I would go to,” says Workman, who personally curates the collection based on her diverse travels and interests.

“We carry something for everyone.”

Aunt Eek’s also schedules something for everyone, hosting community events that cater to locals as well as the constant crowd of visitors to Sixth Street. Workman hosts an open mic night on the second Friday of every month, a storytime for kids every Saturday, and frequently schedules popup events with local vendors and artists. Poetry readings and art shows also hold a regular place on the event schedule. Parents love Aunt Eek’s, because every child receives a free book upon visiting the shop, which is managed by Workman and her daughter.

Despite having been open for less than a year, Aunt Eek’s has quickly gained plenty of community attention, becoming a favorite with locals and tourists alike. “When you’re the oddball shop, people tend to remember you,” Workman says. “Sometimes we get busloads of customers in the store at a time. I love getting to talk with them about their travels and interests.”

Learn more at aunteeksonline.com.

PHOTOS BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

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BY MALLORY GRIMM

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A Deep Dive into Panhandle History

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PPHM RESEARCH CENTER OFFERS W I N D O W TO T H E PA S T

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BY CHIP CHANDLER

t’s a little backwards when you think about it.

The dioramas, artifacts and artwork are open to the public throughout the first two floors of Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, but all of the research that undergirds every bit of history on display? That’s all perched above the museum, in the third-floor Research Center.

“If you see something on display in the museum, we’ll have sources on it,” said Warren Stricker, the center’s director.

“I know I run the risk of stereotyping librarians by suggesting they’re all quiet and bookish and introverted, because it’s not true for all of them,” Stricker says, a grin on his face underscoring the fact that it is, indeed, true for him.

However unassuming Stricker may be, he runs one of the most important aspects of Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in Texas.

As the museum is full of visual delights, the Research Center is full of words. Reams upon reams of them, in preserved letters, legal documents, maps and, naturally, enough books to satisfy even the most demanding of bibliophiles. Books on the history and culture of the Texas Panhandle. Books on natural history. Books on paleontology and archaeology. And books on the lives of the famous and infamous—biographies by the score.

“It’s a large collection,” Stricker says with a bit of evident pride. “The library collection has roughly 15,000 titles. The archival collection has 500,000 or more items. It’s almost impossible to get the full scope and scale, though. PanhandlePlains is the largest history museum in the state. Our collection up here has to support that.”

The Research Center occupies the entire third floor of the museum, but only part of that space—the Reading Room—is open to the public. There, shelves of blonde wood and glass store ancient tomes, long out-of-print biographies and more recent histories, like Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time.

Though you can’t check out anything, the center does operate as a library. Anyone researching a topic within its purview can find books or other materials in its extensive

catalogue. Stricker, archivist Renea Dauntes or other staff members locate the items—anything from a 1940 Amarillo city directory to a 1624 history of Italy from the collection of a late Amarillo attorney, for example—and bring them directly to the researcher.

And just who is that researcher? Virtually anyone, Stricker and Dauntes explain.

Undergraduate and graduate students make frequent use of the center, naturally. But so, too, do professional historians: Ken Burns sent a team to pore through the archives to find contemporary descriptions of the historic natural disaster he explored in his 2012 documentary The Dust Bowl.

Authors of all stripes have found descriptions of daily life in the center’s archived letters—and not just about life in the Panhandle.

The family of John V. Farwell, a Chicago merchant and philanthropist who was among those given the land that became the XIT Ranch in payment for building the Texas Capitol, donated private papers to the museum, including letters describing the 1871 Chicago fire and trips through Europe.

Research center visitors also can examine maps (such as one from 1872 that describes the Texas Panhandle as a land “without water or timber, and with a scanty vegetation”) to put them in the frame of mind of a pioneer arriving here for the first time.

New Canyon residents often come to the center to learn the history of their recently purchased homes, and amateur genealogists for a deeper dive into family lore than oft-retold stories can provide.

Museum visitors drop in, too. “They see something downstairs and come up to learn more,” says Dauntes, an ebullient yet soft-spoken history lover. “The exhibits just scratch the surface.”

The books displayed on the shelves lining the walls of the Reading Room make clear the historic import of the Panhandle to the myth of the Old West.

“Something a lot of people don’t recognize about the Texas

PHOTOS BY CHIP CHANDLER RENEE DAUNTES SHOWS OFF THE DECADESSPANNING COLLECTION OF AMARILLO CITY DIRECTORIES

PANHANDLE-PLAINS IS THE LARGEST HISTORY MUSEUM IN THE STATE. OUR COLLECTION UP HERE HAS TO SUPPORT THAT.

”

— WARREN STRICKER

Panhandle is that names synonymous with the Old West, many of them came through here or had connections here,” Dauntes says. “Bat Masterson (the Army scout, professional gambler and journalist) got his famous limp in a gunfight in Mobeetie.”

It’s not just the famous whose stories are preserved in the center: Oral histories have been collected and saved from before the museum opened in 1933.

“You get a true sense of how the region developed when you read these,” Dauntes says. “They may appear to be describing mundane tasks, but one day builds upon the next, and that’s how history develops.”

Given enough time, resources and, most importantly, money, the entire collection could one day be digitized, making available its treasures to those who can’t easily come to the Canyon museum.

But they’ll be missing out on what makes the PPHM Research Center so special.

“The information is there in a digital file, but there are other intangible aspects,” Stricker says.

“To be able to hold something that was published or printed in 1642, or letters written back and forth that crossed the oceans and the country—there’s a life in these objects that you can’t put in a digital format,” Dauntes says.

“We can read the Declaration of Independence all day long, but if you see it in person or if you’re one of the lucky few who has handled the original, there’s a thrill there,” she continues.

“Access is great and very, very important, but just like you can’t appreciate a work by (Mark) Rothko unless you’re standing in front of it, you don’t really get the specialness of these artifacts unless you see them and hold them in person, which we offer.”

STRICKER AND DAUNTES LOOK AT A MAP OF HOLDINGS IN THE EASTERN TEXAS PANHANDLE OF THE FRANCKLYN LAND AND CATTLE CO. FROM THE 1880S (ESTIMATED)

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WARREN STRICKER

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TITLE PAGE OF HISTORY OF ITALY FROM HAMLIN’S COLLECTION

DR. PHILLIP PERIMAN AND DUKE

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A Life in Books

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“E

very room in this house has books in it,” says Dr. Phillip Periman from his home in Wolflin. It’s far from the biggest or flashiest residences in this historic neighborhood, but the home this retired physician shares with his wife, Judy, is priceless for what’s inside it: the couple’s entire life of books.

Literally, there are books and bookcases in every visible room.

There are books stacked in corners. There are chairs no longer available for sitting because they’ve become a repository for cookbooks, history books, art and photography books, books about golf or tennis. Fiction and nonfiction. Biographies. Theology books.

Texas authors.

There’s even an enormous, large-format photography book

by David Scheinbaum—dedicated to the Bisti badlands south of Farmington, New Mexico—with a spine and cover that have to be at least 20 inches high.

The Perimans live in a library of their own making.

“I don’t get rid of books,” he says.

Now 82 years old, Periman is an Amarillo native who grew up here in the 1950s, earned a history degree at Yale University, and then got a medical degree in St. Louis. That’s where he met Judy, a former nurse.

After stints as a research fellow at Oxford and a professorship at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Periman found his way back to his hometown in 1975. He became one of the first faculty members at the upstart Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and helped create the Harrington Cancer Center after that.

Dr. Periman retired in early 2017.

Despite that influential career, Periman also pursued interests in photography, poetry and art while maintaining his love for books. He traces that passion back to his childhood.

“Every weekend, my mother would take me and my sister to the public library,” he says. In those days, the Amarillo library was located in a wing of the old Municipal Auditorium, prior to moving to the Bivins mansion in 1955. “We would check out the maximum number of books, which I think was five. We’d read them over the week, and then we’d take them back. So I’ve been a reader for at least 75 years of my life.”

Plenty of kids immerse themselves in reading during childhood,

only to dedicate less time to it once they enter the responsibilities of adulthood. Phillip and Judy Periman never lost that passion.

Dr. Periman estimates that he has read a couple dozen books every year since childhood.

In fact, he keeps track of every book he completes, publishing it in an annual list he sends out to close friends and family. “Every year I send out a ‘Christmas Ramble,’ it’s called,” he says. The Ramble includes a family photo, a few personal thoughts, and a list of all the books he’s read that year. Only books he has completed make the list.

Periman pulls out a printed portion of his 2017 Ramble, representing his first year of retirement. Beneath the heading “Books I Read in 2017,” he lists his book of the year (the novel A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles), his disappointment of the year (Cicero’s Treatises on Friendship and Old Age) and his biggest literary surprise (Old Age by the psychiatrist Helen M. Luke).

Those are just the big highlights. The comprehensive list of books read is incredibly diverse, including a dozen mysteries— Periman’s airplane-reading preference—as well as titles about Paris, French history, golf and even a self-help book by creativity expert Dr. Eric Maisel.

That’s just the 2017 list. Periman’s annual book lists stretch back into the 1980s. And because he doesn’t get rid of those books, he and Judy still live among them—and continue to add to the collection.

They are regulars at Burrowing Owl Books, a local business they have come to adore. (“Mention them as much as possible,” he says at the end of this magazine's photo shoot.)

Establishments like Burrowing Owl quicken his spirit. He says getting lost in a bookstore or exploring an immense library always remind him of childhood. But Periman worries that kind of physical, book-immersed experience may soon become a thing of the past.

