Boom!

Boom!

Let’s move from the mountains of Far West Texas to the oil and gas fields.  To a porch at the corner of Eighth Street and North Pennsylvania Avenue in Big Lake—a town peppered with houses that were trucked in, porches included, from closed oil camps where workers had lived during  the last century’s big boom. Unlike those 1920s communities built around the oil fields, this house sits where it was built—in the town of Big Lake. I haven’t been to Big Lake in more than two years. I haven’t lived there since 1967.   The small town I remember might just…

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Unchaperoned Reader

Are libraries on their way out? When I attended a memorial service months ago, I started wondering and thinking about my nerdy relationship with libraries and their caregivers. The memorial service was for Mrs. Havenhill who was the librarian at my high school.  Yes, I guess my favorite classroom ‘teacher’ was the librarian. Reagan County High School’s library was then located at the end of a long linoleum-floored hall. When classes quietened after the bell, you could hear Mrs. Havenhill rhythmically walk the hall in her spiky high heels. Reagan County was a 200 student, four-grade high school in the…

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