G u a d a l u p e C o u n t y l i v i n g
September 2020
The Story of Wilson Pottery
How a freedman changed his life and the history of Guadalupe County
Disc Golf at Starcke Local Maria Williams shares her love for the frisbee-inspired sport
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in this issue SEPTEMBER 2020
10 14
FEATURES 10 STARCKE PARK DISC GOLF
Maria Williams discusses her disc golf discovery and the welcoming community
14 A HISTORY OF FLOYD MCKEE
The Gazette’s very own Floyd McKee gives us a peek at his story
18 ITALIAN LEATHER DESIGNS
Travel inspiration leads Julie Simmons to design classy leather goods
22 THE LEGACY OF WILSON POTTERY
Exploring the origins and ongoing impact of Wilson & Company Pottery
ON THE SCENE 26 A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST WITH DOTTSY
18
Talking with Dottsy on her beginnings in country music, tough choices, and ongoing voice
CULINARY CREATIONS 30 HOME FRIED FUNNEL CAKE
Bring the fair to you with a delicious and simple-tomake treat
AROUND TOWN 32 FAVORITE FINDS
Unique items from local small businesses
34 FACES OF SEGUIN
4
Submitted photos from our readers
SEGUIN ~ GUADALUPE COUNTY LIVING
on the cover Photo by Lizz Daniels
Dottsy plays her Larrivée acoustic guitar on the front porch of her home in Seguin. Dottsy still plays frequently, and enjoys sharing her love for music with her grandchildren.
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G u a d a l u p e C o u n t y l i v i n g
Vol. 7, No. 4 Seguin magazine is published twelve times a year by the Seguin Gazette. Publisher
Elizabeth Engelhardt Editor
Desiree Gerland
PHOTO Editor
Graphic Designer
Lizz Daniels
Bethy Male Writers
Dalondo Moultrie Katy O’Bryan
Felicia Frazar Lizz Daniels
Joe Martin Michael Pape
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SEARCH SEGUIN GAZETTE All material herein c. 2020 Southern Newspapers Inc., dba The Seguin Gazette, 1012 Schriewer Road, Seguin, TX, 78155. All rights reserved
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SEGUIN ~ GUADALUPE COUNTY LIVING
An INSIDE look from our
WRITERS
How interesting it was to deep dive into such a popular sport hiding under our noses in the midst of a grove of pecan trees, right here in Seguin. Disc golfer Maria Williams inspired me to try myself, and I can see what she talked about — it’s addicting! – Katy O’Bryan Julie Simmons is tenacious. Without any skills or formal training under her belt, Simmons had the idea to design and create a hand-stitched leather purse that would last. She taught herself — with the help of friends she met along the way — how to create a blueprint for purses and wallets, she found a factory that fit her style and she created a new business with the goal of giving back to her community in the future. – Felicia Frazar Some people don’t like to be interviewed. That’s just who they are, even if they have dozens of interesting stories to tell. Even though he tells interesting stories every week in a news column, Floyd McKee is one of those people. So, sitting down with him and his wife and hearing the stories about the man himself was a joy. They welcomed me into their home, were gracious with their time and plied me with terrific tales about the man who crafts true-life tales about the early days of Seguin every week in The Seguin Gazette. – Dalando Moultrie I was pretty much raised on classic country music. On Saturdays we would watch Hee Haw, and the Grand Ole Oprey still plays on my parents televisions late at night. Dottsy was big when my parents were in their twenty’s. In fact, my dad used to go see her perform in Poteet at the Kicker’s Palace back before he met my mom. When he told me this after I interviewed her, I really wished I had talked to him beforehand, so that I could explore that aspect of the story more, purely for my own entertainment. Writing about Dottsy made me feel connected to my parents in an unexpected way. Honestly, I’m really glad I had the opportunity to share a few laughs with Dottsy while hearing her story. I also feel very honored that Dottsy played for me in her home - I could be wrong, but I think that counts as a private concert, which is way cooler than seeing her at Kicker’s like my dad did. – Lizz Daniels
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7
FROM THE
Editor
W
e’re still hangin’ in here! School, work, and all of their complications are weighing, there’s some sweat on our brow, but we’re still kickin’. Fortunately, the final days of summer approach, so we have one or two days of cool air to look forward to soon! We’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief as our electric bills drop. As the heat keeps trying to wear us down, there have been a lot of reminders to keep calm and carry on. Listen to those positive affirmations, they never hurt! Let this month’s issue inspire you to keep your heads up and your eyes forward with some of our own small town history greats, and those motivated to do something new. Floyd McKee breaks from his column with the Gazette to give us a look into his own history. The Wilson Pottery Foundation discusses the impact of Hiram Wilson’s struggles, successes, and how they serve to inspire future generations. Get a taste of the past and present with Dottsy, who keeps her voice strong after an early career in country music. Julie Simmons builds a foundation for herself with inspiration from her travels. Get hooked on disc golf with Maria Williams as she talks the thrills of disc tossing, and the greatness of the community around it. I hope you find some inspiration in the past, those that bettered their future, and those in this fine city that continue to do so. Grab a pair of sunglasses... The future is bright, Seguin!
