(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that connects consumers with local businesses for coupons and other great deals. Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

By Tori Freeman

The history of Mill-King Market & Creamery traces back to 1941, when Arnold and Minnie Miller began raising dairy cattle on their homestead and selling their excess milk at stores in Crawford. Eventually, they began selling to a milk co-op that picked up their milk and delivered it to a milk processor.

Their son Billy began dairying with his parents, and in 2005, Billy’s own son Craig, joined the family business after finishing college. Craig and his wife Rhianna transitioned Mill-King from selling to a co-op to producing and processing their own milk for retail. Rhianna shared with us the what, why, and how of this local farm.

How did you make that transition?

“The economy for the dairy industry got really bad in that period. Craig and I actually struck out on our own with a genetics business dealing with cattle. We worked with beef cattle, beef yards, large dairies, small dairies, and one-cow whole milking families. So, we learned a lot about what all else was out there.

As the economy worsened, we decided that in order to keep going we needed to do something. We couldn’t keep selling our milk to the co-op because at the time dairy farmers were being paid several dollars under the cost of production. So, in December 2010, we got a retail license so we could sell raw milk straight off the farm.

We started doing that, and then we learned about low-temp pasteurization. Throughout 2011 and then into 2012 we built a plant here on the farm ourselves and then slowly started getting our milk out into farmer’s markets, grocery stores, restaurants, ice cream shops, cheese distributors, and other spots.

We process everything that comes off of our own farm, and we basically have a closed herd — that means that we raise our own cattle. So, we have our hand on the process of the milk straight from the birth of the calf all the way to getting the milk to the distributor. At one point, we even got it to the grocery stores and restaurants ourselves, but in order to grow we’ve had to utilize distributors the last four years.”

What makes Mill King different?

“Our milk is different than conventional grocery store milk or even conventional organic milk because ours is low-temp pasteurized and non-homogenized. We pasteurize it at a lower temperature for a longer time, which keeps in the good bacteria and enzymes but it kills anything that could be harmful.

The non-homogenized part—homogenization is basically the process of taking the fat molecules in the milk and shattering the molecular structure so it stays suspended in the milk and it doesn’t separate–we don’t do that. That means our milk has the cream in it and it will rise to the top, so you have to shake it back in.

But that also has some health benefits, as research has shown. A lot of times your body doesn’t know when you’ve manipulated a molecular structure of a food item. It doesn’t then know how to process it, so it doesn’t process it correctly.

Also we don’t add in any additives, no preservatives. We don’t add any defoaming agents in our processing anything like that.

A lot of conventional grocery store milk has different things added into it but, because of our laws, if it’s less than one percent you don’t have to label it. Eventually, if you have one percent of this and one percent of that, how much milk do you actually have left in there? So that’s another factor that makes our milk different.

And then, we are really strict on how our cows are fed. We practice all organic methods even though we’re not certified, because we feel like it’s important that we don’t take any exemptions. A lot of times, organic dairy farms can take exemptions. So, for example, if they can’t find non-GMO cottonseed, then they’ll get an exemption where they can feed up to 25 percent of a product that doesn’t conform to the organic standards.

We feel like it’s extremely important to stay true and as natural as possible, so we feed non-GMO, and our cows are grass-fed as much as possible – no grain, no corn, no soy, no cottonseed, or anything like that. We make sure that it’s local or if we bring it in, we make sure that it is certified non-GMO. We’re really particular on that.

The way our cows are treated, and then the way we treat the milk in the processing plant makes it different from others. On top of that, it’s local. So, all the milk that is going out is from right here in McLennan County.”

You sound very passionate about it now, but was this something you had envisioned for yourself growing up?

“Haha, no. In fact, I have two business degrees. I get to use them, but this is not at all what I thought I would be doing. Even for Craig, this is not necessarily what he thought he would be doing. But when we found this, we found that there was such a need.

We literally started out selling milk out of ice chests out of the back of our car. Then in 2012 we started doing the farmer’s markets in Austin. Our little girl at the time was only six months old. We would spend all day Friday getting ready, and then oh my gosh so early in the morning, ridiculously early in the morning, haul her and everything down there to Austin. Craig and his mom and I would each do a farmer’s market while his dad stayed here at the farm and took care of the cows.

We were able to meet different chefs in the area and get connected with some farm-to-table providers and just slowly grew the business by demand.

It’s not something that’s easy to do. It’s very, very difficult because we literally have our hand on every part of the process. You have to know a lot of things: You have to know about the dairy. You have to know about milk processing. You have to know about logistics and transportation and sales.

And, on the backside of it, you’ve got to be able to your make your money work. We’re connected to agriculture, and dairy specifically, so most banks with that sort of stuff, like, ran away screaming when we brought this idea to them because they thought this is never gonna work.

We had lots of trouble in the beginning. We really thought we’d be able to put a sign out in the yard, sell a ton of raw milk, and sell a ton of raw milk cheese. We even went to New York to learn how to make cheese. We tried all these other things in the beginning, but then we just had to follow where the market led us. So no, no one envisioned what we’re doing right now is what we’d be doing.”

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Check out the Mill-King Market & Creamery for a selection of clean, allergy-free, and locally-sourced produce + products + (of course) milk! Isn’t it fun to support locals who support other locals? Find even more local shops (AND earn rewards for your visits) on Towny, the free online and mobile app to exploring Waco!

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Tori Freeman is a Colorado native turned Texan and a graduate of Baylor University. She works as a part-time paralegal and creative freelancer with expertise spanning writing, editing, and photography. Tori knows firsthand how local businesses can change lives—she met her husband, Braden, while working at the Hippodrome! They now happily live in Waco with their spoiled golden-doodle and their even more spoiled baby boy.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that connects consumers with local businesses for coupons and other great deals. Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

By Tori Freeman

Many business owners have dreamed of owning their own store for years…not so for Kim Dailey. Though she’s never been especially artistic, she just kind of stumbled into a hidden talent of cake decorating. Turns out she stumbled into something pretty sweet. And suddenly, All Sugar’d Up was born (and we’re SO glad it was!).

What’s the scoop – or should I say slice – on All Sugar’d Up?

“Well short story version: I actually was working a full-time job in a call center and I was looking for something to do because I was bored when I got off work.

I started tinkering around with cake design and started making baby shower cakes for people at my job or their kids’ birthday cakes and then it just kind of blew up from there. I didn’t ever intend on this being what it was, but I found out that I had a knack for it. It kept growing and eventually it got to the point that I couldn’t maintain my current job and go home and bake all night long because I wasn’t sleeping.

