Bosque River Run Winter 2023

Filmmaker documents circus culture across America

Lane Talburt conducts an interview in the backyard of a circus in 2017.

- Photo By Bruce Hawley

Freedom To Change

A famous fictional soccer coach once said, “Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn’t it? If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

One day this past fall I finally joined civilization and binged the first season of the popular, award-winning Apple TV+ sitcom Ted Lasso, the originator of the above quote.

For me, modernizing my media diet was like when my parents caved in to buy a color television set so my big brother –then a toddler– could watch Sesame Street at home in the early 1970s. It gave my parents temporary relief from my brother who craved mental stimulation.

Truth be told, I really needed to watch Ted Lasso because I was starving for some good ol’ American optimism. I had heard a lot of positive reviews about the show but put off watching it until it’s release on videodisc. I’m glad I didn’t wait. Now, I’m inspired to bring the Lasso spirit to the pages of the Bosque River Run.

In this winter 2023 issue, we deliver stories for you about folks who are native, new, and returners (like me) to Bosque County. Some are familiar faces. Others you might recognize but can’t quite seem to place. Hopefully, you’ll learn a little more about them than you knew prior. I know I did.

But if you knew nothing about them before now, here’s to new introductions! *sips champagne*

This note is my first in the first magazine that I’ve ever been in charge of editorial content, so feel free to drop me a line at editor@cliftonrecord.com should you feel compelled to share criticism, story ideas, and/or your favorite quotes from pop culture.

My apologies to folks I reached out to for stories but failed to follow through with them for this issue. I’ll swing back around to you early in the new year because we’ll be working ahead on future issues.

I look forward to hearing from you. I’ll chat with y’all later!

Nathan Diebenow

I'm a native of Bosque County and have always loved the uniqueness and history of the area. I graduated from Tarleton State University in 2014 with my Bachelor of Science in Animal Science. I went on to manage the 800 acre Maker Ranch and the 3,500 Bison Run Ranch, both situated in Bosque County. My passion for ranching has always been coupled with a strong desire to pursue business; that ultimately led me into ranch real estate. From luxury ranches to cattle and hunting operations, I find great satisfaction in bringing true value to my clients and each transaction I'm involved with.

Ranch real estate is my passion: I know it, I live it, and I can help you navigate it.”

254.974.2082

sheldon@ranchconnection.com

Entertainment

Cliftex Theatre – thecliftex.com

Horny Toad Bar & Grill – hornytoadbar.com

Laguna Park Library – Facebook @lagunaparklibrary

Meridian Public Library – meridian.biblionix.com/catalog

Olaf’s Restaurant – olafs-olafstoo.com

Nellie Pederson Civic Library – cliftonlib.com

Rattlesnake Roadhouse – rattlesnakeroadhouse.com

Valley Mills Public Library – valleymillslibrary.org

Community Meetings

Bosque County Genealogical Society -- bosque-heritage.org

Bosque County Commissioners Court – Mondays weekly. bosquecounty.us

Bosque County Rotary Club – Thursday weekly. Facebook @BosqueRotary

City of Clifton Main Street Board – 4th Monday monthly. Facebook @cliftonmainstreet

City of Clifton Parks Board – 4th Thursday monthly. cityofclifton.org

City of Clifton Planning and Zoning Commission – 2nd Tuesday monthly. cityofclifton.org

Clifton Chamber of Commerce Board – 1st Tuesday monthly. cliftontexas.org

Clifton City Council – 2nd Tuesday monthly. cityofclifton.org

Clifton Civic Improvement Society – 1st Wednesday monthly.

Clifton Economic Development Corporation – 3rd Monday monthly. cliftonedc.org

Clifton Lions Club – 2nd Thursday monthly. Facebook @cliftonlionsclub

Cranfills Gap Chamber of Commerce – 2nd Wednesday monthly. gapchamber.org

Cranfills Gap City Council – 2nd Monday monthly. cranfillsgaptexas.com

Iredell City Council – 254-364-2436

Meridian City Council – 2nd Monday monthly. meridiantexas.us

Meridian Chamber of Commerce – 2nd Thursday monthly. meridiantexas.us

Meridian EDC – 3rd Thursday monthly. meridiantexas.us

Meridian Lions Club – 1st and 2nd Tuesdays monthly. meridiantexas.us

Meridian Parks & Recreation – meridiantexas.us

Meridian Planning & Zoning – meridiantexas.us

Valley Mills Chamber of Commerce – Facebook @valleymillschamber

Valley Mills City Council – 2nd Tuesday monthly. vmtx.us

Walnut Springs City Council – 3rd Thursday monthly. cityofwalnutsprings.org

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

The Clifton Record Meridian Tribune&

Who done it?

BAC kicks off 2023 with murder mystery dinner

By Deb Phinney

There’s been a murder at the Bosque Arts Center –or at least there will be on Saturday, February 4, 2023! And you’re invited to attend, help solve the crime, and catch the culprit!

Chef Oz and his culinary team from University High School in Waco, along with their master detective Matt Menefee, will be here to help solve this dastardly deed over one of their deliciously prepared dinners.

You’ll be greeted at the door with a festive cocktail (a French 75) and then treated to a dinner of a citrusy salad with Blood Orange vinaigrette with an entrée of braised beef short ribs with port, dried cherry, Pasilla pepper sauce, saffron risotto, honey-glazed carrots with dill and haricots verts with bacon and shallots. Dessert will be a flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce and white chocolate drizzle.

Tickets are $100 each. Seating is limited to 30 reservations for this entertaining evening of dinner and adult-sized sleuthing. Feel free to adopt one of the favorite characters in the popular board game “Clue,” such as Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum, Mrs. Peacock, Dr. Orchid, or Reverend Green. Dress the part as one of these suspects or just come for the fun and great food. But beware! There is a murderer loose in the Tin Building Theatre, and we’ll have to solve the crime before the evening is over.

Later in the month of February will be an ice-skating extravaganza! “A real ice rink on stage? Do they really wear ice skates? Are they actual skaters?” you ask. The answer is YES to all of these questions as you will see when you buy a ticket to “Fairytales on Ice” set for Saturday, February 25. This family-friendly entertainment features two shows, a matinee starting at 2 p.m. and an evening performance at 7 p.m. Watch as your favorite fairytales come to life on the ice in the Tin Building Theatre.

Special to the Bosque River Run Magazine

For sponsor tickets on the first two rows, both adults and children are $35 each. Remaining seating is only $15 for adults and $10 for kids 16 and under. This is all auditorium seating. No tables are available. Tickets to the public go on sale beginning Monday, January 23. See our website bosqueartscenter.org. Light concessions will be available for sale.

P.S. The ice is artificial, but the ice skaters and the skates are real!

Certified calligraphy instructor Donna Jarman will once again be offering calligraphy instruction at the Bosque Arts Center on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Classes will be held for four weeks beginning February 7. This class is open to both beginners and intermediate learners and will provide two different styles: Italian and Gothic. The cost is $85 with supplies included: paper, ink, and calligraphy pens. Please contact the BAC and reserve your spot, as limited seating is available.

See the up-and-coming high school artists in Bosque County during the annual Bosque Arts Center Student Art Competition. The art will be displayed on the walls of the second floor hallway gallery and student art room. The awards reception will be held on Saturday, March 4, at 2 p.m. and is open to the public March 6-17.

The BAC will welcome back the Lutheran Sunset Ministries resident art show on Friday, March 10. After a hiatus due to the pandemic, the residents are back, and their artworks will be featured on the walls in the Atrium Café. An opening reception will kick things off, spotlighting the winners of the People’s Choice Award as well as participation winners. Refreshments will be served.

