The Dairy Queen horses

Joe Southern
joe.southern@amarillo.com
There once was a time when horses in downtown Amarillo were commonplace. But this is 2007, and horses have long since been replaced by automobiles.
Any horses seen in the city are either in a parade or painted works of art. Yet, on occasion, a group of horses can been seen standing patiently in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen as traffic whizzes by on Interstate 40 and Washington Street. Sometimes they're at the McDonald's on Soncy Road. Wherever they are, they're a curiosity in this old cow town.
On a recent Saturday, the riders sat in the Dairy Queen, eating lunch and cooling off with ice cream while people outside stopped to pet the hobbled horses and take their pictures. They belong to G.A. Gossett, a retired United Parcel Service driver. The riders are children from all walks of life in and around Amarillo.
"This is a lot of fun for me to see the kids do this," Gossett said over a cup of coffee in a booth at the Dairy Queen.
As much as he and the children enjoy it, there are other reasons Gossett takes the youngsters on free horse rides.
"If we can't use what we've got to tell someone about Jesus Christ, what good is it?" he said.
He also wants to teach the next generation the skills and love of riding horses.
"When my generation dies off, nobody will have any need for horses," he said. "People teach kids how to ride but they charge $30 or $40 an hour. The only people who will ride will be the rich kids."
Rich children are certainly welcome to come ride. But most of the children Gossett gets come from homes where riding lessons are not affordable.
"Most of these kids wouldn't get to do nothin' if he didn't have this deal for them," said Shaver Clark, a friend who helps Gossett with the program.
Gossett lets youngsters ride whenever it doesn't interfere with school. Riders meet at his place on the north side of town on Saturdays at 9 a.m. or Sundays at 1 p.m. They also ride on days when school is out and more frequently during the summer.
When the riders arrive, they're responsible for getting out the tack and saddling the horses. Once they're ready, they gather under a tree near the road. There, they are led through a devotional and a prayer. Quite often a minister from Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church will say a few words. Sometimes Gossett will do it. On this particular Saturday, the Rev. Landrum Medlock talked to the young riders about finding God in creation.
"As you look around and see things, you can see God in that," he said. After his short devotional and a closing prayer, the riders headed off on their cross-town trek. They crossed under U.S. Highway 287 at Central Avenue and worked their way south along the west side of Thompson Park. They then navigated their way down side roads and alleys until they reached South Crockett Street. They rode down Crockett and under Interstate 40. From there they took the I-40 Frontage Road back east to Washington Street and the Dairy Queen.
After dismounting, they hobbled the horses by tying their front legs together and then headed inside to eat.
"We get pretty busy when they come bring them horses. We get quite a bit of business off of them," manager Billie Balzer said.
Balzer said she hears a few complaints from people who think hobbling the horses is cruel. But she says she more often hears from people who want to know about the next trek.
"We really enjoy having them," she said.
During their lunch break, several of the youngsters talked about what the riding program meant to them. Cheri Moore was able to easily look past the cut on her chin she suffered when she was bucked off her steed earlier in the ride.
"I think its really good. I'm so glad to get to ride and stuff," said Cheri, 13. "It's really good for all the kids."
Other youngsters generally felt the ride taught them how to be responsible for animals.
"We have to be kind to the animals and take care of them," added Lyndsey Phipps, 17.
Kyle Phipps, 16, has been riding for more than four years.
"When I started riding I wanted to do better and stuff," he said. "It's motivation to keep my grades up. If I don't keep my grades up I don't get to ride."
"It's fun and it's a really good experience being with the horses and the kids," added 13-year-old Erica Brown. "I wanted to have a horse before, but I didn't know much about them."
After eating and then posing for pictures, the children mounted up and headed back to the farm. When they returned, they stowed the tack, watered the horses and returned them to their pens.
Gossett said making children do the work teaches them proper care for horses.
"If the industry doesn't start teaching kids to ride horses that's going to be the end of it," he said. "These kids are going to be the next buyers."  

Going for a ride 

G.A. Gossett offers free horse rides for children old enough and mature enough to properly handle the animals. Most are in their teens. He does expect the riders to show proper care and respect for the horses and their fellow riders. Those who do not follow the rules are not allowed back. Each ride begins with a Bible lesson and prayer. The rides, depending on the destination, take about five to six hours to complete. For more information, call Gossett at (806) 570-1309.

