Meet people who stick to the roof of your mind. Make the acquaintance of assorted inanimate objects and farm animals. Discover where the sticky things start. Those who would say Mike Renfro's essays are limited to Texas are only half right. Yes, Texas is the backdrop for each of these diverse 'little stories from the big country', but more than landscape binds them. Mike Renfro writes about the tradition and folklore of Texas, the fiber and fabric of its people. He gives us cowboys and cranks; old women with white hair and legendary cooking skills; and, old ranchers whose love of chewing tobacco has outlasted their teeth. One man is remembered for his distinctive laugh, another for the roar of his Chevy on a country road when he's had too much to drink and the bark of his. 410 shotgun discharging. There is an ode to the Thunderstorm Womb, a barber shop revisited, a lament for the passing of drive-ins, praise for the pleasure of screen doors. There's even Clay Henry, the goat with the legendary thirst for cold beer who eventually finds himself elected mayor of Lajitas. These essays stitch a patchwork wide and warm as Texas itself, no thread unnecessary, no detail too small.
To read Mike Renfro is to remember that it's the people, not just the land, of Texas who have built its legend and legacy.