These stories by a noted Texas historian recall a time when a kid
could go to the picture show with fifteen cents in his pocket, purchase
admission for nine cents, and have money left over for popcorn. Those
times were not necessarily better—"It was simply my time," says the
author.
In Back Then, McDonald draws on his reservoir of experiences to
write about shoe shines and men's hats, corner drug stores and
neighborhood groceries, first cars and full-service gas stations,
favorite hymns and Vacation Bible School, house calls and hometown
heroes, John Wayne and the Big Bopper, war rationing and spinster
aunts.
He tells about presidents and teachers he has known, music and
books he has enjoyed, his first garden and his first time to eat in an
integrated restaurant.
Admitting to being "older than dirt," McDonald remembers Butch
wax, Howdy Doody, Studebakers, Packards, mimeograph paper, and
other icons of days gone by.
"What seems to emerge," he says, "is a kind of report of what it was
like to live in Texas, or the South, a half century ago."
_________________________________________________________
ARCHIE P. McDONALD is the author or editor of forty books and
monographs. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he is a Regent's
Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University, executive
director of the East Texas Historical Association, past president of the
Texas State Historical Association, past vice chairman of the Texas
Historical Commission, and weekly commentator on Red River Radio,
southeastern affiliate of NPR. The more than forty short essays in
Back Then were adapted from those Friday commentaries.
Number Seven: Texas Heritage Series
What people are saying about this book
"delightful small book. . . . His description of summer evenings lets
onesavor the cool breeze, listen to the crickets or locusts, catch a
fewlightning bugs while playing outside until full dark. . . . Older
readers will delight in being propelled on their own memory trip while
younger readers will be informed about life in an earlier time."—Review
of Texas Books
"Back Then takes the reader on a wonderful journey . . . a little book
with a whole lot between the covers."—Journal of South Texas
". . . a little book with a whole lot between the covers . . . Never have I
read a book that I could relate to in so many ways, . . . One does not
have to be of McDonald's age to enjoy reading of his experiences back
then."—Victoria Advocate
"From shoe shines to the corner drug store with soda fountain, . . .
McDonald brings it all to life."—Round-up Magazine
"Since I am a member of a generation who remembers these things, I
enjoyed these commentaries as a trip down memory lane, but for
younger readers, it's a visit to a whole different world."—Brazosport Facts
"Back Then will provide a pleasant evening's worth of reading, whether
one actually remembers those simpler times or has only heard about
them from folks who describe themselves—as does McDonald—as
being 'older then dirt.'"—Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel
"This is the sort of reading that will keep you going right on to another
chapter . . . Charles Kuralt would have loved it, and so will you!"—Glenn
Busset, The Manhattan Mercury
"Back Then is a delightful little book. It's the kind that once you start
reading, you can't put it down. It is too much fun. I challenge you to get
a copy and not finish it in one setting."—Mexia Daily News
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Winner of the 2006 Catherine Munson Foster Memorial Award for Literature
