Customer Reviews

Tales Of A Texas Boy: Large Print Edition

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Tales of a Texas Boy is a collection of 21 reminiscences of rural life in the Texas panhandle during the Depression, told in the voice of an eleven year old remembering his childhood as an elderly man (modeled after the author's father). Each tale is short and complete in itself, and all add up to a convincing evocation of what life was like during those days in that area of Texas.
The boy, of course, would not dwell on hardship, deprivation, or lack of creature comforts. From his point of view, he had regular chores to perform, a loving, fairly strict family to live with, and various spells of an interesting or exciting nature to experience.
These include adventures with snakes, a man who had a pet bear, a livestock auction, driving his father's Model A pickup truck, a wild jackass, various odd neighbors, going on an old-fashioned cattle drive, dogs, skunks, fishing, chickens, and his little sister, to name a few. Each story is preceded by a few sentences of authorial scene-setting--a nice touch--and a small black and white photograph, not credited or explained, but adding a pleasant visual accent to the pages.
The prose style has a countrified flavor, but not excessively so. Each story is well narrated, with the right details in the right place and usually a satisfying and appropriate conclusion.
Tales of a Texas Boy is intended to be a young adult book, but I see no reason younger children wouldn't enjoy it too, or adults, for that matter. I enjoyed it myself, and I am very far from a young adult. It reminded me of some of the stories J. Frank Dobie, the grand old man of Texas folklore, used to love. In fact, parents who are in the habit of reading bedtime stories to their children (an excellent idea) might find children as young as five would be entertained by them--the length of the stories is about right, and they offer a fine opportunity for parental dramatic reading. Indeed, the point could be impressed upon the child that daily life, however prosaic it might seem now, is worth gathering and writing down for the interest it might have in the future. It's easy to imagine a sleepy child asking why the Texas Boy never watched television. Calling grandpa and grandma!
(Al Past is the author of the popular Distant Cousin series and reviews for PODBRAM.)

Tales of a Texas Boy: Well, let me say that my husband
is a Baylor grad., but has not read of book in many years.
He thought I had bought the book for him (I had not) and
read it and loved it! Maybe, this will be a start to
reading more books.

From an encounter with an angry skunk in a cornfield on a Texas plain to a fireside supper with a Spanish-speaking stranger under a blanket of stars, Marva Dasef takes us on a nostalgic journey with these twenty stories. Through Eddy's eyes we see Texas as it was, and an America of
days gone by. We hear, in Eddy's voice, the song of the southern plains.
Spanning the younger years of Eddy's life, Tales of a Texas Boy is a rare
gem, preserving important memories in a wonderfully true narrative. A
lovely treasure for readers of any age. My children loved it as much as I did, and after we read it, I got right back onto Amazon and bought copies for both of my Grandpas.

I did enjoy Marva Dasef's charming Tales Of A Texas Boy, with its bonus insight into past events and lifestyles. Based on her father's reminiscence, these appealing stories take us back to 1930s Texas during the Depression era when life was very different. Each tale begins with an explanatory paragraph and is embellished with wonderful old family photos appropriate to the story. Modeled on Dasef's father, "Eddie" narrates with a touch of dialect so natural it was as if I could hear his voice inside my head:

"It'd been raining forty days and forty nights is what Ma said, but I only counted up eleven days myself. She did tend to put things in Bible sayin's, so I won't say she was lyin', just exaggeratin' for effect.

"Still, me and my sister, Dorothy, who we called Sister, had to go to school, whether the creek was high or dry. We'd spent Saturday and Sunday hopin' the rain would at least slow down some, but it didn't look like it was going to. On Monday, we put on our rain slickers and ran to the barn quick as we could to saddle the horses. Pa cut out oiled canvas to cover the saddles and most of the horse as well."

Tales Of A Texas Boy is crammed with memorable anecdotes; some amusing, some quirky, some sad as Eddie shares memories of his childhood and teen years. One tale is his father's, who served in France with Black Jack Pershing during World War I; another is his mother's as he thinks she would have told it. Another, "Frank Norfleet - Detective" is admittedly a tall tale.

In "Rattlesnakes and Jackrabbits" Eddie goes with local men on a hunt to kill those two pests who were the bane of Texan farmers:

"A big part of this expedition included moonshine. The hunters would head out in the early afternoon and start drinking right off. By dusk, most of `em couldn't hit much of anything, but was havin' a lotta fun anyways. The hardest part of the trip was avoidin' being shot by someone else. Mostly, though, these men knew what they was doing even when they could hardly see straight. I was glad Pa wasn't a drinker as I'd see how stupid the men would act. I guess that would be one more reason why I respected my Pa."

One of Eddie's adventures, "The Cattle Drive", begins when he rides to meet a small herd approaching the farm and is surprised by what he sees:

"Yep, I'm here to tell ya and ya know I don't lie. Every last animal in the herd was a bull. This puzzled me no end, as much as it puzzles you to hear it. Course, the herd was no more `n twenty Hereford bulls, but . . . well, I can't think of what that would be. Mostly herds are made up of steers and cows. Bulls ain't usually included as they cause troubles wantin' at the cows and all."

And before long Eddie is on a cattle drive to New Mexico.

Go back in time to visit the County Fair and meet Dad Boles and his bear Sophie. Take a trip to an auction and come home with the biggest, meanest jackass you've ever seen. Collect old bones to sell to the bone buyers and meet James Ridgley Whiteman, who discovered Clovis Man. Meet the smartest chicken, the finest dog, a prizewinning sow and a couple of feuding twin brothers. Find the body of an elderly lady who died alone in her prairie home. Meet a desperate family displaced by the dust storms in Oklahoma.

One of my favorites is "Chance Encounter": In 1937 Eddie and his football team, the Salem Wildcatters, were on their way to Dallas for the State Championship when they stopped at a diner for lunch. They could not help but notice a pretty blond-haired, blue-eyed woman in a fur wrap. In fact, Eddie says, "it was hard to see anybody but her in that booth." Eddie is invited to sit with her and is embarrassed when she touches and flatters him. The other boys seem to know who she is, but not Eddie.

"Well now," she said as she stood up. "I guess you all'd like to see some of the real me." With that, she put her hand on her hip and kind of jutted it out.

"With a whole different voice, she said "Come up and see me sometime, boys." Then she sashayed out of the diner while I stood there with my mouth hangin' open. I felt really stupid when I realized I hadn't recognized Mae West."

I think Tales Of A Texas Boy by Marva Dasef will appeal to both children and adults. In fact, the large print is particularly suited for children and senior citizens whose eyesight is perhaps not as good as it once was. Marva Dasef skillfully brings her colorful characters to life, "a different life than any of us will ever know", and I could have happily read another one hundred pages and another twenty Tales Of A Texas Boy. I'll just have to read it all over again. And again.

Originally reviewed for the Lulu Book Review.