The Reverberating Past

When I began to contemplate a western novel, which notion began to germinate many years ago, I felt my ignorance would derail the project before it got started. I thought my knowledge of the old west came solely from novels, history lessons, films and radio programs. But now I am in the thick of it and I realize that my age is on my side in this. I recall a life without electricity or running water, and at times no home to live in, even. Growing food, picking cotton, often surrounded by animals. But even greater than that, the notions and ways of the past were reverberating still. I was born in the 1940's and there were persons alive who were born in the 1840's. So it's not so far fetched that I could complete my story.