Desiree Gerland
Desiree Gerland, Editor
8
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FLICKING THE WRIST AT
starcke park Disc Golf - a welcoming life sport STORY BY KATY O’BRYAN PHOTOS BY FELICIA FRAZAR
O
n a hot summer’s day, where the 100-degree temperatures keep many inside or searching for a place to cool down, golfers spread out at Starcke Park East under the canopy of pecan trees, armed with discs ready to take on the 18-basket challenge that lies ahead. The Max Starcke Park Disc Golf Course plays host to hundreds of golfers throwing discs in the breezy tree-laden park. Among them is golfer Maria Williams, who is a frequent competitor at the course. “It’s a very welcoming community,” Williams said. “We are very fortunate in this area to have a lot of professional disc golf players.” Many disc golfers learn the game from others. Williams admitted she was not interested until a friend taught her the sport, fanning the flames to a future passion for the game. “A buddy of mine happened to play ultimate frisbee — a lot of players transfer over from that sport — so in the beginning he taught me the game at first,” she said. “It’s always one of those things you feel you’re right on the cusp of getting just right. A lot of people that play disc golf will agree with me that it’s very addictive.” The Professional Disc Golf Association has almost 150,000 members and according to its website more than 11,000 registered players are from Texas. Disc golf is played similarly to golf, in that each hole starts from a tee box, has a par score, and players can switch up which disc they use during play, much like a golf club.
Williams said she knows players with a stockpile of up to 600 discs at home, but competitors are only allowed to use 20 during a round. Between Maria and wife Deloris Williams they share about 200 discs, and play together when their schedules allow. “Sometimes I have to drag her out of the house to play, but then she beats me,” Williams said. “We’re both competitive by nature and it’s something we bond over.”
“It’s really a family, this community.” Playing at the professionally designed Starke presents a few unique challenges. The many trees and picturesque river that flows alongside the course have sour reputations of claiming a stray disc. If a disc gets hung up in a tree or takes a dive into the river, it’s tough luck finding it, and oftentimes even more difficult getting it back. Williams writes her name and phone number on the inside of the discs should one ever go astray. “We crawled in a creek bed once and found about 30 discs,” Williams said. She even pointed out a few discs up in the trees that a park visitor might not have known were there unless you were looking for them. 12 SEGUIN ~ GUADALUPE COUNTY LIVING
Golfers who frequent the course and are part of the league come from all walks of life, Williams said. She owns media company, Williams Printing and Graphics, but says there is a variety of players at Starcke from families to professionals practicing solo. “It’s very vast … We have medical doctors to gas station cashiers. It’s so diverse because it’s so relaxing for someone who isn’t really competing,” she said. “It’s really a family, this community. There was just a gentleman in the community who was in a bad accident and had to have an arm amputated, so players were auctioning off some of their discs to help raise money for his medical bills. It’s a really good community.” Williams works on special projects related to disc golf to “grow the sport,” a message the Professional Disk Golfers Association instills into its players. Before the pandemic closed schools in the spring, her group All Ladies of Texas, set to make an appearance at several local schools
to teach disc golf in physical education classes, as it’s recognized as a life sport. The group also has been approached for other special projects, including one from the Special Olympics, she said. Over the summer, driving past the park would show dozens of players at any time of the day out tossing discs. The pandemic has only created an influx of players, Williams said. “People can stay away from others. That’s why we’ve been able to have tournaments,” she said. “There are other people who will tell you that this saved their life.” Disc golf has been around since the ’60s and continues to grow in popularity. Williams encourages those who think they want to try it out to just go for it, as jumping into it was how she found a sport that grew into a passion. Take a family member or friend, and enjoy a breezy afternoon throwing discs toward the basket, she said, because you might find love for a new sport, too.