So, I left my job at that time in 2012 and opened a store front. My husband literally found a spot that was open and he rented it. He just came in one day and said, ‘By the way, I did this. Get your stuff and go!’”

Had you always been a baker?

“Honestly, not really. My mom made my birthday cakes growing up and she was pretty crafty so she tinkered around with that kind of stuff. And I was around lots of birthday parties – my parents worked at a roller skating rink and they did birthday parties like every weekend, so I was around cake like all the time.

So I was familiar with it in general but I was never really a baker. The most I ever did was make some sugar cookies or chocolate cookies or something like that.

When I decided to start tinkering around, I took a Michael’s class, just one single class that taught us how to make buttercream and icing flowers and things like that. From there I just was like, you know this is pretty cool. I can do this.

After that, I engrossed myself in anything and everything to do with cake decorating. I was online looking at stuff, I stalked people’s Facebook pages, looking at high profile celebrity bakers and watched what they did and blew pictures up and sat down and just started teaching myself. I’d sit there and work and work and work at it until I figured out the technique. So, I’ve pretty much been self-taught.”

What’s your favorite memory involving cake?

“I told you my mom made my birthday cakes as a kid, and when I think back to the very first cake I can ever remember her making, it was a sun. She made the full round cake, and then she made another one and cut it into triangles to put around the outside and iced it up in yellow and covered it in coconut. I think she used maraschino cherries for the eyes and the nose and the mouth.

That’s the first cake that I ever remember from my childhood. And it doesn’t seem like it was anything big, but back then we were in a time where nobody had the big elaborate cakes. Everybody had a sheet cake, you know, they got a little sheet cake at a local grocery store.

But my mom always came up with something different every year, one year it was sunshine, the next year it’d be a rainbow. And so for me that was so special.”

Do you think there’s any misconceptions people have about cake decorating?

“I think the biggest misconception that people have is when they’re comparing a bakery like us to a supermarket or a grocery store. The work that we do here and the kind of cake that you get there are two completely different things.

Most people don’t understand the time that goes into making something. They think it’s just, oh I just call you and you can whip it up in an hour kind of thing.

They don’t understand the art that goes into it and the time that goes into it. It’s not a cake made in a grocery store that was frozen and shipped in and the decorator came in and slapped some icing on and wrote “Happy Birthday.”

This is something that’s custom. What you’re getting from us is a fresh, baked from-scratch cake with homemade icing and someone sitting down and custom creating what you envisioned. And that takes time. You know, just the general wedding cake, you’re talking 15, 20 hours of work between baking, decorating, stacking, all those sorts of things just for a simple wedding cake.”

That’s amazing! And you’ll have multiple orders at once – how do you get it all done?

“I struggled with that for a long time when I was doing everything on my own, and that’s why I wasn’t sleeping. Now, I’ve got two employees: one is my mother who is my primary baker. And then I have another employee that’s been here for almost two years. So we’ve developed ourselves a system now to get everything done.

Even so, when you hit wedding weeks, it is mass chaos and long hours. We’re here an hour or two before opening every single day, and there’s a lot of times we’re here hours after we close at night.

But it’s the life of a bakery, you do what you love and you build yourself a reputation based on the quality of your work. Cakes can be pretty all day long, but if they don’t taste good, nobody wants them. We pride ourselves on providing a product that not only looks spectacular, but it tastes just as good. Our customers come back time and time again.

That’s where our business has built itself so much over the past few years: word of mouth. The majority of our business has been off of referrals. People that have seen our work or have heard their friends talk about us, and they try us out once and they’re hooked. I can’t thank my customers enough for believing in us enough to give us a try, and then for telling everybody about us.”

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If you’ve been, you know: All Sugar’d Up is well worth a go! But before you drop by, you’ll want to check out Towny for some special deals. Towny is a free guide that helps you explore Waco businesses and rewards you for choosing local. Find Towny online or download the free phone app!

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Tori Freeman is a Colorado native turned Texan and a graduate of Baylor University. She works as a part-time paralegal and creative freelancer with expertise spanning writing, editing, and photography. Tori knows firsthand how local businesses can change lives—she met her husband, Braden, while working at the Hippodrome! They now happily live in Waco with their spoiled golden-doodle and their even more spoiled baby boy.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that connects consumers with local businesses. Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

By Tori Freeman

When I walked into Baylor Flowers to meet with Owner Kim Anderson and Shop Manager Lauren, the last thing I expected to hear was a science lesson and an art lesson, but that’s exactly what I got. That, and a behind-the-scenes peek into the colorful history of this flower shop.

Can you tell me a little about the history of the shop?

Kim: “It started in the ‘70s, but I haven’t pinpointed the exact date from the original owners. Anyway, it started as John’s Craft Gallery – I don’t actually know what they sold there.

It eventually turned into Baylor Balloons. In the ‘80s there was a big balloon craze, and I believe they even dressed up in costumes and delivered balloons sometimes. Now, I don’t know that for a fact, it’s just something that’s been passed down as “store legend.”

When the balloon craze started dying out, they incorporated flowers and we became Baylor Balloons & Flowers. And then there was a helium shortage, maybe 5 or 6 years ago. So we decided that was a good time to drop “Balloons.” We had been wanting to shorten it to Baylor Flowers for a little while anyway, because that’s the majority of what we do.”

I never knew that there was a helium shortage!

Lauren: “There’s actually one again now!”

Kim: “Yes, there are only two sources of helium in the whole world. One is in Amarillo, Texas, and one is across the ocean somewhere. At the last helium shortage, it got so bad that the helium was only being provided to hospitals, because some of their equipment runs off helium.

Of course, we learned all this at the time. We had never thought about where helium comes from before, it just comes in tanks! So, we did a lot of research during the last shortage.”

Lauren: “Because it’s a natural occurring resource, it’s not made in a lab. So, you have to capture it from the ground basically.”

Kim: “Kind of like natural gas, you have to mine it and make it usable. Sometimes the demand is more than the supply.

So, there’s a shortage going on right now, we just got two tanks of helium. The price doubled, and we don’t know when this one runs out if we’ll be able to get more or is it eventually going to get to where it’s hospitals only again.

So that’s just a little trivia! But back to the history…I started working for Baylor Flowers in 2004 under a different owner. And then in 2017 she decided to retire, and I bought the shop. So, I’ve basically had it for a year and a half.”

You started out as a delivery driver, right? Did you know much about flowers?

Kim: “Basically, delivery driver, answer phones and sweep.

I had taken some adult education classes just for fun, they used to be offered at TSTC. So that’s the only experience that I had.

Whenever we get new girls, we try to see if they’ve got a natural talent for arranging. So, I don’t know if that’s what happened to me. I don’t even remember how I started designing, but I did, and I had a knack for it. So, I ended up being the lead designer.”

