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THE CANADIAN RECORD
THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2015
The Canadian
RECORD ESTABLISHED 1893 INCORPORATED FEBRUARY 1998 PO Box 898, Canadian, TX 79014 Phone: 806.323.6461 Fax: 806.323.5738 BEN EZZELL Editor/Publisher 1948-1993
NANCY EZZELL Editor/Publisher 1948-2010
LAURIE EZZELL BROWN Editor & Publisher laurie@canadianrecord.com
Business Manager Mary Smithee Advertising Ray Weeks, Jaquita Adcock ray@canadianrecord.com
News Editor Cathy Ricketts cathy@canadianrecord.com
Sports Editor Peyton Aufill Peyton@canadianrecord.com
Record Intern Benjamin Antillon DESIGN & PRODUCTION Laurie Brown, Cathy Ricketts, Ray Weeks, Peyton Aufill PHOTOGRAPHY Laurie Brown, Cathy Ricketts, Alan Hale, Peyton Aufill CONTRIBUTORS: Mary Jane McKinney, Bob Rogers, Cheri Smith
USPS 087-960 Periodicals postage paid at the Post Office in Canadian (Hemphill Co.), TX. Published weekly in Canadian by Laurie Ezzell Brown POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Canadian Record, PO Box 898, 211 Main St., Canadian, TX 79014
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The Canadian
RECORD and the Ezzell Family WINNERS OF THE
2007 Gish Award FOR COURAGE, TENACITY & INTEGRITY IN COMMUNITY JOURNALISM
Who said it, Reagan or Kennedy? 1) “We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate.” 2) “We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon, many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans.” 3) “Preservation of our environment is not a liberal or conservative challenge, it’s common sense.” 4) “I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of the home.” 5) “It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.” 6) “I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.” 7) “A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.” 8) “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” 9) “It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?” 10) “No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it’s in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.” 11) “It’s difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn’t available.” 12) “History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.” 13) “How can a president not be an actor?” 14) “If by a ‘Liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal’, then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘Liberal.’” ANSWER: 1-13. Reagan; 14. Kennedy
mary@canadianrecord.com
I WAS HANDLING the courthouse beat back when Ed Culver was first elected to the Hemphill County Commission, and have either covered—or paid very close attention to—county government for as long as he has been on the job. You get to know a guy after two decades of sitting quietly by, taking notes, while he and his fellow commissioners decide how your tax dollars are going to be spent—or not spent, as is sometimes the case. You get a pretty good idea whether he came prepared to do the job, whether he made a point of being informed on the issues that faced him, whether he listened to others and considered their concerns and opinions when making decisions, and most important, whether anyone was pulling his strings when he did. More than anything, you get a feeling from looking him in the eye whether he’s telling you the truth. And I’ll tell you right now, Ed never dodged a question, and never fabricated an answer. I may not have always liked the answers I got from him, but I believed what he said. Nobody ever pulled Ed’s strings. Nobody. Most of you know by now that Ed Culver resigned as Precinct 2 County Commissioner last week and is moving back to his hometown of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to chase a few dreams. What you may not know is how hard it was for him to walk away, knowing what he had already invested in this community. What you may never imagine is how close to tears he has been when the topic of his departure arose. There is little doubt that Ed Culver loves Hemphill County every bit as much as his wife, Julie, who was raised here. I’ve just written a story about Ed, his history as a public servant for the last three decades and the change he has observed and been a part of in his 21 years as a county commissioner. For two decades and more, I’ve been a regular witness to that process, as the best of this county’s citizens and elected officials worked to make government better and more efficient, and to be responsive to the needs of all residents, as well as to the demands and the challenges of the future. It hasn’t always been very pretty, and it has occasionally even been very ugly, but because of people like Ed Culver, Hemphill County has become a model for how local governments should work together—joining forces to leverage the best of each entity’s resources, and to accomplish the most with them, while placing the least possible burden on taxpayers. Of course, it helps that we have enjoyed some