Flat Tires & Coffee Fires - being tales from the 7IL ranch

"Flat Tires & Coffee Fires: Being Tales From The 7IL Ranch" is valuable since it shows everyday life during the late 1920s and early 1930s. This book is the story of Betty Pettit's childhood in the East Mojave. This memoir loving recalls her parents, Mary and Mark Pettit. While coming from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, these two seemed perfectly suited for the desert. In addition to being devoted parents, they were quietly remarkable folk who were courageous, kind, talented and above all very resourceful. As the title indicates, much of Mary's life centered on the 7IL Cattle Ranch which is located between Kelso and Route 66's Fenner. That written, there was a brief time when the family moved to Arizona so that Mark Pettit could work the Border Patrol. The book is filled with stories of what it was like to attend grade school, enjoy dances and live in a simple ranch house. The author retells stories of the colorful miners, prospectors, cowboys, ranchers and railroad men. Heartfelt and humorous, the recollections tell of the family's challenges and triumphs. So much of Western literature is by and about men. "Flat Tires & Coffee Fires" is significant in that it is by a woman and the emphasis is family life. The author has a remarkable ability to return to her childhood and express the experience through words. Aside from the many insights into a bygone world, "Flat Tires & Coffee Fires" is an entertaining read that moves quickly. The text is accompanied by copious illustrations. In addition to Ted Jensen's drawings, the book is lush with historical and modern photographs. While it is remarkable that so much of the Pettit family was documented on film, it is equally noteworthy that the pictures survived to make it into this publication. "Flat Tires & Coffee Fires" succeeds where so many like-minded books fail: it has a map. The reader can locate the places of Mary's childhood on the end paper's regional map. Being publication #20, this book has the same feel as the other Tales of the Mojave Road. In fact, the bombproof cover gives the reader a sense that they hold something wonderful in their hands that can not be had at a local Barnes and Noble bookstore. As with everything by Dennis Casebier's organization, the scholarship is impeccable. Many of the author's stories connect to Casebier's sixteen pages of historical endnotes. Naturally, there is an index. "Flat Tires & Coffee Fires" is an enjoyable and loving look at what it was like to grow up in the Mojave Desert.

 Courtesy: thedeliterancher