<p>Curmudgeon, the voice of a vanishing America. Speaks to us like the cowboy we all wish we were. AND has a yellow Xterra;).</p>
<p>They aren’t telling you to keep writing out of generosity Cur. There was something good about the original America. We all miss it, even if we never knew it. Hard work and dogs and the love of a good woman, updated with the smart as a whip daughter who doesn’t spare the eye rolls just like any other teenager.</p>
<p>Keep writing, curmudgeon, I could read about the dogs every day & if you keep writing your stories before we all know it, we’ll be so caught up in what you write, we’ll forget we’re here trying in some way to hang on to the lives of the sons and daughters we miss so much. </p>
<p>Actually I haven’t started missing S yet as he doesn’t start school til Oct 1. But reading here keeps me from standing in his room gathering in a few more hours of his every day presence or nagging him about one thing or another…maybe those two things are really the same… But I still come here to read your stories!</p>
<p>Cur, you have a natural gift for the spoken word that is seldom found these days. We ALL mean it when we say " keep writing"! It’s not just because your words make images dance in our heads, which they do more than anything I have read in years, but because it’s good for both you and your audience. This is like discovering a talent such as Van Cliburn lives next door- We want to hear more music because such exceptional talent, which you have, is a rare thing indeed! Play on Cur! It’s time to find a publisher for your “Tales from the Country” stories.</p>
Well that ( Edit: :eek: and now the others! Sheesh. ) makes me uncomfortable. Uhhh…that first one …well, I think you have me confused with Chuck Norris and the second one :eek: that one may get me whupped. LOL. </p>
<p>The nice folks ARE being generous but I will accept the idea that a “voice” like mine is not that often heard in academic circles. There could be a reason for that. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks again, folks. It was therapeutic to write.</p>
<p>thanks all for the new route down south.Turns out 77 goes right to Columbia SC. Traced it on an actual full page hardcover atlas and it looks logical.
Will have Son try it when he drives home for the holidays.</p>
<p>Curm, prepare to be uncomfortable again. I completely agree with Alumother. We’re not altruistic in urging you to keep writing. Your writing makes us happy.</p>
<p>I pieced together your “Moving Story” into a word file, printed it out, and brought it to dinner with friends Friday night. We took two bottles of red wine into a Cuban restaurant, ordered the oxtail stew and tostones, and read some passages from your story. We guffawed in between bites. (Note: This can increase the incidence of choking.)</p>
<p>And, having just devoured two of Ivan Doig’s novels, which had a lot of sheep-raising in them, I would love to hear more tales of Laverne (may she rest in peace), Shirley, and the animals (and humans) they keep in line. If I was a book editor, I’d be flying down Texas way to sign you up. Writers like Doig and your fellow Texan John Graves prove that people want to hear your stories from the West. </p>
<p>In the meantime, keep 'em coming here, and thank you. :)</p>
<p>That was a wonderful tribute to Laverne. I also understood better your references to your D’s experience with goats. Reading your post makes me realize anew the importance of geographic and experiential diversity, and what students like your D can contribute to the life of a college just by drawing on their own everyday experiences. I could tell you a few stories of ignorance starring big city kids with stellar academics and no knowledge of farm life.</p>
<p>I think I’ve told the story before of when D was talking to a diversity scholarship coordinator who with great justification pointed proudly to a group photo of her current crop of “recipients”. D asked her “How many of them are from a small town?” The response was </p>
<p>…uhhhh…none. Wait. Is Peoria a small town (@SMSA of 250,000)?</p>
<p>D didn’t end up applying there but I’ve always wondered how that scholarship hunt would have turned out. You never know. </p>
<p>marite, you and I have always joined our brothers and sisters in insisting that a student’s app have an authentic voice (and hopefully their own ). I think in D’s case it didn’t hurt to have everyday things to talk about that weren’t that everyday to the reader. </p>
<p>Had she tried to compete with the opportunities city kids/big school kids/ prep school kids had tit for tat, she may not have been as much of a standout. But as we came to understand the process, if somebody happened to be looking for a starting center and co-captain of a 2006 state champion bball team who was the val of her rural high school with a 35 ACT and a part-time job raising goats and sheep - well, she probably stood a chance of getting a second look out of that group. As one wag on here called her (dang I forget, but it was priceless) , "Ellie Mae Jabbar ". Not a bad shorthand rendition sitting around the adcom table.</p>
<p>Well, your D would not be making the mistake that one of my S’s friends made: well-traveled though he is, and with a stellar high school record, he thought that a turkey was a male chicken. Yup. No kidding.</p>
<p>okay…chuckling at that one Marite. Reminds me of when my future husband, the cityboy, first got a look at the Brahmas in our back pasture. His eyes were huge and he exclaimed 'What is WRONG with those cows, are those tumors??" (Btw…there were no cows in the pastures, just a bull and a few steers.) And his bewilderment when my brother ran screaming through the house at the sound of one of his FFA project capons ‘crowing’.</p>
<p>It IS a different world…lol!</p>
<p>(Btw…he still calls the Galloways down the road, ‘oreo cookie’ cows. 25+ years later, I’m still working on him. )</p>
<p>curmudgeon - I think you are modest on your d’s behalf in that description, but that attribute (modesty), in itself, is likely something and admissions counselor would find refreshing and appealing.</p>
<p>I hope students here take heed at the point curmudgeon and marite make.</p>
<p>As our family was preparing to move from the east coast (CT) out here to flyover land in 1967, my mother’s extremely intelligent, former college roommate innocently asked if “the Indians still live in teepees out there.” </p>
<p>We were moving to the Detroit suburbs, BTW.</p>
<p>modesty-in these self promotional times, an unAmerican, though still appealing virtue</p>
<p>Curmudgeon-the image of a goat’s horns catching in the wire fence fishhook like keeps sitting at the edge of my conscious mind…keep sharing your tales. Ever done any oral storytelling?</p>
<p>Curm,
A modest proposal for a new business…
Put your (paying) guests in the bunkhouse (er, barn), make 'em do some real work, and regale them with tales of ranch life beside a roaring fire under the stars, dogs sleeping at your feet. Sell copies of your book at the chuck wagon. DS2 would LOVE it (he’s big, strong, and a fine campfire cook, too).</p>
). I think in D’s case it didn’t hurt to have everyday things to talk about that weren’t that everyday to the reader. </p>