Where I Come from

Bryan Woolley is a native Texan and a senior writer on the staff of the "The""Dallas Morning ""News" . Among his many books are "Sam Bass" (Spur Award winner), "We Be Here When the Morning Comes" (W. D. Weatherford Award winner), "Mythic Texas," and "Final Destinations" (UNT Press). He lives in Dallas.

Everybody has a story to tell. In former times families sat together and told of things that happened to them or to their parents or to more distant ancestors. In this way, a family's history and folklore were passed down through the generations. Nowadays, people don't sit together and swap stories. As a result, many Americans born during the past fifty years have almost no knowledge of their own family histories. They have lost their roots. They have little or no idea where they come from. In 1999 Bryan Woolley of The Dallas Morning News set out to record the stories of ordinary people in North Texas, to tell about their lives, especially their past, and how they became who they became. These stories were published in a column entitled "Where I Come From," which ran in the Sunday newspaper from May 1999 to December 2000, to great reader acclaim. Now, for the first time in book form, the best of those stories is gathered herein with photos of each storyteller. Among the people featured--an orphan boy who lived in a movie theater; a refugee who traveled a long road to Texas after the fall of Saigon; a ballet teacher who as a teenager joined the French Resistance against the Nazis; a rabbi who was also a country-music disc jockey; a man who survived Auschwitz; a woman who spends her life saving abandoned dogs; a South Dallas blues singer; a one-man band from Denton; a professional barbecue cook who was hanging up his apron and retiring; and a shoe salesman who was also a minister. Each story is told in the teller's words, making this collection a valuable resource for oral historians as well as to all those who enjoy a good story. Where I Come From will also stimulate the endeavors ofthose seeking to record their family history.