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Honey and Haircuts

Some of the topics we looked into while you were reading last month’s issue

Bee Aware

Flow Hive, an Australian company that markets a structure to harvest honey without disturbing the bees, reminds us as we recognize World Honey Bee Day on August 15 how essential bees are to life on Earth. The more than 19,000 species of bees are responsible for pollinating 30% of the world’s food crops and 90% of wild plants.

For the past 15 years, bee populations have been declining at an alarming rate largely due to climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use.

Worker bees, which are female, produce about a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in their five- to six-week life span. These are the only bees most people ever see.

At one time, Henry Miller Morgan’s barber college reportedly was training a majority of the nation’s African American barbers.

Roubicko | Shutterstock.com

Acclaimed Clipper

Henry Miller Morgan opened the first college for African American barbers in 1933 in downtown Tyler. The school had only five chairs, but it thrived, and within 20 years Morgan had opened schools in Houston, Dallas, New York, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Morgan was born 125 years ago—August 25, 1895, in Tyler.

Victory in Austin

Band manager Johnny Holmes opened Victory Grill on August 16, 1945, in Austin as a venue for returning African American servicemen. It quickly became a popular stop on the “Chitlin’ Circuit”—a string of African American juke joints across the segregated South that also extended northward.

Over the years, James Brown, Ike and Tina Turner, Billie Holiday, Chuck Berry, Etta James and others performed there.

Nearly 75 years later, in April, the venue became home to the second location of Rolling Rooster, a soul food restaurant.

Quotable

“Texas is the finest portion of the globe that has ever blessed my vision.”
—Sam Houston

August issue of Texas Co-op Power magazine

TCP’s New Look

From cover to cover, Texas Co-op Power is a new magazine. Read, enjoy and share your ideas about every section. We want to hear from all 3.7 million of you, by email or on Facebook.

By the Numbers: 127.36 feet

Ashrita Furman caught an intact water balloon thrown 127.36 feet by Bipin Larkin—a world record—on August 8, 2012, in New York. August 7 is National Water Balloon Day.