Around Town

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Haste makes waste. Slow down, smell the roses and don't feel pressured to keep up with someone or make changes that you aren't ready for.

Gangsters Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, immortalized in books and movies since their sensational demise in a 1934 shootout, cut a marauding swath across Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana. But the pair couldn’t help returning to their home state of Texas, where their path of crime often led them through Ellis County and, a few times at least, into Ennis. Some locals still recall stories of the thieving duo’s stops in town.

Free Covid-19 Testing

Free testing for Covid-19 will be offered on Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at New Founders Missionary Baptist Church, 1903 Lafayette St., Ennis.

Quanah Parker’s Hereford Bull is a work of fiction in the western, alternative-history and action subgenres, and was penned by professor and film and television author Alan Nafzger. Written as his first western novel, this adventure sees our titular Hereford bull being stolen from the Comanche Indian Reservation and lead across the border into Texas by corrupt Texas Rangers. In real life history, Quanah Parker had to just lump it as he couldn’t by law enter Texas. However, the novel takes an unusual premise for a western as friends Charles Goodnight and Randell Mackenzie accompany the chief in an adventure to retrieve the bull. With the two western legends along for the ride and as security, conflicts soon arise in Texas, and that’s before they discover they’ve been followed off the reservation by a group of Comanche boys looking for one last buffalo hunt. Given the animosity Texans had for Comanches and especially natives off the reservation, the entire adventure puts them all in deep danger. Author Alan Nafzger is by trade a political scientist and not necessarily concerned with a true and accurate history. Quanah Parker did have a bull stolen into Texas; however, the thieves were never discovered. And Quanah Parker did develop personal and professional friendships with Charles Goodnight and Randell Mackenzie, but it was not at the same time, but it is an alternative history novel. What if ?

Ennis senior Teresa Jasso (above) was chosen the winner of the Voice of Democracy essay winner for 2019-2020 school year.