Pulling a Hank Snow

Among the ol' boys, you occasionally hear about somebody "pulling a Hank Snow." That means they left, scrammed, skedaddled, blazed, or simply "moved on." I have also heard the phrase used to describe taking a U-turn. Hank Snow, the Canadian Ranger, is not exactly a household name today, but he was very well-known in the 1950s and 1960s. Much of this popularity may be attributed to Snow's playing for US troops during the Korean War, with his song, "I'm Movin' On," becoming wildly popular in 1950. Although I have only heard the phrase "to pull a Hank Snow" in Texas, I imagine it may still be used in other places as well.

Here is a link to "I'm Movin' On":

 

Texas Blue Law: Can't Buy a Car on Sunday

When I was a young 'un, Texas still had its blue laws which disallowed folks from buying certain products on Sunday. From my childhood, I remember that you couldn't buy balloons on the Sabbath. It was also illegal to buy pots and pans, baby bottles, mugs, nails, screws, booze (of course), and washing machines. Car dealers got to pick their poison. They could be open one day on the weekend. Thus, they stayed closed on Sundays.

Although the blue laws went the way of the dodo in 1985, a few remnants still remain. One of those remnants is car dealerships being closed on Sundays. Personally, I don't really care if they're open on Sunday or not, but I did want to share this unique piece of Texas legal history.

Here is Lightnin' Hopkins singing about a Black Cadillac. You know he didn't buy it on Sunday.

  

Wild Blooms in Late November

The bluebonnets may have their heyday in early spring, but at our house the fall belongs to the Copper Canyon daisy. These naturalized shrubs bloom like mad in November as evidenced by the picture below, which I took this afternoon. I love walking out into the yard in what is practically December and seeing flowers in the height of bloom.

Here is some information about the Copper Canyon daisy from the Native Plant Society of Texas.

http://npsot.org/wp/story/2009/993/

And here is everybody's Uncle Willie spreading good vibes on "You Are My Flower," a fine song to help ease us into Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday.

State Dog of Texas

The Blue Lacy, the state dog of Texas, has yet to win a prize at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show held annually at Madison Square Garden. This, of course, should come as no surprise because the Blue Lacy is not yet considered a registered breed by any of the major kennel clubs. In true Texas style, the dog was named the Texas state breed by the state legislature in 2005, a gesture that seemed to show the rest of the world that Texas was not only at odds with the federal government but with national organizations obsessed with the furry and the four-legged as well.

The Blue Lacy is a native of Burnet (rhymes with "dern it") County and is a working dog well-versed in the arts of herding and following scent. In fact, Ol' Yeller, which was written by Fred Gipson from neighboring Mason County, is said to have been influenced by the Blue Lacy. Here is a short article about this unusual Texas native:

https://web.archive.org/web/20090406070456/http://lacydog.com/Default.aspx

    

Texanized Traditional Holiday Fare: Tamale Dressing and More

We've all heard the stories of the holiday recipes that Moses Austin brought down from Mount Bonnell on a stone tablet and the tales of the great-grannies of yore and their immaculate dressings that could never be perfected by future generations, recipes more magical and elusive than the one for Dr. Pepper, the holy elixir of Texas.

Well, I hate to break it to all of those sweet Memaws, Mimis, Omas, and Gigis, but my dear brother, Jason, the chief cook of this year's Thanksgiving extravaganza, made the finest dressing I have eaten in all of my more than two score years of existence.

"How did you do it?" I asked him.

"I got the recipe from the Homesick Texan," he said.

Yes, my dear brother riffed on a recipe by Lisa Fain, a talented Texas food blogger based out of New York City. Although I was familiar with her blog before eating my brother's tamale dressing, I have never shared a link to her blog on mine. One thing I really like about the Homesick Texan's blog is that Lisa Fain does a great job of politely explaining Texas food culture to folks who may not be familiar with it. Here is a link to the Homesick Texan's sensational tamale dressing recipe in the event that you would like to try it for Christmas:

http://www.homesicktexan.com/2011/11/tamale-cornbread-dressing.html

And here is a picture of the Thanksgiving chef in all of his glory.

In a future blog post, I will share my personal cranberry salsa recipe, which goes great with turkey, dressing, and all of the fixings. 

