This book was written from the point of view of a 4 year old girl and is the way she remembers it. It is her experiences while traveling with her alcoholic, musician, father in the early 1940’s. This is just one year, from age three-and-one-half, when her mother died, to four-and-one -half. She drew strength from a Pow Wow where she was given her Indian name and a Totem. The half years made her feel important and more grown-up as she looked forward to what each new age would bring.
Readers captivated by this book will be happy that Bill Ferris found Ray Lum and that he thought to turn on a tape recorder. Lum (1891-1977) was a mule skinner, a livestock trader, an auctioneer, and an American original. This delightful book, first published in 1992 as “You Live and Learn. Then You Die and Forget It All,” preserves Lum's colorful folk dialect and captures the essence of this one-of-a-kind figure who seems to have stepped full-blooded from the pages of Mark Twain. This riveting tale-spinner was tall, heavy-set, and full of body rhythm as he talked. In his special world, he was famous for trading, for tale-telling, and for common-sense lessons that had made him a savvy bargainer and a shrewd businessman. His home and his auction barn were in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where mules were his main interest, but in trading he fanned out over twenty states and even into Mexico. A west Texas newspaper reported his fame this way, “He is known all over cow country for his honest, fair dealing and gentlemanly attitude. . . . A letter addressed to him anywhere in Texas probably would be delivered.” Over several years, Ferris recorded Lum's many long conversations that detail livestock auctioneering, cheery memories of rustic Deep South culture, and a philosophy of life that is grounded in good horse sense. Even among the most spellbinding talkers, Lum is a standout both for what he has to say and for the way he says it. Ferris's lucky, protracted encounters with him turn out to be the best of good fortune for everybody.
My book starts with a courtroom drama with Johanna Gail Johnson on trial for first-degree murder. She is found innocent of those charges but guilty of premeditation and ordered to serve five years in a minimum security prison. Johanna sits through a lengthy trial. Her life gets completely exposed as she hears testimony from those who did not hear her pleas for help. Her story was too bizarre to be true. We thought her complaints were just normal problems between husband and wife. In prison, she works in the main cafeteria and becomes friends with Mona Lisa, who says the kitchen is her domain. All the characters in prison have fictional names like Mona Lisa. Johanna becomes Shotgun. Their fictional names sometimes represent their looks but, more often, the crime they committed. Through the counseling with the chaplain, Johanna realizes what set her up to become a victim.
Volume 11 of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture examines the economic culture of the South by pairing two categories that account for the ways many southerners have made their living. In the antebellum period, the wealth of southern whites came largely from agriculture that relied on the forced labor of enslaved blacks. After Reconstruction, the South became attractive to new industries lured by the region's ongoing commitment to low-wage labor and management-friendly economic policies. Throughout the volume, articles reflect the breadth and variety of southern life, paying particular attention to the region's profound economic transformation in recent decades. The agricultural section consists of 25 thematic entries that explore issues such as Native American agricultural practices, plantations, and sustainable agriculture. Thirty-eight shorter pieces cover key crops of the region--from tobacco to Christmas trees--as well as issues of historic and emerging interest--from insects and insecticides to migrant labor. The section on industry and commerce contains 13 thematic entries in which contributors address topics such as the economic impact of military bases, resistance to industrialization, and black business. Thirty-six topical entries explore particular industries, such as textiles, timber, automobiles, and banking, as well as individuals--including Henry W. Grady and Sam M. Walton--whose ideas and enterprises have helped shape the modern South.
“An evocative and darkly beautiful story” of a young woman’s trek across America in the Dust Bowl years by a New York Times–bestselling “master novelist” (The Denver Post). After a violent dust storm leaves their mother dead and the family farm in ruins, twelve-year-old Laurie Field and her younger brother, Buddy, believe their world has ended when their grieving, debt-ridden father brings them to live with their reprobate grandfather in the Oklahoma Panhandle, promising to send for them when he finds one of those fabled jobs luring thousands to California. Abandoned and afraid, the children find hope in the songs taught them by Johnny Morrigan, an itinerant oil field worker who hitched a ride with the family on his way to Texas. Desperate to escape their brutal grandfather, Laurie and Buddy hop a train clanging west and become fall in with a hobo named Way after he saves them from a sinister tramp. In California, the children find only heartbreak, so they and Way set out for Texas in the hopes of reuniting with Johnny Morrigan. Like the fellow travelers they encounter on the roads and rails crisscrossing America, Laurie, Buddy, and Way take joy in simple pleasures such as a campfire meal, a starry night, and a song. They learn firsthand the kindness ordinary folk can show to those even poorer. At last, in lusty Texas oil field towns, they find work, Morrigan, and a deadly menace as Laurie grows from innocent girl to vibrant woman. A riveting story of hardship, adventure, and romance, The Longest Road pays glorious tribute to the men and women who kept the American dream alive during the Great Depression.
Narrative Innocent Souls is a work that details the disappearance of ten residents of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the investigation pursued by Sheriff Enos Lanford. The narrative opens as three-year-old Jake accompanies his mother and sister to the cotton fields for a day of work. While Jake is napping under a tree, ten people mysteriously vanish. Enos discovers the boy and takes him to his home. He, his wife Jenny, and Mrs. Hannah decide to care for the boy. FBI agent Anna Servanti helps Enos with his investigation, and together they uncover drug running and treachery involving Quality Health Supplements Company. Jennys father, Mayor Potts, is targeted, but his stay in the hospital prevents a murder hit. Innocent Souls mixes drugs, persistent police work, and family in a story that seeks to explore life in a small rural Arkansas town. Fayetteville is a Southern town where strong oaks spread their limbs, almost touching neighboring trees. Their acorns create an inviting aura of peace and tranquility. A gentle river runs the length of this small town with surrounding forests, which is home and haven for wild creatures and feathered friends alike. It is a poor town, but man, forest, and beast coexist together in peace.
From the Pilgrims to Disney World, Steinberg offers a bold and exciting new way to understand American history through the lens of nature. 65 halftones. 5 maps.
Wasn’t That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs on Disaster takes a comprehensive look at sacred and secular disaster songs, shining a spotlight on their historical and cultural importance. Featuring newly transcribed lyrics, the book offers sustained attention to how both Black and white communities responded to many of the tragic events that occurred before the mid-1950s. Through detailed textual analysis, Luigi Monge explores songs on natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes); accidental disasters (sinkings, fires, train wrecks, explosions, and air disasters); and infestations, epidemics, and diseases (the boll weevil, the jake leg, and influenza). Analyzed songs cover some of the most well-known disasters of the time period from the sinking of the Titanic and the 1930 drought to the Hindenburg accident, and more. Thirty previously unreleased African American disaster songs appear in this volume for the first time, revealing their pertinence to the relevant disasters. By comparing the song lyrics to critical moments in history, Monge is able to explore how deeply and directly these catastrophes affected Black communities; how African Americans in general, and blues and gospel singers in particular, faced and reacted to disaster; whether these collective tragedies prompted different reactions among white people and, if so, why; and more broadly, how the role of memory in recounting and commenting on historical and cultural facts shaped African American society from 1879 to 1955.
There's more than one kind of Texas native-we share our magnificent state with numerous other species some with four legs or more and some with no legs at all. Naturalist Jim Harris has studied most of them, and in Lone Star Menagerie he shares some little-known facts, fascinating tales, and amusing personal experiences with these creatures that we live alongside.