The Bosque Chorale is scheduled for their spring concert on Thursday, April 13. Watch for details coming in March.

Elvis will be in the house during Big Event weekend, March 31-April 1.

The BAC will bring Viva Las Vegas casino night Friday, March 31, and Elvis will make a quick guest appearance during this fun evening of casino games. Tribute artist Al Joslin will also join us because no Las Vegas night is complete without “The King.” Play to win chances on prizes, and make time for a photo op. At $50 per person, you will receive “funny money” for gambling to win chances for the prize drawings. The fun begins at 7 p.m., and gambling ends at 10 p.m. with prize

“Fairytales on Ice” is coming to the Tin Building Theatre at the Bosque Arts Center on Saturday, February 25, this year. – Courtesy Photo

drawings to follow. This is a BYOB event.

On Saturday, April 1, the Big Event –the annual Bosque Arts Center fundraiser– combines raffle items, a silent auction, and a delicious dinner along with the Big Event fanfare. Doors open at 5 p.m. Dinner starts at 6 p.m. Premier concert seating is at 8 p.m. Tickets are $250 per person with the evening topped off by a concert with ELVIS.

Tribute artist Al Joslin and his band will be performing a concert open to the public that same evening on April 1 in Frazier Performance Hall. Reserved seating available at $50 and $75 per seat. Doors will open to the public for this reserved seating at 7 p.m. No concessions will be available, but cash bar will be open for beer and wine sales.

Prior to Big Event weekend, watch for the e-BAC online auction, with a variety of items available for sales, jewelry, trips, dinners, and art.

Tribute artist Al Joslin will also join the Bosque Arts Center for this year’s Big Event because no Las Vegas night is complete without “The King.” -- Courtesy Photo

Murd er at the Bosque Arts Center

FOR ALL AGES

215 S College Hill Dr. Clifton, Texas

254-675-3724

Bosqueartscenter.org

During the first quarter of 2023, the Atrium Gallery will feature the following artists: George Boutwell in January; Elizabeth Montgomery in February; and the artwork for sale during the Big Event Online Auction in March.

Bingo dates are still waiting to be determined, so watch for these dates on our website or call the Bosque Arts Center for details.

The Tin Building Theatre is planning their spring play coming up in May. They will be searching for individuals to try out for parts and participate in the upcoming play. Watch for more information online and in local media.

Radney Foster

An Acoustic Evening

NOV. 11 • 7:30PM

Reservations for most Bosque Arts Center events are available online at bosqueartscenter.org or by calling (254) 675-3724.

Over dinner prepared by Chef Oz and the culinary team from University High School., Help solve this “Clue” styled who-dunit! Master detective Matt Menefee will be our lead detective for this fun and hilarious mystery murder, dinner adventure. $100 per person - Includes a three course meal plus an opening festive libation!

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4

6:30PM

Are you a Colonel Ketchap, Professor Plumes, Mrs. Peakock, or one of many other suspicious characters. Dress up to fit your part, or just come as yourself and join in the fun.

SEATING IS LIMITED, SO CALL FOR RESERVATIONS!

Calligraphy Workshop

FEBRUARY 7, 14, 21 & 28

$85 Per Person - includes all supplies • Available for both beginners and intermediate learners • Classes include instruction for both Italian and Gothic hands. CLASS SIZE IS LIMITED, CALL FOR RESERVATION.

5

Ticket: $75, $50, $40, $20

Conference for Writers & Readers

Fairytales on Ice

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25

Featuring an ice rink, skaters and some of your favorite skating fairytale characters.

2 SHOWTIMES:

2PM MATINEE

7PM EVENING PERFORMANCE

Elvis is in the house...

Featuring Al Joslin Tribute Artist

TICKETS:

Sponsor Seating - $35 per ticket - Front 2 rows of seats adults or child seating Adults $15.00 Kids $10.00 (Children under 16 years of age)

RESERVATIONS REQUESTED

Viva Las Vegas

Feel like you’re in the casinos in Vegas with Roulette, Craps, Slots, Black Jack and Texas Hold ‘Em tables.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31 • 7PM

Elvis Tribute Concert Only

7PM Frazier Performance Hall

Come play for fun and prizes. Buy raffle tickets with your casino winnings at the end of the evening for some great prize drawings.

SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY ELVIS TRIBUTE ARTIST $50 per person

Includes $1,000 of funny money and you’re ready to play • BYOB

RESERVATIONS ARE REQUESTED, BUT NOT REQUIRED

Yet Another Season

By Rita Hamilton

When I was a young mother, one of the phrases I uttered on a pretty regular basis was “I can’t wait to be an empty nester.” The reality was that when it happened, I was devastated. My daughter got married, and my son entered the Air Force within months of each other. I amazed myself at my reaction and all the bitter tears I cried once they had both gone. I actually felt guilty that I had wished so often for the empty nest to actually become a reality.

The good news was that my husband and I had made a point throughout our marriage to nourish our own relationship outside of our kids. I had seen too many times marriages fail once the children left home to make lives for themselves. All too often couples get so involved in the lives of their kids that they never made time for themselves. After the last one leaves the nest they discover they really don’t have anything in common. I was determined that this was not going to happen to us – and it didn’t.

But given all that, I still missed so much about being a family. I missed Christmas morning, I missed birthdays when the first thing I would do was sing Happy Birthday as soon as they got up. I missed the laughter around the dinner table. I missed all the activity of my kids and their friends coming and going. I missed the chaos that only children can contribute to a household. I missed the arguments stemming from chores not being done or bedrooms not being cleaned.

Everything was so quiet and peaceful yet I hated the silence one minute and relished it the next. However, despite this mish mash of feelings and emotions over the departure of my children, in time I began to embrace this new phase of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I will always miss that period when I was raising kids, but I eventually came to cherish this new season and settled most comfortably into just being a couple again.

The memories we made during those years of living as a family are indelibly etched in my mind and sealed upon my heart. I wouldn’t trade that time in my life for anything. But life goes on and then the grandchildren start to arrive. Glimpses of the past chaos make themselves known at new and different family gatherings. And it’s all wonderful. It’s all a nat ural progression of what life is supposed to be. You think you love your kids, but with grandchildren comes another love and an equally important blessing.

Cherished memories are what has gotten me through some rough times. But I have had a life well lived and looking back provides me with a sense of satisfaction within my soul. It may not have always been a perfect life, but it was a good one. As our family grows and changes, we continue to make new memories –and more chaos– and then comes the departure allowing for the welcomed peace and quiet within the walls of my home to settle me back into the calm.

I have been blessed by every phase of my life, but I will admit, I am enjoying this empty nest chapter. There is more ahead for me on this journey of life, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me next.

By

Genie & Zack Make Cartoons

By Nathan Diebenow

There’s a common perception that humanity’s sense of humor is located in our blood or DNA, if you will. So it goes, we inherit our ability to crack jokes from our forebears’ funny bones, their forebears’ forebears’ funny bones, and all the way back to Adam’s rib.

Another theory on the origins of our shenanigans is that our skills in crafting comedy derive from our interactions with our family and community. As they say, it takes a whistlestop to wean a wisenheimer. Or is it “it takes a metropolis to mold a mime?”

Alliteration aside, perhaps both tales check out. Either way, who doesn’t like a laugh?

Not only do Genie and Walt “Zack” Zacharias laugh but they give a laugh too!

This comedic husband-and-wife team have been writing editorial cartoons nigh over a decade together. If you’re a regular reader of The Clifton Record or Meridian Tribune newspapers, chances are you’ve seen their two-panel “Ranch Tails” comic strip each week.

But who are these folks? What makes them tick? Where do they get their material?