fiscal security for many years, and are now well-prepared for the economic downturn we find ourselves facing. It helps, too, that there is only one incorporated city within the county, minimizing the divisiveness that many county commissions face in more populated areas. But neither of those things fully explains the remarkable transition I have seen from the earlier days of cooperation as a somewhat grudging concession to practicality, to embracing cooperation because it actually makes this place—and us— better. Having made that rather grandiose statement, I will temper it with this one: Intergovernmental cooperation hasn’t always been possible here. It hasn’t even always been conceivable. And it would take very little—barely a breath of wind—to send it all crashing to earth again. Elected officials, beware. Ed Culver has been one of the architects of that governmental rarity, and we are all indebted to him for being there, and sticking with it so long—even through four years when the commissioners’ courtroom felt like it had again fallen prey to the divisions it had so long worked to overcome. It’s hard not to wonder, when someone has been in public office for as long as Ed has, what possessed him to do it and what he got out of it. “Why did I do it?” Ed said. “Julie and I...chose Canadian because of what all of the elected officials and everybody had done
FIELD NOTES...CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
THE CANADIAN RECORD
THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2015
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Mere man BILLY GRAHAM tells of the time he was at a crusade in Pittsburgh. He had just entered the hotel lobby where he was staying for the week and, with a couple of his teammates, walked into the elevator where a handful of businessmen were in conversation. As the elevator began to lift, one of the businessmen said, “I hear Billy Graham is in this hotel.” One of the others who recognized Dr. Graham smiled, looked at the one who had made the comment, pointed to Billy Graham, and said, “That’s he.” The startled businessman paused, looked again at Billy Graham, and said, “What an anticlimax!” Being the humble man that he is, Dr. Graham fully sympathized with the person’s disappointment and admitted that this was all there was to him. What was this man really expecting? Some haloed and winged figure who did not need an elevator and who would only be seen praying and rising on air? In our human imagination, we so often perceive our heroes to be something larger than life. We exalt them in ways that do them disservice. We make them to be almost plastic in our imaginations. And when they bleed or grow old or stumble (Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and he couldn’t be put back together), we either cast them aside or find some way to perpetuate the myth. To sustain this illusion in our minds, we build statues and erect monuments, and artists paint them with haloes (big business) to establish their surreal persona. We convince ourselves that they are—or were—something essentially different from the rest of us. On whom should our necessary attention be focused upon? John 1:29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, (behold) the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’” John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave away His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’
D. H. YOUNG Afterthought: “Mere man” means, nothing more, we came into this world naked and we go out the same way.
FIELD NOTES...CONTINUED before us to make it a great place to live.” “It didn’t just happen. It took the Jim Waterfields, the Ben Mathers, the George Arringtons, the Jim Pollards...if you want a nice place to live and to have nice things, then you need to get involved.” Ed has a little advice for young couples who come to Canadian, hoping to enjoy the accomplishments of generations before them. “If you’re going to stay here, and you want to bitch, you need to get involved. It didn’t just happen.” Bluntly put, and well-said. As for what he walks away with from his own experience as a public servant, the answer is simple. “It’s just been an honor to serve the people of Hemphill County...that they entrusted me to make the decisions that would affect everybody,” Ed concluded. “You stop and think...and well, that’s pretty humbling.” Just for the record, too, I asked Ed if there was anything he regretted not having accomplished while in office. If I’d thought for another second, I would have known the answer...one referenced more than once in court. “Well the one thing I’m really sorry I voted on was Birch Street, lowering the speed limit,” he said—a familiar grievance ever since Ed’s office relocated from Houston to just across the overpass on...you guessed it... Birch. “It’s too slow!” he said, laughing again—clearly a man who is either in a hurry to get to work, or just in a hurry to leave.