Christians need to step out

Joe Southern
joe.southern@amarillo.com
Pastor Rick Warren's message Monday to the more than 2,000 people gathered at the Amarillo Civic Center was a simple one.
"If you want God's blessing in your life, you must care about what God cares about most," he told the crowd assembled in Amarillo for the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
In an impassioned, hour-long talk, Warren implored BGCT members to engage in his PEACE Plan, a missions-oriented strategy to bring people out of church pews and into action. He hoped doing so would help tackle what he called the "five Goliaths" facing the world today - spiritual emptiness, self-centered leadership, poverty, pandemic disease and illiteracy.
"These five problems are so big it's depressing," he said.
The PEACE Plan is acronym for ideals he hopes Christians would embrace - to Promote reconciliation, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation.
Warren said he prioritized these problems by looking at conditions through his travels around the world. He found the answers in the Bible, which he claims is the only book to outsell his own "A Purpose-Driven Life" in American history.
Jesus tackled those five Goliaths throughout his ministry, Warren said.
"The five things Jesus did are the antidote to the five biggest problems," he said.
Speaking with a hoarse voice damaged by smoke from the Southern California fires, Warren seemed to light a fire at the conference, where missions were the theme. He said most churches have the model of missions backwards. Churches study an area and train missionaries before sending them out. Warren said the victory is in the harvest and recommended that people go on missions first, then pray and learn.
"We need to release the latent, pent-up power that's sitting in our pews today," he said.
He urged people to get out of their comfortable pews and get involved in the world around them.
"Every member is a minister and every member is a missionary," he said.

And a woman shall lead them

Joe Southern
joe.southern@amarillo.com
Joy Fenner of Garland was elected Monday as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, becoming the first woman to lead the convention that represents 5,600 congregations and 2.3 million people.
Fenner, 72, was elected over David Lowrie, 47, pastor of First Baptist Church in Canyon. The vote, held at the Amarillo Civic Center, was 900 to 840. Her 60-vote victory was closer than many had predicted and puts her in a position to unite Texas Baptists who showed signs Monday of being split over the direction of leadership.
In a news conference after the vote was taken, Fenner and Lowrie spoke about the importance of communication and the need to unite rather than divide.
"I don't think it's a very strong division at all," said Fenner, who is a lay leader from Gaston Oaks Baptist Church in Dallas.
Lowrie said his candidacy was more about moving the leadership back to the political center and having all voices heard than it was to take the convention in another direction. His concern was primarily for the large number of Southern Baptists in the BGCT and the low representation they have in leadership positions.
"I'm going to support her to the best of my ability," said Lowrie, who leads a Southern Baptist congregation.
He joked that they both actually won, because "I got my point across and I don't have to serve as president."
Fenner said she is open to working with Lowrie and other new leaders during her one-year term.
"For sure he will be involved. He's a gifted leader and we need his vision and his capabilities," she said.
BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade, who is retiring in three months, said he thinks the convention will come away from the two-day annual meeting a lot stronger than it was.
"There were a lot of conversations about what would happen here today," he said. "I am very pleased to see the spirit of unity that was going on. David's comments are deeply appreciated. ... Most of our churches give through the BGCT to support the missions programs of the Southern Baptists."
As for the historic nature of the vote, Fenner said it was always a secondary issue for her.
"It's gratifying because women have been so involved in Baptist work," she said. "I hope it would honor some of our women who have leadership abilities."
Fenner is the executive director emeritus for the Woman's Missionary Union of Texas. Between sessions, several people commented about the vote.
"We would have voted for Joy Fenner because of her background in missions," said J.W. Tomes of Amarillo, who was not a voting member. "She would have been very much our choice. She's done a lot of good work in the state of Texas."
"I'm very pleased, happy," said Sue Andrews of Hereford. "I didn't get to vote, but that's who I would have voted for."
"I think it's great myself. I think she'll do the job that she's supposed to do. She's got a lot of experience as a leader," said Kelsie Nowell of Vernon.
Shirley Whitley of El Paso said she was also pleased with the outcome.
"I think she has a great background and I trust her to bring us together like we need to be," she said.

Who was that other masked man?

