It has been a good weekend with our daughter, Kathy, and her expert remodeler husband, Keith, coming in Friday night. Keith wanted to help with the mowing. It had rained a little Friday with the meteorologist promising rain all weekend. However it rained all around, but here only a couple of sprinkles and Keith learned how to drive the Ford tractor with the mower shredder to handle the large area around the Halsell House. He used the Deere riding mower and the walk behind mower around our house and got everything mowed. He also used his home skills to repair a blind with a broken cord. He cleaned the garage and did a lot more.
Kathy fixed some great meals and turned out more work than you can imagine. She did the laundry before leaving. Last night she addressed a whole bunch of envelopes for announcements of the pounding she is planning for June 30 for Ashley Rodenberger and Ross Pagenkoph's wedding in August. She is one of the most efficient persons I know. Although Mary Kathryn may tie her for turning our sewing along with cooking.
I finished Mark Finn's BLOOD AND THUNDER and am very impressed. This is not only an excellent biography of Robert E. Howard, but it is a great study of Texas and a small town during the oil boom days and the depression culture. Much like today the literary markets were in flux. Howard published in the pulp trade and it was folding up. Many published his stories but didn't mail the checks to him. Some closed others started and he finally used an agent to get him into other venues. At the end of his life he was concentrating more on Westerns than on fantasy. His western stories were comic westerns with larger than life good ole boy heros. But Finn's description of how the citizens of Cross Plains handled their lives and how they viewed Howard is an excellent insight into small town thinking and living. I have met some of Howard's friends. His best friend, Lindsay Tyson, was treasurer of our church when we first came here and I got to know him. Zora Mae Bryant inherited his papers and I was a good friend with her. I am trying to find time to transcribe my oral history interview with her.
Howard day celebrated by Cross Plains with their Barbarian Festival is scheduled for June 9 with events for Howard's fans June 8 and 9. Lou has a TWU Regent's meeting June 8 so I will miss those events. Lou is feeling better from a pain standpoint.
Kathy fixed some great meals and turned out more work than you can imagine. She did the laundry before leaving. Last night she addressed a whole bunch of envelopes for announcements of the pounding she is planning for June 30 for Ashley Rodenberger and Ross Pagenkoph's wedding in August. She is one of the most efficient persons I know. Although Mary Kathryn may tie her for turning our sewing along with cooking.
I finished Mark Finn's BLOOD AND THUNDER and am very impressed. This is not only an excellent biography of Robert E. Howard, but it is a great study of Texas and a small town during the oil boom days and the depression culture. Much like today the literary markets were in flux. Howard published in the pulp trade and it was folding up. Many published his stories but didn't mail the checks to him. Some closed others started and he finally used an agent to get him into other venues. At the end of his life he was concentrating more on Westerns than on fantasy. His western stories were comic westerns with larger than life good ole boy heros. But Finn's description of how the citizens of Cross Plains handled their lives and how they viewed Howard is an excellent insight into small town thinking and living. I have met some of Howard's friends. His best friend, Lindsay Tyson, was treasurer of our church when we first came here and I got to know him. Zora Mae Bryant inherited his papers and I was a good friend with her. I am trying to find time to transcribe my oral history interview with her.
Howard day celebrated by Cross Plains with their Barbarian Festival is scheduled for June 9 with events for Howard's fans June 8 and 9. Lou has a TWU Regent's meeting June 8 so I will miss those events. Lou is feeling better from a pain standpoint.
posted by Dr. Rodenberger at 6:43 PM
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