Country Lifestyles
The Hat Lady – Got a dirty hat? See Mrs. Stanley Rater
By Judy Wade
“We Love Dirty Hats” is the motto of Huskey Hats at 1225 E. Scott in Wichita Falls. Mrs. Stanley Rater can take your dirty old felt hat and return it within three to six weeks looking brand new, complete with new liner, sweat band, ribbon hat band, and creased just the way you like it.
“It is a long, multi-step process and lots of hard work all done by hand,” Rater said. It begins with stripping the liner, sweat band and hat band followed by a thorough thirty-minute bath in naptha in a huge 1941 hat-washing machine to remove the oil and grease followed by a hand scrubbing in tide to get rid of the dirt.
Afterward, the hat is dried overnight before many other steps are taken to get it resized, including applying a sizing to help the hat keep its shape, applying a thin oil to black hats to enhance the color, buffing to make it smooth and re-creasing.
One of those steps is a “smear” applied to the cleaned hat to cover worn places and spots still visible. “No one else has the formula for the smear. We are the only ones who use it. It can be used on white, silverbelly and tan hats,” she continued.
Eddie Huskey, once the hat man at the Cow Lot, was encouraged and backed by Gayle Bourland to open a hat cleaning shop. At that time, dirty hats were sent to Houston to be cleaned, taking about six months. Huskey opened his shop in the location where it remains today and invented the “smear” that has been handed down to Rater.
In January 1974 Johnny “Preach” Rater and wife Stanley were approached about becoming partners with the next owner. They agreed and Preach continued to work at a glass factory during the day and learned to clean hats at night. “Preach knew machinery and learned to clean the hats. I knew nothing,” she laughed.
To read more pick up a copy of the June 2017 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
By Lacey Vilhauer
Ingredients:
1 whole lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
¼ cup water
Directions:
Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Transfer to a large bowl. Puree the strawberries in a food processor and add to the lemon mixture along with juice of one lemon and water. Taste and add more juice as desired.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Nicholas Waters
As winter plods along – come Spring and gopher mounds – homeowners and farmers find themselves playing a familiar song – fiddling while Rome is burning.
Let’s make a mountain out of a molehill. Those mounds on your lawn and pasture could be moles, but they’re more than likely gophers; Plains Pocket Gophers to be pragmatic – Geomys bursarius to be scientific.
These rodents dig and chew, and the damage they can do goes beyond the mounds we mow over. Iowa State University cited a study in Nebraska showing a 35 percent loss in irrigated alfalfa fields due to the presence of pocket gophers; the number jumped to 46 percent in decreased production of non-irrigated alfalfa fields.
The internet is replete with academic research from coast-to-coast on how to curtail gopher populations, or at least control them. Kansas State University – then called Kansas State Agricultural College – also published a book [Bulletin 152] in February 1908 focused exclusively on the pocket gopher.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Annette Bridges
Everyone needs a room with a view that makes their heart happy. My honest favorite panorama would be either the mountains or the ocean. I have yet to convince my hubby to make permanent moves to either, although he does enjoy the visits as much as I do.
The location of our house on our ranch does not provide the expansive field of vision of our land that I would enjoy. So, I have created a room decorated and furnished in a way that gives me smiles, giggles, and a wonderful peace-filled feeling when I am hanging out in it. I am in that place right now writing this column. I am in a lounging position with my computer in my lap on the chaise that was once my sweet mama’s. I had it reupholstered this year to give it a fresh look.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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