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seguin with F loyd Mckee STORY AND PHOTOS BY DALONDO MOULTRIE
I
t might be easy to think you and your history are no big deal when you’ve grown up around people who have streets named after them and members of your own family founded the town you call home. So getting history buff and published author Floyd McKee to open up about his life and accomplishments isn’t easy. He continually stresses that he and the things he’s seen are no big deal. “Growing up, a lot of my relatives were here in Seguin or helped establish Seguin,” McKee said. “A lot of my friends’ parents and folks talked.” That talk struck up an affinity for history. He heard so many stories that reliving the past became a pastime for the Seguin native.
Above – McKee shows off winning game ball from a high school football game more than half a century ago. Top right – McKee, a descendant of the original Texas Rangers who helped found Seguin, stands in front of a mural painted to commemorate the Rangers in town. Eight of the original 33 Texas Rangers that organized Walnut Springs and Seguin are his ancestors. Even more members of his family settled in the area around 1840, solidifying his close ancestral ties to the city and the area. “Five of my ancestors were at (the battle of) San Jacinto (in 1836) and two distant … relatives died in the Alamo,” McKee recalled. “James H. Callahan, my uncle, was a survivor of the Goliad Massacre. “While growing up, I never associated the names of streets and buildings with some of my ancestors, and the names of people I knew and grew up with had streets named after their ancestors.” He has spent much of his life in Seguin. Like many young folks his age, he participated in high school sports and played fullback for the Seguin Matadors as a teen. McKee’s wife, Jody, recently came across a memento from her husband’s days of glory on the gridiron and had to have it for him. She was at the Timmermann sisters’ estate sale when she came across an old game ball from the Mats’ 1953 victory over fierce foe New Braunfels High School. Floyd’s signature on the side of the ball brings back fond memories. “I remember each touchdown the 16 SEGUIN ~ GUADALUPE COUNTY LIVING
Jody McKee shows off a photo inside the Seguin home she and husband Floyd share. The photo is an image of the first Texas Ranger station constructed in Seguin. crowd was going wild because we were ahead of New Braunfels,” he said. “At that time, they were our arch rival.” He moved away after high school to attend college at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos — now known at Texas State University — where he majored in history and earned a bachelor’s degree in education. After receiving the bachelor’s, flying jets seemed like a good job choice, Floyd said, so he joined the United States Air Force and got his pilot training at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia, training on F-100 fighter jets, the first fighters to fly at supersonic speeds in level flight.
“I could never get it to fly that fast,” Floyd admitted. During his time in the Air Force, he saw combat during the Vietnam War, for which he received the Bronze Star Medal. After leaving Vietnam, he was stationed at Headquarters European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, where his boss was Gen. George Patton II, son of World War II’s Gen. George Patton. There the younger Patton ordered Floyd to write a 25-minute speech for famed Gen. Alexander Haig to deliver at the Stuttgart German Chamber of Commerce, Floyd said.
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“Unfortunately, he liked the speech and over the next year, I had to write seven more speeches,” the Seguinite said. “Very long year.” Eventually he retired as a colonel and had been away from Seguin nearly 30 years before making it back home. Around 1991, his adult son convinced him to talk to the nice lady Floyd had known about a year. They went out and hit it off. And when he says they hit it off, he means they really hit off. “We had a date on Sunday and got married on Thursday,” Jody said of the whirlwind romance. The McKees, 29 years later, still don’t think the brief engagement was rash at all. They felt completely at ease with each other and obviously made the right decision. “They had a rule you had to wait three days but the judge in New Braunfels looked at us and said, ‘You look like you’ll be fine,” Jody said. “He waived the rule.” And the rest is history. Not long ago, Floyd was at a meeting telling people about some of the history he offhandedly knew about Seguin. The publisher of the Seguin Gazette was at the same meeting, overheard Floyd’s story and thought it could make an interesting guest column in the paper. Readers ate up the story and were clamoring for more, which prompted former Seguin Gazette Publisher Jeff Fowler to ask Floyd for another and then another. Eventually, Fowler went to Floyd and just said he would write a weekly column and, again, the rest is history. Since then, Floyd McKee’s “Snapshots of Seguin History” column has appeared, for the most part, each Sunday in the newspaper. “I got tricked into doing that,” Floyd said. “I said ‘I’ll do it for a while.’ Gosh, that’s five years (ago) now.” He has turned the historical columns into a book and continues to write more columns for the paper. After all, history is his thing.
