Litter Blight Letter to the Editor

Page 2A, The Magnolia Potpourri, June 24, 2009
OPINION
LETTERS
Keep your
animals safe
in the tough times to the best of our
ability.
So please take care to keep your
animals safe.
To the Editor:
Sincerely,
I was driving down Roberts
Donna Poole
Cemetery road this afternoon and
Magnolia, Texas
came upon a very upsetting incident, where two Collie dogs were on
the road, the female I would assume
was hit and she was laying on the
ground and the male the larger one
was walking in the street around her
To The Editor:
looking for help.
It seems that the litter on the
I called 911 and they sent me to
the dispatch for the Animal Control, sides of the road is increasing.
by the time I got through they had Montgomery County is one of
alreadyreceivedanothercallonit.So the most beautiful communities
I am hoping that they were helped. in Texas but the ever-present litIt was so horrible to see this. I ter is blight in our community
have also seen around the area that and affects us all.
Over eight hundred million
with the economy more animals are
pieces
of litter were found on
loose and more people are letting
Texas
roads
according the 2005
their animals go.
Texas
Department
Of TransLet us all remember that they depend on us for food and care even portation Visible Litter Survey.
Litter is blight
on county
The POTPOURRI
825 Village Square Drive, Tomball, TX 77375
Phone: 281-357-0882, Classified: 281-668-1150
www.thetomballpotpourri.com, www.themagnoliapotpourri.com
Editor
Allen Jones
Sports Editor
Dustin Bass
Staff writer/Photographer
Choyce Ybarra, Anna Schumann
Graphic Artist
Kathy Peregoy
Advertising Manager
Frank Vasquez
Advertising
Claudia Kemp, Michelle Edwards
Office Manager
Sandy Glowski
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The discarded litter resulted in an
unsightly roadside distraction
throughout our state and a significant clean-up cost. (See
www.dontmesswithtexas.org/research.php).
The 2007 Attitudes & Behaviors Survey conducted by Baselice
& Associates, Inc., and EnviroMedia Social Marketing for
Don’t Mess with Texas (See
www.dontmesswithtexas.org/research.php) found that Texans
under the age of 25 are most likely to litter and suggests that children who have seen their parents
litter are more likely to litter in
the future.
If you are tired of seeing ugly
litter on the sides of our beautiful
roads, here are some things you
can do:
Don't litter!
Spread the word! Talk to
others about litter and encourage them not to litter.
Report a Litterer! Don't
Mess with Texas has a Report a
Litterer program:
( w w w . d o n t m e s s w i t htexas.org/report-a-litterer.php)
Go online and provide information about the littering you
saw being done. The litterer will
receive a letter asking them not to
litter and a trash bag for their car.
Pick it up! Just think how
much litter would be gone if everyone picked up just one piece of litter
a day, rather than stepping over it.
Adopt a road or highway!
Contact your local county
precinct to adopt a county road
and TxDot to adopt a highway.
It’s easy to do and can be a great
experience for a group or family.
Contact Keep Montgomery
County Beautiful ([email protected]) about how to adopt a road
or spot in Montgomery County. We
would be glad to help you get started!
Wechallengeallbusinesses,neighborhoods, schools, churches, agencies
and individuals to take action immediately to eliminate litter on our roadways in this beautiful county.
Board of Directors
Keep Montgomery County
Beautiful
[email protected]
www.kmcbtexas.org
MY FINANCIAL GUY
CAN BEAT UP
YOUR FINANCIAL GUY!
Cotton patch gives
youth insight to past
JACKBREWER
Columnist
Many good folks of Tomball
do not realize cotton still grows
in our fine city, but it does: up
North Pine Street, a few blocks
off Main Street. And there in
two neat rows it stand not quite
ready to bloom in the Museum
District, just where it had stood
with cotton in the boles not
more than a few months before.
It really doesn’t seem that
long ago — in the minds of us
with white hair — that gins
were a central part of the economy of towns like Brooshire,
Waller, Hempstead, Calvert...
following the route of the bottom lands of the Brazos River.
Cotton was a “cash crop” back
then. It provided spending
money to those who slid their
sharpened hoe around the
plants, taking out the grass,
thinning the cotton to where it
would receive full sun.
School even let our for a
week or so when it was time to
gather it in: Men, women, children dragging their cotton
sacks with the strap over one
shoulder, picking the cotton or
pulling the boles, stuffing it in
the sack with one swift motion
as they moved on. Some wore
knee pads, walking on their
knees; others just ben over the
sun baking the back of their
necks as they gathered along.
It was necessary to be in the
fields early, in order to stake out
a spot in front of the best rows,
but then you had to wait for the
dew to burn off before you
could begin. The serious pickers
(those who would pick 200 or
300 pounds in a day) were like
machines: no talking, no visiting between the rows, just head
down and hands moving as if
motorized as they went. Even
the children would soon be
picking as if by rote, hands darting here and there, high and low
plucking the soft, white cotton
from the sticker-ended boles.
Back then the pickers earned
as much as $1.50 for a 100
pounds, a $1 if you were pulling
boles.
It was a pleasurable surprise
when you would find a nest or
two of Killdeers (Killdees)
along the way; a pie melon now
and then, with their hard shell
and pink treat inside; a tarantula or horned toad on a girl’s row
would bring a squeal.
It was a treat to ride on top of
the load of cotton on the way to
the gin, trying to be there before
the sun went down; seeing the
bales in the gin yard so close
you could jump from on to the
other without touching the
ground. If you were there by
noon, you could watch the
steam from the noon whistle,
like a steamboat in the rivers
that used to carry the bales on
flat-bottomed barges down the
Brazos those many years ago.
Good on you, Museum District directors and members, for
keeping the cotton growing in
Tomball to let our children and
grandchildren see if and hear
our stories once again.
Editor’s Note: Brewer lives in
the Tomball area and helped
found Rosehill Christian School.
He also is one of the founders of
Boys and Girls Country, where
he was the home’s first executive
director for 22 years.
POLL POSITION
Off-leash dog park sounds like a good idea to poll participants
By The Potpourri Staff
[email protected]
The majority of those who
voted in our online poll indicated
they would like to see either the
cities of Tomball and/or Magno-
lia open an off-leash dog park.
Forty-three people voted in
the unofficial online polls at
The Tomball Potpourri and the
The Magnolia Potpourri web
sites. Of those, 27 (63 percent)
selected “yes.” Sixteen people
(37 percent) selected “no.”
Get interactive in your community. Participate in online
polls at www.TheTomballPotpourri.com and www.TheMagnoliaPotpourri.com. E-mail us
your thoughts on the topic.
Call 1-866-399-6789 or
visit us at everydaychoices.org.
H
TOMBALLFREEDOMFESTIVAL
3rd ANNUAL
“A Salute to the Heroes of WW II”
Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 6 p.m.
In The Church Sanctuary
2009 American Hero Honoree
Sergeant Calvin Massey
36th “Texas” Infantry Division
presented by
The Music Ministry
of First Baptist Church Tomball
H
400 W. Houston St., Tomball
281-351-4997
www.fbctomball.org
LOSE MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET?
WE CAN BOAST NO CLIENT LOSSES - EVER,
DUE TO USING INDEXED ANNUITIES AND
FIXED PRODUCTS.
NEED RETIREMENT MONEY TO RETIRE?
THEN STOP GAMBLING WITH YOUR MONEY!
DON’T TURN TO THE STOCK MARKET TO FIX
LOSSES THEY CAUSED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
THE OFFICES OF PATRICK J WEHRLY
SOUTHWEST RETIREMENT AND INSURANCE
281-528-5760