Obviously you liked it enough to take over as owner.

Kim: “Yeah,” (she smiles). “It’s a lot of work, I don’t get to design as much now that I own it because there’s so much other stuff that I have to take care of, so I kinda miss that aspect, but when we’re busy I do get in there and get busy making floral arrangements. And I enjoy it. I think I enjoy it more now, because I miss it.”

What goes into designing a bouquet? Do you look for certain elements?

Lauren: “Mhmm. There’s the elements of design, so you have to look at your line, color, texture, shape…there’s like seven of them. And also you get to add in that element of fragrance as well, so that’s nice. You always want to make it pleasing to the eye, so there’s certain things you look for and there’s definitely things that do not go together.”

Kim: “Yeah, I’d say balance is a big element. Because if you’re out of balance, your whole arrangement doesn’t work…and that could be balance of color, balance of design, balance of textures.”

So it really is an ART FORM.

Kim: “Definitely. And we are all creative in other forms of art, whether with handwriting or drawing or something else, so it seems like

is kind of part of that artistic sphere.”

Lauren: “It’s definitely a way to create art every day in your job. Not necessarily something you get to keep or hang in a museum, but it does bring joy to other people so that’s really nice.”

What’s something about Baylor Flowers that would surprise people?

Kim: “Well, some people put things on their card messages that could be very…sometimes maybe racey? Or maybe should be something private.

Because they’re doing everything on the website, I guess they think that they’re very anonymous and they don’t realize that hey, that prints out on a piece of paper! And we see it.”

Lauren: “And it’s not very often. Most messages are usually pretty innocuous.”

Kim: “Yeah it’s rare, like maybe once a year. But it’s like…do they not realize that real people see this and it’s not just some robot that’s attaching your message? So, I think that’s kind of surprising sometimes.”

Lauren: “And I think another thing is, almost on a daily basis we get people who come in and say, “Oh my gosh I didn’t realize you had so much different stuff in here!” They don’t realize that we have all these gift choices, candles, jewelry, little home decor items.”

I had no idea either to be honest. It seems like a lot of the stuff you’re selling is locally made?

Lauren: “We try really hard to keep it local if possible and different and unique. There are soo many shops in Waco that sell a lot of the same type of stuff. So, it’s nice to try to have stuff that’s different.”

Kim: “And that’s very hard to do. Sometimes we get things because we like the philanthropy behind them. I wouldn’t say that’s the only reason, but it helps us.

Like our Pinch Me therapy dough – it’s like a play dough for adults, I mean kids can use it too, but it’s infused with essential oils. So when you play with it, it kind of has a calming effect. A lot of our student workers get it and roll it around while they’re studying for a test or something.”

Lauren: “We’ve had several teachers, counselors and therapists that come in here and get it and have it in their office where they meet with clients. And part of the proceeds from that go to help veterans with PTSD.

And then our neighborhood candles, they’re actually made in South Carolina or North Carolina—I can’t remember which one—but the lady who owns the company is actually from Waco.

They have different scents in their catalog and then you pick a certain scent and you say, I want to call that “Wacotown” or “Austin Ave.” As far as I know, nobody else in Waco carries those candles, at least under those names. And they’re soy so they burn clean.

Those are just a couple of our items with stories behind them, but we try to have a good mixture of gifts in here!”

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Whether you’re looking for a pick-me-up bouquet for you or yours, a gorgeous arrangement for your wedding, or the perfect gift for your new little, Baylor Flowers is worth a trip. To explore more local Waco businesses (and get rewarded for it!) be sure to take a peek at our online guide to locally-owned business in your community! Or download the Towny app to your phone for a free on-the-go guide!

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Tori Freeman is a Colorado native turned Texan and a graduate of Baylor University. She works as a part-time paralegal and creative freelancer with expertise spanning writing, editing, and photography. Tori knows firsthand how local businesses can change lives—she met her husband, Braden, while working at the Hippodrome! They now happily live in Waco with their spoiled golden-doodle and their even more spoiled baby boy.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that exists to connect consumers with local businesses. It’s loaded with answers to the question, “Why local?” Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy it! Supporting local business is a terrific way to support the Waco economy! Plus, it’s just fun to get to know your neighbors. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

by Tori Freeman

What do hot air balloons and hamburgers have in common?

Long ago, a cross-country hot air balloon trip gone astray landed one fame-seeking, adventure-chasing Captain Billy Whizzbang in central Texas. Too ashamed of his failed attempt to return home, Capt. Billy instead invented a specially prepared hamburger and opened up Captain Billy Whizzbang’s Old Fashion All American Hamburger Stand. Or so the story goes.

In today’s post, Captain Billy Whizzbang’s honors the legacy of the famed Capt. Billy by serving up the same old-fashioned style of burgers. Owner Trent Neumann shared with us some of what’s been cooking over at his restaurant…

Can you tell me about the origin of this restaurant and how you got connected with Captain Billy Whizzbang’s?

“The business started back in 1977. A guy by the name of Mike Parton started it a long time ago. It went through a couple different owners’ hands, and I bought it in July of 2009.

“The guys who owned it before me were friends of mine and they were looking to sell it. It was actually me and my dad who went in and bought it. And then about a year and a half later, I bought my dad out of it.”

What changes have you made since you took over?

“We cleaned it up a bit but we kept the same kind of tradition. Captain Billy Whizzbang’s has been around a long time, so there’s a lot of good things that were already going on. We kept with the same old-school way of doing stuff, buying everything fresh and as much local as we can.

“For example, we buy all of our meat every day from the local meat market here in town. I call first thing in the morning, like 7 o’clock every morning, and tell them how much meat we need. They deliver that fresh every day, and then we take that meat, mix in our seasonings, and then hand patty every patty.”

What makes Captain Billy Whizzbang’s stand out from other restaurants?

“That’s the main thing that makes us, in my opinion, so much better – the freshness of everything that we do and then the attention to detail that we have. Everything we make is to order. We don’t pre-cook anything. We don’t hold anything in warmers. We don’t do any of that kind of stuff. As soon as people walk in and place their order, we make it exactly how they want it and fresh every time.

“We also have something on our menu called our Whizz-Pigg hamburger, which is a half ground bacon, half ground beef patty. It’s been one of our favorites for the about last four years.

“That’s actually the burger that was featured when the TV show, The Texas Bucket List, came in and did a special on us. That was in March of 2017.

“Then a couple months later, toward the end of their season, I got another call. They feature a burger restaurant every episode, so at the end of the season they do a special on their top five burgers of the season. They picked ours as their number one, so that was really good for us.”