“If you’re a reader, you have a certain amount of curiosity that leads you around,” he says. “One of the things that the current smartphone-driven world has destroyed is one of the pleasures of readers, which is to just go into the stacks of a library and just wander around and find something that looks interesting.”

While his wife, Judy, enjoys reading electronically on a Kindle or iPad, Phillip can’t give up the tactile nature of holding a book in his hands. “I’ve listened to audiobooks when I’ve been driving, but I just like to hold a real book. There’s something about the way it’s made, the way it falls open, the way it smells. I just don’t feel

comfortable without it.”

Unlike some prestigious book collections, the thousands of books on his shelves are far from pristine. These books look very, very used.

Lovingly used. Covers are tattered. Bookmarks and scraps of paper stick out from many of them.

Periman pulls one title from a wall of shelves in his study—he maintains a personal study filled with books, as does Judy—and opens the book to the back page. On it, in pencil, he’s listed a dozen page numbers followed by short sentences. “I make my own index in the back,” he explains. “When I’m reading something that interests me, I think I may want to come back and look at that. So I’ll go to the back of the book and write a little bit on the page, so I’ll know.”

Outside his study, near the home’s entrance, a sitting area has bookshelves in every corner, surrounded by walls filled with paintings and photographs. A few represent Periman’s own work. He passes through that room and into another, which serves as, well, another library. “This is my poetry collection,” he says, “but I’m going to move it into the front room.”

He indicates a pile of books near his feet. “This is a stack of poetry collections that I haven’t filed yet.”

Behind it, he points out a series of vintage, hardback Freddy the Pig children’s books by the author Walter R. Brooks, written between 1927 and 1958. “I read these when I was a kid,” he says. “Walter Brooks wrote one story after another about [Freddy] and I couldn’t

wait for the next one. I bought all of these as an adult, later.”

Several years ago, Dr. Periman inherited books from family and friends who had passed away. He tried to sell a couple of those boxes to a bookstore in Austin. “I had never sold books before, but these weren’t books I would read. They weren’t part of the fabric of my life, so I was going to get rid of them,” he says. As Periman remembers, the bookstore offered him something like “94 cents for the two boxes” because “nobody reads anymore.”

He walked away and gave them to his daughter instead.

On only one other occasion, more recently, did Periman consider unloading part of his collection. A few years back, he toyed with the idea of selling some of his personal library to the late novelist and bookseller Larry McMurtry, famed proprietor of Booked Up in Archer City, Texas, once one of the largest antiquarian bookstores in the U.S. “I’m an old man,” Periman says, “and I thought maybe I should get rid of my library and start cleaning house.” He had written to McMurtry on numerous occasions, and the two men had been in the process of haggling about the subject of human skulls—McMurtry owned a sizable collection, and Periman wanted to use them for still-life studies—but they never finalized an agreement.

“Then, of course, he died,” Periman says. McMurtry passed away in March of 2021. “I never got to see the skulls.”

He never unloaded his books, either.

Periman doesn’t seem to regret it.

Friends in Fiction Back in 2008 or so, the late businesswoman and civic leader Mariwyn Webb started a monthly book club for local women—one of many around the city. Webb passed away in 2016, but Georgia Kitsman and Judy Periman are both members of Webb’s original club, which still meets today. “Mariwyn really wanted to make it a very eclectic group, with people from all different interests and jobs,” says Kitsman, a retired university professor. “She loved writing and loved books and put together a group of women who loved to read.”

The club didn’t meet during COVID, but has returned to its monthly gatherings in the homes of the dozen or so active members. “In August, we all sign up for a month to host or lead the discussion,” Kitsman explains. “Everyone will [suggest] a book or two they have really enjoyed over the last year, or one that is fairly new that everyone wants to read.”

On book club evenings, the women gather to discuss books like mystery novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Olga Tokarczuk), The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty (Vendela Vida), and Down Range by local author Taylor Moore. “We occasionally read a book written by a local author who will then come and talk to us,” says Kitsman. Taylor Moore and Marcy McKay have both recently attended meetings to discuss their work.

“We all really enjoy it and have enjoyed getting to know everyone else,” Kitsman says. “We’ve covered a lot of ground.”

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BOOKS FILL THE HOME OF THE PERIMANS

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Learning the Language, Achieving Dreams

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BY MADDISUN FOWLER

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ESL INSTRUCTOR HAROLD LITTLEJOHN

hen Silvia Shaver traveled from Mexico to Amarillo to visit her brother, she never dreamed the trip would change her life.

She met an Amarillo resident who would eventually become her husband. Only she spoke Spanish and he spoke English.

“Learning English is not impossible,” says Shaver, but she soon found that mastering the language was both challenging and essential for her new life in the United States. Like Shaver, many people move to Amarillo without knowing English. Both immigrants and the community are more likely to thrive when everyone can communicate with each other.

“We are all safer, healthier and stronger as a community when we make it possible for everyone to have those skills,” says Stacy Clopton, the Amarillo Public Library public relations coordinator. Being able to read and communicate is a quality-of-life issue, she says.

According to the City of Amarillo’s website, Amarillo serves as an international resettlement community for refugees. In fact, for years, Amarillo welcomed more refugees per capita than any other city in Texas. Even in 2020, when Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that the state would stop participating in refugee resettlement, Amarillo city leaders decided to continue welcoming refugees and other immigrants to the area.

Due to the sheer number of people moving to the area, several programs in Amarillo stepped up to teach English as a Second Language. The Amarillo Public Library started providing ESL classes as an offshoot of a program called ‘Amarillo Reads,’ a citywide book club. The director at the time was aware of the needs of the people in the community. Clopton says the former director recognized the holes in the available resources for adults. The library wanted to focus more on adult learners because there were already language-learning programs in the public school system and the library could meet that need for adults.

“We could take that statement, ‘Amarillo Reads,’ and say Amarillo is a city that reads and a city that helps people read,” Clopton says. “So, not only did we start a program under that ‘Amarillo Reads’ banner that was for tutoring adults who needed to learn how to read or improve their reading skills. Then we started the ESL classes and then the citizenship classes.”

Harold Littlejohn, an ESL instructor at the library, stressed the

importance of taking advantage of the classes and programs available to adults looking to learn English. “For refugees and other immigrants, learning English and the possibility of becoming a citizen and learning about American culture—these are lifelines, these are tremendous opportunities, whether they get them here or through Refugee Language Project,” Littlejohn says.

“If somebody came in and said, ‘I don’t know how to talk about this,’ there were bound to be lots of other people who had the same issue,” Clopton says. “So the fact that these classes and these instructors have the ability to respond in real time to what people need, I think, has been one of the things that has been really helpful to the students.”

In 2020, Paramount Baptist Church’s ESL program, formally called Learning English Among Friends (LEAF), enrolled students from 28 different countries. Beverly Storseth, a volunteer ESL instructor, has served with the ministry for 20 years and has also taught ESL overseas. Storseth says that she loves teaching and particularly enjoys working with international students. Not only does she celebrate with them during joyous occasions, she’s also there for them for more serious life events.

“I’ve especially enjoyed participating in their celebrations or holidays, like engagement parties that are usually as large as the wedding reception,” Storseth says. “But often when there is an emergency illness, a student will call their teacher first to find out what to do. Even if they are familiar with calling 911, it is difficult for them to talk to the EMT or the personnel at the hospital.”

One of those students, Wancong Huang, is from Sichuan, China.

He moved to Amarillo 10 years ago and currently works at Tyson Foods. Huang has been taking beginning English classes at Paramount Baptist Church for about three years. “I like it because it helps me to understand English better. The church teachers are so nice. They love to help me a lot,” Huang says.

At Amarillo College, students can also learn English through the Career Pathway Program. “Our program helps our students to achieve and reach their goals to meet their dreams,” says Kristen Wahler, an ESL instructor at Amarillo College. “It helps our community because once students learn the language, they are in the community working, living and enjoying our area.” Wahler also says students who take advantage of these classes are able to obtain better jobs.

Another organization dedicated to helping adults learn English is the Refugee Language Project. Dr. Ryan Pennington, executive

director of the organization, essentially started it out of Redeemer Christian Church in 2017. Pennington says the organization is focused on removing language barriers, building leaders and cultivating community, specifically among the refugees in Amarillo as well as the surrounding area.

Although the organization does offer temporary citizenship and literacy classes, the main goal is to connect students with someone in the community who can meet with them more often and build one-on-one relationships. Pennington says he doesn’t compete with the other ESL programs in the area. Instead, he sees the Refugee Language Project as more of a lab, while the other ESL classes in Amarillo are the lecture.

“We saw a lot of people trying to work with refugees, but not having a deep understanding about where people come from, how to connect more deeply, not seeing barriers that are actually there,” Pennington says. “So maybe throwing them in an English class, trying to teach them one way—when they’ve learned multiple languages in other ways—we’re tackling problems from the wrong angles.”

As for Shaver, the process of learning English went fairly smoothly. She started taking ESL classes at the library not long after moving to Amarillo. After two semesters, she moved on to take more advanced classes with Region 16 and then Amarillo College. She also became a U.S. citizen during that time.

“It just takes effort and practice and you have to invest time, but it’s not impossible,” she says. While she was busy learning English, her husband bought a Spanish for Dummies book in order to learn Spanish, so they could communicate with each other.