Political outsiders: a decline of compromise and democracy By Ben Antillon OVER TIME, this country’s frustration with politics has become more and more pronounced. Congress’ job approval rating remains near an all-time low at 15 percent, and the public’s disenchantment with Washington is nowhere more clear than campaigns for each party’s presidential nomination. In this environment, it is no surprise political outsiders are getting so much support. Otherwise, how does one explain the success of inexperienced candidates like Trump, Carson and Fiorina? To say that people are unhappy with government is an understatement. People are dissatisfied and no longer trust government. A simple Google search of the words “trust in government” returns more than 600 million results, mostly of articles describing its decline. At this point, one can only wonder how government ever worked. How did LBJ and Reagan get so much done with all the dysfunction in D.C.? The answer is simple. Even if people don’t like it. Even if people don’t want to believe it. During those eras, during most of the 20th century—heck, during most of this country’s history—politicians were willing to compromise. They were willing to work together. That’s what they were supposed to do, and that’s what they are supposed to be doing now. That is how democracy is intended to work. The Constitution is living proof of compromise, and this country’s very inception would not have been possible without it. During the Constitutional Convention, there was great disagreement between small and big states. Small states like New Jersey demanded that each state have equal representation in Congress, while big states like Virginia equated more people to greater representation. As a result, the delegates from two states, Virginia and New Jersey, threatened the hopes for a united nation. Fortunately, the delegates
reached the Great Compromise, creating two separate houses of government—a compromise that was inspired by Roger Sherman, a man from Connecticut. Once the Constitution had been written, a battle was won but the war wasn’t over. Before it could become the law of the land, approval from three-quarters of the states was needed, but the opposition was great. On one hand, there were the federalists who supported a strong centralized government. On the other, there were the anti-federalists who demanded state sovereignty. Both ideas were the embodiment of very different visions for the country. The future of the nation, however, was saved by the extraordinary intellects of Alexander Hamilton, who inspired the Federalist Papers, and James Madison, who drafted the Bill of Rights. It is no surprise the Constitution is sometimes described as a bundle of compromises. What a different world we live in today. It is clear Americans see Washington’s inability to govern as a problem. What is not so clear, however, is the solution to the problem. We think that the two-party system doesn’t work, and then we vote for the very people who won’t make it work. We end up supporting candidates who are unwilling to compromise and work together. Where else, besides politics, would someone support inexperienced candidates who don’t even like the job? Instead of finding a solution to fix the problem, our response has been to exacerbate the very thing we are trying to make better. Political outsiders are only too willing to take their own party hostage, along with the whole country, with no thought for the consequences. They claim to be protecting the Constitution, but in truth, their actions imperil democracy, the very thing the Constitution is here to protect.
MEMBER 2015
TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION
MEMBERSHIPS National Newspaper Association Texas Press Association West Texas Press Association Panhandle Press Association Society of Professional Journalists International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors OUR POLICY LETTERS TO THE EDITOR are always welcome, and will be published if they are signed and cannot be considered libelous. We will not publish anonymous letters under any circumstance. All letters must be accompanied by a phone number for verification purposes. Letters may be edited for length. Each letter should be received in our office no later than Wednesday noon for publication in that week’s newspaper. PLEASE DIRECT LETTERS TO: The Canadian Record P.O. Box 898, Canadian, TX 79014 (806)323-5738 (Fax), or editor@canadianrecord.com ALL E-MAILS ACKNOWLEDGED UPON RECEIPT
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THURSDAY 8 JANUARY 2015
NEWS PAGE
THE CANADIAN RECORD
Seeking new leads in cold case investigation