Do you have any other highlights or favorite parts of running the business?

“Seeing how much we’ve grown is one thing. We went from doing anywhere from 75 to 100 hamburgers a day to now we’re making around 300 to 350 hamburgers a day. It’s pretty fun to see that kind of growth.

“Also, adding our food trucks was a big deal. We have two food trucks right now. One of them is at the Silos every day. And then the other one we use for a lot of catering and to go out to special events and different festivals.”

Are there any customer interactions that stand out to you?

“I can’t think of any individual, but we definitely have a pretty loyal following here in Waco. I would say that probably 60 or 70 percent of our customers eat here at least once or twice a week. We even have one guy who comes in almost every single day to get food. So, we have a close relationship with a lot of our customers, and to see that is pretty neat.”

What do you love most about the Waco community?

“Oh, Waco is just awesome. I mean the local people are great. They tend to really support local businesses. As many other restaurants – and especially bigger chain hamburger restaurants – as have come into our area, we have never seen it affect our business at all.

“If anything, we’ve grown at a steady pace. That alone shows that the local community really supports us, and they really support local businesses in general, which is pretty awesome. Anything that we can do to give back and to help support Waco, we try to do.”

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Well, Waco, you’ve earned yourself a shout out for supporting local! Keep up the good work with the help of Towny – your free online guide to shopping local. (PS – Want it on the go? There’s an app for that!)

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Tori Freeman is a Colorado native turned Texan and a graduate of Baylor University. She works as a part-time paralegal and creative freelancer with expertise spanning writing, editing, and photography. Tori knows firsthand how local businesses can change lives—she met her husband, Braden, while working at the Hippodrome! They now happily live in Waco with their spoiled golden-doodle and their even more spoiled baby boy.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that exists to connect consumers with local businesses. It’s fairly new to Waco and is loaded with answers to the question, “Why local?” Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy it! Supporting local business is a terrific way to support the Waco economy! Plus, it’s just fun to get to know your neighbors. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

by Beth Whittington

There are people you just get a good feeling about. Good on their word, inability to be anything but transparent. Honest, hard-working, fair.

Meet Phillip Brown of Brown Auto Repair in Waco!

We had a chat about what makes Brown Auto the place to be in Waco when your car’s (fill-in-the-blank) goes out. Customer-focused and seriously good for a laugh, enjoy what we learned from Phillip about Brown’s below!

WHAT SETS BROWN AUTO REPAIR APART?

Most of my customers are clientele I’ve dealt with for ten to 17 years.

When I was working for other shops, they were customers there. I went out on my own and a lot of them followed me. And that’s just because they like my work. They trusted me. We don’t have that typical stereotype of your JiffyLube or something. We’re a family-owned business. Most of my business has come off of word of mouth, a friend telling a friend.

I HEAR YOU’RE ONE OF THE NICEST GUYS AROUND. IS THAT TRUE?

“OH! Well, depends on who you ask!” he laughs, “But yeah, I mean we try to treat everybody fair. You must be reading my reviews.”

(I wasn’t, but it caused me to want to!) Here’s a peek at a Brown Auto Repair customer review:

“First time but will be my go-to place for now on. The team is friendly and willing to go the extra mile. They treated me with the best care and the price was amazing. It was one of those shops that when you pay you know you got your money’s worth. How many other shops can you say that about? Again, thank you for your speedy help in a time crunch.” Armando R., 10/24/18

(Thanks, Armando.)

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

“I’ve been in Waco all my life.”

I ask Phillip about Brown’s pricing, compared to other businesses in the area. He lets me know without meaning to let me know they are significantly under what some are charging, and a little cheaper than everybody else. He called it a “very competitive rate.”

I get the feeling this place is capable of handling the city’s trust. Oddly enough, Brown Auto does handle the region’s trust:  “We do all of the service work for the Department of Public Safety, the DPS, around here. The State Troopers.”

HOW’D YOU START BROWN’S ANYWAY?

I bought it from Danny Dennis. He was here, shoot, since the 70s, built a new building in the 90s, and then he retired and that’s when I bought the business from him. Well, actually bought the building and the property; I didn’t buy the clientele or the name. I built the clientele.

WILL YOU SHARE A STORY WITH US?

“Yeah! There was a gentleman here last year. He was traveling from Austin to Dallas. He was actually entered in the Major League Baseball draft and he was trying to get from Austin to Dallas to be there for the draft and his alternator went out here in Waco.

It was about 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon when it went out. He pulled up, was freaking out because– (Phillip chuckles as he remembers) he was trying to go to the major leagues on draft day and his alternator went out!

I was able to have the part sent to me and we stayed, oh, about an hour and a half two hours after close. Got him going just so he could get to where he needed to be.”

THAT’S CERTAINLY VERY KIND.

“And, you know, I don’t want to do that every day, but he was appreciative of it. He told me when he made it big and famous he’d give me a spot on the radio.”

“There was another gentleman who’d been through Hurricane Harvey. They were flooded out and he had a vacant rent house in Fort Worth they had been meaning to do some work on, so he and his family loaded up an RV and traveled there.

In the meantime, his truck that he pulls the RV with, the clutch went out while he was in Fort Worth. He had a clutch put in by another shop. He was coming down 35. They didn’t tighten some stuff up on the driveshaft and driveline and it threw all of that out of the truck.

He got his truck and RV towed to me, we parked the RV in our yard for about three days. The Dodge parts had to come out of Detroit, Michigan so we were waitin’ on parts. He had a cruise scheduled, so he left all of his stuff here after they stayed a few days in the parking lot and they went to the cruise and when they got back, we had his stuff ready and he came and picked it up.

There are a couple of instances where people are just like, ‘What do I do?!’ Like I say, it’s not what you want to do but, you kind of put yourself in their shoes and you kinda gotta– well, I like to do what’s right and that’s what we did.”

WOW, THAT’S REALLY OVER AND ABOVE.

“We try to take care of our customers and like I say, I’ll probably never see the guy again. But you know, it got him on his way. It ain’t all about money and repeat customers because good things will come back to you.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU WHEN SOMEONE CHOOSES TO SHOP LOCAL VS. GOING TO A CHAIN?

We give them a personal relationship. I mean, I’m here answering the phone. I’m talking to the customers every day; it’s not a guy that’s hired off and paid to do that. This is my business and I’m here every day and that’s what sets us apart from a chain or somebody that just is there for the money.

I didn’t get into this to be rich or become rich because you’re not going to. I got into this because I was a mechanic for many years and I didn’t like what I saw people doing to just common folk, taking advantage of them and just– the upselling, telling them they need all their fluids changed when they didn’t. I got tired of seeing that, I was able to do my own thing, and here we are.

