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I'm a fifth-generation Texan - Great, great grandfather Green Berry McCollom was one of the original settlers of Beeville @1859. James Macom McCollom was sheriff during the 1870s. My grandfather, John Eugene McCollom, sheriff during the 1920s and early 1930s, appears in "The Last Sheriff in Texas" but only in contrast with the title character, R Vail Ennis, the county's famous sheriff from 1944 to 1952. So I consider the book something of a memoir.
Same for The Continental Affair. Though I had left the CINB before 1984, many friends were still there, and the insensate death of the great institution was personal for me, as well. I saw a small-town closeness to the two stories, both involving decent people at odds over crossed ideologies. The population of Beeville was roughly the same as the number of employees at the CINB, most of whom were in the same building on South LaSalle Street. Who but I would see that parallel?
Any writer would, if close enough to the action. Hamlet, Gatsby, Snopes, Menelaus, Iago ... they all had roles in both stories.
I grew up in a small town, went to a small college, was a passionate sportswriter, couldn't imagine I'd ever leave Texas. Left to join the Navy when I was 22, finally moved back when I was 65. Much of my adult life was spent in foreign countries, absorbed in local languages, histories, customs, myths, drama. Finance. I had a decades-long career in international banking. Didn't expect any of this. It was great. And great to come home.
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