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LEATHER
DESIGNS FROM
ITALY
J
STORY AND PHOTOS BY FELICIA FRAZAR
ulie Simmons admits she doesn’t have formal training in the fashion world, but her leather creations would suggest otherwise. Simmons, who moved to Seguin about two years ago with her family, has crafted a new line of hand-stitched Italian leather purses, under the name of Odonate Alexander. From large totes to classic clutches and wallets for men and women, Simmons wanted to give people lasting accessories that can carry more than a few items. “I like fashion, and I like handbags, but my whole inspiration was I wanted a product that would endure and last,” she said. “I want all of them to be a symbol of keeping something and not throwing things away, just like we should do with life with relationships and friendships, our stories and our heritage and histories.” Starting wasn’t easy, but Simmons powered through learning how to sketch her ideas then transfer them to a digital blueprint. The one thing she knew from the start was where she wanted her designs to become a reality. “I knew that I wanted to have these bags made in Italy,” she said. “About eight or 10 years ago, we were in Italy and, after dinner, we were walking along the cobblestones, and there was an older man in a window with dim lighting — it was almost postcard-looking
— and he was there hand-carving a violin. That’s what they’re all about; they do it all by hand, and I knew that’s how I wanted my bags done.” Simmons took a trip to Florence and began scouring the country for a factory that would best suit her product — then she found it –– a small, family-owned business. “I looked in it, and it is kind of small, and there were a handful of people in there sitting at workbenches hand-cutting leather, and I just said, ‘this is the one,’” she said. “Every little thing is done by hand there. The detail is incredible. They hand-roll all of the edges; they hand paint all of the edges after the bags are done.”
“Every hand stitch, every zipper, every button you pick out, it’s all like building a house.” An element that drew Simmons to the factory is their use of locally harvested leather that is naturally tanned. “The leather is vegetable tanned, instead of using the really harsh products that are used in traditional leather tanning,” she said. “This is made from plants and tree bark, so it is tanned and dyed with natural colors. All of the leather comes from Tuscany and is a byproduct of food from family farms.” With help from new friends and the 20 SEGUIN ~ GUADALUPE COUNTY LIVING
factory workers, Simmons was able to bring her designs to life. “The project is quality,” she said. “I’m very proud of it. Every hand stitch, every zipper, every button you pick out, it’s all like building a house.” Once the purses and wallets were complete, Simmons came up with another design question — how would she present and package her goods. She hired a box engineer to come up with a stylish box with her signature color decorated with her logo. “I had it in my head I want the presentation to be great and that when someone buys one, I want them to feel like ‘WOW’ with good packaging,” she said. Simmons may not have grown up in Guadalupe County, but her family connections tie her to New Berlin, where her great grandparents immigrated to from Europe. It was her ancestral history that gave her the inspiration for her brand, Odonate Alexander. Odonate is a derivative for the Odonata species, which encompasses an order of flying insects that include dragonflies. When her great grandmother immigrated to the U.S., she brought with her only a few items —her clothing, a pair of ice skates and an heirloom brooch given to her by her mother that depicted a dragonfly with outstretched wings. “My dad’s whole side of the family is from here,” she said. “When my grandmother died, my grandfather gave me a dragonfly brooch. She had so much tenacity, much like the dragonfly.” Alexander is her son’s middle name. In keeping with the tradition of honoring loved ones, Simmons’ line of products is named after family members and close friends. “Once I got the idea, I just ran with it,” she said. “I want people to carry these until they get tired of it and put it down, not because it got ruined.” Simmons has already started to design her Spring 2021 collection, will soon take a trip to Italy to deliver the new designs and get stitching.
