Welcome to the greatest exes in the state of Texas!
I am privileged to belong to this elite group because I too am a graduate of Spur High School. The year was 1975. The same year that saw the end of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Peter Benchley’s bestseller “Jaws” was released in June of that year. “Saturday Night Live” and “Wheel of Fortune” both aired their first episodes in 1975, and 46 years later both are still going strong. The SHS class of 1975, like most graduates in small communities, spread their wings and most left to pursue their dreams elsewhere, but little by little quite a few of us have moved back home. Some never left. Some never will return, but every fall since graduation most have made the journey back to Spur for Homecoming.
I will try to go to many of the events. One of my favorites is the parade on Saturday afternoon. I hope this year you will add one more event to your busy homecoming schedule, the Homecoming Meet and Greet for local authors, sponsored by the Dickens County Spur Public Library.
One of our highly anticipated participants regrettably had to cancel. Author of “The Illusion of Leaving” Jeanette Brown, SHS class of 1966, will not be joining us Friday October 1st at 12 noon. But we have added one more published author to our event.
Marisue Burleson Potts from Motley County will be joining us. Potts grew up on a ranch near Matador, Texas, where her father and grandfather ran herds of Hereford cattle. She is a founding board member of the Motley County Historical Museum in Matador and the Comanchero Canyons Museum in Quitaque; and the Canyonlands Archeological Society of Matador and Quitaque. Her mission is to bring the history of the Rolling Plains of Texas to life.
She is the author of “Motley County Roundup: Over 100 Years of Gathering in Texas” and “Ridgely Greathouse: Confederate, Conspirator, Convict, and Capitalist.”
Also joining us for the event will be Kay Ellington and Barbara Brannon, co-authors of the Paragraph Ranch series, “Paragraph Ranch” and “A Wedding at the Paragraph Ranch”; Brannon writing as Will Brandon, author of “The Wolf Hunt: A Tale of the Texas Badlands”; Shelly (Parsons) Bratcher, Ph.D., author of “Knowing Your Identity: 10 Day Devotional Series”; and Carl C. Williams, husband of SHS graduate of the class of 1954, Alice Crockett, and author of “More than a Badge: Rough Country, the Law and Me.”
We will also be displaying some children’s books illustrated by our very own Vicki Diggs. If you haven’t been to the library in the last couple of years, please come see the mural that Vicki painted on a wall in the children’s section of the library. Hopefully Vicki will be able to step away from her duties at the Art Guild and join us for a little while.
We have some new books at the library, but these will be available only for a short amount of time. Back in April when the library was awarded the Tocker Foundation Grant, the Tocker Foundation also generously paid for the library a year’s membership to Central Texas Library System.
The membership has many advantages, including a Large Print Circuit. For a minimal fee the library will join other libraries across the state for this program. We received our first shipment this past week of 52 large print books. In a few months we will pack up those 52 books and ship them to another library in the program. We will then get around 50 more. This circuit will be going on until September of 2022.
Here are just a few of the titles available for a limited time: “Bad Company” by William A. Luckey, “Cross Knife Ranch” by Arthur Henry Golden, “What Happens in Texas” by Carolyn Brown, “The Rain Watcher” by Tatiana DeRosnay, “Sons of Fire” by Max McCoy, “The Man You’ll Marry” by Debbie Macomber, “Emily and Einstein” by Linda Francis Lee, and “The Covenant” by Beverly Lewis.
Check it out at the library.
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