Literary Writings – Page 2

Farmersville Tales – Nickel’s

April 16, 2023 by philcline in Blog / Essays / Literary Writings

Farmersville Tales-Part Seven Nickel’s (episode one of two) At age 11, I became employed. Sweeping the parking lot of Nickel’s Pay-Less Food Market, was not my first job. Like most kids from Farmersville, I had worked in the fields alongside my parents, grandparents, and siblings. Childcare in the modern sense didn’t exist. You went where your folks […]

Farmersville Tales – Part Six

April 9, 2023 by philcline in Blog / Essays / Literary Writings

Church Farmersville had a reputation, in the early 1950s, of having the most bars for a town its size in the State. And the most churches. As the Sixties approached, Hollywood movies, TV, and popular novels often portrayed churches and people of faith, especially if from the South or Midwest, as stiff, uncompromising, puritan, imbued […]

Farmersville Tales – Part Five

April 2, 2023 by philcline in Blog / Essays / Literary Writings

Baseball Farmersville had a professional baseball team before any of the surrounding communities. The team’s baseball park originally stood on the west side of town, where the junior high is now. The team moved elsewhere and by the late fifties and early sixties, the park was increasingly falling into disrepair. The stands were splintered wood […]

Farmersville Tales – Part Four

March 26, 2023 by philcline in Blog / Essays / Literary Writings

“Ain’t Talkin’ To No Law” The drunk was staggering around the parking lot of the old Frontier Club, yelling, cussing, waving a knife. His outfit was dapper enough. Saturday night “going to town” clothes. Clean, almost new Levis, white shirt, open collar, clean shaven, hair pomaded and combed although right then it was sticking out on one side. […]

Farmersville Tales – Part 3

March 19, 2023 by philcline in Blog / Essays / Literary Writings

Mrs. Beaver’s Store She was a tiny lady of indeterminate age, but to a kid of six or seven, she was an old lady. She was thin, stringy, her skin loose like the old dress that hung on her frame, its color like her complexion, washed away years ago. She was the proprietor of a […]

The Alumnus, a Novel by Phil Cline, Chapters 53 though 56

December 8, 2021 by philcline in Blog / Literary Writings / Novels

The final chapters. Chapter Fifty-Three I woke up staring at my shoes, my head lolling forward, slobber dripping in a long string from my lower lip down to the lapel of my suit coat. My nose was running. My chest felt like it had a large stinging burn on the outside and a large black bruise on […]

The Alumnus, a Novel by Phil Cline

December 5, 2021 by philcline in Blog / Literary Writings / Novels

Chapters 50 though 52 Chapter Fifty Wanda and I took a walk together. Slow. Down the street and around the corner from the F.B.I. office. Pleasant day. A little breeze. Not many cars. For a change no one was honking their horn. Unusual. Just walking. We had never done anything like that before. We were quiet. I once again thought of how comfortable I was […]

The Alumnus, a Novel by Phil Cline

December 1, 2021 by philcline in Blog / Literary Writings / Novels

Chapters 47 though 49 Chapter Forty-Seven We were back at F.B.I. headquarters in another of their endless conference rooms. When I got there, they already had the police chief in the room. He had been left in the custody of Wanda and Maurice. The police chief without his uniform wasn’t impressive at all. He sat at the table with […]

The Alumnus, a Novel by Phil Cline,

November 28, 2021 by philcline in Blog / Literary Writings / Novels

Chapters 44 though 46 Chapter Forty-Four “I think how she treated me was rather shabby.” Wanda glanced at me but returned her eyes to the road and kept driving. I waited for her to say something, either agree or not agree. She didn’t reply. I noticed there was a slow shaking of her head almost imperceptible. “What?” […]

The Alumnus, a Novel by Phil Cline

November 25, 2021 by philcline in Blog / Literary Writings / Novels

Chapters 41 through 43 Chapter Forty-One I was back at the base infirmary. But unlike the first time, I was not the lone patient. The Base commander’s wife was ministering to the wounded. She was extremely busy, and I observed none of her previously demonstrated sadistic tendencies with the sailors and personnel she was tending. There were some […]

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Category: Literary Writings