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Sculpting a Future
The Legacy of Wilson & Company STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOE MARTIN
M
ore than 150 years ago, Guadalupe County was home to the first documented African American-owned business in Texas — H. Wilson & Company. Owned by freedman Hiram Wilson, the lucrative pottery business was host to various innovations, quality, and now renowned history that has made Wilson Pottery a coveted brand sought after to this day by collectors and museums alike. The origins of H. Wilson & Company began when Presbyterian minister John McKernie Wilson moved to the area from Missouri with his family of nearly a dozen children, and 19 slaves. According to the Sebastopol House historic guide Robert Gray, Wilson’s 1856 move was motivated by a quest for clay.
“When John McKemie Wilson came out here — there’s a problem with the area of Seguin making pots, and that is because there’s a lot of lime around here,” Gray said. “You get lime into clay, it explodes. It’s calcite and calcite in clay makes it blow up. So they had to find a place where there was clay, and they found a place out in Capote Hills.” Although McKemie didn’t know much about sculpting clay and all it entailed, he opened the doors of Guadalupe Pottery in 1857. “He had 11 kids to raise, which is quite a lot,” Gray said. “And he was going to be a circuit rider and a circuit preacher, which is a lot for him to do. But he still wanted to have a pottery business because it was traditional in those days because most ministers couldn’t rub together a couple of nickels, so they always had a separate business.”
To compensate for his lack of business know-how, McKemie arranged for his slaves to learn the art of pottery making. Among those who learned how to mold the clay was 19-year-old Hiram. For a dozen years, throughout the American Civil War, Guadalupe Pottery prospered until McKemie was
“...her reasons to open the Wilson Pottery Foundation was to spread the history and to give motivation to people...”
called back to the East Coast by his church in 1869. He sold his business and moved back east. Freed after the end of the Civil War, Hiram purchased a piece of property not far from the former Guadalupe Pottery site. With the assistance of Baptist minister Leonard Isley, Wilson transformed the land into H. Wilson & Company’s home. “Reverend helped a lot of Black free people here,” Gray said. “He helped set up a lot of churches down here, but he helped Hiram – with the money Hiram had saved … purchase the business.” Under Hiram’s guidance and the employment of James Wilson, Wallace Wilson, Andrew Wilson and George Wilson, all slaves owned by McKemie who worked at Guadalupe Pottery, H. Wilson & Company would go on to make big waves in the Texas pottery world. “He (Hiram) would become the first ex-slave in Texas to own a business,” Gray said. “He did really
good, and he not only took over the company, he actually changed a lot of the ways the pottery was made.” Hiram’s innovations included the use of salt glaze instead of alkaline glaze, a redesign of vessel handles into the shape of a horseshoe and fitted lids. Hiram stamped the company’s name on about 15% of the pots manufactured by H. Wilson & Company as well as imprinting the size of the vessels for easier use. H. Wilson & Company remained lucrative until Hiram’s death in 1884. However, during his time in business, Hiram used his wealth to do more than make pots. He shared his wealth with his fellow freedmen, said Jan Britt Dixson, Wilson Pottery Foundation president and descendant of Hiram Wilson. “He was a Baptist minister, so he opened up a church in Capote, Texas, and he opened a school there,” Dixson said. “He acquired quite a bit of land, and he would sell it to our (Wilson) family members, so it sort of became
like a post-freedman’s little town full of Wilsons. He’s actually buried at Capote Church on that site in the cemetery.” Hiram learned mathematical skills as well as how to read and write, while under McKemie’s bondage. His pursuit of knowledge never stopped. “He was extremely bright,” Dixson said. “He also had a lot of influence and helped assist with the opening of the Guadalupe College as well. He was educated at Bishop College in Marshall and the founder of Guadalupe County Baptist Church.” After Hiram’s passing, James and Wallace joined the third iteration of Wilson Pottery owned by Marion Durham and freedman Thomas Chandler until the business was lost to a fire. “James, his family, worked very closely with our family – the Hiram family,” Dixson said. “So he did a lot. We don’t know a whole lot about them. We just know that James was brought over as a slave with Hiram, and so Hiram opened up his business, and James worked along with him. That’s why it’s called Wilson & Company. He was part of the company, and so was Wallace.” The story of Hiram and his fellow Wilsons’ triumph led Dixson’s mother, Laverne Britt, to open the Wilson Pottery Foundation in 1999 after discovering a unique link in her lineage. “My mother is actually the great-granddaughter of Hiram,” Dixson said. “And her reasons to open the Wilson Pottery Foundation was to spread the history and to give motivation to people because we think it’s a great story. But also the Wilson Pottery Foundation — we are in need of benefactors to help us purchase some of these pieces.” So far the foundation and Wilson descendants have managed to accumulate a handful of their ancestral pottery pieces, but are always searching for more through donations. Preservation and accumulation of the pottery aside, Dixson said the story of Hiram and his accomplishments is a tale of perseverance that should be celebrated.
