The World In Pancho’s Eye
by Joe P.S. Brown
Summary
Born into a family of cattlemen on the southern Arizona border at the beginning of the Great Depression, Mikey Summers is raised by people who are wilder than the animals under their care. Maggie, his mother, is quick to love, but also quick to fight, loves contention as much as peace, likes to run and play, but is decent with a fine moral sense. Based on J.P. S. Brown’s own experiences growing up and ranching in Mexico and Arizona.
Excerpt
One June evening when Billy was ten and Mikey was seven, Billy came by on his bike, so Mikey went over and asked Nita for her bike. The boys raced out of the Wingos’ yard side by side. Mikey looked left and shouted, “Clear,” and Billy looked right and shouted, “Clear!” They swerved onto the highway and headed toward Nogales on the left side, single file, with Billy in front.
The passenger train from Tucson came up behind them as they pumped hard to make the hill on the curve. The engineer waved at them and blew his whistle to warn traffic that was out of sight at the mill crossing around the curve. The boys pumped hard to see if they could stay ahead of the train, but eased off when the train passed them and Billy waved to the engineer.
Billy’s hearing was sensitive and both boys hated noise. Mikey’s hearing had not been as sensitive as Billy’s since the earaches started. The train with its charged-up steam engine ran by them only thirty yards away and absolutely deafened the whole world. Mikey did not know what possessed Billy to cross the highway right then, unless it was the noise of the train, but he veered to cross to the other side. Mikey took his right hand off the handlebar to wave at the passengers and his bike swerved left and caught the dirt shoulder of the road. At that moment, he felt a heavy rush of hot wind as a black car passed him on the wrong side of the road. The car hurtled by so close that it ticked the fingernail of the little finger of Mikey’s right hand as he reached for the handlebar. He realized later that if he had not waved at the train, he would not have veered off the pavement and the car would have hit him.
The blare of the car’s horn was muted by the rattle and whistle of the train. The car headed for the right side of the road but did not slow down. Billy never saw it coming… A hairy, bloody patch of hide lay on the pavement apart from Billy. In his confusion, grief, and shock, Mikey could not imagine that it was a piece of Billy’s scalp. Mr. Wingo knelt beside Billy with his teeth making snipping sounds on the pipe. Mikey watch his face because he needed the man to look at him so he could know what had become of Billy. Mr. Wingo looked toward his house to compose himself. Then he brushed his hair off his forehead and turned to Mikey. “Go home, Mikey,” he said softly. The he picked up the scrap of scalp and tried to put it back where it belonged.
Reviews
"[A] wonderful coming-of-age story set in the Depression-era southwest....the stuff of grand American myth"--Philip Caputo, Pulitzer Prize winning author and reporter
"[A] gritty and sometimes sad story.... Joe Brown is more than an author. He is a world-class writer of the first order"--Cowboy Magazine
"[A] masterpiece of good writing, as solid and ringing as the walk of a horseman"--Range Magazine
Author's Biography
Joseph Paul Summers Brown, born in Nogales, Arizona, 1930. fifth generation Arizona and Sonora, Mexico cattleman. Notre Dame University, journalism, 1952. General assignment reporter on two Arizona weekly newspapers one year, two years on the El Paso Herald-Post. Commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, 1955. Released from active duty,1958. Bought cattle and horses in Chihuahua, Sonora, Baja California, Coahuila, and Jalisco. Worked on cowboy crew caring for 6,000 cattle on Imperial Valley, California pasture. Rode horseshoe trails of the Sierra Madre Occidental from Chinipas, Chihuahua to Sahuaripa, Sonora. Ranched and bought cattle on the coastal desert near the Sea of Cortez from southern Sonora to Arizona border.