Been doing it so long, I really don’t know anything else other than maybe cowboyin’.

If you’ve got natural talent– I see kids all the time that say, ‘I want to be a mechanic.’ And they go to school and get all the credentials and graduate and they can’t fix a ham sandwich let alone a car.

SO, WHAT DOES WACO NEED TO KNOW YOU GUYS OFFER?

We do all major automotive repairs, A/C and heat, motors, transmissions, rear ends, brakes. The only things that we don’t do are state inspections, alignments, and tires.

We do all the major repairs, engine work – the big stuff, that’s what we do.

*****

Hey, Waco. When you take your car by Brown’s for “the big stuff,” it pays Phillip’s staff, cares for his kids, and supports his local dreams. It also supports your local economy, and that’s good because then we’re taking care of our teachers, first responders, and things like our roads.

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Beth Whittington remembers sitting on the Waco suspension bridge as a girl, visiting family friends. Legs dangling off, watching the Fourth of July fireworks spark the sky. Been a Waco local for the better part of 19 years.  Gaps explainable by the awkwardly untrue term of “ex-missionary.” Beth thrives on: generating ideas + copywriting. Can’t wait to: visit South Africa. Favorite part of Waco: Bangkok Royale + the HOTHTC. Wants: everyone in Waco to get Towny because it’ll make life better for us all if we let it. 

Take your local support up a notch – pop in Towny + have a look around. When you use Towny, the free app that guides you to shop local, YOU get REWARDED, on top of all that goodness. Don’t wait – it only benefits you! Download Towny here or for the anti-app-users among us, just hop over here!

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that exists to connect consumers with local businesses. It’s fairly new to Waco and is loaded with answers to the question, “Why local?” Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy it! Supporting local business is a terrific way to support the Waco economy! Plus, it’s just fun to get to know your neighbors. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

by Beth Whittington

Ross and Beth Harris have considered Waco their permanent home since 2003.  Ross was with a store called Outdoor Waco. Bicycle World bought Outdoor Waco and then sold the water rentals part of the business to Ross and Beth 2016. The couple, along with Beth’s sister, Sarah Raley, rebranded the business as Waco Paddle Company.

All three of them had an interest in the outdoors – we’re talking rock climbing, camping, mountain biking, swimming, canoe and stand-up paddling.   Beth was an outdoor recreation major at Baylor (Ross and Sarah’s alma mater as well!) Before she and Ross had their first child in 2015, she had been the Director of Recreational Services at Methodist Children’s Home for five years. Between her experience and Ross’s experience with Outdoor Waco, it seemed like a great opportunity.

We met up with Sarah Raley, to learn more about the business of the Brazos. What we didn’t know was – for Sarah, there is waaay more behind the word “marine” than water sports. Here’s a gorgeous example of local leadership AND the, no doubt, interesting journey of this mother of two.

Sarah, how did you get involved in Waco Paddle Company?

“I came to Baylor in 2005. My husband, too…We left for me to go to law school in Austin. I joined the Marine Corps and I was a judge advocate — I was a lawyer in the Marine Corps — up until last year in Okinawa, Japan. We visited Texas before we permanantly moved back to the States. We were in Austin and Dallas and Waco, and we were just like – man, Waco is such a great place.

We really feel strongly that Waco Paddle Company can add value to people’s lives. Get them outdoors. It’s fun and relaxing; it’s adventurous. It’s an activity, exercise and you don’t even mean it to be. Sometimes when you’re on the water it feels like you’re by yourself. There’s nothing else going on. It’s a fun thing to be a part of. No one gets off the water, and comes back in upset or disappointed.”

Did you enjoy your time in the military?

“It was a very interesting, very valuable thing to go through, though there were certainly parts of it I didn’t enjoy. I was prosecuting a sexual assault case and our judge was a reserve colonel getting his reserve time by coming over and presiding over some of our cases.

It turned out that he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Austin. He said, the kind of cases you just prosecuted, you would have had to be in my office for 10 years to have even been a fourth seat on a case like this and you’re getting to do it. Overall, the experience was very, very good.”

So, being a part of the community sounds like a huge value to Waco Paddle Company?

“We try to be involved in anything that makes sense as a watercraft rental business on the Brazos… When there are events on the water like TriWaco or Sharkfest, we provide kayaks for the lifeguards.

We do a quarterly river clean up with Keep Waco Beautiful where they bring in loads and loads of volunteers.

We want to be stewards of the river.  We want people to appreciate and care for not only the Brazos but Texas waterways in general, so we want to be involved in that.

Our dock is going to be the entry point for the swim portion of the IronMan!”

And you guys do all this with four kids under three years old!

“Maybe that’s the reason. We all need something to pour our intellectual energy into because we’re dealing with little kids all the time!”

What does Waco Paddle offer the community, specifically?

“We have stand-up paddle boards, we have single and double kayaks, and canoes. You can rent them anywhere from an hour to all day. We see lots of families coming out or people trying this out a first time or a group of girls coming out looking for something fun to do. Our clientele for rentals is very widespread!

What’s awesome about kayaking, paddle boarding or canoeing – you can do it when you’re older. It doesn’t require a lot of physicality to do it. Anyone can do it!

We have infant life jackets. My niece that’s going to turn one soon – she’s gone out of couple times. We just put her in a little infant life jacket and she just sits right in front of you. My boys love it.

The rentals are so accessible. Our staff gets you set up, they get you your lifejackets. They show you how to hold your paddle; they show you how to do different types of strokes and they help you get on the water so it’s so accessible for anyone. For families, for groups, for kids of all ages; it’s so great.

Along with our rentals, we’ve been doing night paddles on Friday nights. You go out from 8-10PM and watch the sunset on the river. Paddling at night time is just a different type of adventure because it’s dark. But, in downtown Waco all of the bridges are lit up and you’re paddling by the light of the suspension bridge.

We’ve had people come out for every single one and they get off the water and say, when’s the next one? We’ll see you then! It’s just different. It’s so peaceful. There’s even less ambient noise out there. It has a different feel to it.”

What about for kids?

“We did camps this summer. (It probably doesn’t hurt that it’s like 100 degrees outside!)

The kids learned how to operate all of our different watercraft – kayaks, canoes, and stand up paddle boards – but in a really fun way. They played Capture the Flag and did races to practice the paddle techniques. They did an extended paddle trip down the Brazos.  They put in at the MCC dock and they would spend the entirety of that day paddling back to our dock.

EVERYONE loved it. We got great feedback from all the parents. We ended up with about 10 kids per session. We would do up to 20 kids per session, but we’d never have a ratio beyond one staff for every five campers.”