The first job Shaver had in Amarillo was at Affiliated Foods and she worked there for three months. “I had never done that kind of physical job and it was really hard,” she says. Today she works as a secretary at the Amarillo Public Library’s Downtown Branch. When her ESL teacher told her there was a shelving position at the East Branch Library, she didn’t feel ready. “He said, ‘You’re not going to be talking to people, you’re going to be talking to books.’ So, I started as a shelver there and a few months after that, a circulation position was vacant and I took that job and now I’m here.”

When people call the library to find out more information about the ESL classes, Clopton hands the phone to Shaver so she can talk to the potential students and tell them what to expect. “You just need to want to be here. We provide the book. You don’t have to spend any money,” Shaver says. “You just have to bring a notebook, a pen or a pencil and be ready to learn.”

Littlejohn believes he gets as much from teaching English as his students do from learning the language. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for a person to see life as it is, at least a glimpse of it, through another person’s eyes, from their perspectives,” Littlejohn says. “However we’re raised, our tendency is to see things just that way. So what an opportunity to see things differently.”

Fave book spot:

Barnes & Noble

BY MALLORY GRIMM

We love highlighting locally owned businesses, but we’re also realists. We fully recognize the local elephant in the room of cute little Owls and Eeks. We realize that when our readers are looking for a physical book, chances are they may head to a large, national retailer like Barnes & Noble. One of the largest chain book retailers in the country, the Barnes & Noble location in Amarillo definitely carries the largest selection of new books in the city.

Local parents know something else, though: The local children’s section, nestled in the back of the store, is an absolute delight. Outfitted with interactive stations, dozens of shelves, and themed end caps, this separate section is a dream for any child with a big imagination. To help stimulate children’s minds and pique their interests in reading, the store used to offer a beloved Saturday storytime—before the pandemic.

These events are no longer in person, but every Saturday, Barnes & Noble produces a family-friendly, virtual storytime video on its YouTube channel and social media. The company also publishes a fun set of printable and downloadable activities, divided by age, to accompany the story of the week.

We miss the Saturday Storytime at Barnes & Noble, but understand the corporation’s larger commitment to following a consistent set of health and safety guidelines that apply to its U.S. stores. Representatives say the resumption of in-person events is undetermined, but promise to keep the local website current with virtual events and other special activities. A weekly email newsletter offers additional updates.

Learn more at stores.barnesandnoble.com.

PHOTOS BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

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PROVIDED PHOTOS

SILVIA SHAVER

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Fave book spot:

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BY MALLORY GRIMM

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No city is complete without a strong public library. For more than a century, the Amarillo Public Library has served our community with its prodigious collection of books, technology and educational programs. While these programs have changed throughout the years, they still operate from a desire to educate and enlighten the people of the Panhandle.

Amazingly, the library’s summer reading program has been around for 75 years. Even in the midst of the pandemic, the library offered its 2020 and 2021 summer reading programs to keep children’s minds stimulated during the summer months.

Programs like these are critical, as research shows reading program participation—complete with prizes—may help kids avoid reading loss during the summer.

Generations of Amarillo children have grown up enjoying the library’s storytime events, though those have evolved over the years and, more recently, pivoted in response to the pandemic.

Every morning on Facebook Live, a librarian hosts a storytime for children, allowing families to tune in from the comfort of their homes. For those preferring an in-person event, the library system has been hosting an outdoor storytime every Monday at Sam Houston Park (weather permitting), to give families plenty of room to spread out. Attendees take home reading kits filled with craft ideas and other activities.

While COVID changed how the library hosts many of its long-standing programs, the friendly faces at the library have stayed the same. “Our staff has been phenomenal throughout the changes we’ve gone under,” says Stacy Clopton, the library system’s public relations coordinator. “They’ve stayed positive throughout the pandemic, and love doing what they do.”

Learn more at amarillolibrary.org.

PHOTO BY ANGELINA MARIE, SHORT EARED DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

Amarillo Public Library

RJ SOLEYJACKS

My Favorite Book

W

ith the holiday season approaching and this issue dedicated to books and reading, we decided to mix those two things together by asking a few city leaders a question: What book do you most enjoy giving as a gift?

Their answers were both charming and challenging.

Here are a few of our favorite replies.

PHOTOS BY JASON BOYETT

RJ Soleyjacks

Ryan Pennington

Mary Emeny

Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You

Every Moment Holy, Volumes I & II

Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind’s Greatest Invention

by Sonia Sotomayor

I stumbled across this book when I was looking for ways to open up conversations about finding the good in what makes us different, and noticing that we all have great qualities that make us, us. My oldest child was born with a congenital heart defect, and we struggled with ways for her to be able to talk about it. This book has been a great conversation tool for us to let her be confident in what makes her different and special.

Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart

PRESIDENT, AMARILLO COLLEGE What Do You Do With an Idea?

by Kobi Yamada (Author), Mae Besom (Illustrator)

Our world is changing at an incredible rate. We are challenged by transformative ideas in artificial intelligence, bio-science, automation and energy that will force disruption personally, professionally and organizationally. This book, so beautifully and simply told, challenges us to embrace the new rather than fear it.

Freda Powell

MAYOR PRO TEM AND AMARILLO CITY COUNCIL MEMBER PLACE 2 Servant Leadership in Action: How You Can Achieve Great Relationships and Results

By Ken Blachard and Renee Broadwell Leaders should be professional, serve their people, have respect for themselves and others, and work to build meaningful relationships, so that when issues arise, we can all have a seat at the table to discuss and find a workable solution that benefits all involved. I want to truly help people to succeed and at the same time be a change agent for the good of our Amarillo community.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REFUGEE LANGUAGE PROJECT

by Douglas McKelvey

PHILANTHROPIST AND ACTIVIST

by Ben Wilson

These books of new liturgies contain prayers that help me commemorate both the mundane and the singular events of my life. They remind me to honor the sacred purposes of moments that might otherwise be lost to time: “A Liturgy For the Labors of Community,” “A Liturgy For the First Snow,” “A Liturgy For Feasting with Friends,” or “A Liturgy for a Time of Widespread Suffering.”

I love to give this to friends as a way to encourage them to join me in learning to put our phones away and to sit in the moments we’re given, celebrating or lamenting as we reimagine our lives as part of a higher calling of service before a God who wants to make all things new.

This is a history of what Wilson calles “humankind’s greatest invention.”

From [ancient] Uruk, which dates from 4,000-1,900 BC, to Lagos, one of today’s megacities, Wilson shows the diversity of bases from which cities have been developed in a way that reads almost like a pageturner, exploring lots of little-known history, sociology and even plumbing and wildlife biology on the way.

Jackie Kingston

By Brooke Kroeger

ANCHOR, KAMR LOCAL 4 NEWS AND POLITICS TODAY The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy

By Caroline Doomer

I give The F*ck It Diet away as fast as I get additional copies because it saved my life. It helped me to heal from disordered eating and helped me to extricate my brain from the clutches of diet culture. It’s available Dec. 7, 2021, in paperback!

Dr. Walter Wendler PRESIDENT, WEST TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

The Soul of the American University

by George Marsden

This book talks about the roots of higher education in America, where it came from, and where it’s going. It gives an overview of American higher education, and you can’t understand the challenges of the present without understanding where we’ve come from and what our roots are.

Beth Duke

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTER CITY OF AMARILLO Nellie Bly: Girl Reporter I ordered the book that changed my life direction from the Scholastic Book Club in My Weekly Reader in the fifth grade. I loved reading biographies, so I ordered Nellie Bly: Girl Reporter. Her story showed me that girls could be journalists. She was a pioneer who blazed trails for other women. From then on, I worked as a journalist, starting with the newspaper at Coronado Elementary School. I no longer have a copy of that book, but Nellie Bly’s life story still inspires me. I wouldn’t trade for my experiences as a reporter and editor. I continue to use those skills every day thanks to that little paperback book I ordered in the fifth grade.

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POETIC LICENSE T

here’s something about the limitless Panhandle landscape—those views in which the most prominent feature is the nothingness of the horizon—that stirs creativity. These views have inspired restless poets and painters for more than a century. Our region is rich with imaginations accustomed to making something out of nothing.

So in an issue devoted to language and reading, we wouldn’t dare close these pages without dedicating a few of them to poetry. We reached out to three local poets to solicit a piece inspired by this area. Then we gave those poems to three of our favorite photographers, with a simple assignment: Give us an image inspired by those words.

We’re thrilled with the result.

ALONG THE RIVER RED I FOUND AN ARROWHEAD

BY SETH WIECK

As a boy, maybe ten, I found an arrowhead along the River Red, set on the sand like a gift, so it seemed. Alone I came upon the striped flint.

No tracks but mine. The arrow’s shaft: gone to time.

Only me and the stone and the river and ripples in the sand like the crease between fingers.

But like wind without origin, from whence comes this flint?

As a boy, maybe ten, with my childish fingers grasping the sharp flint, I couldn’t conceive the time contained in the pink, white, and purple-striped arrowhead.

The mere hundred years since an unknown warrior laid this gift on the wide, sandy banks of the Red River might register as one grain of sand in the river’s long history. This particular flint comes from another river whose waters are a gift— west to east—across the Panhandle desert. Fingers of the Canadian knapped the earth like an arrowhead, flaking each layer of geologic time ‘til a valley lay in the Panhandle’s palm. How much time did it take the Canadian River to scrape down two hundred feet to Permian mud? Spearhead makers discovered this layer of flint.

Then with river stones and stone-blistered fingers they quarried out slabs of this Alibates gift.

