I only missed it by seven weeks but I could not let pass the 50th anniversary of the publication of Elmer Kelton’s landmark historical novel, The Time It Never Rained. The current drought and heat wave in Texas is almost like a hellish tribute to his memory.
Born in 1952, some of my earliest memories are of adults talking about the drought of the 1950s. I have vague recollections of grim, dusty newsreels on television of starving cattle and everyone worrying about Aunt Faye and Uncle Earl on the ranch out at San Angelo.
At some point around 1957 at the peak of the devastation, President Eisenhower came down to San Angelo to tour the baked and burnt West Texas lands. The local ranchers elected our Uncle Earl Byrd to represent the livestock industry in talks with the President. The ranchers got together and picked out the finest local mohair and had it loomed into fabric and tailored into a beautiful sports coat as a gift for Ike. After the initial meeting, the following day Uncle Earl hosts, at his ranch, President Eisenhower who arrives wearing the sports coat. Walking around the place they decide to climb over a barbed wire fence and the President rips a big hole in his new mohair coat. It was a bad moment, at least for the local ranchers who had tried so hard to create a special gift. Folks wondered if it was a bad omen.
In one of the Texas Monthly anniversary issues, the 25th or 30th, Elmer Kelton, as an eyewitness, memorialized the story about Ike, Uncle Earl and the torn coat in a far better fashion and style than I could muster. Kelton’s reputation as a writer and preservationist of West Texas history and life knows no equal.
Texas writer W.F. Strong:
Like me, many Texas literary critics consider it one of the top ten best novels ever written by a Texan about Texas. It was also Kelton’s favorite book, and what he called his signature work – which is saying something considering he wrote 50. He received both the Spur Award and the Western Heritage Award for “The Time It Never Rained.”
We must all be grateful that Kelton was a poor cowboy. When he was a young man he said his inability to rope and ride well pushed him toward reading, and then writing. Had he been a better cowboy, he told a New York Times reporter back in 1984, “I’d still be working out on some ranch on the Pecos River.”
Kelton’s father was a great cowboy and a fine man made of unyielding standards. He was the man who inspired the character of Charlie Flagg, the admirable protagonist in “The Time It Never Rained.” Kelton said that, to his father, “work was something you did on horseback, or with a shovel.’”
The book is not your run-of-the-mill Western novel. There are no shootouts. No one dies.
Two other Elmer Kelton books I love and need to mention are The Good Old Boys, made into a movie with Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek, and The Wolf and the Buffalo, a fascinating novel about the black cavalry soldiers who fought in the Indian wars in Texas and the American West.
You never regret buying and reading these books. There are no more Elmer Keltons to tell these stories of Texas heritage.
I had to look up Smashburger. I didn’t know it was a real thing.
Plenty of char sounds right up my alley.
#27 mharper I do miss J Nine. Hard to believe that she is gone.
Looked a little skimpy on the eggs, SD. Chickens on strike? I fixed 8 yard eggs and we had plenty. But everything was consumed except for 4 sausage links. We had a busy day, we went fishing late in the day but the pond water was so warm the fish weren’t biting but it was still hard to get the… Read more »
I think of her often, especially this time of year – or any time I do something with my pressure canner – which she gave me… Or pears, which she used to get off a tree next to the house where she lived…
I miss her so much.
I think most of you will know who this is in the photo posted Over Yonder by my neighbor Beau, who went to high school out in the sticks somewhere with this gal. Heck, the t-shirt is a dead giveaway! 🙂
I just saw something that made me think/smile:
How many chameleons snuck onto the Ark?
We’re off to an ice cream social party put on by spouse’s HAM Radio Club’s August event tonight. Even though it is inside and too darned hot to be outside there likely will be melted ice cream in dishes before anybody can finish the first go-round. The straws meant for the beverages likely will end up also chasing the melted… Read more »
It seems the committee
to destroy Trumpinvestigating J6 pulled a Hillary and destroyed a lot of their records.Which they’d been told to preserve. Is it me, or is there a pattern where Dems destroy records and evidence almost willy-nilly?
18
Looked a little skimpy on the eggs, SD.
Chickens on strike?
We’ve been eating a lot of cherries here this year. It has been a bumper year for that crop so they have been unusually cheap.
We both are patients in the Hackensack Meridian HUMC Medical Center gobsmacking conglomerate. All but one of our doctors are affiliated with this company. We have an online portal that is comprehensive for each patient including all lab/radiology test results, each visit to each doctor, diagnostic results, all prescribed medications, surgeries, procedures and treatments. It also provides the billing and… Read more »
Elsa is still waiting for her room to be completed. It was textured today, hopefully painted tomorrow. Then Hubby’s got a few details: a shelf I requested, an extension cord (heavy duty) to be run, etc. Maybe by next week she’ll be ready, which is a good thing. I have a big bag each of avocado slices and green beans,… Read more »
20 Tedtam Clearly, everybody in the industry plays the game and allows for the “spread.” When I was responsible for all my healthcare expenses, my Quest bills for my once or twice a year blood screenings were between $65 and $105. I believe that is fairly reasonable for a company with their overhead. It also seems to me all the… Read more »
Tedtam – got a load in Nat as I type… Mostly meat (raw – from a package of steaks we found at Sam’s – about the size the chops Squawk cuts for me from whole pork loins) but I had one empty tray AND all but 2 stalks of a head of celery (made our version of Subway’s “seafood sensation”… Read more »
They pad their bills to cover actual costs. I had a doctor who admitted that he had “to play the game” with the insurance companies.