Oklahoma SBI releases key evidence in 1981 murder of Tracey Waterfield Neilson This Monday, on the 34th anniversary of the brutal stabbing death of Canadian native Tracey Waterfield Neilson, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations officials turned to the public for help. The Bureau is hanging its hopes on releasing information about a single piece of evidence—a cable trouble assignment ticket book which was left at the scene of Tracey’s murder—and on renewing public interest in and attention to the case. January 5, 1981, was Tracey’s 21st birthday. Married just five months to Jeff Neilson, a medical student at Oklahoma University, she was home alone at Jamestown Square Apartments in Moore, after running several errands that morning. After noon, several of her friends and family members tried calling to wish her a happy birthday. Tracey never answered. At 5 o’clock that evening, Jeff returned to their apartment and found her dead, stabbed several times in the neck and chest. In the 34 years following his grim discovery, dozens of OSBI investigators have followed up on hundreds of leads and amassed reams of information detailing their efforts to find the killer. One of the most promising pieces of evidence was a fingerprint found at the scene, but in the 1980s, matching latent prints was both time-consuming and difficult—particularly in the absence of a suspect print for comparison purposes. In 1994, Neilson and his family led a successful campaign persuading Oklahoma legislators to fund the state’s first Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). Though the new fingerprint technology has helped investigators solve hundreds of other violent crimes, to this day, no match has been found for the fingerprint they hoped would lead to Tracey’s killer. Another change in Oklahoma state law, enacted in 2011, may have led to Monday’s release of what investigators believe is a key piece of information in the 34-year-old murder. In a press briefing held Monday at the OSBI headquarters in Oklahoma City, bureau officials for the first time exhibited the ticket book found in the Neilson’s apartment, in the hope that some detail embedded in that document might spark someone’s memory and produce new leads to the identity of Tracey’s killer. The last completed ticket in the book is for work at the Neilson home—work that according to the ticket was completed at 11:51 on the morning Tracey was attacked and killed. In the bottom left corner of the book is a box for the employee’s name. It contains what appears to be three letters. OSBI Director Stan Florence said he hoped that release of that single detail might breathe new life into the investigation. “We
Cindy Young issued a plea to the public for help in the investigation of her sister’s murder Monday at OSBI headquarters in Oklahoma City, and PHOTO BY LAURIE EZZELL BROWN beseeched the killer to come forward, saying “It’s time for us to finally be set free from the agony of not knowing.” want help in identifying those three letters, identifying who that person was that wrote in that book,” he said during Monday’s news conference. “We think that anyone who did know somebody who worked in that field, especially in the Moore area in that time frame, they may look at those initials and be able to identify who that person was,” Florence said. The book contains no identifying company name, and investigators have failed, despite their efforts, to locate the company and its records. Cindy Young, who was accompanied at the conference by husband Craig and brother Rick, spoke poignantly during the press conference of the sister and best friend she had lost three and a half decades ago, and of how the lives of their parents—Jim and Sandy Waterfield—had been changed by the tragedy. The Neilsons had just visited Canadian during the Christmas holidays, Cindy remembered. “We never dreamed that when Tracey and Jeff drove away...it would be the last time we were going to see her alive,” she said. “My mom was busy when they left and didn’t get to go to the door to wave goodbye.
She regrets it so much.” Today, Cindy said, every time she or her brother drive off, their mother stands at the door. And just as she had done Monday morning, as Cindy and Craig headed for the press conference, she waves and prays for them until they are out of sight. “I didn’t realize how much I depended on [Tracey] until she was gone,” she said. “I still miss her and imagine how different life would be if she was still here.” Just a day earlier, Cindy said, her son had referred to his Aunt Tracey—someone he had never had the chance to know. “…It sounded so good,” she said, “but it broke my heart when I thought about it and realized she never got to hear those words.” Cindy appealed both to the public and to Tracey’s killer to help her family find peace and closure. “This day is extremely difficult for us,” she said, “because instead of celebrating Tracey’s birthday, which we should be doing, we are remembering her death.” “We have not only had to live the past 34 years missing her and her beautiful smile,” Cindy said, “but we’ve had to live with the fact that we may never know who took her life, and wonder every day why anyone would
do this.” Cindy credited the family’s faith in God with helping them continue following Tracey’s death, and drew on that same faith to speak directly to the killer. “I truly feel that whoever it is would feel a sense of relief to finally admit it to us,” she said. “We are Christians and we can forgive, so I’m begging you to please come forward.” “It’s time for you to do the right thing,” Cindy said, “and it’s time for us to finally be set free from the agony of not knowing.” Florence closed the press conference asking that anyone with information relevant to the case call the OSBI hotline at 1.800.522.8017. A reward of $11,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Tracey’s killer. EDITOR’S NOTE: Cindy Young, who remains in touch with OSBI investigators assigned to the case, told The Record Tuesday afternoon that the bureau has received numerous calls since Monday’s press conference, and that the information received from callers could “breathe new life” into the investigation.