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OntheSCENE S t o ry a n d P h o t o s by L i zz Da ni e l s
Dottsy Stardom Her story of
D
ottsy had 13 cuts on the Hot Country Songs Billboard charts when RCA Records dropped her from the label. Having been signed seven years prior, she rose to stardom almost overnight.
She played the Opry, recorded a duet with Waylon Jennings and opened for Willie Nelson. The small-town girl from Seguin was living the dream. Then it all vanished. At only 10 years old, Dottsy Brodt performed in front of a thousand people for the first time. On stage with her was her friend, Clark Grein, and together the duo felt the mixture of excitement, nerves and adrenaline wash over them as the crowd cheered, and they played. Dottsy and Grein continued to make music together until he went away to college, leaving her to finish high school. She graduated a Seguin Matador, and headed off to the University of Texas planning
to become a special-education teacher. It was the summer before her last semester of school when a trip to Nashville dramatically altered her future trajectory. “Happy Shahan owned Alamo Village in Bracketville, where I worked the summer of '73,” she said. “He took me to Nashville the next summer and helped me make my first recording.” For three days, Dottsy worked to build the tracks. She picked songs, and worked in the studio playing guitar while singing her heart out. Once they had the recording in hand, Dottsy and Shahan went to the labels. “First, we went to MCA Records,” she said. “They weren’t interested, but at RCA, Roy Day put my tape on the reel-to-reel and played the whole thing. The entire time he kept smiling and looking at me.” When the demo tape finished, Day turned the player off and spun around his chair to fully face the hopeful 23-year-old. “He said, ‘yeah, we’ll do that. I’ll get the paperwork ready,’” Dottsy recalled. “After that, I went home and back to UT to start my teaching observations. It wasn’t until that October when I finally signed the contract.”
Back then, the only time you made money was being on the road, so we got the van and pulled a trailer behind.
T
hen things got complicated. In the middle of the semester, RCA called and told Dottsy she had to go on a six-week promotion trip for her record –– in less than a week. Dottsy was all set to start student teaching when the call came. She faced a tough choice –– be practical and finish her teaching degree or leave school, just shy of graduation, to chase the opportunity of a lifetime. She left and never went back. For the next seven years, Dottsy cut records, traveled across the country performing for crowds, and found massive fame in England.
Playing her music in 2020 is like traveling back in time to the birth of the country genre. It takes you to a different time when the Grand Ole Opry was on the radio, but the best musicians played in local honkytonks while couples swept their way around wooden dance floors two-stepping the night away. Dottsy’s first album released in March 1975. She was an overnight sensation, but when RCA unexpectedly dropped her along with 10 other artists, including Charlie Pride, the singer moved forward with other parts of her life. She got married on the front steps of the home where she and her husband now live. “We were still traveling on the road in a big 17-passenger van that we took the back seats out of and built bunks in,” she said. “Back then, you didn’t earn
anything off the records unless you wrote or published them. The only time you made money was being on the road, so we got the van and pulled a trailer behind.” Her 20s were a crazy time in Dottsy’s life. They put 350,000 miles on that passenger van in just seven years playing their way around the country. The work was grueling and far from glamorous, but playing with Nashville’s most prominent names made the grind of the road worthwhile. Nowadays, Dottsy performs locally, traveling with her record label performing for fans. Under Heart of Texas Records, she travels and performs in road shows and on themed cruises that draw fans from all over the world. It allows her to continue traveling while sharing the music she loves with the people who
Dottsy’s parents collected a series of scrapbooks during her rise to fame that overflow with photos, check stubs, show posters and more. Even today, they are one of the singer’s most prized mementos from her early career.