But still, in my search for the giving of gifts, I’ve found no beginning, simply an unending giving of time.

Before God said, “Let us touch fingers with Adam,” there was this river; before this river, an inland sea, silting quartz crystals, forming this flint.

What work has been done, so I could say the word arrowhead?

Now, at forty, with this gift from the river, each instant this flint has witnessed the persistence of time, and I can pinch it between fingers, formed as an arrowhead.

PHOTO BY JIM LIVINGSTON

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The stone’s still-sharp edge could slice my fingers, despite time and weather. The arrowhead’s maker formed a thing that will outlast the river.

A striker of stones showered sparks from this gift, passing hand-to-hand-then-piercing-hearts. Time- and-time again man has given man this flint.

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BITTER SEASON

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

BY CHERA HAMMONS

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The way winter coming sharpens a place.

How the clouds cast shadows that trip into the canyon behind the houses, then lift out again, too thin to stick on the branches of the reaching trees.

The rib-bare coyotes trotting toward their breath in the air, the cold air skinning on the teeth, even colder.

The sunflowers breaking nearly to the ground in the wind, just hard seeds and cracked brown stems left.

The restless shadows that mean different things: to the birds, a calling they can’t shrug off, a leaving.

To the houseflies, chilly dormancy, dreams of horses.

The trees, a shivering weightlessness; the grasses, a ripening.

To the deer at the feeder, darkness that soon passes, then arrives again, the moments of sun and shade like running through thickets, although they stand now still at the bottom of the draw. They are quicker, sharper too, in the snow-scented wind.

The way the front comes in.

In mornings soon, gunshots among the trees.

How every loss feels the same way: darkness and light tumbling to a horizon; noise, then silence.

The realization that you, at least, are left.

Then, that a little hunger can save you.

Originally published in The Traveler’s Guide to Bomb City, Purple Flag Press, 2017.

PHOTO BY ANGELINA MARIE, SHORT EARED DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

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AUTUMN

BY YVONNE PEREA

The winter evening stole you away, every day grew a little bit colder Springtime peaks around the bend again, All is sweet when I feel you now and then Leave the sorrow, bear the pain, roll it off your back again

Breathe the air, your stunning love holds them to your heart

Leaves will fall when autumn’s here, red and brown let down your hair Day by day you’ll wrap the twine, Adding to your bridge of time. Your bridge of time.

By July the stars began to pray, I would learn to burn a little bit bolder A broken leaf dances in the wind again, I’ll find a way to shine without you now and then.

PHOTO BY VENICE MINCEY

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DREW MERRITT SIGNS HIS MURAL AS THE FESTIVAL CONCLUDES

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“T

HOODOO PROVES A HIT

his doesn’t feel like Amarillo.”

Multiple versions of that statement—at once an acknowledgment of where we’ve been and a nod toward our future—filled a downtown block of Polk Street during the Hoodoo Mural Festival on Oct. 2.

The culmination of nearly two weeks of mural painting, the festival itself attracted hundreds to an afternoon and evening of concerts, games, food trucks, a silent disco, and a fiery signing of muralist Drew Merritt’s stunning spray-paint piece across from the Amarillo National Bank parking garage.

Other prominent local and national muralists graced the city’s brick canvasses leading up to the event. Amarillo native Natalie Fletcher—a past winner of the TV show Skin Wars— completed an incredible trompe l’oeil mural of the Santa Fe building on SE Ninth Avenue. The internationally known DAAS covered an enormous wall near Palace Coffee with twin foxes and pastel geometric shapes. Miami’s Ivan Roque celebrated the Texas horned lizard on a wall next to Napoli’s, and the now-legendary Blank Spaces Crew thrilled Barfield

BY JASON BOYETT

guests with a mural combining realistic bison with art-deco ornamentation next to the new hotel.

The festival day itself brought a series of performances from a stage spanning Polk Street. Local favorite Vamping reassembled for a high-energy concert, followed by DJ sets by Rupert the Duke, Corbin Cary, and multi-platinum producer Kaelin Ellis. Indie-soul band Nané—fronted by Amarillo’s own Daniel Sahad—lit up the crowd with a burst of energy as the sun dipped below the horizon. The festival concluded with a chill, dreamy performance by singersongwriter Washed Out, punctuated with glow sticks and dancing.

It was a good day and the best kind of party: one in which, after the music stopped and the crowds dispersed, the city itself was left with a set of high-quality, high-profile works of art—all designed to get attention, spark conversation and foster creativity.

“These are pieces of art. This is like a gallery, a walkable, bikeable art gallery for the public to use,” Hoodoo organizer Andrew Hall explained on the Hey Amarillo podcast the week before the event.

Mission accomplished.

WASHED OUT

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VAMPING

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NANÉ

PHOTOS BY DESMOND INC.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

RUPERT THE DUKE

CORBIN CARY

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T

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A TOGETHERNESS DINNER

he most wonderful time of the year is upon us! ’ Tis the season to make new memories and amplify our gratitude. Here she is, beautiful autumn, ushering in a longing for those seasonal things we crave. We swoon over sweater weather, falling leaves, that cliché pumpkin spice latte that smartly matches our scarves, and holiday decor to shift our spirits from summer’s intensity. For me, she awakens my desire to gather all of my special humans around the table to share a beautiful meal I like to call a “togetherness dinner.”

A togetherness dinner is about so much more than the meal itself.

It’s about that magical first bite of the most delectable chocolate cayenne cheesecake that makes you forget about everything in that moment. It’s about heavy doses of laughter that pull us away from seasonal depression. But, more importantly, this kind of meal forms meaningful bonds between those we choose to invite to our communal table. I’ve made sure to make a togetherness dinner an integral part of my life because, as a child, dinners together were few and far between.

A LONGING FOR COMMUNITY As the youngest of six children, I didn’t experience fun family holidays. We didn’t play board games, decorate the Christmas tree with ornaments and paper chains, or wrap presents together. And we didn’t have a togetherness dinner. We fought.

Every Thanksgiving, my assigned task was to set the table for our holiday feast. Unfortunately, as soon as it was time to eat, an argument would prevent us from ever making it to the table. To steer clear of all the bickering, I’d serve myself a plate of food and retreat to my room to eat alone. It didn’t take a genius to realize something was amiss. The repeated absence of connectedness made me long for the day I would create a togetherness dinner for my family.

HOW TO CREATE A TOGETHERNESS TABLE I’ve had many years to redesign how we share meals—not just for the holidays, but for every day of the year. I’ve learned that food connects us and is a universal language, while serving as the most intimate and direct connection we can have with nature. And it’s such a powerful medium to inspire us artistically and mindfully each time we cook. So, with the holidays fast approaching, it’s time to get excited about curating your very own togetherness dinner! Don’t let family disputes have a chair at your table. Here are a few ways to get inspired.

• Make the dinner table your “happiness hub.” Let it be the place where you have fun conversations, make important decisions, and bond with your family and friends.

• View your table as a sacred place to gather. Keep it clean of stacks of mail, books or laundry. Instead, buy a bouquet of fresh flowers each week and place it in the center to be admired. It’s the little things that will inspire you to serve a beautifully plated meal to those you love.

• The most common excuse for not eating together is that there’s not enough time. I’m here to tell you: There’s time.

All of us have the same 24 hours in the day. So why not make it a priority, no matter how busy your day becomes? Carve out at least one night a week to step into your kitchen and cook a fabulous meal with great music to keep you company. Nothing is stopping you from shimmy-shimmying as you sprinkle powdered sugar on that pumpkin roll!

• Take the traditional holiday menu on a new cultural journey with delightful twists. Create an “around the world” menu for your guests with dishes inspired by Indian, Spanish or Korean flavors: Try out a za’atar and garlic-rubbed roasted turkey, side dishes like cauliflower steaks with red pepper chimichurri, or garam masala-spiced acorn squash, massaged kale and edamame salad, and maybe a dulce de leche pumpkin pie for your grand finale.

• To ease your mind and workload in the kitchen, create a holiday potluck with your guests. I suggest assigning each traditional dish to the person who makes it best. I’m excited to drive more than seven hours just to taste my mother-in-law’s famous dinner rolls!

• Plan a fun dinner where you and your loved ones create a “food bar” to graze around for Christmas Eve. Burritos, tacos, or salads are great options. Or, to make things more interesting, build your plate and pass it to the person on your left. There may be laughs. There may be frowns. Either way, you’re creating memories that will most certainly not be forgotten!

KEEP IT REAL We all must eat, my friends. Enjoying a meal together is the framework of our society. When we eat, it makes us feel good, and if we are around the people we love, we have one badass recipe for happiness. So what are you waiting for? Get to planning that fabulous holiday feast. And don’t forget to send me an invite!

e l e va t e y o u r p l a t e

WITH RUTHIE LANDELIUS

H O L I D AY G I N G E R B R E A D T R I F L E 2 ¾ cups flour 1 ½ cups brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 ½ cups oat milk ¾ cup vegetable oil 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar

For the vanilla cream:

3 cups cold milk (2 percent, whole or oat) 2 (3.4-ounce) boxes instant vanilla pudding mix 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened 1 (16-ounce) container Cool Whip, slightly thawed

To assemble:

1 cup mandarin orange slices, drained 1 carton fresh blueberries 12 Lotus Biscoff cookies, crushed

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit into a loaf pan. Set aside.

Add all dry ingredients into large mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients into small mixing bowl; whisk together. Combine wet into dry ingredients; stir together until cake batter forms. Using rubber spatula, scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; bake for 1 hour. Check center with a toothpick. If it’s still wet, bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Once cake has cooled, cut into thick slices.