It turns out Genie and Zack’s kin each bought properties on opposite sides of Clifton on Highway 219 back in the day. As youngsters, they both even went to the same high school (Richfield) in Waco. Zack was a senior when Genie was a sophomore. Yet neither one of them knew the other until Genie’s kids were in college.

Prior to their first meet up, the two led different lives. Genie left Texas to study at and graduate from Tulane University. She later married, obtained a master’s and doctoral degrees at NYU, and worked in New York City for almost 10 years.

Zack attended Texas Tech and Baylor universities. He served as a highway patrolman in his “mis-spent youth” days before returning to college and obtaining his doctorate from and then working at University of Mississippi (aka Ole Miss). Zack spent the remainder of his professional career at various universities in Texas and at Villanova in Philadelphia as an administrator, instructor, and overseer of special projects.

After decades working abroad, both Genie and Zack returned to Bosque County to take care of their aging parents.

“I spent a year or so trying to fix him up with various friends and family. That didn’t work out very well. We ended up getting married about five years later,” Genie said.

A few years before they married, Genie had already been submitting her “Rustic Ramblings” column to The Clifton Record for publication. The column originally focused on her experiences living on and fixing up her Uncle Rudolph Genecov’s ranch.

“My uncle, who had no children, kept Shetland ponies here for me, the Zander kids, and lots of other Clifton kids to enjoy. I always loved it here and brought my own children here when they were small. I always came back to the ranch, no matter how far away I lived,” she said.

Genie hasn’t been afraid to share personal anecdotes from her life in her columns –a fearlessness she carried over with Zack as they hammed out their editorial cartoons week after week.

“My emails and texts are too long. I can’t stop once I begin. My daughter once quipped, ‘My mom can talk or write about anything.’ I don’t think she meant it as a compliment,” Genie said.

When the Record changed hands in 2012, Genie and Zack started creating the “Ranch Tails” cartoons together.

“All my life, I’ve done drawings and cartoons as gifts,” Genie said. “‘The Rat’ character that always has the last word in the comic strip was born when a field mouse took up residence on our back porch and breezeway.”

The first “Rat” comic strip hangs in Genie’s studio, along with several other pictures that feature memorable cows the couple had over the years.

Always looking for a new experience to write about in her columns and cartoons, Genie Ellis Sills Zacharias braves the freeze carried by Winter Storm Uri that swept through Texas in February 2021. – Photo

Genie Zacharias

Co-writer of the “Ranch Tails” editorial cartoon, Walt “Zack” Zacharias proudly poses with a red trailer he restored in 2021. The story of the trailer was featured in the “Rustic Ramblings” column by his wife Genie Zacharias. – Photo By Genie Zacharias

As for inspiration for columns and comic strips, that comes from their lives on the ranch, world news, and things they read and hear here and there.

“I write and draw about whatever’s going on in our lives and the lives of those around us in Bosque County –often this includes animals, my grown kids, and now grandkids,” she said.

Over the years, Genie and Zack have developed and maintained a strong creative partnership, despite their slightly difference perspectives on what’s funny. Both come up with content ideas and refine the other’s elements for maximum effect in their comics.

“If I have a great idea for a comic strip, he makes it more succinct and funnier. He often creates the little ‘story’ and sets it up. Sometimes I don’t get his humor, and occasionally, I have to rein him in,” she said. “I hope my writing has improved and become a bit more succinct. Yay for word processing and computers! I look at older comic strips and see that my characters have evolved. They seem better drawn now—unless I’m in a hurry.”

As attitudes toward comedy have changed in the past eight years, the duo keep on trucking, poking fun at “everything” but in good taste, of course. Another thing that’s changed is Genie’s move toward drawing on the iPad.

This year Genie will celebrate a milestone in her writing career –her 1,000th published column! She might have missed a few deadlines in the last 20 years because of family members being sick, she admitted, but not by much.

“I think we’ll hit 1000 next September 2023. We should have a party,” she said.

Of the 1000 columns and almost equal number of cartoons, a few do stand out as having affected their audience, like a column Genie wrote about when her father passed away, but often times, it’s those universal experiences that folks comment on with her in public.

“I used to get a lot of older folks, usually men, coming up to me at the post office or feed store or wherever saying things like, ‘I used to have a cow just like that! She got into everything!’ Or I’ll be in the grocery store and some woman will say, ‘I have a husband that does that too,’” Genie said.

So what else does the future have in store for “Ranch Tails?” “One of my sculpture projects –a bucket list item– is a small bronze of our main comic strip characters,” she said.

Genie Ellis Sills Zacharias works on her next round of “Ranch Tails” cartoons for the Clifton Record and Meridian Tribune newspapers in her studio on her family’s property between Clifton and Meridian. – Photo By Nathan Diebenow

For her bucket list, Genie Ellis Zacharias is in the process of sculpting a bronze statue of her cartoon characters. The first step is to create a clay figure like the cowboy’s head in this picture.

The Escape Artist

centers,

By Amy Perry

With the shudder of a sliding iron gate, the rumble of a metal garage door, and the hum of industrial fluorescents, the workshop is alive.

There’s an exhilarating whiff of freshly milled walnut, an itch of cedar pollen, and a faint hint of cow manure. We are in Morgan, population 457, and at the 5,000-square-foot global headquarters of Loblolli Home, population 3 –if you don’t count the elderly Chihuahua sunning himself on the concrete patio out back.

Kenon Perry —Loblolli’s owner, lead designer, fabricator, and engineer— gives the shop dog Jim a bowl of cool water and looks up. “Wanna see the robot?”

Amid the 1960s wide-belt sander and 1940s automatic planar, plus every manner of rugged jointer and intimidating table saw, there’s a strange Rube Goldberg of wires and tubes and buttons that Kenon gestures toward. His gait reveals a few high school football injuries playing for the Robinson Rockets just down the road. He then gingerly toggles some switches and boots up his laptop, and the giant arm begins to carve out a mesmerizing pattern in white oak. The shape is abstract at first but with a few more passes of the router, a pint-sized chair frame appears.

Since last April, Kenon has been starting his days in a similar fashion here in Bosque County, pivoting between this CNC machine (short for computer numerical control) and the tools of traditional woodworking. “I went to art school, but my accountant says I would’ve been better off being a mechanical engineer,” Kenon said laughing.

With a Fine Art degree from the University of North Texas, the Screamin’ Eagle took his natural drawing skills and his curiosity for machines to the big cities, first Dallas and Austin, then farther from home to Atlanta to Brooklyn.

As Kenon tells it, these last 20 or so years have been

an artistic journey driven more by instinct than by map plus a restlessness to expand and fine-tune his craft. In that creative angst and penchant for experimentation, he’s moved fluidly between milling wood and welding metal, crafting contemporary furniture with a robotic arm to the painstaking handiwork of historical restorations. “When people ask me what I make, I usually answer, ‘If you can dream it, I can build it,’” he said dryly.

“I’ve also been known to take on passion projects on the nights and weekends,” he said. “I think the kids call these ‘side hustles’ now.”

Since 2005 this moonlighting has meant ad hoc commissions by friends and friends of friends: a faceted walnut dining table for a tech exec, a clever storage system for a big vinyl collector, a floating maple and steel credenza for a television director. But recently this tinkering evolved into building the CNC machine from scratch with the help of Internet research, YouTube videos, and countless padded envelopes and brown boxes from vendors with names like Clear Path, Online Metals, and Geckodrive.

“For a while there, the parts were showing up on the stoop of our Brooklyn brownstone weekly. My wife used to say; ‘More ball bearings just arrived!’” he said smiling.

In tandem, Kenon learned “the robot’s” programming language Fusion 360 and studied up on the philosophy of lean manufacturing. Twenty-five years since his art school days, and the future of his craft, his calloused hands, and his entrepreneurial ambitions were coming into sharper focus.

