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Ozarks book reviews
By R.D. Hohenfeldt
Hooligan
Sailor: The Saga of One Coast Guardsman in World War II By
Leon Fredrick Hazelwood
Publishing, 2005 Leon
Fredrick, who is so proud to be called an Ozarks hillbilly editor that
he wrote an autobiography with that title, has written another memoir
with an intriguing title, Hooligan Sailor. Fredrick,
of Branson, tells of his experiences as a signalman in the U.S. Guard
during World War II. He explains the title in his introduction, “The
Coast Guard was not held in high esteem by some and some even called it
the Hooligan Navy. In fact, quite a few people did. However, Coast
Guardsmen still held their heads high.” Fredrick
was a senior in high school in the Ozarks town of Monett, Mo., when the
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He and his younger brother, Jim, joined
the Coast Guard because they, like so many young men of that generation,
wanted to fight for their country. Although their parents knew the draft
was imminent, they didn’t want the boys to enlist. They thought they
were compromising when they let the Fredrick boys join the Coast Guard,
because “they were told that the Coast Guard did not go overseas.”
Fredrick doesn’t say who told his parents that, but likely that story
came from the boys. Well,
that truly turned out to be a tall tale, for Leon (brother Jim was
discharged for medical reasons so he joined the Merchant Marine as a way
to serve his country instead) did indeed go overseas and see combat
aboard the assault cargo ship USS Theenim in the Battle of Okinawa, the
biggest air-sea battle in the history of the world. Fredrick tells what
he did during that battle. The
book also tells about Fredrick’s experiences in New York Harbor before
his service on the Theenim; this included the rescue of 154 severely
injured crewman from the USS Turner which exploded and sank; 138 sailors
were lost. Fredrick
also includes a synopsis of Coast Guard amphibious operations in the
Pacific. This
book has been listed on the Coast Guard’s own website as one of the
best military history books in print.
I’ve
known Leon Fredrick since the early 1980s when he bought the newspaper
for which I worked, The Aurora Advertiser. He was the best
publisher I’ve ever worked for; I immediately admired Leon for I
quickly found out he was a real working publisher, something you don’t
see much of nowadays. He didn’t hang around his office all day like
most modern publishers; he took a camera and notepad out every day and
dug up a story or two. He and I split the sportswriting duties in
Aurora; he loved basketball and, standing at 6-5, he had played in
school and in the Coast Guard. Leon
was not born into the newspaper business, and he had not inherited a
paper. He started a paper years ago from scratch in Galena, Mo., and
those memories are in the book Ozarks Hillbilly Editor, a
newspaper memoir that ranks right up there with Lewis Grizzard’s If
I Ever Get Back to Georgia I’m Going to Nail My Feet to the Ground. He
loves the Ozarks and knows much about Ozarks folklore; his publisher’s
columns often dealt with Ozarks themes, and I sort-of model my Ozarks
Boy column after Leon’s style.
If
you like the down-home kind of writing that we shower on you monthly
here in The Ozarks Chronicle, then you’ll like Hooligan Sailor. To
order a book, send $10 to Leon Fredrick at 109 Oxford Drive, #4,
Branson, MO. 65616. Appalachian
Mysteries: Kentucky Corn Bill
Winch Authorhouse,
2005 Bill
Winch is back with a second installment in his Appalachian Mysteries
series. This
isn’t a book about the Ozarks nor is it set in the Ozarks, but it was
written by a retired Presbyterian missionary pastor who lives in the
Ozarks. Winch, who was profiled in the February issue of The Ozarks
Chronicle, takes as his plot theme something we Ozarkers are all too
aware is a problem here, too, i.e. drugs, particularly methamphetamine. Winch’s
characters are the Rev. Paul Peters, a missionary pastor in Bascom
County, Ky., and Sheriff Sanders Yard, a retired professional football
player who also is an African American. This
novel takes place two years after The Severed Hand, Winch’s
debut novel. Things begin heating up for Yard and Peters, despite the record-setting snowstorm in
their area of
Eastern Kentucky. Drug use in the schools is increasing, some children are seriously ill, and one girl of a
prominent family dies. Meanwhile, a group of militants from outside the
area arrives, making
their imprint on
the lives of the natives, including Ruth, the wife of the pastor. “As if all
this weren’t enough, there has been a fire at Paul''s church, and now
he is recovering from a serious
operation, even as the Presbytery he repesents wishes to sell his
mission church and move him
toward retirement. But Sheriff Yard has other ideas, some of them
radical for this conservative area of Appalachia, and he moves forward,
awaiting the time when Paul Peters will feel well enough to do something
about the church, and more importantly, give him some ideas about
solving the drug crimes sprouting up in the region. Outside agencies are
called in as things get dangerous, Ruth almost gets killed in a bank
confrontation, and serious firepower begins ex Drugs
and hate crimes: obviously, Winch is not a namby-pamby, mealy-mouthed
preacher. He told me when I interviewed him that Jesus was not afraid to
take on tough issues, so he isn’t either. The
book also deals with what Winch calls “practical theology,” but
don’t worry, this is not a sermon; it is a mystery novel. The book is available through Amazon.com or by writing the publishing house at 1663 Liberty Drive, Bloomington, Ind. 47403. You can order it by phone at 1-800-839-8640. With
Donald
Harington The Toby
Press, 2003 University of
Missouri-Rolla Professor Larry Vonalt handed this volume to me while I
interviewed him about Ozarks literature way back in December for the
January issue of The Ozarks Chronicle. No, no, no,
it hasn’t taken me this long to read it. It’s just taken me this
long to find the time to write a review about it. Vonalt is a
friend and supporter of Harington’s, and he sees to it the author
visits UMR students regularly. Best of all Ozarks novelists, Harington
has captured the region’s storytelling tradition, Vonalt told me. Poet Gene
Doty, profiled in the August issue, described Harington’s work as
“drenched in the Ozarks” during my interview with him. You’ve got
to have an imagination to enjoy this book, for there are talking animals
and a sort-of ghost that Harington calls an in-habit. It’s the
“spirit” of a boy who lived in the Ozarks but moved to California to
grow up. He loved the Ozarks so much that he left a part of him when he
moved; that’s the in-habit and it never grows older. The main character is a young girl, Robin, who is kidnapped by a crazy and corrupt highway patrolman. He takes her to an abandoned farm atop a remote mountain in Newton County, Ark. He dies, and she is left stranded on the mountain. She is not
alone, though. There are animals who talk to her and care for her. She
spends years atop that mountain, teaching herself to survive with the
help of the animals. The book is
full of Ozarks folklore, expressions and mythology. I read it
through fairly quickly and then got a copy of Harington’s The
Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks. He has a series of books based
in and around the village of Stay More, Ark. Both With and The
Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks are part of that series. I liked this
book, drenched as it is in the Ozarks and a part of our storytelling
tradition, and it is now a part of my Ozarks library of books, thanks to
Dr. Vonalt. If you have
an imagination and you’ll read the book, you’ll be hooked on
Harington. He’s got a new book coming out (if it isn’t already)
titled The Pitcher Shower about a guy who travels to Ozarks towns
showing motion pictures on a portable screen. Sounds great, so look for
it to be reviewed in The Ozarks Chronicle soon. |