I have real doubts that my back surgery actually cost over a quarter mil.
A mild form of geriatric entertainment around here is going online and comparing what the hospital and various other medical vendors charge Medicare and Supplementals and what they actually collect. Her Highness’s hip joint replacement was billed at $42,000 and they got paid $16,000+. Quest Labs bills $200 for a typical blood test analysis and gets paid $19. (This seems… Read more »
he forgot that he lives in the systemic idiocracy known as the Animal Farm States of AmereKa.
Now it’s off to the re-education camp for wrongthink before he’s allowed back on the planet.
Since the boy and family are visiting I fired up the Blackstone for a breakfast of Bacon, Sausage, Eggs and Pancakes. It musta’ been a pretty good breakfast since we only had 4 sausage links left. The girls really liked the bacon, eggs and pancakes.
I think Vivek Ramaswamy is the most articulate and intelligent Republican candidate. That doesn’t necessarily make him a great politician even though it doesn’t disqualify him either. What he has done so far is impressive and he has serious people taking him seriously. The Washington Post quotes senior Ramaswamy adviser Tricia McLaughlin as she notes that, by meeting both the… Read more »
This is an interesting column by Democratic political scientist and author Ruy Teixeira. He was co-author of the best-selling book in 2002, The Emerging Democratic Majority which completely misread the direction the Democrats were headed in. Structural racism. Is racism “built into our society, including into its policies and institutions,” as held by current Democratic Party orthodoxy, or does racism… Read more »
I have a dental appointment this afternoon so I am not going to do any yard work today. It’s already too hot to be outside.
Morning, gang! I thought Billy Cat was gone, gone, gone yesterday. Never saw him during the day, in spite of several tries at calling him to come to my back yard to get fed. Then around 8 pm he did show up, and when I went outside with food bowls, he came and got it. I had spent a good… Read more »
Dangit, my linkage failed on #11. Thank you TT for correcting the error
I don’t subscribe to the Ring neighborhood watch/news alerts but that doesn’t stop them from notifying me it’s hot out there. Every day.
11 bone
Film at 11.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=napVe9pteuk
Well, even though I tried to minimize my time outside, I think I just negated all efforts at personal hygiene.
Holy cow, it’s gonna be wissing hot again out there again today.
Some Bama Crackers need lessons in manners.
I wouldn’t call it a ‘Massive Brawl’ more like a little dust-up.
To quote Bocephus, I’d love to spit some Beechnut in that dude’s eye and shoot him with my old 45. He, and the officers who didn’t stop him, gave them the perfect narrative.
Mark of the beast.
Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, the Ferguson, MO riots and the hatching of Black Lives Matter. The organization fizzled after the local grand jury found no reason to charge Wilson, the LEO victim and Holder’s DOJ could find no fault with the shooting. It was a fraudulent cause waiting for the next right martyr… Read more »
Booster Jabs: being recommended by Xavier Bacerra. More jabs = more protection, ya’ know. /spits So the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents supporting the statements, including all “scientific support” for the statement and internal communications related to the post. Predictably, the Biden Administration stonewalled the request, so FGI sued. In its latest response, the… Read more »
The story on Feinstein: she fell down and is now hospitalized. Remember – she signed POA over to her daughter, but refuses to abdicate her seat. I think she expects to be mummified and continue legislate. Well, I suppose on the positive side, if she fell down it means she must have been standing upright, at least for a minute.… Read more »
Social media is like methedrine. People become addicted, forget their common sense and lose their dignity. It’s the worst thing to happen to a once free civilization.
AIRBORNE ☙ Thursday, August 10, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS Good morning and Happy Thursday, C&C! Your roundup includes another extended-form report on the biggest news this week: Governor DeSantis removes another Soros-backed District Attorney. Plus, Senator Feinstein takes a short trip, the Biden Administration admits it made up its booster recommendation while following “the science,” and real flying cars have finally arrived.… Read more »
Trying to get started a little earlier today – must water and harvest before the broiler outside gets turned “high”. Then I have some errands to run. I’ve taken to doubling up my windshield cover. My little expanding angels one just doesn’t cut it in this heat, and I’ve started putting the cheapie dollar store reflective shade between the angels… Read more »
#2, 3
I kind of understand the position NASCAR is in, there are big names and sponsors involved but just seems so silly all this over “liking” a meme.
George Floyd was a POS!! The world is a better place with him no longer breathing. He would have died at the same time whether or not the cops showed up. Had they simply left him to his own devices, we would have never heard the name.
GJT says: August 9, 2023 at 6:13 pm NASCAR rookie Cup driver suspended for two races for “liking” a George Floyd meme. I don’t know anything about the movie Mermaid so I didn’t get it, nor do I know how to link it but looked pretty tame to me. Noah Gragson suspended: Why NASCAR driver faces ban after liking George… Read more »
Texpat, you’ve mentioned Elmer Kelton and The Time it Never Rained before, I’ll have to check out some of his books if I can find any copies. Well the boy and company arrived here on the farm about 6:30 PM. Wife picked them up at PC Beach Intl and they stopped off to get Hardees burgers on the way home.… Read more »