Make vanilla pudding according to package instructions; set aside. Add cream cheese to bowl of stand mixer.

Using paddle attachment, mix cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla pudding, a little at a time, to cream cheese and blend until incorporated. Next, add container of Cool Whip, a large spoonful at a time, to mixture and continue mixing. The cream should be smooth and free of any lumps. Lastly, add vanilla and give it one last mix.

Using a clear trifle bowl, place pieces of the cake around the edge of the bowl and a few pieces in the middle. Top with cream, fruit and crushed cookies. Repeat layers two or three more times, ending with fruit and cookies.

Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

R U T H I E L AN D E L I U S Ruthie owns Black Fig Food catering and is proprietor of the online cooking platform Elevated Plant Plate. Learn more at elevatedplantplate.com and blackfigfood.com.

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For the cake:

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BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

MISTY AND SCOTT HOWARD

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Sourdough Success PHOTOS BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

I

f you missed out on the popularity of bread-baking during the early days of the pandemic, there’s still time to start baking at home. Sourdough bread is one of the best ways to start. According to Scott Howard of Baker’s Table—a local, artisan microbakery and community market fixture over the summer—fresh, homemade sourdough is one of the healthiest kinds of bread. “It’s all natural, with no preservatives,” he says. “It’s shelf life is only around a week. The slow fermentation process is good for gut health.”

Howard spent the first part of his career in construction, but in recent years found himself drawn to food. He attended the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder and has worked as sous chef at the Amarillo Club and Northwest Texas Hospital.

Bread has become his passion. “I like the pace and precision of baking,” he says.

In this case, the word “pace” isn’t quite an indication of speed.

Howard says baking his popular sourdough loaves is a 32-hour

process, including an overnight final rise, or proofing, before he gets up to bake the next morning. One of the most important elements of sourdough bread, of course, is the active starter. Howard feeds his every day. “She’s about two years old,” he says. And, yes, she has a name. It’s Wankru. “She’s a combination of several different batches that all came together into ‘one crew,’” he explains.

Despite the detailed instructions he provided Brick & Elm, Howard adds that baking a perfect loaf of sourdough at home often requires some trial and error. “There’s definitely a learning curve to it. I’ve baked a number of door stops and hockey pucks in the process,” he says, describing the overly dense results of bread that rose too much—or didn’t rise quite enough—before baking. But even when mistakes happen, the process is still fulfilling. “It’s a labor of love that has an end result,” Howard says.

Howard’s step-by-step instructions require an active starter that’s already fermented and ready. You can find plenty of videos and instructions online about how to make a sourdough starter.

Once you’ve completed that step, it’s time to bake.

kitch Ingredients

Prep time:

24 to 48 hours

1 tablespoon active sourdough starter 75 grams all-purpose flour or bread flour (½ cup) 75 grams water (⅓ cup)

Cook time:

45 to 50 minutes

Equipment:

Mixing bowls Plastic wrap or other covering for bowls Spatula Pastry scraper Bread proofing baskets, colanders, or mixing bowls Dutch ovens or large heavy-bottomed pots with lids Lame, sharp knife or serrated knife

Make sure sourdough culture is active. If sourdough has

been in the refrigerator, take it out 2 to 3 days before you plan to bake. Feed it daily to make sure it’s strong and very active before you make the bread. Howard feeds it with a 1:2:2 leaven:flour:water ratio the night before baking.

For the dough:

525 grams water (2 ½ cups), divided 1 tablespoon salt 700 grams all-purpose flour or bread flour (5 ½ cups)

Makes 2 loaves

Add flour. Add flour and stir with

a rubber spatula until there are no remaining bits of dry flour and it forms a very shaggy dough.

Make leaven and let it sit overnight. The night before you

plan to make the dough, place all the leaven ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly to form a thick batter. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight, about 12 hours.

Test that leaven is ready.

Generally, if the surface of the leaven is very bubbly, it’s ready to be used. To double check, drop a small spoonful of the leaven in a cup of water; if the leaven floats, it’s ready.

Dissolve salt. Place 50 grams (about ¼ cup) of water and salt for

the dough in a small bowl. Set aside, stirring occasionally to make sure salt dissolves.

Mix the leaven and water. Add

remaining 475 grams (2 cups) water for the dough to the bowl of leaven. Stir with a spatula or use your hands to break up and dissolve leaven into the water. It’s OK if the leaven doesn’t fully dissolve and a few clumps remain.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

Sourdough Bread

For the leaven:

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Rest dough (30 minutes, or up to 4 hours). Cover the

bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Let dough rest for at least 30 minutes or up to 4 hours. This is the autolyse stage where the flour is fully absorbing the water, while enzymes in the flour begin breaking down the starches and proteins.

Mix in salt. Pour the dissolved salt over the dough. Work the liquid and salt into the dough by pinching and squeezing it. The dough will feel quite wet and loose at this point.

Begin folding dough (2 ½ hours). To fold the dough, grab the

dough at one side, lift it up, and fold it over on top of itself. Fold dough four times, moving clockwise from the top of the bowl (or giving the bowl a quarter turn in between folds). Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, then repeat. Do this a total of 6 times, every half hour, for a total of 2 ½ hours. The dough will start out shaggy and very loose but will gradually smooth out and become tighter as you continue folding.

Let dough rise undisturbed (30 to 60 minutes). Once you’ve finished folding, cover and let the dough rise undisturbed for 30 to 60 minutes, until it looks slightly puffed. This dough won’t double in size the way regular, non-sourdough breads will; it should just look larger than it did when you started.

Divide dough. Sprinkle flour on a work surface and turn the

dough out. Work gently to avoid deflating the dough. Use a pastry scraper to divide the dough in half.

Shape dough into loose rounds.

Sprinkle a little flour over each piece of dough. Use pastry scraper to shape each one into loose rounds—this isn’t the final shaping, just a preliminary round to prep the dough for further shaping. Shape into rounds by slipping pastry scraper under the edge of the dough and then scraping it around the curve of the dough, like turning left when driving. Do this a few times to build the surface tension in the dough (it makes more sense to do it than to read about it!). Flour your pastry scraper as needed to keep it from sticking to the dough.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

Rest dough (20 to 30 minutes). Once both pieces of dough

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are shaped, let rest for 20 to 30 minutes to relax the gluten again before final shaping.

Prepare 2 bread proofing baskets, colanders or mixing bowls. “Proofing” is the final rise of

the dough before baking. Line two bread proofing baskets, colanders or clean mixing bowls with clean kitchen towels.

Dust heavily with flour, rubbing the flour into the cloth on the bottom and up the sides with your fingers. Use more flour than you think you’ll need—it should form a thin layer over the surface of the towel.

Shape the loaves. Dust the top of

one of the balls of dough with flour. Flip it over with a pastry scraper so that the floured side is against the board and the un-floured, sticky surface is up. Shape the loaf much like you folded the dough earlier: Grab the lip of the dough at the bottom, pull it gently up, then fold it over onto the center of the dough. Repeat with the right and left side of the dough.

Repeat with the top of the dough, but once you fold it downward, use your thumb to grab the bottom lip again and gently roll the dough right-side up. If it’s not quite round or doesn’t seem taut to you, cup your palms around the dough and rotate it against the counter to shape it. Repeat with the second ball of dough.

Transfer loaves to proofing baskets. Dust the tops and sides of the

shaped loaves generously with flour. Place into the proofing baskets upside-down, so the seams from shaping are on top.

Let dough rise (3 to 4 hours, or overnight in the refrigerator). Cover the baskets loosely with plastic wrap or place inside clean plastic bags. Let rise at room temperature until billowy and poofy, 3 to 4 hours. Alternatively, place the covered basket in the refrigerator and let rise slowly overnight, 12 to 15 hours. If rising overnight, bake the loaves straight from the refrigerator; no need to warm before baking.

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Place two Dutch ovens or other

heavy-bottomed pots with lids in the oven, and heat to 500 degrees.

(If you don’t have two pots, you can bake one loaf after the next.)

Transfer loaves to Dutch ovens. Carefully remove one of the heated Dutch ovens from the oven and remove the lid. Tip the loaf into the pot so the seam-side is down. Repeat with the second loaf.

Score the top of the loaf. Use

a lame, sharp knife or serrated knife to quickly score the surface of the loaves. Try to score at a slight angle, so you’re cutting almost parallel to the surface of the loaf; this gives the loaves the distinctive “shelf” along the score line. Cover loaves and bake for 20 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake an additional 10 minutes. Resist the temptation to check the loaves at this point; just reduce the temperature and let it bake.

Remove lids and continue baking for 15 to 25 minutes. Uncover the pots to release any remaining steam. At this point, the loaves should have “sprung” up, have a dry surface, and be just beginning to show golden color.

Bake for another 15 to 25 minutes. Continue baking uncovered

until the crust is deeply browned; aim for just short of burnt. It might feel a bit unnatural to bake loaves this fully, but this is where a lot of the flavor and texture of the crust comes in.

Cool the loaves completely. When done, lift the loaves out

of the pots using a spatula. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Wait until cooled to room temperature before slicing.

Storage: Bread can be stored at room temperature (cut-side down if cut) in a paper bag for up to 3 days, or well wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 2 months.

