What I Learned on the Ranch and Other Stories from a West Texas Childhood / By James Bruce Frazier

Despite the Depression, James Bruce Frazier spent the best years of his childhood on the Cross Ell Ranch just west of Big Spring. Years later, as he reflected on those days, he began writing down the experiences he had, the people he met, and the lessons he learned. The stories were passed along to his children and then to his grandchildren and then his great-grand-children. Frazier died in 1989 at the age of sixty-five, but his stories are as vivid and fresh and colorful as the day he wrote them. His stories touch all the emotions, making the reader laugh out loud one moment as Frazier recalls his first haircut and fight back tears as Frazier tells about his pet riding calf. The author proves himself to be more than just a good storyteller. He finds in the experiences important truths, morals, and meanings that are as valid today as they were then. We asked the great Western author Elmer Kelton to look over this volume, and he was exuberant in his praise. I thoroughly enjoyed the Frazier book, he said. I read it all the way through yesterday afternoon and evening, something I don't always do with manuscripts people send me. I found many parallels with my own experience.