THE CANADIAN RECORD
TRACEY WATERFIELD NEILSON Tracey Waterfield Neilson “was not only my sister,” Cindy Young said, “but also my best friend and my example.” Murdered by a stillunknown assailant just five months after her marriage to Jeff Neilson in January of 1981, Tracy will always be remembered in her hometown of Canadian as beautiful, smart and kind—a cheerleader, a talented athlete who played basketball and ran track, a much-loved daughter, sister and classmate who excelled in her studies and was the Salutatorian of her graduating class at Canadian High School.
In photo at right, an OSBI agent displays the cable trouble assignment ticket book discovered in evidence taken from the Neilson apartment following Tracey’s murder. In photo above, an enlarged image of the three initials investigators hope may provide new leads in the 34-year-old murder investigation. PHOTOS BY LAURIE EZZELL BROWN
NEWS PAGE
THURSDAY 8 JANUARY 2015
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THURSDAY 29 OCTOBER 2015
SPORTS PAGE
THE CANADIAN RECORD
Wildcats cement themselves as No. 1; The stage was set. People stood outside the stadium for lack of available seats to get a glimpse at the top10 2A showdown in the Panhandle. The undefeated No. 1 Wildcats were visiting the equally undefeated, and bitter rival, No. 8 Stratford. The unstoppable force versus the immovable object. Only Canadian had been here before— four weeks earlier versus No. 5 Albany. The outcomes were quite similar. Despite touting “the best offense in the Panhandle,” the anemic Elks could only muster six points to Air Canada’s 31. The Wildcats are now responsible for the last three losses on the Elks’ record, dating back to Oct. 24, 2014. “Hard work pays off,” said senior quarterback Tanner Schafer. “That’s pretty much it. We worked hard during the week, and we had film of them from last year which really helped me personally. I spent a lot of time watching what they did last year, focusing in on their defense and stuff like that. I think we all bought in to watching film. I think that’s a huge aspect of what we do, and it really paid off tonight.” Canadian scored the first 28 points of the game, starting with junior Cameron Copley. Schafer launched a perfectly placed bomb into Copley’s basket and No. 2 did the rest, turning on the jets and reaching the end zone
for a 50-yard touchdown. Copley would score again on a Schafer pass in the second quarter, taking a short pass for a first down and swatting away his lone defender to turn the dump-off into another touchdown. “[The receivers] run their routes hard,” said Schafer, “and Coach Koetting makes sure they focus on the really small things cause in the big picture, that’s what really matters. You can run as fast as you want, but it doesn’t really matter if you can’t stick and cut back and everything. They put a lot of emphasis on that and it really pays off. Our receivers run routes like no other.” Copley led the team in yards receiving, amounting 134, his second-highest total of the season, on eight touches. Schafer threw for 234 yards, going 20 of 27 with three touchdowns. Between Copley’s two catches, Schafer would exhibit his own athleticism, dodging an oncoming defensive lineman and rolling out of the pocket to find Sawyer Cook 30 yards downfield who, with a leaping catch, fell backwards and across the goal line. Canadian, along with their pass attack would take some notes from the Stratford offensive playbook, utilizing 13 snaps, eight of them running plays, to move the ball on a 78 yard drive. Punching it in was junior middle linebacker Holton Hufstedler, who powered his way in from two yards out for his first
touchdown of the season, and putting the Cats up 28-0 before the half. “[Hufstedler] used to play running back in junior high,” said Head Coach Chris Koetting. “He can run with the ball and he’s a great blocker. He’s hard to bring down just running straight ahead. It worked pretty good.” A brief hiccup of the night for the Air Canada offense came on a miscued snap exchange that led to an Elk fumble recovery at the 14-yard line. Stratford would score three plays later, but it would be all that an offense averaging 49 points could muster the entire night. The Blackade defense would allow Stratford, a team averaging 429 yards a game coming into the match, a meager 207. The Elks also averaged a 70-completion