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PHOTOS BY ANGELINA MARIE, SHORT EARED DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

kitch

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S

Short Stuff

hortbread is awesome because it’s so simple,” says Jessica Higgins of Girasol Café & Bakery. “It’s just four ingredients: butter, sugar, flour and salt.” But don’t let the simplicity fool you. Not only is this classic baked good delicious, it’s also a simple platform that can launch a home cook in a variety of directions. It’s easy, as Higgins says, to “jazz it up” a little. That versatility makes shortbread popular for holiday baking, party snacks, Christmas gifts, and more.

Higgins, assisted by our own Ruthie Landelius, prepared a variety of stunning shortbread-based desserts for this issue, from a pinwheel design using beet powder to cookies that introduce texture and color with matcha green tea and ground pistachios.

Taking her simple recipe a step further, Higgins also employed shortbread as an incredible crust for her Millionaire Bars and French apple custard tart. “There are a million ways to use it for the holidays,” she says of the rich, buttery dough.

Shortbread Cookies 12 ½ ounces flour, or less if using ground nuts (*see note) 3 ½ ounces sugar 8 ounces butter ¼ teaspoon salt ½ ounce of other dry ingredients (cocoa, lavender, beet powder, semolina, matcha, spices) * If adding ground nuts, replace 3 ounces flour with them

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

Optional: Up to ¼ teaspoon gel color or flavor additive (vanilla, peppermint, bourbon, lemon)

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Using food processor add all ingredients; stop when dough has come together well and is flopping in the bowl. Rest in refrigerator, wrapped, for 10 to 15 minutes, then roll out to desired thickness/ shape. Bake at 325 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

We used beet powder to make the pinwheels, matcha green tea for matcha cookies, color for the ornaments, cocoa for the checkerboards and ground pistachios to flavor and color the basic shortbread recipe. Garnish with cardamom, dried rose petals, melted chocolate, white chocolate or edible paints.

Makes 16 to 20 cookies

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Roll out shortbread dough to about 5 millimeters and line a sprayed springform pan with it.

The sides may break, but can be patched. Press crust to the top of the pan edge, but not over.

Make the custard: Add following ingredients into a bowl and combine well; set aside.

French Apple Custard Tart

1 cup flour 1 ¼ cups sugar 8 eggs 3 cups heavy cream 1 tablespoon bourbon, brandy, vanilla or similar flavored extract Peel and slice your favorite apples. We used 3 large Pink Ladies. Peel and core apples; slice and arrange on bottom of shortbread crust. Be as creative or simple as you like. Top with a pinch of cinnamon. Fill tart ¾ up with custard and bake in a 300 degree oven for 1 to 2 hours.

The custard will set and raise slightly. It should have a Jell-O-like bounce when done. Cool and release from pan. Garnish with caramel and whipped cream, crystallized cranberries and anything else you like.

Makes 1 tart

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JESSICA HIGGINS

12 ounces shortbread dough 1 to 2 cups pecans, chopped 1 pound melted caramels 1 pound melted ganache

Millionaire Bars

For the shortbread crust: Add 1 to 2 cups chopped pecans and press evenly into a parchment-lined 9- by 13-inch pan. Chill; bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 18 minutes.

Caramel: Melt candies with a dash of cream or use your favorite recipe.

Chocolate Ganache: Mix equal parts heavy cream and your favorite chocolate. Heat cream in the microwave, add chocolate, stir and rest. Continue heating for 20-second intervals until smooth and shiny.

To assemble, bake crust; cool completely. Top crust with melted caramel. Cool completely before pouring warm ganache on top. Chill, cut and serve.

Makes about 12 bars

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BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

DID YOU KNOW?

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H O L I DAY I

t’s been quite a year—actually, now almost two years—for local retailers.

Online shopping expanded due to the pandemic, but so did reliance on local shops and vendors. That’s good news. We hope this commitment to community businesses is here to stay. We certainly are doing our part to support local shops. That’s why we are so thrilled to include this Holiday Gift Guide. As the season approaches, it gives Amarillo and Canyon retailers the opportunity to share their unique products, services, holiday events, pickup and delivery options and much more. Happy shopping!

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LAURIE POLLPETER ESKENAZI POTTERY BOWL $300

AMY KAPLAN NECKLACE $135

MOOSE $320

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Tidings

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OF THE TREES

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PANHANDLE PLAINS HISTORICAL MUSEUM

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MOFONGO (GREEN PLANTAIN MASH WITH SKIRT STEAK)

Located in a repurposed Taco Villa building on Amarillo Boulevard, Flamingo’s stands out from a city rich with authentic Mexican food. In contrast, Eric designed its Latin-inspired menu to feature flavors from throughout Central and South America. “We wanted a competitive edge that offers more of a Latin experience,” he says.

“Who we are as Latinos is more complex than usually portrayed in this area.” Eric, who has also catered and worked as a private chef, is half-Guatemalan himself. “We didn’t want to get typecast as just Mexican food.”

We doubt anyone will make those assumptions at Flamingo’s, which has become one of our favorite new places. Few local restaurants can match its inspired flavorpairings, including dishes that feature fried green bananas (Honduras), green plantain mash (Puerto Rico), Caribbean-style ceviche or a new Peruvian stir-fry dish called Lomo Saltado. (Thirsty? We recommend a savory agua mineral preparada.)

It’s all fresh and creative, prepared by a family passionate about food.

701 E. Amarillo Blvd.

367.7304 Follow Flamingo’s Latin Bar & Grill on Facebook.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

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he family-owned Flamingo’s, which opened in August 2020, is a new collaboration between Eric Perez and his parents, Geraldo and Maria Perez. All three have extensive restaurant backgrounds, from the parents’ involvement with local restaurants like India Bonita and Lucero’s to Eric’s experience in the Taos restaurant scene, where he worked at the popular Dragonfly Cafe & Bakery and the upscale Lambert’s of Taos.

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THE BAGEL PLACE

AM AR I L L O

575 PIZZERIA

Owned by an Amarillo native, the two 575 locations serve the best pizza in the city. Locals rave about the incomparably thin crust, the way the thin-sliced pepperoni crisps up in the oven, and the fresh ingredients. Their easy to-go ordering includes craft beer and wine by the bottle.

2803 Civic Circle/7710 Hillside Road, Suite 700322.5575, 575pizzeria.com $$

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ABUELO’S

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This longtime chain has its roots in Amarillo and an incredibly dedicated local clientele.

The Tex-Mex is flavorful but the true draw is nostalgia. Also: margaritas. As a bonus, Abuelo’s offers some of the best event room and catering deals in the city.

3501 W. 45th Ave., 354.8294, abuelos.com $$

is why Blue Sky’s two locations are always busy. We also love the homemade shakes, the fried anaheim chile sticks and the cheese fries. Families love the casual setting and outdoor dining. 4201 I-40 West, 355.8100/5060 S. Coulter St., 322.3888, blueskytexas.com $$

This beloved breakfast and lunch spot introduced bagels to the Panhandle years ago, and locals have been grateful ever since. Grab a fresh bagel to go and choose from a variety of cream cheese flavors. Or try the oversized homemade sweets. (Look, everything here is delicious.) 3301 Bell St., 353.5985, bagelplace.net $

CADA VEZ COMIDA MEXICANA

This relatively new Town Square restaurant is already getting raves for its classic Tex-Mex fare. The savory birria tacos are wonderful, and so are the salsa selections— with 22 beers on tap and excellent margaritas to wash it all down. Try the weekend brunch! 9200 Town Square Blvd., Suite 1000, 418.6976, cadavezamarillo.com $$

BANGKOK-TOKYO

The name should give you an idea of the Asian fusion available here. The dining area is very small—thanks, weird triangle roofline!—but you can get fantastic Thai food combined with even better sushi.

Takeout orders are quick, and it also now offers an expanded gluten-free menu.

2413 S. Western St., Suite A, 353.4777 $$

CASK & CORK

BLUE SKY

The rooftop patio in southwest Amarillo offers unparalleled views of Panhandle sunsets. It’s also a great spot for live

Burgers are big here, and locals almost always rate these the best in town, which

$ $$ $$$

This is not a comprehensive list of local restaurants. From issue to issue, we will try to include a wide variety of dining options based on the space available. If you notice an error, please email mm@brickandelm.com.

Most entrees under $10 Most entrees $11 to $20 Most entrees over $21

Since 1899…

We have been the leader in the Amarillo commercial real estate market

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f+d music and cocktails. And while we love the shareable apps, we’re most impressed by the attentive service here. Every employee seems eager to please.

5461 McKenna Square, Suite 101, 410.1113, caskncorkamarillo.com $$

After opening in 2015, this North Heights restaurant quickly gained a diverse, dedicated clientele from across the city thanks to its generous portions and madefrom-scratch flavors. (The buttermilk pie is worth a trip by itself.) The downtown menu is slightly smaller but just as good.

1300 N. Hughes St., 803.9111/ 701 S. Taylor St., 350.7441, delvinsrestaurant.com $

THE DRUNKEN OYSTER

The opulent, moody atmosphere of the Drunken Oyster feels like you’ve stepped out of the Panhandle and into the heart of the bayou. The Louisiana-style cuisine never disappoints, from the fresh oysters to the jambalaya and crawfish étouffée. It’s also a great spot for live music. 7606 SW 45th Ave., Suite 100, 418.6668, drunkenoysteramarillo. com $$

WE’VE GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO MAKE THE CHRISTMAS SEASON MERRY AND BRIGHT! JAN BARBOGLIO E NEWTON BRACELETS CANDLES HOME DECOR

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DELVIN’S RESTAURANT & CATERING

322.0086 3323 SW SIXTH AVE.