Turkey, Texas

We all know that Santa Claus brings gifts from the North Pole for Christmas, but what happens at Thanksgiving? Well, in this age when credibility apparently does not matter much as long as the story is good, I am going to tell y'all about Thanksgiving in Texas.

The Thanksgiving Pilgrim, who received his moniker from John Wayne, lives in Turkey, Texas, the home of Bob Wills, who, of course, is still the king. Every Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, the Thanksgiving Pilgrim herds up his flock of turkeys, each of whom wears a tiny harness, and they fly him and his buckboard wagon around the state so that he can deliver jalapeno cranberry relish, sweet potatoes, fried okra, smoked javelina, tamale dressing, pecan pie, and all sorts of other delicacies to the good people of the Lone Star State. Although the pilgrim travels from the Rio Grande to the Red to the Sabine and all points in between, he always manages to get everything delivered just in time to sit down on his couch for the opening kickoff of the Cowboy game. And that is the largely unknown tale of Thanksgiving in Texas. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

As an added bonus, here is a song that the Thanksgiving Pilgrim listens to on his eight-track player while he is out on delivery:

And here is a link to Waylon County if you are hankering for a copy:

https://www.amazon.com/Waylon-County-Stories-Heath-Dollar/dp/0998066141

     

Texas Treasure

When we are on the road, we like "going places that we've never been" as the pride of Abbott, Texas, would sing. This time we found ourselves at the site of Presidio de San Saba, which was built by the Spaniards in 1757. The only other mammals we encountered inside the restored ruins were a couple of rather cavalier rock squirrels. Despite their apparent indifference, I did appreciate the little fellows sharing their home with us for the afternoon.

Presidio de San Saba, the last fortress built by Spain in what is now the United States, served as a base for gold and silver mining. Thus, it perhaps comes as no surprise that treasure hunters have been poking around in the area ever since. Even Jim Bowie, who later died in the Alamo, traveled to the area in search of riches. In fact, he even carved his name into the front gate of the presidio. It can still be seen in a stone on the bottom right side of the archway.

Rather than dig a hole and potentially strain your back in search of lost treasure, you can click the link below and have Waylon County: Texas Stories, a gold mine of Lone Star giggles, delivered directly to your home.

https://www.amazon.com/Waylon-County-Stories-Heath-Dollar/dp/0998066141/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1511375934&sr=1-1&keywords=heath+dollar

A Mouthful of Place Names

This weekend we needed a break from the ever-increasing population density of North Texas, so we headed west for a breath of fresh air. Out on the open road, we found ourselves passing through Eden, which, incidentally, was not named after the biblical garden but after a man named Ede. We also rolled through Veribest, Menard, and Lowake and wondered how the name of each town was properly pronounced. Please note that in Texas a mere understanding of ethnic settlement patterns does not translate into an understanding of colloquial pronunciation. After all, a town with a name that is as obviously Spanish as Rio Vista can be pronounced RYE-o Vĭstuh. In other words, nothing can be taken for granted.

Apparently the folks at the San Antonio Express-News have been having pronunciation debates themselves lately. Here is a link to a fun Texas place name quiz created by the good folks at the Express-News for those of us traveling around the state during the holidays.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/travel-outdoors/article/Texas-mispronounced-city-names-Thanksgiving-travel-12366143.php

Texas-German in Waylon County

In Waylon County, several of the stories revolve around characters from immigrant communities that arrived in Texas soon after statehood. "Fields of the New Fatherland," which was originally published online by the Fredericksburg Standard Radio-Post, is the story of a young linguist from Leipzig visiting a Texas-German relative in the Hill Country. This evening I was on youtube and watched an interview with a Texas-German speaker from near Fredericksburg and was pleased to hear that some of her experiences were similar to those discussed in "Fields of the New Fatherland." I found this very encouraging, for it let me know that I am on the right track. 

Here is the Texas-German interview. Even if you do not speak German, you should still be able to hear the Texas drawl. For English subtitles, please click "cc."  

The Honkytonk Method

Hemingway rose at dawn to write. Maya Angelou rose early too. Toni Morrison starts at 4 a.m. and so does Haruki Murakami. Although I am not exactly up with the chickens, the 4 a.m. method does make sense to me. Getting up that early can make the writing take on a dreamlike state because the writer is somewhere between asleep and awake.

