A Season of Weathering

by William A. Owens

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 068413022X
• ISBN13: 9780684130224
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Scribner
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Readin', writin' and choppin' & pickin' cotton

In this book educator William Owens continues from where he left off in THIS STUBBORN SOIL. He details his often-interrupted struggle to get a proper education in NE Texas during the hard times of the 1920s and past the stock market crash of 1929. Borrowing money and chopping and picking cotton combine with working in department stores in Dallas and Paris, TX, Owens was determined to achieve his goal of reaching beyond his humble roots as a poor dirt farmer, and he does, earning a teaching certificate, even while he continues to help support his widowed mother and brothers. As was the case with THIS STUBBORN SOIL, this second volume of memoirs provides a fascinating look into the poverty-stricken lives of farmers in the 20s, a look that is sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes uplifting. The only part of the story that tended to drag and cloy a bit is the "churchy" sections, in which Owens joins a fundamentalist Baptist church, is "saved," and even recommended for the ministry, which he is not surprised to learn is not for him. But whatever Owens talks about, he keeps to his plain-spoken and sensible style of writing, which keeps the narrative always moving forward. A SEASON OF WEATHERING is a good example of superior story-telling. - Tim Bazzett, author of Reed City Boy

It Sure Gits to the Gizzard

Recalling a northeast Texas Baptist revival, William A. Owens takes us with him to the sawdust-floored tent where a missionary revivalist is leading the congregation in the old hymn "I Shall Not Be Moved." As the music ends, an old woman observes with conviction, "That song sure gits to the gizzard!" (I suspect that the adverb sounded more like "shawr" than "sure," and "gits" is exactly how she would have pronounced the verb.) In the spirit of that unnamed woman from early-twentieth century Lamar County, Texas, may I say that A SEASON OF WEATHERING is one book that "sure gits to the gizzard"? Taking up the author's life where it was left at the end of the first autobiographical book, THIS STUBBORN SOIL, this book shows us a young man entering his second decade with many of the same struggles that we witnessed in the first--continuing his education and finding a job. In the chaotic, often-interrupted process, Owens is also trying to "find himself," that is, to find out what direction he should go, what goals he should set, what purpose he should make of his life. Recall from the first book that Owens' young life so far has been formed by hoeing fields, picking cotton, and going from one poor one- or two-room country school to another as his fatherless family moves here and there trying to find work. He has never been formally educated beyond the seventh grade. He has never had the benefit of a guidance counselor and has never heard of such a thing as a vocational aptitude test. He knows from experience only that farming on shares (i.e., giving most of one's crop to the land owner as rent for the fields) remains a path to poverty and, at times, near starvation. So, when I use the phrase "trying to find himself," I am essentially speaking of physical and spiritual survival, not of social status or of self-gratification. During these years of confusion and desperation, Owens encounters the powerful call of fundamentalist religion. Having neither the education nor the experience to recognize the pervasive influence of superstition among the ignorant country folk such as himself, Owens falls, for a time, under the influence of local Baptists. His book gives us a frighteningly vivid picture of the unbending, strict, and oppressive nature of a doctrine that evolved more from ignorance than from theology. The specter of an innocent girl brought to ecclesiastical trial for the heinous crime of merely observing other young persons dancing tells more about the nature of such people than any mere description of their callousness could accomplish. Owens wanted to be a country teacher, but, to get a teaching certificate in 1920's Texas, one needed to finish high school. To do that, he would have to go to a college that offered high school completion courses. To continue school, he needed money. To get money, he had to interrupt his schooling frequently to seek work in the fields or in the stock rooms of retail or mail-order stores. This cycle,