For teenage girls in the Hill Country town of Llano, life can be short on glamour and excitement—except at the annual rodeo, when one of them gets a rhinestone tiara and a rare, thrilling moment of glory.
ISSUES LIKE YOUR LATEST, “The Best of Small-Town Texas” [March 1999], are why we moved back to Texas.Gary SalyerArlingtonI CANNOT IMAGINE LIVING ANYWHERE ELSE but Hico. I love this town. Everything you said about small towns is so right. The ambience makes up for the lack of malls.Anita MuellerHicoYOUR
La Grange’s Mr. Barbecue, the police chief of Athens: fifteen local characters with, er, character.
For this month’s special issue, twelve writers and five photographers took to the back roads of Texas in search of the things to do and places to go in the little towns of our vast state. All told, they covered more than 41,000 miles in 169 days, taking in everything
Why are small-town Texas newspapers thriving? Because unlike big-city dailies, they know their readers, and they give them what they want.
If U.S. officials put an end to illegal trips across the Rio Grande at Boquillas, the enchanting border town will find itself caught between countries and cultures. Of course, that’s where it has always been.
An idyllic small town confronts a controversial rape case involving four high school boys and a thirteen-year-old girl and discovers that nothing is certain—except that its children can’t escape the big-city culture of teenage sex.
MY EIGHT-YEAR-OLD SON is named after a town in Texas. His given name was Daniel Streeter Phillips. When he was born, my wife, Debra, and I broke out the map of Texas and our finger kind of stopped at Streeter. It was actually going to be his middle name, but
A few days in the tiny East Texas hamlet my mom now calls home proved the old maxim: Entertainment value is inversely proportional to population size.
After fourteen years, 2,500 performances, and innumerable one-liners, the theatrical careers of Joe Sears and Jaston Williams are going swimmingly.
On a sleepy day last September, two women came barreling down Route 66 with five police cars in hot pursuit. A tiny Panhandle town will never be the same.
Small-town Texas gets a taste of national politics up close.
As the sole studio photographer in Granger from 1924 to 1955, John Trlica recorded on film most of the important occasions—public and private—in the Central Texas farming community. Because Trlica kept meticulous records and saved every negative, his shop became the repository for an intensely documented history of a small
Part history, part gossip, part stream of consciousness, Mattie Dellinger’s talk show speaks to the heart of Center, Texas.
Rodeo, rodeo, wherefore art thou rodeo? Mary Ellen Mark went to small towns all over Texas to find out.
When a small private bank was closed on August 7, depositors lost all of their money, a pillar of the community came tumbling down, and the town’s trusting way of life was shattered.
Where the heck is Salado, and why are world-famous intellectuals flocking there?
Small Texas towns live either in our memory or in our imagination. The ones with the storybook names live in both.
The death of Uncle Henry saddened my whole far-flung family, but the gathering at his funeral was an occasion for telling stories and recalling the joys of a small-town upbringing.
December 1941 in Clarksville was a time to celebrate peace on earth amid the rumblings of war.
Every year communities scattered across Texas hold wet-dry elections. Each one pits the forces of fundamentalism against the forces of realism. This is the story of one such election.
And other great country stores of Texas.
Every parent with a teenage kid knows the fears: drinking, drugs, and rebellion. For the Cartwrights, those fears all came true.
Saint Paul said that a little wine is a fine thing. He must have known something.
A carny’s life is an endless ramble from one small town to the next—and that’s why he likes it.
You can still find it in these great small towns.
Valley politicos block minority TV; Dairy Queens reign in small-town Texas; woman diver yearns for Acapulco cliffs; Houston takes its lumps.
You’ve met the stars of stage and screen. Now meet the stars of Texas.
Rio Grande City Michael Patrick Houston Suzanne Paul Austin Harry Boyd Rosenberg Joe Baraban Ingram Harry Boyd Hillsboro Nicolas Russell Martindale
Some boarding house-style restaurants where they can dish it out if you can take it.
In some towns, high school football is still a way of life.
Every small town is different; every small town is the same.