By Joe Southern
For one season, in 1952, Clayton Moore was replaced as the Lone Ranger on the popular television series.
For 52 episodes, John Hart dashed across the television screen as the man behind the mask. John Hart played the part from 1952 to 1954 on 52 episodes when Moore held out in a contact dispute.
Although Hart has done numerous television and film projects, he is often most remembered as the "other" Lone Ranger.
"I've dined out on it forever," Hart said in a telephone interview. "It's never bothered me at all."
At the time, it was just another job.
"I went on and did 'Hawkeye' and did other things."
His counterpart, however, took to the mask and played the role to the hilt.
"He (Moore) decided to be the Lone Ranger and he made it his job and he did it very well," Hart said.
Prior to temporarily replacing Moore, Hart made two guest appearances on the show as one of the heavies opposite the masked man. After the show ended in 1957, he made two cameo appearances as the Lone Ranger on television, once on an episode of "Happy Days" in the 1970s and later in 1981 on "The Greatest American Hero."
Hart's last connection to the legendary masked rider of the plains came in 1981 in "The Legend of the Lone Ranger."
"I worked on 'The Legend of the Lone Ranger.' I played an old editor of a Western country paper," he said.
Although his character was hanged by the bad guys early in the film, Hart's involvement lasted well beyond the bit part.
"The guy who played the Lone Ranger was such a disaster," he recalled. "Having been the Lone Ranger they got me into doing all his press conferences and stuff."
Working in the lead role on the television series was enjoyable for Hart. He said he made a lot of friends through it and forged a close relationship with Jay Silverheels, who played the faithful Indian companion, Tonto, throughout the series and the two theatrical releases that followed. He was with Silverheels shortly before he died in 1980 following a series of strokes.
"He was a sweetheart of a person," Hart said.
Work on the television series was challenging. The 52 episodes Hart did were all shot in a matter of weeks.
"We worked six days a week, every other week. We worked Monday through Saturday. The scripts ran 30-some pages ... We shot every (episode) in two days. I'd have anywhere from 15, 16, 17 pages of dialog to memorize. I'd get up at 5 a.m. with a cup of coffee to start memorizing my lines," he said.
Being a real cowboy in his younger days, Hart was able to do things that Moore and others couldn't do, especially with the great, white horse Silver.
"I was very attracted to the horse, Silver. He was half Arabian and half American saddle bred," he said.
He said Silver was very jumpy and difficult to ride.
"Clayton wouldn't ride him, the radio guy (Brace Beemer) wouldn't ride him ... I took him when I knew I had the part. I took him out and rode him for a few days ... When we started shooting he was very friendly. I wore spurs, but I didn't have to spur him," he said.
In revealing another little-known tidbit about the show, he said Silver and Tonto's horse, Scout, didn't get along.
"They hated each other, it was really funny. We'd pull up and have some dialog and the horses would start nipping at each other and dancing around," he said.
To compensate for that, the saddles were placed on sawhorses for close-up scenes. "Then, they'd bring in the real horses and we'd ride out," Hart said.
One of the biggest mysteries of the old '50s television show is why Hart replaced Moore in the middle of the series. Some sources say George W. Trendle, who created the character, fired Moore because he was becoming too closely associated with the Lone Ranger. But Hart subscribes to the more widely held belief that Moore, in a dispute with producer Jack Chertok, held out for more money.
"I have no idea (why Moore came back)," he said. "I had long been gone and happy doing other things. Clayton was bound and determined to be the Lone Ranger. I'm sure it was over money ... He (Chertok) was the cheapest guy I ever worked for."
In addition to "The Lone Ranger," Hart has appeared or starred in many movies and television shows. He wore the hero's mask in "The Adventures of Captain Africa" and had lead roles in "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" and "Jack Armstrong, the All American Boy." He made numerous appearances in "Rawhide" and also showed up on such programs as "Sky King," "Sgt. Preston," "Dallas," "The Addams Family," "Leave it to Beaver," "Perry Mason," "Bat Masterson" and "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," to name a few.
His first film appearance was in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Buccaneer." He went on and did several projects with DeMille.
"He took a liking to me and kept me on the show," Hart said.
He has worked with several old Hollywood greats, including Lon Chaney Jr., who was his sidekick in "Hawkeye," and Olympian/actor Buster Crabbe.
"Buster and I were old friends. I knew him before the '32 Olympics," he said.
He also recalled the time he had a "nice scene with Elizabeth Taylor." He said he considers his work as Hawkeye to be his favorite part.
"The stories were good, the thing was a wonderful show," he said.
But only 39 episodes were made, despite the show's popularity, because of a dispute between the producer and the advertisers.
In more recent years he wrote a cookbook called "Cowboys in the Kitchen."