And then the Covid outbreak of 2020 forced a thorough reflection, as it did for so many around the world. And that rethink propelled him and his family back to the Cross Timbers.

“It’s been a homecoming of sorts,” Kenon said. “As a teenager, I’d drive up Highway 6 to this area to fish

After 25 years honing his craft in America’s urban

a woodworker-turned-technologist sets up shop in his childhood stomping grounds of Central Texas.

From Robinson, Texas, by way of Brooklyn, New York, Kenon Perry brings woodworking and technology together at his custom-made furniture business called “Loblolli Home” to Morgan, Texas. –

Photo By Nathan Diebenow

Woodworker-turned-technologist Kenon Perry utilizes a CNC machine he pieced together himself for constructing custom-made furniture and toys at his 5,000 square-foot shop in Morgan, Texas. – Photo By Nathan Diebenow

Kenon Perry works the table saw for a project at his 5,000 square-foot shop in Morgan, Texas. – Photo By Nathan Diebenow

back in the ’90s. Then my wife’s parents started coming to Clifton as a weekend retreat from Dallas in the 2000s. Now we’re raising our own son here,” he remembered, “Three dogs, too,” gesturing to the Chihuahua who’s now nestled like a cinnamon roll on a thick flannel moving blanket.

From this new Morgan HQ — which offers more square footage, more heavy machinery, and more bluebird days than he could ever imagine accessing back in Brooklyn — Perry is by no means settling into a punch-in, punch-out routine. With the global supply chain issues of the past three years, his highend furniture clients in the Empire State like the immediacy of Loblolli Home’s small-scale domestic manufacturing abilities.

More locally, Perry debuted a line of Scandinavian-inspired, flat-packed children’s furniture at Market at the Mill’s Funky Flea, which is now available for order on Etsy, and built a groovy, slatted bar that served as the registration desk for Waco’s Silobration last fall. He’s also getting a reputation for gorgeous custom cabinet work.

And, yet for all the big-name projects and sophisticated equipment, he’s really just a hardworking art kid from Robinson.

“If you’re ever at the Dollar General in Morgan and see my Dodge Caravan across the street, stop in. I’d be happy to talk shop and introduce you to Jim and the robot, too,” he said.

For more info on Loblolli Home, visit kenonperry.com or call (214) 684-3518.

For a wide-range of customers, Kenon Perry builds furniture such as this sleek dining-room table with hidden leaves. – Photo By Nathan Diebenow

Culpepper & Merriweather’s tent and other vehicles on rhe show’s lot in Clifton at sunset on October 14, 2021. This was the circus’ first return since 2018, due to a lost season during the COVID pandemic. –

A five-man crew of H-2b workers from Mexico spreading the canvas for the Culpepper & Merriweather big top during the show’s last appearance in Clifton on October 14, 2019. Pending the crew’s delayed arrival in the U.S., circus performers and others pitched in to erect the tent, sometimes requiring seven hours. –

Culpepper & Merriweather

Circus owners Trey and Simone Key take a well-deserved, few minutes of relaxation prior to the first of two performances in which Trey presents a tiger and lion in the steel arena and Simone performs aerial trapeze routines, as well as being the show’s ringmistress.

Three posted arrows alert drivers of the Cullpepper & Merriweather Circus fleet to make a turn off FM 219 and onto a dirt road leading to the lot behind the rodeo grounds in Clifton for two shows on October 14, 2021. The circus’ 24-hour man places arrows from the previous town and lays out flags to indicate where the big top is to be raise on the new lot. – Photo

Photo By Lane Talburt

–

Photo By Lane Talburt

Photo By Lane Talburt

By Lane Talburt

Documentary filmmaker Lane Talburt reviews footage of an interviews he conducted with a retired circus owner on his video editing software in Clifton. – Photo By Nathan Diebenow

Circus Aficionado

Filmmaker documents circus culture across America

Nathan Diebenow

The circus from an audience’s point of view is one of marvels –amazing feats of human strength, ability, and harmony–some death-defying while others just clowning around. To a new Bosque County resident who has documented the ebb and flow of modern circuses in America, the people who juggle, jump, and jest to make ends meet are simply fascinating.

For going on 24 years now, Lane Talbert has re-focused his professional skills in journalism and filmmaking on circus culture. No circus –small, medium, or large— from coast to coast has escaped his video camera and sound recorder. He has interviewed owners, performers, and their families, logging thousands of hours of footage and traveling thousands of miles on his own dime.

Along the way, he found that away from the rings, the nets, and the tents, the life of a performer on the road with today’s circuses remains rather, well, humdrum.

“As one acrobat told me, ‘Circus people are normal people; we travel. How come people who live in towns don’t travel like us?’” Talburt said.

During the winter months –like now– folks who perform in circuses are on holiday, resting in their hometowns after an arduous touring season. After time rejuvenating, most performers get itchy feet ready to return to their respective canvas arenas and continue their nomadic lifestyle, Talburt said.

“One clown recently confessed that he found securing employment during the pandemic to be difficult. ‘After all,’ he told me, ‘who wants to hire a person with a resume that shows he’s spend the last 23 years as a circus clown?’ he said. Existing while on the go does, however, make for interesting innovations, especially for troupes with families, Talburt has discovered.

“One mother of three, whose circus family were European

The smell of popcorn. The sparkle of sequins. The sweat of flying acrobats. The roar of tigers. The feel of wooden bleachers.

Documentary filmmaker Lane Talburt is now training his lens on rural life in Bosque County, Texas. – Photo By Nathan Diebenow

immigrants, said she toilet-trained each of her children at age one, using the same methods of her grandmother. She explained that in the absence of disposable diapers and laundromats, she was forced to wash soiled diapers by hand, in between her ring appearances,” he said.

As for children’s education, circus families adapt through home-schooling resources either by a parent or a teacher for hire. Kids in circuses also receive extra education on the “ways of the street” as well as in-person field trips most traditional students might miss like the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the battlefields in Gettysburg, or the Statue of Liberty in New York City, he said.

“It’s not uncommon to interview a performer or worker who has learned to change a 50-dollar bill at age five,” Talburt said. Talburt said that like most folks, he attended his first circus as a child with his father. It was a dog-and-pony show in a local armory soon after World War II. Later, as a 10-year-old, he witnessed the larger Clyde Beatty Circus, a 15-car railroad circus, which featured the famous act where the big cat trainer barely escaped with his life!

Instead of joining the circus, Talburt decided on a life in journalism. By age 11, he worked a newspaper route in McAlester, Oklahoma. During his sophomore year in high school, he landed his first paid newspaper reporting job at the weekly McAlester Democrat. He earned 10 cents per column inch for high school sports coverage.

Talburt continued to work his way up the ranks of the local newspaper, laying out sports pages each workday morning while attending classes. In his sophomore year at the University of Oklahoma, he rose to Norman bureau chief for the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times, covering campus life, including the Board of Regents.

His career start in television was at the NBC-TV affiliate of Oklahoma Publishing Company as the first dedicated news film editor and script writer for the two half-hour daily newscasts. “I had never touched a piece of 16 mm film in my young life, nor had I the vaguest notion how to write scripts and edit sound bites from various interviews. I learned the techniques on the go from sympathetic news anchors and photographers, and by the end of my first—and only year as it turned out, I figured that I had edited and scripted at least a thousand news film segments,” he said.

Talburt ventured back into print news reporting for the Abilene Reporter-News in Texas while working on his degree at Hardin-Simmons and raising his new family.