10/31/20
Not just oil, Pennzoil
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can’t get enough of it. Dottsy never stopped singing, and certainly didn’t sit around waiting for the phone to ring after RCA cut her. She took her career into her own hands, playing with the San Antone Roses for a while, and won countless awards along the way. Forty-five years after releasing her first single, Seguin’s country music sweetheart still makes music. It may be a different world than the one she came up in, but Dottsy never gave up on her dream and, in so doing, secured her place as a staple of traditional country music. Her singles may not play alongside today’s rock-pop infused country hits, but they can be heard over on Sirius XM Radio station Willie’s Roadhouse, where there are still plenty of people listening.
Father Christmas Shop In Seguin, Texas A Christmas Winter Wonderland awaits you! 101 South River Street Seguin, Texas 78155 830-243-1430 ◆ www.fatherchristmasshop.com GUADALUPE COUNTY LIVING ~ SEGUIN 29
CULINARYCREATIONS
E K A C IC H A EL PA PE Ph ot o by M d n a y or St
W
ith fairs canceled this year, this recipe is perfect to get some fair-ly good deliciousness and warm memories on your tongue to tide you over.
- Ingredients -
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 2 lightly beaten large eggs 1 ½ cup milk 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but my preferred addition) Vegetable oil Confectioners/Powdered sugar
- Tools -
Two medium bowls Medium saucepan
Candy/Food thermometer ½ inch tip funnel Liquid measuring cup Tongs Large/Wide spatula Paper towels
- INSTRUCTIONS -
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and vanilla extract (if you fancy it) until wellmixed. While whisking, add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients.
Stir until your batter is well-mixed and smooth. Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of vegetable oil. Place on stove on low to medium heat. Get your thermometer, and place it in the middle of the oil. Don’t let it touch the bottom, or the thermometer will read hotter. Once your oil is up to about 375°F (190°C) it’s ready for your batter. It’s alright if you don’t have a funnel for this next step, you can use a measuring cup. If you’re inclined to get creative (and possibly messy) you can use a bag with a hole snipped in the tip, or go medieval and use a bowl with a hole. If you have a funnel - Grab your measuring cup, fill with about a half cup of batter. Get your funnel, cover the bottom opening of the funnel with your finger, and fill the funnel with the half cup of batter. Hold the funnel near the surface of the oil, and remove your finger. Start moving the funnel around in a circle pattern, or zig-zag to mix it up. It’s a food Spirograph! Let it fry until it’s golden brown, then use your tongs and large spatula to turn the cake over carefully. Fry on the second side for about one minute. Carefully remove and place on a paper towel-lined plate to dry. For us measuring cup folks Grab your measuring cup, fill with a half cup of batter. Hover the cup over the oil and let it slowly drizzle in a thin stream, making circular motions or a nice zig-zaggedcriss-crossed design. Get funky, if you wish. I won’t deny my measuring cup family the joy of knowing we’re making a food SPIROGRAPH! Let it fry until it’s golden brown, then use your tongs and large spatula to turn the cake over carefully.
Fry on the second side for about one minute. Carefully remove and place on a paper towel-lined plate to dry. Dust it with as much powdered sugar as you desire. I certainly use too much, but a subtle amount tastes just as pleasant. Enjoy it while warm. If you need more, repeat the above steps! Make sure your oil gets back up to temperature between each batch, it cools a bit as the batter hits it. For anything leftover, cover and refrigerate. It will keep just fine for up to five days.
- Notes and tips -
To get it the texture you want, it might take some fiddling. A little extra milk, a half minute more in the pan on the flip-side, etc. If the batter seems slightly watery, you’re fine. That’s the texture you’re looking for. A thicker batter means a less crispy, and more cake-like texture. Powdered sugar is an obvious topping, maybe even some chocolate syrup. As always, I suggest some experimenting. Whipped cream, fruits, cinnamon, and salt sprinkles. Salt sounds like a modern experimentation, but is something used as far back as the medieval origins of funnel cake. You want my secret topping? Drizzle some warmed up Nutella, and sprinkle some sea salt across your fun-fun-funnel cake. Not secret enough? Get yourself a quarter teaspoon of root beer extract, a half a cup of powdered sugar, and a tablespoon of half and half. Whisk together, and drizzle atop your sweet treat. I’m so sorry, but, also, you’re so welcome.
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