Ode To Merka

I came of age living outside of a central Texas town of Moulton, population (at that time) of 792. I went to school in Shiner, which was a 24-mile round-trip commute, and at the tender age of 14 and without a license, I ferried my siblings to and from school in the 1973 Ford Country Squire station wagon, with faux wood panelling.

Moulton was the quintessential Texas tank town, located in the heart of the German-Czech belt of central Texas. Downtown was centered on the railroad tracks, though the...