By 1964, his career direction took him to the public relations department of Southwestern Bell Telephone in Dallas. After a brief stint as a PR director for a private college, he worked at the Bell companies as their PR manager for 30 years in St. Louis, Topeka, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Talburt discovered the power of documentary filmmaking while interviewing consumer advocate reporters for Washington TV stations in 1974. By showing telephone company executives and managers what customers thought about their telephone service, corporate polices changed so companies established better working relationships with consumer advocate organizations. In 1992, he decided to take an early retirement and opened his own public relations business. In 1999, at age 60, Talburt renewed his interest in circuses when innocently filming the fivering Carson & Barnes Circus in Iowa.

“From the first, it’s been my hobby –an expensive one at times— to learn the answers to questions that I’d subconsciously harbored about what makes circuses—especially their diverse personalities—tick,” he said.

Talburt gained access to circus performers in their own backyards by learning their lifestyle routines. Over time, the performers, managers, and owners warmed up to him as he traveled to meet them from his homebases in Missouri, Connecticut, and Texas. “Because of my memberships in the Circus Fans of America and Circus Historical Society, I was able to interview speakers with circus backgrounds at national conventions and local circus aficionados’ meetings,” he said.

His interest has in turn brought the circus life to his doorstep.

Documentary filmmaker Lane Talburt has covered circus culture across America for the last quarter century, and is now focusing his lens on life in rural Texas from his new homebase in Clifton. – Photo By Nathan Diebenow

One night at his home, he hosted a side-show owner and his fire-eating dwarf. On another occasion, an original member of the first black performing troupe on “The Greatest Show on Earth” crashed at his pad.

Talburt is quick to point out that he has never been pickpocketed, short-changed, or lost any of his video recording equipment to any circus or carnival in the past 24 hours. However, he has gone through five video cameras and countless video tapes and memory cards for his documentary efforts.

Since April 2018, Talburt has resided in an apartment above Clifton’s Art Alley. He credits his move from Connecticut to Texas to his younger son who resides north of Meridian. At first Talburt didn’t like the sound of a living in town for “senior citizens,” but once he visited the community, seeing the art scene, the healthcare offerings, and the close proximity to family, things clicked.

While Talburt is still focused on documenting circus life, his camera lens also points at life in Bosque County. His first YouTube video about Clifton chronicles the Clifton Main Street program’s annual Trick or Trick event. The “Celebrate Special Halloween in Clifton, Texas,” video features Clifton Main Street director Angela Smith and dozens of local families dressed in Halloween costumes gathering candy in historic downtown Clifton.

“In coming months, I plan to film and edit interviews and accompanying scenes on subjects as Clifton’s Norwegian background and activities in the arts community, as well as events in other Bosque County communities. I’m seeking ideas for further exploration,” he said.

To view Talburt’s documentary work, visit his YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/@LaneInConn

Skies were clear and temperatures were mild, meaning that circus folk could wash their clothing and hang their duds on an improvised barbed wire clothesline in the circus backyard during an October 10, 2018, one-day stand in Clifton. – Photo By Lane Talburt

Hand in Hand Tolstoy & Company Combines Lattes & Literature

By Nathan Diebenow

Great combos stand the test of time. Obviously, there’s peanut butter and jelly. Then, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. And, of course, America and our freedoms.

Yet one combo has lasted for over 500 years—coffee and books—and Paula and Doug Perschke couldn’t resist sharing their love for both with natives, newcomers, and visitors to Clifton.

Paula and Doug themselves are a dynamic duo. Paula is a retired elementary school teacher who specialized as an education diagnostician. Doug is a retired engineer for an oil company who is currently a woodworking enthusiast.

Together they opened Tolstoy Co. & Bookshop – the only stand-alone bookstore and coffee shop in Bosque County.

The shop’s name is a synthesis of Paula’s favorite author Leo Tolstoy and Doug’s favorite bookstore Shakespeare & Company in Paris, France.

The seed for their coffee-bookstore concept grew from Paula’s love for books and coffee and her desire for a space where folks from the community can talk, study, and showcase their talents.

Paula’s father was a teacher who sparked her interest in literature

Paula Perschke of Tolstoy & Co. Bookshop waits on customers for their coffee and literary needs in historic downtown Clifton. -

Photo By Nathan Diebenow

Abstract art works by a visual artist based in Woodway display at Tolstoy & Co. Bookshop in historic downtown Clifton. - Photo By Nathan Diebenow

Tolstoy & Co. Bookshop offers a diverse array of book genres, authors, and topics in historic downtown Clifton.

Tolstoy & Co. Bookshop is a great meeting place to grab a cup of coffee, chat with friends, make new friends, and view art works for sale in historic downtown Clifton. -

Nathan Diebenow

from an early age. Her grandmother continued her development by reading to her as a child. Paula said that owning an actual book made a huge impression on her because her family couldn’t afford luxuries. That first book was a set of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s works, a Christmas present she shared with her siblings.

“We were always read to by our grandmother, so I enjoyed stories, but it wasn’t until I got that gift at Christmas that I really started loving reading on my own,” Paula said.

As she grew older as a student, Paula struggled with focusing her mind. Before terms like ADHD were commonplace, she just thought she was a daydreamer. Learning to study in college helped her organize her thoughts, and she brought this empathy to her career teaching 3rd to 5th grade students.

“It was always this desire of mine through social work or teaching to help kids,” she said.

As adult parents, Paula and Doug would take their two boys –Jake and Jordan– to the local bookstore as part of their family time on Friday nights.

“We believe that coffee and books go hand in hand, from memories of raising our kids. We’d get coffee or hot chocolate while we

shopped,” Doug said.

On their family vacations, they would often visit bookstores too. During those trips, Paula and Doug took stock in the book shops’ amenities and layout: Did they offer coffee? How soft are the chairs? Are the book displays cluttered? Was it a chain or an independent store?

The Perschke family learned about Clifton through Jake’s time playing baseball in junior college with a fellow Bosque County resident. The ball team would drive through Highway 6 on their way to games, and the players would always stop there for refreshment and relaxation.

Seven years ago, Paula and Doug bought a house between Clifton and Cranfills Gap as a weekend retreat. They got to know not only the locals but also the local business owners in historic downtown Clifton. Then, in June 2021, Paula retired, deciding to strike out with her bookshop dream in a space between the Bosque County Properties office and the Clifton Chamber of Commerce building.

In July 2021 they signed the lease, and immediately Doug went to work making the bookshelves while Paula collected and orga-

- Photo By Nathan Diebenow

Photo By

nized the inventory. For four months, it felt like a mad rush for them to move into the building on November 1, 2021, and then officially open on December 3, 2021.

Paula said that she keeps a variety of titles on the shelves because she enjoys encouraging folks of all ages, incomes, and faiths to read for fun. She is especially skilled in helping young adults (age 13-18) become more interested in the written word. To this end, she stocks up on graphic novels, which young folks enjoy reading.

To thrive as a bookseller, Paula knows she must listen to her customers, and time after time, she heard that folks love Texas history. Being a former Texas history teacher herself, she obliged, and that section has achieved the most success, she said. She also listens to published authors who reach out to her to sell their books. One such self-published author was Anita Dickason, a 22-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department.

“I had never heard of her,” Paula said. “She sent me her book that was based on a story she wrote about Meridian. I read the book and enjoyed it. We had her do an author visit, and several people have enjoyed her writing because she’s phenomenal.”

In January 2023, Paula hosted the paintings of Arleta Taylor, a visual artist born, raised, and educated in Poland and now based in Woodway. Her paintings feature acrylic and mixed media to fill one’s soul with positive energy, as her artist’s statement said.

Her works has been displayed in galleries in Las Vegas and San Francisco.