What’s new for Wacoans and Waco Paddle Co.?

We’re planning on offering paddle trips to EVERYONE on Saturdays this fall. Kind of what we did for kids’ camps, but we’re going to do a different put in location. People would come to Waco Paddle Company and we would transport everyone and the boats to a put in location.

It takes paddlers out of the totally urban realm and takes people into more adventure. When you paddle on the Brazos, you don’t see any homes or things like that, it gives you a good sense of adventure.

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Beth Whittington remembers sitting on the Waco suspension bridge as a girl, visiting family friends. Legs dangling off, watching the Fourth of July fireworks spark the sky. Been a Waco local for the better part of 19 years.  Gaps explainable by the awkwardly untrue term of “ex-missionary.” Beth thrives on: generating ideas + copywriting. Can’t wait to: visit South Africa. Favorite part of Waco: Bangkok Royale + the HOTHTC. Wants: everyone in Waco to get Towny because it’ll make life better for us all if we let it. 

Take your local support up a notch – pop in Towny + have a look around.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 

 

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that exists to connect consumers with local businesses. It’s fairly new to Waco and is loaded with answers to the question, “Why local?” Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy it! Supporting local business is a terrific way to support the Waco economy! Plus, it’s just fun to get to know your neighbors. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

by Beth Whittington

Normally, a gymnastics facility is just that, but at Flips Gymnastics in Waco, Texas, there’s (unintentionally!) much, much more behind the name. We’re hearing from Stephanie Mayfield, owner of Flips, to hear about the place where generation after generation are…learning to flip!

What’s the story behind Flips?

I lived outside of Dallas, in Duncanville, and did competitive gymnastics for seven years with coach Darlene Brooks at her gym, Duncanville Gymnastics Center. It was so different then – I actually didn’t start until I was 10 and did it until I was 17.

(Stephanie won three state championships, went to nationals, and was a regional competitor in Texas.)

I also worked for Darlene through high school. I got out of competitive gymnastics and did cheer my senior year and went on to the University of Texas at Arlington – majored in business. Duncanville wasn’t very far from Arlington so when I was 20, I worked for her again for my last two years of college at the gymnastic center that I grew up in.

Darlene and her husband inherited some land and were going to be moving to West, Texas. For one of my projects at school, we did a business plan on starting a gym in Waco. (Stephanie laughs.) That was Flips!

So, I proposed it to Darlene’s husband and he said if you can find a gym, we’ll see. We found an existing gym in Hewitt. Darlene and her husband bought it out, and that became Flips.

I managed Flips starting in 1993. I coached and Darlene coached, we both were very involved with it. Ten years later, in 2003, we bought another existing facility in Waco, actually the location we are in now. In 2008, my husband and I bought the Brooks’ out and have owned Flips for the last 10 years and Darlene actually runs our office – she’s our office manager. (Plot twist! Didn’t see that one coming!) She is still there; we have not parted ways. My husband now coaches, we offer recreational gymnastics, and have been opened for 25 years!

How does Flips benefit kids?

It can be SO beneficial for kids at every level. You do not have to be that kid that thinks they’re going to be in the Olympics. It’s so beneficial for every other sport, you know?

I don’t know that we see the fruit of everything we build, but we have kids in all the time where their doctors say they need to be more coordinated, they need to have more body control – and everything these kids are doing in gymnastics– that’s exactly what they’re improving. They look like they’re swinging on a ring and dropping in a pit. But they’re learning to control their body and when they land, they’re not just flopping and hurting themselves. There are so many things they learn!

We have kids who started out at three and four and five years old. They go on to play soccer and when they trip on the soccer field, instead of hitting the ground on their face, they know to roll out. They have so much more body control in other sports. We’re just building a good foundation that leads to a lot of things. And then some kids learn to tumble and go on to do cheer or diving. But what we give them as young kids – strength, flexibility, and body awareness – you don’t get in other sports.

What did gymnastics teach you as a kid? 

I spent hours and hours in the gym so learning self-discipline, learning to prioritize my time, a work ethic I wouldn’t have gotten had I not gone deep into a competitive sport. It taught me a lot of independence, that an injury can change everything. If you have big goals and then have an injury, it deters your entire focus. I learned about failure, as well. I had a lot of success, but I had to learn to fail, too.

What do you offer at Flips?

There’s not the intensity here that I had growing up in gym. We want to provide a safe place; we want them smiling, happy. We don’t offer a pressure sport; we want them to learn skills, have fun with their friends, and have some value come out of it as well.

We start at two and a half-year-olds – our kids take gymnastics until age 12. We offer recreational gymnastics that has all the events: vault, bars, balance beams, floor, trampolines, safety foam pit, rings, all within a 15,000 square foot facility that is fully air-conditioned. (Stephanie wanted everyone to know that!!)

And then we offer a basic cheer/tumble class and a basic tumble class. We don’t offer competitive cheer or gymnastics but we do offer grooming for both of those. Both boys and girls come to Flips, beginner to advanced classes. It’s mostly a one hour a week recreational gymnastics class.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about Flips? 

I don’t think a lot of people know our story. Especially when they walk in, because, a lot of people that call the gym know Darlene, like, they know her name, but they have no idea that the backstory is that our roles are almost entirely flipped, except, in addition, she was my coach. I think that backstory makes the story of our gym quite different. A lot of people don’t even know she ever coached gymnastics, much less was my coach and owned the gym at one time.

What has the relationship been like?

She was my coach, which– any competitive gymnast has a very strong relationship with your coach because you spend so much time with them, weekly. So, she was very much a mother figure to me for many years and it evolved, more so as I got to be a little older, into a friendship. And we truly are best friends. Before we knew our spouses, we knew each other. We have a very long history. We have known each other for 37 years. We have always had a respect for one another that we could respect our work roles yet change over and have a personal friendship outside of work. It’s a pretty rare thing we’ve been able to do – work for each other and sell a business one to the other and then, still, we are best friends.

What do You two like to do together outside of work?

We don’t spend as much time as we used to, but (she laughs) we eat Mexican food every week together! We’re just good friends all the time, though. We’ve vacationed together…we were in each others’ weddings. I actually wore her wedding dress!

What does it mean to you when people shop local?

The mere fact that we do have a wonderful gym. We have many, many people who took at Flips when they were children and now bring their child. That’s SUCH a compliment. People tell their friends to bring their kids here and that is the BEST compliment I could get.

What do you love about Waco?

I love that it is a city but that it has such a small-town feel, I love that it’s Christ-centered. It’s a wonderful place to raise your kids. It’s such a great environment to raise your kids…I love that you turn on the TV and see people you know. You open up magazines and see people you know. It is big enough that people you meet, you may not know them, but you know the same people – you’re inner-connected.