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EL GIRO

A small, under-the-radar favorite for authentic Mexican food—not Tex-Mex—in west Amarillo. El Giro is well-known for its inexpensive tacos, including a huge taco box order with a dozen-plus tacos. Very much a go-to order for office meetings and small events. Look for their food truck on the Boulevard. 1800 Bell St., 318.3859 $

FURRBIE’S

The owners at Furrbie’s are quirky and fun, the burgers are delicious, and the desserts are definitely worth the extra calories. But the best thing about this downtown lunch stop is the fact that they’ve figured out how to replicate Char-Kel’s cheese fritters from the 1980s and 90s. YES. 210 SW Sixth Ave., 220.0841 $

GIRASOL CAFE & BAKERY

We are huge fans of Girasol, where the weekly specials are always creative, filling and delicious. The Saturday brunch never disappoints either, especially in the new outdoor dining area on a sunny morning.

Girasol is lunch-only, so grab some baked goods or bread when you leave.

3201 S. Coulter St., 322.0023 $

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HUD’S

Drive past either of the Hud’s locations before 10 a.m. and you’re likely to see a drive-thru line that sometimes extends into the street.

Customers are either clamoring for its famous limeades or breakfast burritos. Later in the day, the burgers and chicken nuggets are amazing, too. 7311 Amarillo Blvd. West, 351.1499/ 4411 Bell St., 331.4837 $

ICHIBAN NOODLE BAR & ASIAN CUISINE

If you want ramen in Amarillo, look no further.

Ichiban is so wonderful and … so rarely open.

Watch your food and noodles being prepared thanks to the open kitchen. Stop by for lunch. It shuts down mid-afternoon but re-opens in time for dinner. Most days. Closed on weekends.

3309 Wimberly Road, 355.5031 $

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

JOE’S PIZZA & PASTA

Leather Tote | Backpack | Crossbody | Wallet 2612 Wolflin Village | Amarillo, TX 806.418.8920 purposeandpassionboutique.com

Follow us @purposeandpassionboutique

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Technically, this venerable Bushland restaurant isn’t in Amarillo, but it’s absolutely worth the drive. You’ll be surprised at the quality of this Italian food, from the New York-style pizza to the hot subs, pasta, lasagna and even the steak.

The sauce is homemade and you can tell.

19151 I-40 West, 356.8191 $

LAS PARRILLADAS NORTEÑAS

In Spanish, parrilladas refers to mixed grill items designed to feed more than one person.

This is definitely the case here, with northern Mexico cuisine served with impressive presentation, including a lot of seafood.

Customers love the buffet with traditional Mexican entrees and sides.

1706 Amarillo Blvd. East, 418.8321 $$

THE MASON JAR

Located inside Evole by Moonwater, this charming lunch spot is owned by a veteran Amarillo restaurateur. We love the emphasis on organic ingredients, fresh salads and supercreative sandwiches. The Mason Jar also caters some of the best charcuterie boards in the city.

3313 SW Sixth Ave., 584.7100, themasonjarco.com $

OHMS CAFE & BAR

Give the Gift of comfort 2636 Wolflin Ave. • 353-2404 • randysshoes.com

The Fuller family has operated this eatery for more than 25 years, and it consistently offers Amarillo’s best fine dining. We love the bar area and outdoor patio, as well as its buffet-style lunch and weekly chef specials from Chef Josh Fuller. Pro tip: The Bar Burger is the best burger in town. 619 S. Tyler St., 373.3233, ohmscafe.com $$-$$$

PHO 84

In a city with few traditional Vietnamese options, Pho 84 is a local favorite. We love the pho, of course, but you also won’t go wrong with the spring rolls, dumplings, curry and other Asian fusion dishes. Plus: Vietnamese coffee. 5713 SW 34th Ave., 437.1626 $

This coffee, breakfast and lunch stop near 34th and Bell is quietly one of the best dessert places in the city. (That apple pie: Whoa.) But the quiche, sandwiches, soups, and salads are also worth an order. Be advised: the dining room fills up quickly for lunch, but we love the cute outdoor area. 3440 S. Bell St., Unit 110, 353.7309, silver-fork.com $

SAM’S SOUTHERN EATERY

This Louisiana-based chain has been around for more than a decade, but the Amarillo location is brand-new. The portions are big and the prices are low for shrimp or crawfish po’boys, catfish, crab, seafood platters, shrimp and more. Our city may not be known for seafood, but Sam’s is. 4317 Teckla Ave., 437.1349, samssouthernamarillo.com

TYLER’S BARBEQUE

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Amarillo has no shortage of authentic Texas barbecue, but Tyler’s always seems to be residents’ first choice. Maybe it’s because he’s got a reputation all over the Lone Star State.

Or maybe it’s secretly because of the Frito pie and green chile stew. Plan ahead: Most menu items sell out. 3301 Olsen Blvd., 331.2271, tylersbarbeque.com $$

WESLEY’S BEAN POT & BBQ

River Road restaurants aren’t always on the radar of every local resident, but Wesley’s has been around forever and deserves its legendary reputation. Loyal customers return again and again for the genuine Texas-style barbecue, especially the baby-back ribs, brisket and— yep—the beans. 6406 River Road, 381.2893 $

YCSF CRAFT

It started as a “food truck without wheels” and now this street food experiment is one of the city’s favorite restaurants, and one of the only vegan/vegetarian places in town. Definitely try the animal fries and diablo shrimp tacos.

The burgers, craft beer and wine list are all wonderful. 2916 Wolflin Ave., 353.9273, yellowcitystreetfood.com $

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SPLASH AND SPELUNK AT TURNER FALLS PARK

T

he largest waterfall in Texas, Capote Falls, is around 450 miles away from Amarillo, beyond Alpine and Marfa. It’s on private property, though, so seeing it in person is a challenge. If you’re in a waterfall-viewing mood, though, never fear.

Oklahoma is right next door, and the largest waterfall in that state is much more accessible. You can find it less than five hours from here, at Turner Falls Park, in the heart of Oklahoma’s historic Arbuckle Mountains.

Owned by the City of Davis, this 1,500-acre nature park offers much more than just a 77-foot waterfall. Turner Falls Park is a sprawling collection of more than 5 miles of hiking trails that attract thousands of visitors every year. Since 1925, generations of families have enjoyed the abundant natural beauty and unique geological formations of this outdoor escape. Guests will find three well-known caves to explore, as well as a few hidden caves tucked into the ancient mountains. Even better, Turner Falls is home to Collings Castle, constructed during the Depression from the region’s abundant rocks.

Primitive tent and RV camping are popular here, as are summer nights spent in screened shelters and rustic cabins on the property. During the off-season, the park remains open from 7 a.m. until dark from October to the end of April. (From May through September 30, the park opens at 6 a.m.)

PHOTOS AND TEXT COURTESY OF CITY OF DAVIS, OKLAHOMA

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

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The natural “Blue Hole” swimming area—which the Falls splashes into—serves as the highlight of most visits to Turner Falls Park. The refreshing water of this spring-fed creek helps keep the Oklahoma summer heat at bay. With plenty of shallow areas for little ones, sandy beaches, slides and diving boards at Blue Hole, the site provides hours of enjoyment for all ages during the late spring and summer months.

There are no lifeguards on duty at Turner Falls. For this reason, the Park requires all children younger than 13 years of age to wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket. Turner Falls does not provide or rent these devices. Turner Falls also doesn’t allow pets, so leave those four-legged loved ones at home.

Visitors will also want to be aware of the parking situation at Turner Falls. Parking permits are required on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with different tiers sold in relation to the popular swimming hole and Falls. Level 1 VIP Parking is located closest to the water, at $20 per car. Level 2 VIP parking is located a bit further up the hill, with a cost of $10 per car. Level 3 parking is free in the back of the park, but be advised visitors will then need to travel around three miles from that parking area to the Blue Hole Swimming Area. (On the weekends, shuttles are available to transfer guests from the furthest parking area to the Blue Hole.)

There’s much more to Turner Falls Park, however, than swimming

and camping—especially during the late fall and winter. Starting in November, depending on water temperature, the park is stocked with trout. That means trout fishing is a popular activity from the end of November into March. In December, guests can enjoy Christmas light displays and a holiday-themed Laser Light Show, with the Falls as a backdrop.

Wintertime weekday admission rates are $9 for adults and $6 for children through April 30. Weekend rates are $12 for adults and 9 for kids.

ATV fans will also want to put the Arbuckle Mountains region on their itineraries. Thanks to a new partnership with Cross Bar Ranch Off-Road Park—the largest off-road park in Oklahoma and Texas combined—off-roading enthusiasts will have access to 6,500 acres and 200 miles of creek beds, hills and spectacular views. Cross Bar connects to Turner Falls Park and both are now doubling the fun with dual park-admission tickets. Guests will need to bring their own ATVs, as rentals are not available here. Drivers must have a valid license and abide by all motor vehicle laws. ATVs are not allowed on hiking trails, and four-wheelers, three-wheelers and dirt bikes are not allowed on any road at Turner Falls Park.

The Park is located off Interstate 35 and Highway 77 in Davis, and admission and parking passes are available online at turnerfallspark.com.

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

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listen

O

RECENTLY ON HEY AMARILLO

BRICKANDELM.COM NOV | DEC 2021

ur co-publisher and editorial director, Jason Boyett, is also the host of the popular Hey Amarillo podcast, a weekly interview show featuring Amarillo people.