percentage but only managed 33 versus a suffocating secondary. All season lows for Stratford. “All the credit goes to our kids who are out there on the field fighting,” said Defensive Coordinator Andy Cavalier. “Against Stratford, defending their style of offense is kind of a grudge match out there, or in the trenches as we like to say. Trying to win the battle at the line of scrimmage. It’s a slow bleed that they try to do to you. Just keep the clock running and try to gain 3 or 4 yards here and there. I just feel like our kids did a great job of stepping up and being physical and dominating their offensive front.” Penalties continue to plague the Cats as several scores were negated by holds. The nine penalties for 80 yards are a source of concern for Wildcat fans and the 67 yards
per game thus far feel rather high for such a successful team, but the coaching staff attributes many of those penalties to “effort plays” and physicality of the Canadian blockers. The only points yielded to Canadian the entire second half were three by kicker Benigno Heredia, who booted a 33-yarder alongside his four perfect PATs. Still, with every extra snap, the Wildcat offense moved closer to victory. With drives of 13, 11, and eight plays, the last one ending the game, instead of giving the Elks the time to attempt a comeback, the Wildcats slowly strangled a team otherwise desperate for fast points. “Our goal was not to push the pace quite as much,” said Koetting. “Our goal was to run the ball right down their throat. Run some clock down and go get the win. We did what we needed to do.” The defense continued to be stifling as Cooper Trollinger, Cory Chidester, S. Cook, Cade Throgmorton, and Hufstedler all accounted for four or more tackles for loss. Hufstedler doubled his sack total for the year, adding two more quarterback takedowns, while Trolinger and Mario Flores each got a sack of their own. “Our success comes from Coach Cav,” said Flores. “[He] makes sure we know their plays better than they do. Shout out to him. He does a great job of teaching us.” The Wildcats have clinched a playoff spot with the win, and only one more victory stands in the way of another district championship.
The Wildcat Blackade defense, led by senior defensive end Cory Chidester, smothered the Elk offense holding a team averaging 311 yards rushing a game to only 151.
PHOTOS BY PEYTON AUFILL
THE CANADIAN RECORD
SPORTS PAGE
THURSDAY 29 OCTOBER 2015
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Panhandle plans to protect home turf Cats look to avoid 6-2 trap team With the win against Stratford, the Wildcats have guaranteed themselves a spot in the playoffs. It also appears that little stands in the way of a second undefeated regular season as only Panhandle (6-2) and Boys Ranch (2-6) remain. “You don’t get to be 6-2 and be bad,” warned Koetting. “They have some really talented receivers that have made some big plays. They threw for 300 yards on Stratford [and] they like to throw it downfield. So we’re gonna have to do a good job.” Panhandle is winning games an average of 30-22 , a tight score that doesn’t bode well when the Panthers face the Wildcats, who are beating their opponents on average, 46-6. Only Bushland and Childress have scored more than once on a Blackade defense that has pitched three shutouts on the year. Canadian is also averaging 486 offensive yards a game, while simultaneously only relinquishing 181 to their opponent. “[We] just keep trying to get better every day,” said Cavalier. “Our kids, and we as a program, have completely bought into, just try not and worry about who we’re playing. Talking about a faceless opponent. Just playing to try and be better than we were the previous week. Practice to get better and play to get better, no matter who the opponent is. If you do that and just try and win each game, focus on that game, then the opportunity for let-downs won’t creep in. Running back Chance Cook has now surpassed 1,000 yards rushing on the year and receiver Cameron Copley has reached double digits in receiving touchdowns. Quarteback Tanner Schafer now has 20 touchdowns on the season and should eclipse the 2,000-yard mark versus Panhandle this week. Canadian will travel to Panhandle, Friday at 7 pm to take on the Panthers. You can follow us on Twitter @CrecordSports or Facebook for live updates of the game directly from the sideline.
