Anita Stalls, a retired business executive in her seventies, is on the trip of a lifetime. As she boards the train that will take her back to the southern town of Greendale, Mississippi, where she has not set foot in more than fifty years, Anita is filled with anticipation, apprehension, and heartrending remembrances of her childhood. As she settles back into her train seat for the long ride, her mind soon drifts to the days of her youth spent in Greendale. Sent to live with Moses and Annie Pearl at age four while her mother sought work in another city, it does not take long for Anita to adapt to her new family that includes the elderly grandmother she lovingly calls Mah. Happy living in a little shotgun house in the country surrounded by chickens, mules, and cows, Anita becomes the daughter Moses and Annie never had. As the train sways back and forth and her recollections become more vivid, Anita suddenly feels a sense of longing for the years gone by. I Remember Them is the touching tale of one womans journey through time as she faces the myriad of emotions that accompany the return to her childhood home.
The rivers of the Texas Panhandle, the Canadian, and the forks of the Red break through the Cap Rock at the eastern edge of the Staked Plains. It’s rough, bleak country, with few trees and a great expanse of sky. Storms that form on the Great Plains and in the Rocky Mountains sweep through with nothing much to slow them down. And the small dusty towns that serve this vast ranchland cling to the waterways as they have for over a hundred years, since their early settlement. Their names aren’t well known now, but they were once focal points in a rugged country where buffalo hunters, trail drivers, outlaws, and ordinary folks alike passed through. Rufe LeFors was one such "ordinary" man. With his father and older brothers, he was among the first to settle this country, drawn to West Texas by tales of open land and good grass. His life story, set down near the end of his long and adventurous life, is the best sort of insider's history, the chronicle of a life lived fully amid the exciting events and rough landscape of the frontier's final years. Rufe LeFors recorded his story over the course of a decade, finishing up in 1941 in his eighty-first year. His memoirs span the period from the War between the States to the early twentieth century, when the Panhandle was still scarcely settled, a true frontier. In his time LeFors was trail driver, pony express rider, and rancher. He traveled for a year with Arrington's Texas Rangers, and he wore the badge of deputy sheriff in the wild west town of Old Mobeetie. He rode a fast horse after claims in the Cherokee Strip, spent time as a horse trader, and finally settled in Lawton, Oklahoma, where, after some twenty years as a deputy, he was elected to the office of sheriff. LeFors knew how to tell a story. Whether it is an account of an outlaw's capture or the rescue of a white girl from prairie fire by a Comanche brave, he weaves into his narrative all the color, drama, and character of the event. His version of the death of Billy the Kid adds another perspective to that much celebrated episode in western history. His encounters with Temple Houston, the governor's flamboyant son, rancher Charles Goodnight, and Ranger Captain Arrington add to our fund of knowledge about those legendary frontier figures. LeFors wanted to get the facts—as he remembered them—straight. With his sharp eye for texture and detail and keen ear for language and timing, he created a narrative that wonderfully captures the flavor of his life and exciting times.
Originally written in the early 1970s, As I Remember Them is based on Jeanne-Elise Olsens extraordinary recall of her childhood and youth spent in an isolated part of the Laurentians in the Lièvre River Valley in the early twentieth century. She recounts how the Church lifted the ban, but only on specific conditions, one of which was for the family to leave Quebec.
What has happened to the lost art of memorising poems? Why do we no longer feel that it is necessary to know the most enduring, beautiful poems in the English language 'by heart'? In his introduction Ted Hughes explains how we can overcome the problem by using a memory system that becomes easier the more frequently it is practised. The collected 101 poems are both personal favourites and particularly well-suited to the method Hughes demonstrates. Spanning four centuries, ranging from Shakespeare and Keats through to Thomas Hardy and Seamus Heaney, By Heart offers the reader a 'mental gymnasium' in which the memory can be exercised and trained in the most pleasurable way. Some poems will be more of a challenge than others, but all will be treasured once they have become part of the memory bank. This edition is part of a series of anthologies edited by poets such as Don Paterson and Simon Armitage and features an attractive new design to complement an anthology of classic poems.
How the men and women of Britain found 'the road home' after the Great War. From the SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of THE LOST POST. 11am, 11.11.1918: the war is finally over. After four long years Britain welcomed her heroes home. Wives and mothers were reunited with loved ones they'd feared they'd never see again. Fathers met sons and daughters born during the war years for the very first time. It was a time of great joy - but it was also a time of enormous change. The soldiers and nurses who survived life at the Front faced the reality of rebuilding their lives in a society that had changed beyond recognition. How did the veterans readjust to civilian life? How did they cope with their war wounds, work and memories of lost comrades? And what of the people they returned to - the independent young women who were asked to give up the work they had been enjoying, the wives who had to readjust to life with men who seemed like strangers?
This perfect gift for readers, writers, and literature majors alike unearths the quirks of the English language. For example, do you know why a mortgage is literally a “death pledge”? Why guns have girls’ names? Why “salt” is related to “soldier”? Discover the answers to all of these etymological questions and more in this fascinating book for fans of of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains how you get from “gruntled” to “disgruntled”; why you are absolutely right to believe that your meager salary barely covers “money for salt”; how the biggest chain of coffee shops in the world connects to whaling in Nantucket; and what, precisely, the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening. This witty book will awake the linguist in you and illuminate the hidden meanings behind common words and phrases, tracing their evolution through all of their surprising paths throughout history.
I'll Tell Them I Remember You is New York Times bestselling author William Peter Blatty's memoir about being raised by his single Lebanese mother struggling to make ends meet in 1930s Manhattan. In this heartfelt and humorous autobiography, Blatty shares what it was like growing up with a strong-willed and opinionated mother who did anything and everything to keep her five children fed and sheltered no matter how strange or unusual. Her spirit and influence helped shape Blatty as a man, a father, and as the famous author of The Exoricst. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
In writing my book I tried, to the best of my memory (and with the help of a lot of people), to relate and have a true story about the things that we did as children and adults about growing up and living in a small town in Alabama. Even though times were hard then, I feel very fortunate to have grown up during that time and in that place. I believe that my life has been guided and protected by a Higher Being and I thank God for looking after me and guiding my life. I also had some great teachers which I am thankful for knowing. Most of our teachers loved us and tried to help, when they could, to prepare for our future. All this gave me confidence to go into adult life and knew that I had my future in my hand and could make my life and that I alone am responsible for my actions. I believe that growing up in Roanoke gave me the knowledge and background to have a great life, for which I am thankful, and I hope for many more good years.
Long before vacationers discovered BC’s Sunshine Coast, the Sliammon, a Coast Salish people, called the region home. In this remarkable book, Sliammon elder Elsie Paul collaborates with a scholar, Paige Raibmon, and her granddaughter, Harmony Johnson, to tell her life story and the history of her people, in her own words and storytelling style. Raised by her grandparents who took her on their seasonal travels, Paul spent most of her childhood learning Sliammon ways, teachings, and stories and is one of the last surviving mother-tongue speakers of the Sliammon language. She shares this traditional knowledge with future generations in Written as I Remember It.