If you haven’t yet subscribed, here are a few recent episodes you may have missed.

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ZIVORAD FILIPOVIC AUGUST 9, 2021 A fixture of the local marketing community, Zivorad Filipovic—whom his friends and colleagues know as “Z”—served as the marketing coordinator for the Amarillo Symphony before taking his current job as director of marketing and communications for High Plains Food Bank. But like most guests on Hey Amarillo, there’s much more to Z than his career. He arrived in the United States as a refugee from Serbia during the violent Balkans crisis in the 1990s. “I was so honored that he was willing to talk about his childhood, which was unimaginably intense,” Jason says. “Literally, Z arrived here with nothing. He learned English at Sam Houston Middle School and has so many good things to say about the Amarillo teachers who invested in his life. Despite that childhood trauma, he’s such a positive, uplifting presence.” Filipovic ended up attending WTAMU and became the first in his family to graduate from college.

GUS TRUJILLO AUGUST 23, 2021 “I had been chasing Gus for months to be on the podcast,” Jason says. “I don’t interview political candidates during a campaign, for obvious reasons. But I loved the idea of checking in after a campaign ended, because I know that process always becomes a learning experience about the people you’re hoping to represent.” Gus Trujillo, of course, was the local 2020 Democratic congressional candidate for Texas District 13, which includes Amarillo. Republican Ronny Jackson ended up winning the race, but Trujillo enjoyed the process of running and learned a lot about the issues facing this area. In this episode, he digs into those issues. Trujillo also tells Jason about his experience interning for the now-retired U.S. Representative Mac Thornberry, whom he had been hoping to replace.

DR. KATIE BLAKE SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 Katie Blake has a Ph.D. in social psychology and teaches at Amarillo College.

But her reach extends far beyond the community college classroom. Online, Dr. Blake hosts a virtual community of women all over the world who are in the process of “deconstructing” their faith. “For a lot of people, especially in a religious place like Amarilo, the idea of reevaluating

what you believe seems a little scary, or even suspicious,” Jason says. “Dr. Blake describes why this is a necessary part of the spiritual journey, because it’s about understanding matters of faith on your own terms, rather than just accepting what you’ve inherited or been taught.” Relationships are critical during this process, particularly for women, and that’s why Dr. Blake is so passionate about supporting them along the way—including women living as far away as Australia and Africa.

ANDREW HALL SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 As the founder and chair of the Hoodoo Mural Festival (see page 58), Jason interviewed Hall the week before the big weekend festival of music and art. But they talked about a lot more than murals.

“He comes from a long line of local entrepreneurs, who continue to give back to Amarillo after years of business success,” Jason says. “Andrew has that same entrepreneurial spirit, but he used it to start a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing large-scale public art to Amarillo.” Having grown up in Amarillo, Hall left during his college years. When he and his wife, Lauren, returned to his hometown, they noticed Amarillo lacked some of the cultural elements they had enjoyed in the Metroplex and elsewhere. “He could have complained about the things Amarillo didn’t have. What I love is that, instead, he decided to do something about it,” Jason says.

HELEN BURTON OCTOBER 11, 2021 “After interviewing Helen for Brick & Elm’s September/October feature about the Barrio, I knew I wanted to host her on the podcast for a longer conversation,” Jason says. Burton didn’t disappoint. In this episode, she shares about her upbringing in the Barrio and her years attending the private Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School in that neighborhood.

Having seen both of her parents work so hard to make a living and provide for their family, Burton became interested in the business world—an interest that drove her forward into a career as a business owner, executive and leadership development coach, and insurance professional. “We talk a lot in this episode about Helen’s upbringing within the Hispanic culture—the very positive elements and some of the challenges—and how those made her so passionate about empowering women.”

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CARTER PERKY

I

love capturing the Amarillo landscapes, architecture, and people of the city,” says Carter Perky.

Born in Denver and raised in Amarillo, this River Road grad first picked up a camera during a high school photography class. “It sparked my interest so I got [my own] camera and never looked back,” he says.

Perky enjoys photographing special moments like weddings and portraits, but his gritty, urban subject matter first landed him on Brick & Elm’s radar. Despite an eye for inanimate detail, people and portraits still drive his talent. “My wife and family are my main inspiration for my creativity, and keep pushing me to get better for my art,” he says.

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C AR T E R P E R K Y See Perky’s work on Facebook @carter.perky.9 and Instagram @perkyphoto

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VINTAGE RUSSELL STATIONARY CARDS, CREATED BY BEN CARLTON MEAD

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“CHECKS FOR THE NEW YEAR” ARE PART OF PPHM’S COLLECTION.

Presented by PPHM

back when WITH WES REEVES

N

DEC. 27, 1937 EDITION OF THE AMARILLO DAILY NEWS

o matter how far we wander, the twilight of the year is a time to turn toward home, to family and the elusive perfection of how we imagine holidays should feel.

But like the soldiers weeping in the trenches as Bing sang of “where the love light gleams,” circumstances can often get in the way. Thankfully, for as long as there have been post offices, we’ve at least had the ability to pen a few lines to far-flung friends and relatives. The tradition of Christmas cards—those snapshots of everything as it should be—is nowhere near forgotten.

Yes, this is 2021 and maybe there’s no need to send greetings through the mail anymore. But according to the Greeting Card Association (I looked this up), 6.5 billion greeting cards are still sold annually in the U.S., and 1.6 billion of those cards are what we think of as Christmas cards. That seems like a lot, but again, I found it on the internet.

Young families take some credit for keeping the tradition of mailed holiday greetings alive, notably with photo cards. Millennials are having babies like crazy, and they never got rid of the dogs. This combination of cuteness makes for great content when affixed with magnets to anything metal in the kitchen. This was the goal when my wife Kim and I, as newly married consumers, sent out a holiday shot of us with our beagles and a terrified cat in 1992, and it persisted for years on Mom and Dad’s refrigerator door.

Then there are the cards that are so dang pretty you want to put a frame around them. To this day my mom still sets out the elegant ones as a form of Christmas decoration, and a few inelegant ones alongside in case their senders should drop by unannounced.

The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum has a nice collection of keepsake cards from years past, and among the most valuable are the cards sent by Amarillo’s Russell Stationery Co. from as far back as the 1930s. Horace M. Russell, the printing firm’s founder, was well known for the Christmas cards he created and printed in his shop. In a tribute written in the Amarillo Globe-Times at the time of his death in 1937, it was said he printed and mailed 10,000 cards each year, and received as many as 7,000 Christmas cards in return.

Noted Texas artist Ben Carlton Mead, who was living in Amarillo at the time, illustrated some of Russell’s most memorable cards in the 1930s—mostly with images of cowboys and pioneer folks kindling Christmas cheer in the snowy bleakness of their new homeland. Each year Russell dreamed up the dialogue and Mead would imagine a picture around the words. Russell’s company continued this Christmas tradition after his passing, and also produced cards illustrated by famed Western artist Harold Dow Bugbee.

Another treasure in the museum’s collection is a New Year’s greeting from around the turn of the 20th century printed in the form of a checkbook, the cover of which features two rosy-cheeked, nuzzling girls surrounded by embossed holly leaves. Labeled “Checks for the New Year,” the booklet contains blank checks for the transaction of blessings. Conceivably, the sender could write out the checks, or the receiver could make a check to him or herself whenever they might be having a crappy day in the year to come.

Most of us won’t send greetings that will wind up in a museum or even my mom’s arrangement of elegant cards. But whatever we send will no doubt be cherished by someone in need of being missed. In those quiet places of the heart, our prayerful intentions, written in a sloppy hand, can bring us all together at Christmas. If only in our dreams.

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WES AND KIM REEVES (AND PETS) IN 1992

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PHOTO BY VENICE MINCEY

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DENISE BLANCHARD

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DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, AMARILLO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT The best advice I ever heard is ... Be yourself. God doesn’t make junk.

My three most recommended books are ... Of course, my most recommended would be the Junior League of Amarillo cookbook we developed, Beyond the Rim: A Taste of Amarillo. I am constantly cooking from it or recommending a recipe to someone. Each recipe was successfully tested three times to make the cut. My others are Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession by Erma Bombeck. I love her humor and insight and The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette because I am smart enough to know how much I don’t know!

To me, success means ... being content, happily married, enjoying my career, seeing my sons in successful marriages with careers and growing families. I want to know that I made a positive difference while I was alive.

People who know me might be surprised that I ... love to snow ski and would spend every weekend at Wolf Creek if I didn’t have so much going on in Amarillo!

My biggest pet peeve is ... Ha! Where do I begin? My biggest pet peeve is people who don’t know how to drive on the interstate.

Everyone in Amarillo needs to experience ... Our sunrises and sunsets. We are blessed to live in a place where we can actually see the horizon and God’s artwork in the sky.

If I could change any one local thing it would be ... trash and recycling. I hate seeing large objects on the curbs even for one day, and am embarrassed for visitors to our city to see this.

This city is amazing at ... volunteerism and philanthropy. We are blessed to live in a community that recognizes needs and creates solutions. There are so many good things going on in Amarillo that make it a better place to live.

My favorite place in Amarillo is ... my home filled with friends and family.

A local organization I love right now ... the High Plains Food Bank. It is hard to fathom that in the United States of America, people are hungry and pantry shelves are empty for young and old alike. The food bank delivers groceries to food pantries all over the Panhandle and needs our continued support as its mission continues to grow.

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