Senior Sawyer Cook dances around a defender early on in Canadian’s game versus Stratford. Cook was pivotal in the victory tallying three catches for 44 yards and a touchdown, as well as five tackles for loss. Cook has now scored six touchdowns on the year and 20 tackles for loss.
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THURSDAY 11 JUNE 2015
COMMUNITY PAGE
THE CANADIAN RECORD
APRIL SHOWERS may bring May flowers, but after May
2015, the wettest month ever in Texas (and U.S.) history, May did pretty darn well for itself. And, in the midst and aftermath of all that moisture, we have observed a veritable shower of wildflowers in the Panhandle. There are some we don’t remember seeing in quite some time—and certainly not in such abundance. One thing I have noticed is that the plants that are drought resistant are not as plentiful, or maybe they just don’t show up as much when the vegetation is lush. We did have cooler weather this spring, which could have made a difference. Scurfy pea (or wild alfalfa) falls into this category. It blooms in the dry times where you think it couldn’t—and in poor soil. The first star of the season was the yucca. There were forests of it in the pastures that weren’t grazed. Livestock and deer love those blooms. They’ve dried now and the last week the Indian blanket (or gaillardia) and sunflowers have been a riot of primary colors in pastures and rights of way. The blue spiderwort is sometimes hard to spot because the color value is so close to the green foliage, but this year, there is so much, you can’t miss it. The purple coneflower is one of my favorites. I’ve seen copper globemallow. The butterfly weed is a showy orange and is a member of the important milkweed family, like the white antelope-horns. They attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. The prairie larkspur’s beauty is subtle. It is a taller plant you can miss if you’re flying by at 75 miles per hour. Then you have the ground-hugging wine cups, also known as cowboy roses. What a great name for a wildflower. I’m looking forward to the beautiful gayfeather, which will come closer to late July and August. There are many ways to describe the color. I’ve found it as violet-lavender, rosy purple or rose-lavender. So far, we haven’t seen any wild blue indigo. They make you think of bluebonnets. They are both in the legume family, but you’ll never view stands of indigo like you do the state flower—at least in our area. A wildflower conveniently appeared in one of our planters years ago, probably courtesy of some bird. We have loved this periwinkle perennial ever since. It’s called blueeyed grass and it’s not a grass, but a member of the Iris family. Contrary to the literature, I’ve found it hard to divide. I’ve also tried transplanting blue-eyed grass from nearby pastures where we’d spotted stands, to no avail. I then bought some seed from Native American Seed of Junction and planted them indoors, even stratifying them as was suggested. My experiment was a colossal failure, so I dumped the soil and the remaining seed outside in my planter and, sure enough, they germinated the next year. You have to be careful about wildflowers in your garden. The blue-eyed grass can spread all it wants to, but if you plant wine cups, be prepared for its take-over tendencies. One time my in-laws dug up some plants from the pasture for their garden in Albuquerque and those wine cups went crazy in a domestic setting. Dandelions are wildflowers, but we get a little testy about them when they invade our lawns. Our favorite wildflower book is Wildflowers of Texas by Geyata Ajilvsgi, which separates them by color: white, yellow, red and blue. Another go-to book that focuses on our area came from NRCS, RC&D and GLCI (Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative), Common Rangeland Plants of the Texas Panhandle. It’s divided into three sections: Grasses, Forbs and Woodys. Through it, we solved a mystery of a plant we’d seen while driving a caliche road. It was a pretty, wispy-looking plant, sort of out of place, attached to a rocky slope that looked like it couldn’t grow anything. Turned out it was in the Woody section of that book—a feather dalea. Part of the legume family, this shrub is “adapted to dry rocky soils on hills and sandy soil.” The bicolored pea flowers were described as “purple, yellow and fuzzy all at once.” This is the year for discovering and documenting the wildflowers as we may never see another season like it. Last weekend, we observed a jillion baby grasshoppers going after our hollyhocks, so enjoy all this flora while you can. —PHOTOS: (TOP) BLUE-EYED GRASS BY CATHY RICKETTS (MIDDLE AND BOTTOM) FEATHER DALEA, ITS HABITAT AND CLOSE-UP VIEW FROM ‘COMMON RANGELAND PLANTS OF THE TEXAS PANHANDLE’