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Beth Whittington remembers sitting on the Waco suspension bridge as a girl, visiting family friends. Legs dangling off, watching the Fourth of July fireworks spark the sky. Been a Waco local for the better part of 19 years.  Gaps explainable by the awkwardly untrue term of “ex-missionary.” Beth thrives on: generating ideas + copywriting. Can’t wait to: visit South Africa. Favorite part of Waco: Bangkok Royale + the HOTHTC. Wants: everyone in Waco to get Towny because it’ll make life better for us all if we let it. 

Take your local support up a notch – pop in Towny + have a look around.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 

 

 

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that exists to connect consumers with local businesses. It’s fairly new to Waco and is loaded with answers to the question, “Why local?” Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy it! Supporting local business is a terrific way to support the Waco economy! Plus, it’s just fun to get to know your neighbors. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

By Beth Whittington

“For 12 years, I saw this. Tutoring and mentoring North Waco students, we built real relationship, connection – and then we’d lose them to getting a job because they were needed to help support their families.

I observed that our kids were ill-prepared for real-life jobs – basic job skills like showing up on time, making sure you get a ride, getting along with your co-workers were a big challenge for our students, so a lot of kids lost their jobs as fast as they got them.

It put a seed inside of me. I thought, ‘What is it that I can do, practically, to put us in a position where we would have something, a real-life place, for kids to come and learn those skills?”

Kim Cutler, Waco resident of 32 years, has (obviously) spent years developing her “part” in caring for unsupported youth through the business of baking.

“I began to roll the idea around in my heart and saw that I practically enjoyed cooking and had already been baking with a lot of our kiddos. I thought it was a role the kids could handle.”

She wanted to have something that wasn’t a church program but a real-life pressure, where, the kids knew – this is really a job and you really have to be on time, have to do the job well.

Baking was something she knew she could bring to the table with excellence, so Kim began inching in that direction, a little at a time.

Where she inched:

• Kim graduated from Baylor University – 1990
• Antioch Training School – 1991-1992
• Worked among Waco’s unsupported youth – 1992-2007
• Employed at Starbucks to prepare for running her own bakery – 2007-2014
• Went part-time at Starbucks to push Baked Bliss, working out of her house – 2012-2014
• Left Starbucks to bake full-time, out of her house, received an offer to bake wholesale goods for a large-scale company, giving her the opportunity to leave the house and get into a commercial kitchen – 2014
• Ended the contract with the wholesaler – February 2018
• Opened Baked Bliss (1114 N 15th St), Kim’s walk-up with outdoor seating + misters, to the public – May 2017 to today!

What’s something most folks wouldn’t even know that’s special about this place?

“A majority of our things are from scratch. Premium baked goods sometimes take extra steps. My goal is: let’s do whatever it takes to make this the best product we can and put in people’s hands. It might require more in labor, but it’s going to be worth it.

I think that stems from growing up in a household where, what comes out of the kitchen from my mom, my grandmothers, whenever we had family coming over, you just always did what needed to get done to make this a dish or a meal that was going to be a real blessing for everyone.

What’s it take to make a quality product? If i’m treating my customers like family, then it’s not going to be, ‘Yeah, that’s good enough.’ We just don’t put it out there if it’s not going to be exceptional for people.”

So, what’s on the menu?

“We offer limited, breakfast menu items like quiche; our breakfast empanadas kind of have a Mexican flair to them. They’re made with a lean chorizo with peppers, those are really good. Pastries. We’re really well-known for our cinnamon rolls and our bacon cheddar scones. We always have some kind of pie on hand – and some cake. Like a good southern woman, so you have something on hand to offer your guest. A well-rounded sweet and savory menu.

You can order from us, too. Baked Bliss’ tag line is ‘Baked Bliss is a celebration of all things baked.’

We use food to celebrate life.

Someone gets a cookie for making a good grade on a test, we bring breakfast items over for having a baby, got engaged – we use a cake to celebrate. We use food to celebrate – I’d like to be a place where people think, ‘Oh! We have a little celebration in our life. Let’s head to Baked Bliss and get a little something to celebrate with.’ Whether that’s a wedding cake, neighbor that just moved in, cookies, there’s always room to celebrate with a baked good.”

What’s after breakfast…dessert? 

“Haaa, YES. Our chocolate chip cookies do really well. Lemon shortbread and pecan shortbread.”

(I catch a practiced-to-perfection gleam in her eye as she describes.)

“It’s a rotating cupcake offering – we try to offer at least three or four different flavors a day: two, featured specialty cupcakes and then a couple more standard flavors like chocolate, vanilla, maybe a red velvet. So, there are options. Those are Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes (which is amazing) and a ganache-filled S’more cupcake.”

(I tasted these two offerings. If I were a dead woman, this cupcake made me alive. YES. That is a S’MORE. CUPCAKE. With a marshmallow-meringue topping. If I were you, I might think, “S’more cupcake? That’s tooooo much.” And then I ate it. And wanted five more. Sorry not sorry. True story. YOLO. Etc.)

“People are spending their hard-earned money, and yeah, it’s a cookie, it’s a cupcake, but we live in a day and age where when people eat sweets, it’s a treat. You just hope it’s going to be something really delicious. That’s what motivates me. My prayer is that, what we offer people is the very best that we can give. It just can’t be about it just being good enough. It needs to have excellence on it.”

When people buy local, What does it mean for the community? 

“I think with buying local, it’s so significant to keep the money flowing here, local. That’s what I love about Towny, because there’s such a strong sense of community in our town to support local businesses. And it really does keep that going. Like when you think of going and getting some pastries from somewhere. Coming to our place … you are definitely keeping the funding IN your community. You’re keeping that money flowing to support your community. Our mission at Baked Bliss is to serve the community quality baked goods and to serve peoples’ lives. Being able to do that allows us to reach INTO the community, not just food, but to serve them emotionally and being IN the community and being PART of the community. I don’t know, that’s just a big part of me.”

What’s the next big thing for Baked Bliss?

Next-step thinking for Baked Bliss would be solidifying and growing the Baked Bliss name. Longer term goals include taking Baked Bliss to other cities, both in the States and other parts of the world, where we see opportunities to serve. For now, we are still introducing people to the joys of Baked Bliss deliciousness. And learning how to bring our best to the table.

‘Bliss’ means ‘heavenly joy’ or ‘complete happiness.’  We hope we can create a little piece of Heaven on Earth both in our food, but also in the experience our customers have when they come to visit.”