Paula’s bookshop hosts a book club that meets once a month in the evening. Thanks to the efforts of local Cliftonite Jan Zuehlke, the book club is up to 16 members, many of whom are retired educators who taught across different grade levels and in wide range of disciplines.

The way the club members pick books is through recommendations put into and then drawn from a hat. The group --whose members come from diverse experiences and perspectives-tries to mix up the themes, topics, and tastes so the stories aren’t too heavy or too light. Recently the book club rented the CLIFTEX Theatre to show the film PRACTICAL MAGIC, whose book version is of the same name by Alice Hoffman.

In addition to focusing on the mind, the shop offers space for Tai Chi classes once a week on Wednesdays at 12 p.m. For an hour, a licensed therapist from Whitney meets with a group for an hour. Donations are appreciated.

And last but not least, the coffee! The shop offers expresso for the serious caffeine connoisseur as well as hot tea and sodas. In the summer months, they will offer iced coffee drinks, though if you bring your own ice during the winter months, they will hook you up with their finest java along with your choice of flavorings.

Spreading Hope Riesers share success through service

By Nathan Diebenow

“It is far better to light a candle than curse the darkness.”

This quote is often attributed as an ancient Chinese proverb or an old African saying, though in reality William L. Watkinson, a 19th-century Methodist minister, first coined it.

In his sermon entitled “The Invincible Strategy,” Watkinson conveyed his approach to eradicating evil as he understood it.

“Evil is not overcome by denunciation. It is surprising how much efficacy is supposed to go with denunciation. Real, constructive, aggressive good is of far greater significance than eloquent invective; such invective has its place, but it must be accompanied by active practical effort…,” he said.

Published in 1907, Watkinson’s words spread across China and Africa by missionaries, so over time, it would have been easy to confuse the source when people mixed and mingled within differ-

ent cultures, ethnic groups, and regions.

Since folks regained control over the recent pandemic, communities around the globe have started to mix again. In rural areas like in Central Texas, supply chain woes and drought have especially hurt families’ pocketbooks, slowing the mingling these past two years.

Yet certain families like the Riesers have consistently carried the candle of hope in Bosque County and, for their humanitarian efforts, Ed and Phyllis Rieser were recognized by the Clifton Chamber of Commerce with the Community Service Award in 2022.

Among their services honored was providing free traditional turkey dinners on Thanksgiving Day from their restaurant – Corner Drug Café – to folks in the community since 2017. The sacrifice of the family and their team of volunteers has been worth it. In 2021, donations given by the meal’s patrons minus food costs were funneled to the food banks in Clifton and Meridian – $1,100 checks for each organization.

The Reisers of Corner Drug Cafe and Screen Door Inn Bed and Breakfast are honored with the Community Service Award at the Clifton Chamber of Commerce’s annual banquet in March 2022. Pictured are (from left) Phyllis Gamble, Chamber Board Chair Savannah Lea; Ed and Phyllis Reiser, and Chamber Executive Vice President Paige Key. - Photo by Ashley Barner

Ed Rieser said he and wife Phyllis were both caught off guard by the Clifton Chamber’s recognition, which according to their daughter Nikkolina, was a secret she kept from them for almost a month.

“We were surprised,” Ed said. “When Phyllis [Gamble] got up, I thought, ‘That’s kind of funny.’ Then as she started talking, I was like ‘That sounds familiar.’”

Since the couple retired and moved back to Bosque County in 2010, Phyllis Rieser has served as president of the Saint Olaf Lutheran Church Council, member of the Norwegian Country Christmas Tour committee of the Clifton Chamber of Commerce, and organizer of the music performances at the historic Rock Church during the home tour. She has also served as treasurer of the Bosque County Chapter of the Norwegian Society of Texas.

Ed is a board member of the Clifton Economic Development Corporation, trustee on the Cranfills Gap ISD Board of Education, and board member of the Bosque Museum. He is also a past president of the Cranfills Gap Chamber of Commerce and past president of the Bosque County Chapter of the Norwegian Society of Texas.

Phyllis and Ed Rieser have always been community-minded and service-focused, and instilled these values to their three daughters, Karina, Katrina, and Nikkolina.

“We’re family-centered. We do these things together. Our daughters join in whenever they can,” Phyllis said. Phyllis connects her family to their Norwegian heritage in Cranfills Gap, specifically through her late mother’s cookie baking and storytelling. Ed links his family to his community service ethic acquired in his college days in Oklahoma when he became a member of the Knights of Columbus. The types of service projects he learned in the Catholic fraternal service order prepared him and his family for events like the free Thanksgiving dinner.

“Even though I’m not involved with the Knights right now, I carry the same belief in volunteerism and giving back,” Ed said.

Nikkolina Rieser, aka “Chef Nena” of Corner Drug Café, said the idea for the free Thanksgiving meal came from her father over five years ago. Through his gentle insistence, the Rieser women changed their family’s Thanksgiving tradition from a private party to a public service, she said.

“To quote a movie, you see a need, and you fill a need,” Nikkolina said. “We went into it knowing some people spend the holidays alone, or they don’t want to put the effort to make a lot of food for a small amount of people. They don’t want to dirty their kitchen, go grocery shopping, and do all the prep work. It was just easier.”

“It has turned out to be a wonderful, fulfilling event,” Phyllis said. “After we deliver all the food, we sit down and have dinner together. It’s wonderful to be together with family and friends.”

For Chef Nena, the free Thanksgiving Day meal seemed like a normal day, which starts at 4 a.m. with prep work to ready the food for the first

Nikkolina “Chef Nena” Rieser (front, from left) celebrates her recent birthday with her parents Phyllis and Ed Rieser and sisters (back, from left) Katrina and Karina Rieser.

Look at all the different types of pies you could order from the Corner Drug Café in Clifton in time for Thanksgiving in 2020.

distribution time at 11 a.m. She figured that they served over 500 people in the 2021 Thanksgiving meal, while around 440 folks turned out for the dinner in 2022.

“We served less people this year, I think, because a lot of people are coming back together after COVID and resuming their normal routine,” the chef said. “And a lot of people had the flu this year and were calling us at the last minute. Luckily, I over-planned.”

The Riesers praised their volunteers for their dedication and commitment for serving the Thanksgiving meals. In 2021, they had 12 volunteers; in 2022, 18 –some of whom work at the café, while others are friends from within and out of town.

“We had great volunteers,” Ed said. “It really is a great group of volunteers,” Phyllis echoed.

The Riesers reflected on all the appreciative comments, stories, and “thank you” notes from the individuals, families, and friend groups who requested the free turkey dinners this year.

Following Thanksgiving, the family’s focus turns to the Norwegian Country Christmas Tour.

This year, the couple hopes to pick up where they left off with passing down their Norwegian heritage and food traditions to the next generation regardless of the younger folks’ culture, origin, or ethnicity.

Before the pandemic, the Riesers had invited elementary-age students to participate in the cookie baking process for the

Norwegian Country Christmas Home Tour in December. Those children are now about to graduate high school, so the family is looking for more interested, young talent.

Over the course of two Mondays before the tour, the Riesers and a team of volunteers make and package over 2,000 authentic Norwegian cookies, which includes 600 sandbakkels and 500 rosettes just for the annual Norwegian luncheon at the Clifton Civic Center.

On the day of the tour, daughter Karina Rieser returns to Bosque County from Houston, selling baked goods at Heritage Village in the Armory in Clifton by day and then at the lutefisk dinner in Cranfills Gap that evening on behalf of the Bosque County chapter of the Norwegian Society of Texas.

Phyllis explained that the lefsa making is itself a labor-intensive process, which is why the family creates the potato-based, soft flatbread only once a year.

