Doughnuts and War

"Otto the baker was another nice old Herrin guy I remembered from way back. But he didn't seem as happy as Joe; maybe because Italy had been our ally in the War, and Germany had been the enemy-- the Hun. Otto had never been the Kraut type with a big picture of Kaiser Bill on the wall, but a lot of people were still down on Germans in general, even though they still loved the fresh bread, doughnuts and cakes."

(from EGYPT BURNING)

Hot Times in Little Egypt

""Yeah," Owen chuckled, "you yell 'Joe' at a ball game around here, and half the place turns around."
"Or yell 'Mike' at an Irish picnic," said Nora.
"Or 'Pierre' over in French Village," I laughed.
"Yeah," agreed Owen. "But according to the Klan dragons and what-not, foreigners are what's ruining the country. And if you ain't a good ol' American Scotch-Irish, English, German Protestant, you just as well get back on the boat."

(from EGYPT BURNING)

Ragtime and 80-Proof Rootbeer

"Alexander's Ragtime Band" ended with a loud flourish on the drums. Norah unglued herself from me, and we worked our way through the happy perspiring crowd, back to the table where Sis and Owen were greeting people they knew. We ordered drinks from a cute little red-haired waitress, who it turned out was the girlfriend of Kelly, the kid I'd met at Milo's. He was parked at the bar over by the gray-haired lookout, his unsmiling blue eyes watching the crowd, and sipping from a big mug of what I knew certainly wasn't rootbeer."

EGYPT BURNING

Southern Illinois, Little Egypt, in the early Twenties. Bad times mixed with good times. Miners versus mine owners, bootleggers versus KKK, The Herrin Massacre, hot Dixieland jazz and sweet romantic tunes, and the dancing that went with them. Ed Murry home from the China Fleet, with two very different girls on the line, and a .45 in his suitcase.

Southerners, Indians, and Sheridan

     "The officer smiled and shrugged, and the engineer from Georgia said, 'I guess Phil Sheridan hates Indians about as much as he hates Southerners.'
     Grierson made a derisive sound. 'No offense, Lieutenant,' he said softly, 'but I served with that son of a bitch, and I got no use for the man.' "

(from Amargosa Ambush)

Back Where a Friend Is a Friend

"Ridin' the range once more,
toatin'  my ol' .44;
where we sleep out every night,
and the only law is Right--
back in the saddle again."

(Autry and Whitley)

Farewell to the Mission Indians

"Pio Pico's nephew was living in part of the old mission, but the church and the rest of it were in bad shape. The Indians who had been living there before secularization, learning useful skills like herding cattle, making tallow and hides, or doing masonry and carpentry, cooking, tending vineyards, making good wine and brandy, and other civilized skills, were now working in the Pueblo of the Angels and elsewhere as dirt-cheap labor during the week, and as hopeless drunks Saturday night and Sunday."

(from Amargosa Ambush)