If bliss is what you’re after, head over to Towny – don’t miss the local perks you + your loved ones can find when you download the app (for FREE). Once you’ve done that, check out what Kim is whipping up for you at Baked Bliss + change YOUR community, one meaningful purchase at a time.

Baked Bliss welcomes you! Enjoy their mist-ers when there’s a line and while you eat your goodies on the porch! (Baked Bliss is located at 1114 N 15th St, open 7AM – 2PM most days.  Closed Tuesdays.  Saturday, 8AM – 1PM. Sunday, 8 AM – 11 AM.)

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Beth Whittington remembers sitting on the Waco suspension bridge as a girl, visiting family friends. Legs dangling off, watching the Fourth of July fireworks spark the sky. Been a Waco local for the better part of 19 years.  Gaps explainable by the awkwardly untrue term of “ex-missionary”  Beth thrives on: generating ideas + copywriting. Can’t wait to: visit South Africa. Favorite part of Waco: Bangkok Royale + the HOTHTC. Wants: everyone in Waco to get Towny because it’ll make life better for us all if we let it. 

Take your local support up a notch – pop in Towny + have a look around.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 

 

 

(Welcome to the Act Locally Waco/Towny blog series. Towny is an app that exists to connect consumers with local businesses. It’s fairly new to Waco and is loaded with answers to the question, “Why local?” Through this blog series, the folks at Towny will be sharing the stories behind some of our high-quality, local products and helping you get to know some of our energetic local entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy it! Supporting local business is a terrific way to support the Waco economy! Plus, it’s just fun to get to know your neighbors. For more posts in this blog series, click here: Towny Waco.– ALW)

By Beth Whittington

Surrounded by neat rows of weed eaters for sale, sticky notes, the hard rock music turned down lower than usual so we could hear each other talk, we sat down with John Fleming and Carla Winder to get knee-deep in the business of fixing mowers.

Central Texas Mowers is not a lawn mowing service. They specialize in small engine repair and hand-held equipment like blowers and weed eaters, generators, water pumps, commercial equipment like shaker plates and rollers… a variety of things. If a human put it together, they can probably fix it.

Folks drive in from up to three hours away to have this team look at their lawnmowers. It’s common for a customer to think it’s going to cost a whole lot more than it does and to be pleasantly surprised when they see the repair ticket. Every repair comes with a complimentary wash, to which many respond, “I didn’t know my machine could look like that again!”

The Central Texas Mowers team can do a world of good for your mowers and lawn equipment: engine swaps, tune-ups, repairs, you name it. Let’s get to know them better…

Beth: How did Central Texas Mowers start? 

John: I was working at Landscape Supply as their head technician. I grew up doing this stuff anyway, with my dad.

I was getting my own shop ready to open and I got hurt. Got on workers’ compensation. They cut my benefits off, but I wasn’t released from the doctor to go to work so, I went for about a year without income. I was fixing to start losing stuff, selling things, and I thought, “Well, I gotta do something!” I borrowed some money from my wife, got the first few jobs, and went from there.

Beth: What was it like working with your dad?

John: I’m not going to say it was all roses! Growing up, he worked for Montgomery Ward. He was the head technician over there and he had a shop sitting over here (he points) on this little slab, forever, for 40 something years. So, he did appliances and we did lawn equipment. We were his kids, so we did what he said to do! And I hate working on appliances to this day! (Gives a hearty laugh.) I grew up on this property, graduated from La Vega.

Beth: It’s a family business. Why do you work here, Carla?

Carla: I love it. I like that I just deal with people, one-on-one.

John: We’ve known each other (he pauses to count the years and concludes) …forever, pretty much. I dated her sister, Shannon, back in high school. And when we split up, my brother, Nathan, became friends with Shannon’s brothers, Arty and Lonnie. So, we were always around each other…it was always meant to be. I feel that.

Beth: Where’d you work out of in the beginning?  

John: We used this office we’re sitting in, but it was a paint booth. I worked on cars before, on the side, because – I love cars. I’m a car guy. I’d paint, do bodywork. Anything I could do to a car. I love cars.

(He laughs.)

It was hot and sweaty, trying to do paperwork. I’m not even gonna lie; it was miserable. We just built this out into an office and got A/C this year. I still don’t take a paycheck here. Everything goes right back into this place.

Beth: What do you love about cars?

John: I love being able to put my hands on ’em, tweak ’em, listen to them. I love the way they sound, especially if it’s running right. It’s like lawnmowers – it’s got a certain sound you just have to listen for it. I don’t know; I’m weird. Engines are like people; they’ve all got their own attitude. They really do. They start by being cold to being hot. You’ve just gotta know your equipment. To me, they’ve just all got their own personality in the way they run – you can hear it.

(He’s an engine whisperer.)

Beth: Any memorable jobs that you’ve done?

Carla: (She jokes) …You mean, like when a mower’s so old it doesn’t have a serial number so we’ve got to hunt down the parts to fix it? But, we do. We go the distance for them. We have some very thankful customers.

John: That one man carried his mower to four different shops! They kept messing it up. Finally, he brought it to us and we haven’t seen him since!

Beth: What’d you do to it?

John: I can’t even remember. I remember him, but I don’t remember his mower. People come in and ask, “Is my mower ready?” They both laugh, “Which one’s yours?”

Beth: What’s something special about this place that most folks don’t know?

(Long pause.)

Carla: That’s a hard question because people already know he’s good at what he does. Many of them say that. People just come here to ask John’s opinion… (she laughs) Because they know he’s going to tell them the truth.

John: I’m forthcoming. Some like that and some. do. not.

(I asked for an example; he obliged…)

If I think your equipment is a piece of junk or you’re asking me about a mower across town, I’ll let you know. I try to be subtle about it but – you know, that’s why a lot of customers like coming here, because I tell it like it is.

Beth: Imagine what Waco would be like if everyone bought locally?

John: (His eyes lit up.) Oh, it would THRIVE! It would be amazing. For everyone, for Waco.

If your lawn equipment has been having ish-ues, let Central Texas Mowers bring that thing back to life for you. In the meantime, download the Towny app to continue to support businesses like John’s.  Don’t miss everrrrything Waco has to offer you, locally!

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Beth Whittington remembers sitting on the Waco suspension bridge as a girl, visiting family friends. Legs dangling off, watching the Fourth of July fireworks spark the sky. Been a Waco local for the better part of 19 years.  Gaps explainable by the awkwardly untrue term of “ex-missionary”  Beth thrives on: generating ideas + copywriting. Can’t wait to: visit South Africa. Favorite part of Waco: Bangkok Royale + the HOTHTC. Wants: everyone in Waco to get Towny because it’ll make life better for us all if we let it. 

Take your local support up a notch – pop in Towny + have a look around.

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.