By Libby Cluett
lcluett@mineralwellsindex.com

Most who know Veda Lee, know her as a spry and busy 86-year-old Mineral Wells resident. If they have tasted her holiday goodies, they know she loves to bake and share treats like cookies, candies, friendship bread and tamales made from scratch.

Lee said that staying busy was a lesson she learned early in life, when growing up as the oldest of seven children in Rio Grande City, a city along the border 80 miles south of Laredo.

“I was taught to work. My mother would keep us busy ironing,” she recalled. “The irons were heated on coals, we had to wipe them off real good and then she had us ironing our socks and cup towels to keep us busy so we wouldn’t get in trouble. We were mischievous. [Ironing] made us so mad.”

Lee said she was raised in a very modest home with no running water.

“I don’t know how we survived. A Barilero – a man with a cart with a barrel [of water] pulled by a donkey – would sell water. Mother would start a fire with lots of coals and would take a scoop of coals to purify the water. She’d say, ‘Do not drink from that barrel until all the ashes have settled down,’” said Lee.

She added that they had outside toilets and bathed in a washtub next to the wood-burning stove.

“I look back and wonder,” said Lee, “I don’t think our children would have survived then.”

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Lee’s hometown also housed historic Fort Ringgold, established in 1848, at the end of the Mexican War. In the early ’40s, the last of the horse cavalry, including F Troop from Mineral Wells, moved in after initial training at Fort Bliss in El Paso. F Troop soldiers were stationed at the fort as part of the 124th Cavalry to protect the nation’s border when, “President Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilized the National Guard,” Lee said.

She met second-generation Mineral Wells native Ambrous Lee when she waited tables in at the Ringgold Restaurant.

“I witnessed the time the military police came into the restaurant. They hit the counter with their clubs and got the attention of all the military in the restaurant – they were dressed in civilian clothes. The MPs told them to get back to the fort and put on their uniforms. We were at war,” recalls Lee of the day in early December 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Veda Lee’s first visit to Mineral Wells came in 1943, after Ambrous and Veda were married and started a family. She came to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with her mother-in-law, while the F Troopers were on maneuvers in Marfa, a town in the rugged Big Bend region of Texas. She brought their son, David, who was 3 months old at the time.

“They let the soldiers go home for the holidays. After maneuvers were over, we took a train back to Rio Grande City. Rumors said they were going to be shipped out, so we made preparations and I moved to Mineral Wells later in 1944,” recalled Lee of the time F Troop was mobilized to Fort Riley, Kan., before being deployed to fight the Japanese in the India-Burma-China Theater.

“He left me to live with his mother until they came back from overseas,” she added.

“At that time, Mineral Wells was so crowded because of training here. At the time, the paper advertised for anyone to rent out rooms to those in training.

“People wouldn’t believe,” she added, “You had to dodge people walking down the sidewalks, it was so crowded.”

Lee, who said she always liked to cook and bake since she was young, recalled that they issued rations on items like sugar. She also said there were no nylon hose available during the World War II era.

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In the time between when she first arrived in Mineral Wells 64 years ago, Lee raised four children – David, who is now retired but served for 20 years as Palo Pinto County Commissioner, Precinct 1; Larry, who was a patrolman for Mineral Wells Police Department, a Palo Pinto County Jail administrator and now works at Palo Pinto General Hospital; Janet, who manages Pet Western Animal Hospital; and Tina, who teaches physical education at Mineral Wells Junior High.

Lee said she “kept them very busy” too. “I went out and looked for jobs for them when they were young. David and Larry worked at the Baker Hotel as kids.”

She saw Ambrous through his tenure as a county constable and then as Mineral Wells chief of police, “when they were elected,” she said. Being in law enforcement was also in her family history; she said that her maternal grandfather was a constable in Starr County.

During this time, Lee worked at the Jack-o-Lantern Restaurant (in downtown) and then at Perry Equipment for 30 years.

She nursed Ambrous through a stroke and said goodbye to him in 1988.

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She also built a reputation for what those close to her call “Veda’s corner,” a place in her dining room that is full of delectable treats and freshly made bread.

“I’m getting the corner ready. I’m a little behind this year,” said Lee, who had trays of cookies cooling, waiting to fill numerous empty glass jars on her dining table. Behind this, in a corner, is a table filled with homemade candies, bread, cake and other treats that becomes “Veda’s corner” during the holiday season.

She has a bag of dough ready to make Pan de Polvo or Pan Fino. “That’s a must at the weddings down south. I’ll make stars and little bells for this time of year,” said Lee.

She said that family and friends come and visit the corner in her home where her jars are full of edibles like Snickerdoodles, peanut butter treasure cookies and red Christmas Jewels. Also on the table are loaves of different kinds of Friendship bread – cinnamon and pecan, pineapple, lemon and coconut.

Lee said nothing goes to waste in her hands. She made Calavasates candy from her daughter’s Halloween pumpkin and had shelves of canned jellies and jams made from grapes, plums and pears that were given to her.

Not only does she fill her corner with sweets and breads, she also has a freezer full of varieties of tamales. When she moved to Mineral Wells, she started carrying on her mother’s tradition of making tamales for Christmas with pork and raisins. She has other types of meat fillings stocked up for the holidays, too.

Shortly after moving to Mineral Wells, Lee wanted to make tamales, but found she had to make her own masa.

“I called my mother to find out how much lime to add to the water when boiling the corn,” she recalls.

“My husband got me a Molino – a grinder for corn – he hooked it up to a pulley and had electricity connected to it,” she said with a beaming smile.

Using corn from the feed store, “I cooked it in lime, let it get cold and rinsed it [several times] in clear water to get all the lime out. Then I’d grind it in the Molino. It comes out coarse,” she said adding that she used it coarse rather than further crushing it on a metate.

Today, Lee uses store-bought masa harino made of corn and prefers Quaker brand.

She added, “I’m very particular about my corn shucks, too,” and explained the care she takes to ensure they are properly cleaned and ready to use for her tamales.

“Making tamales is a messy job,” said Lee. “You have to be careful about whose tamales you eat,” she said, referring to the cleanliness of the maker’s workplace.

Lee, a member of the Palo Pinto Chapter of the Texas Extension Education Association, said she is planning a presentation on making tamales soon.

She is also a member of the Bluebonnet Garden Club and the Willing Workers Quilting Club. In fact, an F Troop quilt she made for David is currently on display at the Poston Building in downtown Mineral Wells.

In addition she is a 50-year member with the Pythian Order, “which supports the orphanage in Weatherford,” is a member of Cavalry Baptist Church and sends her holiday goodies to people who are shut-in, as well as to relatives.

“I cannot be idle,” says the octogenarian who said she grew up around busy people. “I guess I’m hyper.”