Texas Reads two collections from small-town Texas childhoods<\/p>\n

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Burle Pettit, retired editor of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal<\/em> and longtime columnist for the newspaper, is featured in a new book from the Texas Folklore Society\u2014<\/span>A Boyhood Dream Realized: Half a Century of Texas Culture, One Newspaper Column at a Time<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a> (University of North Texas Press, $22.95 hardcover). <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The book is divided into ten chapters\u2014ranging from boyhood fun to food, sports, interesting characters, and newspapers\u2014and each chapter includes several of Pettit\u2019s columns on the subject. About half the book is set in Moran, where he grew up, and the other half in Lubbock, where he enjoyed a fulfilling career as the newspaper\u2019s sports editor, managing editor, and editor.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But the experiences he writes about are rather universal for an older generation of Texans. I laughed out loud reading stories about Moran, remembering similar happenings in my hometown of Sour Lake, way across the state. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I could certainly relate to a piece he wrote about barber shops being a town\u2019s gathering place: \u201cA few would actually be there to get a haircut. Most, though, were there to catch up on the gossip, read that day\u2019s newspaper, or just watch Garland (the barber) ply his trade while reviewing last night\u2019s football game.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Pettit penned an especially moving tribute to former Texas Tech football coach Spike Dykes, \u201ca fantastic man whose life was a legend unto itself.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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One phrase pops up in nearly every piece in the book. Pettit will wander a little bit down a side path, and then comes the line: \u201cBut I digress.\u201d And he\u2019s back on topic. Fun stuff.  Good reading.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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More small-town stories<\/span><\/strong>: Retired educator Dr. Rickey L. Harman has published <\/span>Happy Days in Happy, Texas: The Joys and Adva<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/span>ntages of Growing Up in \u201cThe Town Without a Frown\u201d after World War II<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One special piece, \u201cSmall Town Life in the 1950s and 1960s,\u201d lists more than sixty characteristics of small town life in that era, such as: \u201cYour teachers called you by your older siblings\u2019 names\u201d and \u201cAll kids looked for empty glass pop bottles that would bring four cents when returned to the grocery store\u201d and \u201cIn town, you recognized people by their vehicle before you ever saw their faces.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Happy days indeed. Harman\u2019s book is available online in e-book, hardback, and paperback editions.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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