personal stories - Texas Outlaw Writers

To Be American

"The funnel came close enough for winds to destroy the wood-frame house and lift some of its sleeping occupants into the night sky. Elizabeth and Hope, two of Father’s sisters, were found still lying on their mattress almost a quarter mile from their bedroom."

Travel

To Flaneur is to Fly

I learned the deceptive power of disingenuousness and how it could rot important ideas and institutions. Lost in our abundance, we've created divisions and argue over crumbs while the wealthy walked away with the cake and only looked over their shoulders for a laugh or two, and we have let them.

Trump

The Real Horror of the Epstein Story Isn’t the Crime—it’s the Indifference. (A Personal Story.)

Children who suffer sexual abuse are forever changed, their brains literally physically altered by their experiences. Meanwhile, the many, many men (and women) who abused them will feel no impact.

personal stories

The Birdman of the Border - A Halloween Story

"Size was not the only feature that put a fright into the cops. The bird had bright red eyes, facial features they said looked like a monkey or a gorilla, and a bald head."

Travel

To Look for America

I blamed America for unkept promises of fairness and equality and opportunity, but I still loved my country and believed it might one day live up to its founding promises. These days, though, I have too many reasons to be skeptical.

personal stories

My Mother, The Ghost

"Where are the kids, the ones that were here a minute ago?" My mother, in the throes of dementia, was looking for my sister and me as children. Dementia is a brutal disease.

personal stories

To Lose a Dog

We've all been there. It doesn't make it hurt less. But there isn't a better representation of all that is good than a family dog.

Abortion

How I Voted

A few weeks after Ma had the procedure, whatever it might have been, the local newspaper ran a story about an abortion doctor in Saginaw who had been arrested for running a clinic out of a motel. Pictures were of dark filthy rooms with trash and rumpled blankets and tossed bloody towels.

Journalism

Colleagues I Hardly Knew Ye

"Expect to hear lots about Project 2025, Kamala's supposed "communist professor" father, a California politician she dated, and more. We'll hear from Trump how the Ukraine War will be ended in one day (?) and China will pick up your grocery tab with tariffs, or something like that."

trave;

On the Loose

"I never stopped returning to the Grand Canyon and never will. There is no medication to cure political and emotional ills coursing through your country and your brain but one hike into the canyon can temporarily render them into near irrelevance."

Travel

Everything is Fine

They announced pre-boarding, and suggested that we all line up for our seating. "Except for those connecting to Nassau, your flight is canceled."

personal stories

A Summertime Dream

"It's hard not to feel hopeful on days like this and it is just as difficult to avoid thinking about how little America has changed since that Dallas gunfire took us off course. We have had our victories, but they feel now as if they are dissolving in the old anger and we are back where we started."

War

July 1, 1916

“Boys were falling on either side until there were only two of us left. He got it. He was killed. Then I got it. I got two bullets in me. I dropped. Blood was coming out of me...I stopped the blood as best I could...I said my prayers and I seen my mom, as far as I knew, but I knew she wasn’t there.”

Humor

The Laughing Legend

"I sure wasn’t reassured by the flight attendant pointing out emergency exits in the event of a crash. Folks, I’ve seen airplane crashes; there are hundreds of exits.”

Journalism

The Newsman

Dan Rather's story as a journalist and a Texan is compelling and is the subject of a new Netflix documentary. He was dogged and unafraid and at 92, he is still relevant. His own story might be the best one he’s ever told.

personal stories

Independence Way

I understood that there were economic and educational forces at work that made our lives abundantly different. My mother carried burgers and open-faced sandwiches as a waitress at a short-order restaurant. My father lifted bumpers out of a metal press for delivery to the assembly line.

Journalism

Outbound Train

"Mike and I had both earned college scholarships with our performances as high school distance runners and were formulating plans for our lives that did not include Vietnam or our home state, which is why he had agreed to drive me to the Canadian National Train station in Windsor, Ontario."

personal stories

Whither Thou Goest, America?

Whenever you are heading west across the Plains states, there comes a moment when you sense, not even feel, the earth begin to rise beneath your wheels. There is no explaining the moment or the emotion but a traveler begins to become hopeful.

personal stories

Adventures of a Young Man: The Searcy Incident

I went into the studio, squeaked up my voice, and recorded: “Serving 22 homes, three gas stations, two donut shops, and ten thousand pickup trucks, this is KNAB, Burlington, Colorado,” which was followed by a tinkling of bells.

personal stories

Contents of a Car

I cleaned out my car. There was more stuff than you might expect. And it was a study of humanity.

personal stories

To Grandmother's House We Go

The late-night drive home along FM roads took me back to childhood holiday road trips. Passing farms and fields with small frame houses, many bare save for one or two light strings and maybe a plastic manger scene. It took me back.

Journalism

Goldberg

“Parking meters look like periscopes,” I said, as the first video appeared. It was a flood story.

personal stories

Boyhood

Much of the culture from south of the Mason-Dixon Line had come north with us in our rattly old cars and cardboard boxes of modest belongings, which meant racism traveled as well as coon hunting.

Border

Born Between Two Cupboards

"I was naïve and knew nothing of hurricanes but thought I had been clever by evading the evacuation order. In a phone booth in front of the restaurant, I called Associated Press Radio Network in Washington and told them I was on the island and had refused to be evacuated."

Travel

Any Road West

"There was never a moment I was not excited, and even in the aloneness of a sleeping bag on an empty beach or behind a boulder in a remote rest area, I was often too energized to even close my eyes."

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