“In Minnesota, I’m sure there are factories that make massive amounts of lefsa, but we do it the old way. I make myself do it because I’m committed to preserving this heritage in Bosque County,” she said.

Humbled by the attention their community service has attracted, the Riesers point to other individuals and organizations that assist people in need in Bosque County.

“We know we’re just one part of the community that engages in volunteerism,” Phyllis said. “So many folks also work so hard to make Bosque County a wonderful place to live. This is just our little piece.”

The to-go orders for the free turkey dinner are ready in the Corner Drug Café in Clifton in 2020. – Photo By Phyllis Rieser

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New Year, New Oopses Local storyteller laughs off past mistakes

Storyteller Riney Jordan presented the special program on the importance of laughing at your own mistakes at the Clifton Civic Improvement Society’s meeting in December 2022.

– Photo By Nathan Diebenow

By Nathan Diebenow

Riney Jordan is a man of many wigs, and he will be the first to tell you that with his self-deprecating wit and folksy wisdom.

He acquired his first hair piece the old-fashioned way –through charm, grace, and good humor after arm-twisting by a strong-willed public school librarian who happened to be a well-off widow. However, Riney doesn’t have to start with that story when he performs at public speaking events. He could just as easily begin with any experience from his life –serving as a small-town disc jockey, a grade-school teacher, or a public relations specialist.

Folks take to his stories like children grab candy during a Christmas parade. He’s achieved high honor and praise for his communication skills. The Texas School Board Association and the Texas School administrators honored him as the “2000 Texas Key Communicator of the Year.” The Texas Legislature even recognized him as an exemplary Texan in a resolution.

As master storytellers go, Riney is also never camera shy. Any opportunity to strut in his hair piece is welcome.

“I’m so happy with a microphone. Well, thank you guys for coming, and it’s great to have – wait, just a minute. He’s taking a picture. We’ll try our best shot there,” he said, mugging for the camera as I snapped a pic of him during the Clifton Civic Improvement Society’s last meeting of 2022.

That chilly December day, Riney lit up the Clifton Civic Center with his stories of wholesome wonder and woe. The Clifton Elementary School’s honors choir had to reschedule their Christmas-themed performance due to a time conflict, and Riney filled in last minute for the ladies club’s afternoon program.

“I know you’re disappointed that the choir isn’t here. I was going to sing for you, but I opted not to, so you should be grateful for that,” he said, tongue planted firmly in cheek as he sat in a chair in front of the festive group.

What commenced was 45 minutes of almost non-stop narration that seemed almost stream of consciousness from one era of his life to the next. The theme that tied his stories together —at least for me— was the importance of accepting gratitude in hindsight.

“I want to make you laugh a little. I want to give you something to think about. But one of the things I want us to remember is to learn to laugh at your mistakes. Ok?” he said, before launching into his first personal anecdote –a tale that would make the fictious film anchorman Ron Burgundy both howl and nod with understanding. The story unfolded with Riney still in high school in the 1960s. His friend landed him a job as a radio announcer –a position Jordan seemed not to have necessarily wanted or expected to fill since he never applied for it. Yet the teenage Jordan accepted the 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. time slot doing a request-and-dedication show. He ended up manning that program for seven years from 1960-67.

“I just loved it,” he said. “But here I just started at 17 years old. At 17, you think you know a lot. You know what I’m saying? You’re just as dumb as an ox. What can I say?”

Jordan recounted how at small radio stations in those days, it was customary for people working behind the microphone to announce many different events over the airwaves.

“You announce everything. You announce funerals, lost dogs, and if somebody’s got a cow loose on the highway,” he said.

But then one day, a secretary gave him a short message to say in between songs. “On the air I said, ‘May I have your attention please? A lady on 5th Street has lost a little brown chi-hooah-hooah. If you know where the chi-hooah-hooah is, would you please call this number.”

When he got off the air, the secretary came in the studio and said, “Riney, what did you just say?” He said, “I announced that someone had lost a little brown chi-hooah-hooah.” She said, “Riney, that is not chi-hooah-hooah. That is chi-wah-wah.” He replied, “Well, now, I don’t want to be a smart-aleck, but if you’re going to bring me notes, you’re going to have to spell them correctly.”

It wasn’t the last time Riney needed help pronouncing a word on air but didn’t quite get the assistance he sought. On another occasion, he announced on air that some unlucky fellow lost a “U.” But what he read were the letters ewe. So he said, “We have a rancher out on the highway, and he lost an e-wee. If you see the e-wee….”

Jordan told more anecdotes about mishearing words and misunderstanding terms both by him and other folks in his travels. He recalled a recent faux paus between him and his wife.

“I was in the bathroom getting ready a few mornings ago, and Karen, my wife of 57-plus years, comes storming through the bathroom into her closet, and all I hear is, ‘Half the house has no power.’ Half the house has no power. That’s what I heard,” he said.

His wife left the room, so he could finish getting ready, still pondering the electricity problem. When he met her again, he asked, “Honey, was it a breaker? Did you get the power to come on the other half of the house.” She replied, “Honey, what are you talking about?” I said, “You said, ‘Half the house has no power.’” She said, “Riney, what I said was, ‘My half-and-half has soured.” To the ladies in the civic improvement society Riney said, “You just have to learn to live with it, you know?”

At the end of his program, Riney left the group with a parting thought, which he also leaves in his brand new podcast show “Oh, The Stories I’ll Tell.”

“I want you to try to remember this. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. Ain’t that beautiful? I wish I could say I thought of that, but I didn’t,” he said. To listen to Riney Jordan’s family-friendly podcasts, visit rineyjordan. podbean.com or look wherever you get your podcasts.