THE CANADIAN RECORD
COMMUNITY PAGE
By Director Lloydelle Lester and Roger Lester
Darci Sloan and Austin Johnson to marry in October Kent and Bonita Sloan of Shattuck, Oklahoma, announce the engagement and approaching marriage of their daughter, Darci Renee Sloan, to Austin Driskill Johnson, both of Cedar Park. He is the son of Steve and Lisa Johnson of Canadian. The bride-elect earned an Associate of Science degree in pastry arts from Platte College and a Bachelor of Science degree in early education from the University of Cen-
New Arrival New arrival in town: A daughter, Fynlee Joan Adcock, born May 13, 2015, to Josh and Jamie Adcock of Canadian, weighing 6 lbs, 14 oz and 17-1/4” long. She is welcomed by big sisters, Chanlee, 9, and Mylee, 7. Proud grandparents are Tammie and Pete Morehead of Canadian, Donita and Dennis Gardner of Woodward, Oklahoma, and Rod and Michelle Adcock of Canadian. Greatgrandparents are Kathy and Ron Snowden of Arnett, Oklahoma; Charlene Adcock of Canadian and the late Junior Adcock; Dorothea and Erbin Crowell of Canadian and the late Glenn Morehead; and Patricia Mackey of Katy.
tral Oklahoma. She is a pre-K teacher at Manor ISD. The groom-elect graduated from Mississippi State University with Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in exercise physiology. He is a fitness service manager for Gold’s Gym Cedar Park. The couple will exchange vows on Oct. 24, 2015, in Canadian.
Our visiting artist for the summer is Hadley Smith of Cheyenne. Hadley brings some of her latest works of art in several different forms. We even have photography. The first time I visited Tractor Supply in Cheyenne and saw Hadley’s paintings on the walls, I knew we had to have a display in the Metcalfe Art Gallery. One very large sunflower really caught my eye. We are displaying that flower, along with others. Hadley’s display will run through Aug. 29. Our beautiful basket display by Lois Jantz of Woodward will remain in our gallery until the end of August also. These two exhibits go quite well together. Several of the baskets are for sale and are very reasonably priced for such fine work. Augusta’s exhibit, “Augusta’s Surprise,” will display until the end of our fall season, the reason being, there are so many new and different works that we
THURSDAY 11 JUNE 2015
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want to get out to the public. When we have visitors who are familiar with her art, they always identify with her oils. This display shows all the different mediums that Augusta worked with. We have oil, pen and ink, watercolor, ink-wash, mixed media, crayon, charcoal and pencil drawing. I tell our visitors, Augusta did not have an instructor so she was able to experiment with any method she chose. However, without extreme patience, I am sure there were many sheets of paper and use of paint, etc., until she was pleased with what she had done. We are working on our Summer Youth Art Camp. Classes for ages 9 through 11 are filled and I will know by this afternoon if the classes for ages 12 through 14 are complete. If you have a student and you are not sure of their position, call 1.580.655.4467. I have made several calls to parents where I have had to leave a message, but have not had a return call. I am assuming they are not attending. INFORMATION
Break O’Day Farm, Metcalfe Museum and Art Gallery are open March 1 until Nov. 28. Our hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. Visit our website at www.metcalfemuseum.org; email Metcalfe@dobsonteleco.com; or call 580.655.4467