State Fair of Texas 2023 SFOT

Book ’em

by | Jan 26, 2023 | Opinion

My grandfather was a blacksmith. To supply his shop with the metal, wood, and other materials he needed to operate, he attended auctions. Auctions that sold all types of items.

Since his shop was located in Ashdown, Arkansas, that gave him close proximity to the auctions frequently held in Oklahoma. Hugo, Broken Bow, and other Sooner State locales were rich with the things he needed to fabricate his living.

One Thursday night a month, my sister and I went with our grandfather and grandmother to the Broken Bow auction. To keep my sister and me focused, our grandfather promised us each a dollar if we behaved on the trip.

A dollar at that time was a princely sum, especially for a kid.

Provided we behaved, the cash was delivered to us upon arrival in Broken Bow where we were allowed to do whatever we wanted with it. We could stick it in our pocket and keep it or we could buy something there.

On the way to the auction house there was a small strip shopping center. It wasn’t a large place, but it was large enough to include exactly what my sister and I felt were necessary shops.

She made a beeline for the ice cream parlor and I made my way to the bookstore. Not much for dallying, our grandfather instructed us to quickly get what we wanted so that he could get back on the road to the auction.

After my first stop at the bookstore, it didn’t take me long to make my selection on subsequent trips. Every visit I bought an Alfred Hitchcock paperback of murder mysteries. A compendium of short stories written by excellent writers. I couldn’t get enough of these paperbacks.

Hitchcock’s books featured up-and-coming authors, as well as established writers. What they all had in common was the ability to create an almost instant image of what was happening in a story. It would pull you in and compel you to try and figure out what was going to happen before the twist at the end that you didn’t see coming.

And the writers did it with just a few pages. Some were as short as this column. These short stories were, to me, perfection.

And they were in my price range. At 60 cents a book, my dollar covered the price and tax, with money left over. And a new book came out each month, which was how often we went with my grandparents to Oklahoma.

I’d take the books to school and read them in class if I’d finished my work, or in study hall. My buddies noticed I always had one on me. My best friend Jeff began borrowing each one and he read them too. 

We would discuss how the writer had set up a story and then delivered it with the mastery of an artist.

And that’s what these writers were to me – artists. It was the beginning of my interest in writing.

Years passed. So did my grandparents. Any Alfred Hitchcock books I’d collected were lost to time and many moves. But I never forgot them.

Curious as to whether they’d been as good as I’d remembered, I found a stack of them for sale on eBay and I bought them.

When they arrived I relived the feelings of early 1970s Oklahoma. I remembered the sensations of riding in the back of our grandparent’s station wagon and staring out of the windows at the passing phone poles and cattle pastures.

I’d glance from one to the other, and then look back to my book as I made my way from story to story.

Today, more people (kids and adults) listen to audio books than buy actual hard copies. That’s hard for me to comprehend. Because to me there’s no substitute for holding a book in your hands and turning the pages as you learn what’s coming next in the author’s mind.

An author who could come up with a murder mystery bundled into a short story, placed next to other short stories, that a kid like me could buy with his dollar.

Even if people migrate from the printed page to the spoken word, someone somewhere will have to come up with the content. And the allure of that is no mystery at all.

By John Moore

If you want to read more stories like this, subscribe and support your local newspaper at https://publisher.etype.services/Farmersville-Times

Collin College Farmersville Fall Registration 2023 250x300

0 Comments

Related News

Take the fall

Take the fall

One of my most vivid memories of fall happened during junior high. I was standing in the end zone prior to the start of a game. I could barely feel my fingers and toes. It was October, but it was unusually cold (Al Gore had yet to invent global warming). My shoulder...

read more
A product of our generation

A product of our generation

If we’re honest, some products aren’t that different from each other. But during the 50s, 60s, and 70s, our moms were extremely loyal to the ones they liked. And advertising had a lot to do with mom’s loyalty, and ours. Growing up in front of a large, RCA console TV...

read more
The simple life

The simple life

Our grandparents had it figured out. They lived life on their terms. Today, we live life on society’s terms. And the evidence that we regret it is all around. The first bit of proof that my grandfather and grandmother had control of how their day would go is the fact...

read more
Ya’ll come back now

Ya’ll come back now

He left me a message, so I called him back. It’s funny how, even if you haven’t talked to a childhood friend in a long time, the conversation picks up as if you had just spoken earlier in the day. “Remember that location you always said you’d like to buy one...

read more
Food for thought

Food for thought

They were called, “Victory Gardens.” And they were one of the weapons US citizens used to help win World War II. With the bad guys throwing everything at us that they could, in return, we were throwing everything at them that we could. By John Moore To Login to read...

read more
Baskin in the past

Baskin in the past

When our parents would take my sister and me from Ashdown, Arkansas to Texarkana, often they’d succumb to our begging and stop for ice cream. The only destination considered was Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors. By John Moore To Login to read the full story or to subscribe,...

read more
Name that town

Name that town

If you grew up in a town with a unique name, there are likely many stories about how the name came to be. Also, you know the struggles of trying to explain them. If your town is small, few folks have heard of it and they have no idea where it is. “What’s the name of...

read more
Fear itself: spiders, snakes and more

Fear itself: spiders, snakes and more

A granddaddy long legs climbed onto my face while I was out brush hogging on the tractor. I’d like to apologize to the neighbor for his fence, chicken house, doghouse, clothesline, and for leaving the scene of an accident. By John Moore To Login to read the full story...

read more
When boy meets grill

When boy meets grill

Ever have one of those moments where something in your head says you need to do something, but you’re not sure why? Recently, a memory I have of my grandfather cooking on a charcoal grill sparked that little voice to give me a direct order. The instructions were to...

read more
Finding a home for things left behind

Finding a home for things left behind

his column appears in over 30 papers in the South. I’m always pleasantly surprised by the number of messages I receive and from where they come. Often, they’re related to a previous column and the person writing shares a memory or story that was stirred by what...

read more
Leaderboard American Heart Association