Kafka, Nabokov, and Kerouac were my kind of guys. They all wrote at night. Obviously, I am not an inhabitant of the literary firmament, but I do have my druthers. I tend to start around nine at night and work till exhaustion. In order to establish atmosphere, I write with my office door closed and the lights dim. When I am working on a first draft, I listen to old country records on vinyl. It gets me in the zone. But when I am editing and revising, the music stops. Every writer has his or her groove, and this happens to be mine.

Here is Merle Haggard playing "The Way I Am," a song that spins on my home office turntable on occasion. In terms of a Texas connection, I feel very fortunate to have seen Merle Haggard at Willie's Picnic in both Fort Worth and San Antonio as well as at John T. Floore's Country Store in Helotes, Texas. Tunes like this get my fingers tapping along the keyboard.

      

New San Antonio Rose and the Restaurant of the Mind

Tomorrow I will be signing Waylon County at the Restaurant of the Mind book store across the street from the Saginaw studio where Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded "New San Antonio Rose," which sold more than a million copies. In honor of my musical heroes, I will be hauling my guitar. I might just play a song or two.

Here is "New San Antonio Rose," which was a monster hit in the 1940s. Notice that it is on the Okeh label. Okeh specialized in German, Czech, Yiddish, Polish, African-American, and "Hillbilly" records and has one of the most fascinating musical catalogs in existence.

A New Favorite Number

Although many of the characters in Waylon County prefer not to leave town, the book is traveling some miles. Today it landed on a library shelf at the University of Montana-Western. I am elated that my work is reaching library shelves, and I am thrilled to have been given the following call number: 813.54. This particular call number denotes that the book is classified as Literature > American and Canadian > Fiction. If I ever decided to get a tattoo, it would be "813.54" inked right across my spine. Yeehaw!

Speaking of traveling, here's "Miles and Miles of Texas." Even the most cantankerous curmudgeon in Waylon County would enjoy this little musical journey.

  

Mamas and Middle Names

Growing up, if my mama summoned me using my first, middle, and last name, I knew things were going south in a hurry. Of course, that probably rings true for most folks. Any time an ol' boy's mama is hollering all of his names like he was an assassin or a serial killer, she probably ain't calling him in for supper.  

In Waylon County, plenty of characters are called by all of their names even when their mamas aren't on the warpath. The book also includes plenty of references to songs by people who go by three names, like Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Gary P. Nunn. (Yes, I understand that "P." is an initial, but let's not split hairs.) 

And here is a song by one of those three named fellas. It is the only song I know of that references the Gillespie County dump, a place I visited on occasion before my mama moved to town and got city garbage service. 

If you will be in the North Texas area on Saturday, November 11, stop by the Restaurant of the Mind Book Store in Saginaw for coffee and a discussion of Waylon County from 4 pm to 6 pm. 

https://www.facebook.com/FortWorthRestaurantoftheMind/

     

Big Bend Pterodactyls and Waylon County

When  I was in second grade, my mother bought my brother and me a set of World Book encyclopedias. From the day the encyclopedias arrived, if I didn't know something, I immediately consulted those glorious brown and black tomes. If a person on television discussed a topic I didn't know, I looked it up. If I was reading a book and there was a reference I did not understand, I looked it up. The habit continues to this day, and as a writer I like to sprinkle amusing encyclopedic facts throughout my work hoping that readers will look up the topics and find them as amusing and fascinating as I do.

For example, in Waylon County I make a passing reference to the Big Bend pterodactyl. A quick google search reveals that the creature was named Quetzalcoatlus after the Aztec god of knowledge and learning. The search also reveals that some scientists believe that Quetzalcoatlus,whose wingspan was that of an F-16, could not actually fly. They say that it jumped from tall hills using all fours and then glided around. What I like about this story is that no one knows for sure what this winged dinosaur could really do. Even though the hypothesis is based on a computer-generated model, like the myth of Quetzalcoatl, it is, at its heart, still a story. 

Here is a link to a news article about the Big Bend pterodactyl.     

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/49746642/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/pterodactyl-was-so-big-it-couldnt-fly-scientist-claims/#.Wf9IxdCnHIU

And if you do not yet have a copy of Waylon County, you can find one at:

https://www.amazon.com/Waylon-County-Stories-Heath-Dollar/dp/0998066141/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509907323&sr=8-1&keywords=heath+dollar