list of advertisers

business directory

ADVERTISING

The Clifton Record & The Meridian Tribune

310 W 5th St • Clifton, TX

254-675-3336 • bosquecountytoday.com

ANTIQUES

Bosque County Emporium

121 N Ave D • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8133

bosquecountyemporium@gmail com

ARTISTS/ART GALLERIES

Bosque Arts Center

215 S College Hill Dr • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-3724 • Bosqueartscenter.org

Bosque Museum

301 S. Avenue Q • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-3845

George Boutwell

3083 Hwy 6 • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-6676 • Gboutwell.com

L .A . Thompson Gallery of Fine Arts

An Thompson

114 N Ave D • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-2787 • FB@lathomsonart

AUTOMOTIVE

Briley Auto Supply

Greg & Marie Garland

121 Main St • Meridian, TX 76665 254-435-2212

Douglass Ford

1206 N Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8315

douglassford .shop

Ken’s Auto Supply

920 N Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8100

Myatt Fuels

202 N Ave B • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8107 • Myattfuels.net

BANKING & FINANCE

Rawl’s Financial

603 S. Avenue G • Clifton, TX 76634

254-206-3100

Citizens State Bank

505 W 5th St • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-2211 • citizensstatebanktx.com

First National Bank of Bosque County

1203 N Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-6570 • fnbbosque.com

First Security State Bank

1115 W 5th St • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-2265 • fssbtexas.com

J Phillips Mortgage Inc

Kevin King • 214-549-8839 www myjpmortgage com

Mattson Financial Services

5400 Bosque Blvd 4th Floor • Waco, TX 76710

254-772-6383 • Mattsonfinancialservices.com

CONSTRUCTION & HOME REPAIR

B&C Exteriors

101 Scurlock St • Grandview, TX 76050

817-866-4897 • Bandcexteriors.com

JBS Heating & Air Conditioning

911 W.5th Street • Clifton, TX 76634

254-978-2510

Keith’s Ace Hardware 927 N. Avenue G • Clifton, TX

254-675-6513

Loftin Dirt Works 307 N Ave C • Clifton, TX 76634

254-640-1104 • jldirtworks18@gmail.com

Leon’s Floor Covering

302 W 5th St • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8686 • Leonsfloorsclifton.com

R&M Fencing

1885 Co Rd 182 • Purmela, TX 76566

254-248-2205 • Randmfencing.com

Tri County Guttering Co Inc

286 Lady Bird Rd • Waco, TX 76712

254-848-7246 Tricountyguttering .com

Williams Construction Co 9149 Hwy 6 • Meridian, TX 76665

254-435-9011 • williamsconstruction.com

Wright Construction

601 W Wall St • Grapevine, TX 76051

817-481-2594 • Wrightconst.com

EDUCATION

Clifton ISD

1102 Key Ave • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-2827 • cliftonisd.org

Cranfills Gap ISD

505 S 2nd St • Cranfills Gap, TX 76637

254-263-3388 • cranfillsgapisd.net

Meridian ISD

310 D St • Meridian, TX 76665

254-435-2326

Meridianisd .org

business directory

FARM & RANCH

Coryell County Commission Company

400 Cattle Drive, N . Loop Highway 36

Gatesville, TX 76528

254-865-9121 • coryellcommission.com

Central Texas Tractor & Implement

10110 Highway 6 • Meridian, TX 76665

254-826-8381 • centraltexastractor.com

Lawson Implement Co .

1130 S.Hwy 281 • Hamilton, TX 76531

800-658-6807 • Lawson-implement.com

Waco Livestock Auction

2316 Marlin Hwy • Waco, TX 76704

254-753-3191 • wacolivestock.com

GOVERNMENT

Bosque County Central

Appraisal District

9293 Hwy 6 • Meridian, TX 76665

254-435-2304 • Bosquecad.com

Bosque County Judge’s Office

110 S Main, Room 100 • P.O. Box 647

Meridian, TX 76665 • 254-435-2382 ext 6

City of Iredell

225 Eastland St • Iredell, TX • 254-364-2436

City of Meridian

111 Main St • Meridian TX 76665

254-435-2381 • meridiantexas.us

Clifton Chamber of Commerce

Paige Key

115 N Ave D • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-3720 • cliftontexas.org

Clifton Main Street

403 W 3rd St • P.O. Box 231 • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8337 • FB@CliftonMainStreet

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Albrecht’s Pharmacy

506 W 5th St • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8398 • Albrechtspharmacy.com

Brookhaven Youth Ranch

5467 Rogers Hill Rd • West, TX 76691

254-829-1893 • brookhavenyouthranch.org

Careflite

4458 FM Rd 933 • Whitney, TX 76692 • 800-442-6260 • careflite.org

Dynamic Family Dentistry

302 S Ave Q • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-3518 • bosquecountydentist.com

Goodall-Witcher Healthcare/ Bosque County Health District

101 Posey Ave • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8322 • gwhealthcare.org

Hamilton Healthcare System

400 N Brown St • Hamilton, TX 76531

254-386-1600 • hamiltonhospital.org

Lutheran Sunset Ministries

413 Sunset Ave • P.O. Box 71 • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8637 • Lutheransunset.org

Waco Cardiology Associates

7125 New Sanger Rd A • Waco, TX 76712

254-399-5400 • Wacocardiology.com

LODGING

Velkommen Inn

1215 N. Avenue G • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-675-8999

Texas Safari Ranch

192 Private Road 4293 • Clifton, TX 76634 214-384-3000

Screen Door Inn

110 N Ave D • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-7829 • Screendoorinn.com

PET SERVICES

BARK

Bosque Animal Rescue Kennels

4340 Highway 6 • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-675-1954

Bosque Spay Neuter

254-253-6124 • bosquespayneuter.org

The River’s Bend Doggie Drop Inn

P.O. Box 228 • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-4936 • Doggiedropinn.com

PRAISE & WORSHIP

Bosque County Cowboy Church

7023 Hwy 6 • Meridian, TX 76665

254-396-1032 • bosquecountycowboychurch.com

Clifton Bible Church

414 W 5th St • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-707-1076

cliftonbiblechurch org

First Baptist Church Meridian

207 N Hill St • Meridian, TX 76665 • 254-435-6007 fbcmeridiantx org

First Presbyterian Church 211 S Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-8105 • Fpcclifton.com

First United Methodist Church

303 S Ave E • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-675-3984

Fumcclifton com

business directory

PRAISE & WORSHIP, CONTINUED

Peace Lutheran Church

330 W 5th St• P.O. Box 112 • Clifton, TX 76634

214-213-3838• Peacelutheranclifton.org

Zion United Church of Womack

1411 FM 219 • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-3599 • zionunitedchurchwomack.com

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Lhoist

2861 FM 2602 • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-675-8668 Lhoist .com

REAL ESTATE SERVICES

Bosque Real Estate, Inc

100 N Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

800-344-8092 • bosquerealestate.com

Carlisle Real Estate

305 E Morgan St • Meridian, TX 76665

254-435-3001 • carlisletexas.com

Clayton Waggoner Properties

325 North St. Paul Street • Dallas, TX 75201

972-897-9000 • claytonwaggoner.com

Cobb Properties

300 3rd St • Cranfills Gap, TX 76637

254-253-0157 • Cobbranchproperties.com

Sauer & Associates Real Estate

600 S Bosque St • Whitney, TX 76692

254-694-0123 • Sauerrealestate.com

RESTAURANTS & DINING

Burger King/Clifton Fast Stop

102 S Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-675-6111

Corner Drug Cafe

102 N Ave D • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-265-7737

cornerdrugcafe com

Dairy Queen

311 N Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-3003 • dairyqueen.com

Horny Toad Bar & Grill

319 3rd St • Cranfills Gap, TX 76637

254-597-1100 • Hornytoadbar.com

Johnny’s Place

502 S. Avenue G • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-675-2001

Olaf’s Restaurant and Bar

121 N Ave D • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-268-8880

olafs-olafstoo .com

Rattlesnake Ballroom

4173 3rd Street • Walnut Springs, TX 76690

817-269-0554

Robbins Nest Cafe

301 Morgan Street • Meridian, TX 76665

254-301-4117 • robbinsnestcafe.com

Royal Pizza

602 S Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634 • 254-675-4500

Royalpizzatx com

RETAIL & GROCERY

C-Town Liquor

810 N. Avenue G • Clifton, TX 76634 • 469-328-0201

Brookshire’s Food & Pharmacy

900 FM 3220 • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-3111 • brookshires.com

Buckshot Rustic Furniture & Gifts

1432 E State Hwy 22 • Whitney, TX 76692

254-694-4100

Cheerful Heart Gifts & Boutique

9311 Hwy 6 • Meridian, TX 76665

254-314-8999 • cheerfulheartgifts.com

David’s/Brookshire Brothers

614 S Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

254-675-6345 • Brookshirebrothers.com

Double B Foods, Inc .

113 Morgan St • Meridian, TX 76665

254-435-6187 • doubleb.com

Hamilton Farmers Market

822 E Main St • Hamilton, TX 76531

254-386-5004 • FB@farmersmarkethamilton

Meridian Frozen Food & Locker LLC

106 Morgan St • Meridian, TX 76665

254-435-2803

UTILITIES

Heart of Texas Electric Cooperative

1111 Johnson Dr • P.O. Box 357 McGregor, TX 76657

800-840-2957 • Hotec.coop

Hilco United Services

4581 FM Rd 933 • Whitney, TX 76692

254-694-5237 • Hilcounitedservices.com

Texas New Mexico Power

1304 N Ave G • Clifton, TX 76634

888-866-7456 • Tnmp.com

Gretchen Sauer | Robert Hook | Kelli Lawson Jones | Hunter Brooks