Chocoholic and I once took our family to the UK for two weeks of sight-seeing. My mother and my maternal aunt by marriage went with us. I planned the trip, including transportation. We flew to London and then travelled by train, tube, ferry and bus.
My mother grew up and lived in my little hometown in Central Texas much of her life. She lived and worked in Houston, in various military bases in Texas and Maryland during World War II. After she returned to our home town, she finished her degree at South Texas State Teacher’s College and taught school in our little hometown and in Austin. I saw her graduate from college, bursting with pride.
My aunt grew up in a little town near Temple, Texas, and after marrying my mother’s older brother, they lived in the same little hometown as my mother for the rest of their lives. My uncle spent his World War II years in the South Pacific. My aunt worked for a dry goods store for many years in clerical, sales and managerial positions. My mother and my aunt probably knew 98% of the population of the little town and surrounding county.
We spent a week in London and then moved on to Brighton. After a couple of days there, we went further west to Bath. We took the sleeper to Scotland and enjoyed a couple of days each on the Isle of Skye, in Edinburgh and in Pitlochry, attending the summer Shakespearean Festival at night. My fellow travelers never seemed to lose faith in my travel arrangements, but I suspect it was a near miss when we debarked from the ferry on the Isle of Skye, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by water. We waited patiently on the little bench set on the shore. I think we were all relieved when a little tour bus finally chugged up and delivered us to our beautiful hotel.
We saw many wonderful historical sights. It was a trip I have remembered all my life. Everyone enjoyed it. While my family and I focused on the sights, my mother and aunt stuck to their favorite pastime… the family connections of various friends and neighbors back home in small-town Texas. They sorted and discussed parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, spouses and children.
Over the years, I took my mother and my aunt on various driving trips in the U.S. Their conversation was rarely about the new sights they were seeing… rather it was usually the family ties of various friends and acquaintances in our home town. I laughingly referred to it as The Game of Lineage.
My use of her nickname is presumptuous. I did not know her. I knew OF her. I could have secured an introduction had I wanted, but I didn’t.
Nick Riggs, a principal character in my book PIG PARTS, is a freshman at the University of Texas, a large, outgoing, good-looking young man, a varsity swimmer majoring in pre-law. He’s attracted to Bess from the get-go and pursues her, ensuring they end up partners in Biology Lab where they dissect a fetal pig. He grew up in the industrial northeast, a cheerful, confident, ambitious young man. Although he’s a year younger than Bess, he enjoys familial resources and enhanced opportunities and has gained a depth of experience in the world greater than our small-town girl.
The Austin Chalk is a geologic formation running through the middle of Texas and into Louisiana. When drillers began producing oil and gas from this formation in Central Texas, some forty or so years ago, my aunt’s second husband, principal of the local elementary school and long-time farmer and rancher, told my mother and me of a conversation he had with another local landowner about oil & gas royalties. Landmen were signing up landowners as fast as they could, leasing access to oil & gas deposits on the owners’ lands.
I managed a department in a large suburban hospital in Houston for eight years followed by another long stint working for the Corporate Offices. The Medical Staff was knowledgeable, professional and committed to providing the highest possible quality care. I greatly enjoyed working with most of them.
MOCKINGBIRD SUMMER: My neighborhood book club recently read MOCKINGBIRD SUMMER, a novel by Linda Rutledge. I enjoyed it, but internet reviews were somewhat mixed. Some readers had not expected the book to have a strong YA influence. The principal narrator is a thirteen year-old tomboy, a white girl, and I can’t see how it could have been nearly as authentic without the YA influence. A few reviewers did not think that the novel was tied closely enough to Harper Lee’s novel, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. The setting is small-town Texas in 1964, still under the influence of Jim Crow. Corky makes a new friend with a sixteen year old black girl and naively recommends Ms. Lee’s book to her. Their budding relationship is further complicated when her new friend is encouraged to join a white girls church softball team. From my perspective MOCKINGBIRD SUMMER explored many of the same themes and concerns that TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD had done decades earlier. I related to the book because it shares similarities with my first novel, PIG PARTS, particularly the setting and the time frame.
Like many others who follow business news these days, I read about the exploits of South African born mega-billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk. He enjoys a reputation as being very smart but has recently come under criticism for damaging his electric automobile brand. He got involved in partisan politics and failed to pay adequate attention to business responsibilities. Sales went down. Inventories stacked up, and investors worried. Some owners resorted to posting written apologies on their cars for having purchased TESLA, hoping to ward off angry vandals.
Pope Francis died April 21, 2025. He was 88 years old and had been very ill for a long time. He was known as “The People’s Pope,” and many videos of him blessing sickly children have been playing on TV. His funeral was conducted in late April, and the Conclave to elect a new Pope begins today.
April 19, 2025 is the thirtieth anniversary of the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history… the truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.