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Pointing fingers and naming names

By Joe Southern
WALLER – Sidney Johnson didn’t pull any punches as he called out people by name and accused them of dirty politics during a candidate’s forum Thursday night hosted by the Waller Area Chamber of Commerce.
Johnson, who is one of three candidates running for two at-large seats on the city council in the May 8 municipal election, let loose a barrage of accusations during his 12-minute speech.
“As some of you know, some of my signs were destroyed two weeks ago … They was run over,” he said.
Noting that police had video of the incident, he pointed to a man in the crowd and said, “Brenda Bundick’s brother did it, didn’t you David Wilson?”
He claimed that Wilson and Bundick’s husband, Ronney Bundick sabotaged the signs. No one spoke up to deny it. Brenda Bundick is an incumbent and is competing against Johnson and Rick Dalton Sr. for the two council seats.
“I just want to run a nice, clean little election … I thought I was going to be proud to be one of the first minorities to run for council,” Johnson said.
Then he turned his sights on Councilman Roger Frey.
“Roger Frey sent my tax information to the Waller County News (Citizen),” he said.
He said his tax delinquency was a private matter being litigated in court and said he didn’t feel he owed the property taxes because his grandfather, who passed away at 103, was “exempt” from paying property taxes after he turned 65. He also accused mayoral candidate Maurice Hart Jr. of snubbing him while campaigning and for giving campaign T-shirts to children who aren’t old enough to vote.
“Mr. Hart … that hurt my feelings,” he said.
Johnson said he was not looking for a fight but came prepared to defend himself.
“I will attack you if you attack me. I didn’t come up here to snowball nobody. I came up here to try to do something for Waller,” he said.
He said he was interested in seeing weeds mowed down, condemned houses torn down and everyone treated fairly.
“This town needs to grow with black folks, and white folks and Hispanics,” he said.
Johnson was the fourth of the five candidates to give his spiel at the forum. Up first were mayoral candidates Hart and Danny Marburger, followed by Brenda Bundick. Dalton was the last to go.
Maurice Hart Jr. 
 Hart has spent the last 39 years on council, the past 13 as mayor pro-tem. He is a past member of the Waller Volunteer Fire Department and a co-creator of the Waller Ambulance Service and the Waller County Sub-Regional Planning Commission. Among his accomplishments, he listed the city’s 200,000 gallon water storage tank, the expansion of the extra jurisdictional territory, creation of the 20-year comprehensive plan and the development of the Livable City Plan.
“I led the fight for the city against the Trans Texas Corridor,” he said.
He said that there were many things he wanted to do as mayor, including solving the city’s drainage problem, improving communication between city hall, city staff and citizens, working closer with other local governments, bringing light rail to Waller, and preparing for the growth that is coming from Houston.
Danny Marburger
Marburger was mayor of Waller for 32 years before taking the last term off to tend to business needs. In that time Paul Wood was elected in his place, but did not run again. Marburger said he wants to see more community involvement in city government. He proposes having citizen committees make recommendations for important projects such as drainage, parks, events and more. He wants to see more frequent trash pick-up, better collection of delinquent taxes, and better cooperation with the economic development commission to recruit new businesses to Waller.
“If I am elected mayor, the buck stops here. If I am elected, I will not take the money. I will give the $25,000 a year salary the council voted for the position and give it back to the community,” he said.
Brenda Bundick
Bundick has lived in Waller for 36 years and has worked for the city for 16 years. She said she was the city’s first tax assessor/collector, served on the WVFD, served eight years with the ambulance service, was the city’s emergency management coordinator (overseeing recovery from three disasters), helped the county with its emergency management plan, worked in the school district tax office and, in 2006, became the first woman elected to serve on the council.
“I have a lot of firsts for our city but I hope those are the stepping stones that the city will follow,” she said.
Among the things she would like to get done in office is better tree trimming and street repair, and to help decrease crime.
Rick Dalton Sr.
Dalton moved to the area in 1980 and then to Waller in 1985. He has made a career out of managing auto parts stores. He is currently the president of the Waller Volunteer Fire Department and has helped orchestrate agreements with the emergency medical service. He is a sponsor of Cub Scout Pack 195. He is a former city alderman who helped tackle issues such as the water tank, drainage problems and annexations.
He chose not to run in 2007 to focus on a change in job duties. He said that is now under control and he is once again able to serve. He talked about his experience helping run a shelter during Hurricane Ike and how proud he was at the way the city came together in a crisis. Dalton said he wants to see Waller network better with other cities and to be prepared for the growth to come.
“We need strong leadership to guide us through that transition,” he said.