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Step up and have a cup of coffee at the Mule Barn truck stop. You’ll meet Steve, Dud, Marvin, Doc and some of the other friendly folks whose chatter, observations and dreams make for pleasurable reading.
They inhabit an unnamed, fictional small town in America that popped out of the imagination of veteran Albuquerque writer Slim Randles.
You’ll find these good folks in the book “Home Country,” which is actually a collection of the best of the first five years of Randles’ syndicated newspaper columns.
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“Home Country – Drama, Dreams and Laughter From America’s Heartland” by Slim Randles Rio Grande Books, $17.95, 192 pp. |
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Some of my favorite columns?
There’s one about old Joe Gilliam planting a shade tree sapling in his front yard. The curious check to see what old Joe is doing. Randles writes that by the time the sapling matures it will be providing a home for squirrels and birds, a resting place for dogs and shade for neighbors. By that time old Joe will have passed. This one comes with a heartwarming moral: “Planting a tree is an affirmation of faith in the future.”
Or the one about an evening of in-town human activity as seen through the eyes of Bob, a rancher. Couples are walking together. The bookstore owner is closing up for supper. Bob had come into town “to see how the rest of the world was waking up to spring.”
Or the column about Marvin Pincus, who is known for his fly-tying advice, but is also respected as a romance counselor. In this column Marvin shares his cross-over knowledge with George Walker, who is a young 87 and lives in a retirement home.
George says, ” I need the love fly, Marvin. Tie me up one, because I need a date with Opal.”
The columns will make you chuckle but they’ll also give you insights into human behavior. Thanks to Randles’ homespun writing style – a reflection of his personality – the columns are easy to read and you’ll no doubt have your own favorites to share.
Randles is a former Journal columnist.
David Steinberg is the Journal’s Books editor and an Arts writer.
Slim Randles reads from, signs “Home Country” at 3 p.m. today at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande NW.
