SAINT HELENA, Calif., Oct. 27, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Before the dawn of television and the warm buzz of the radio, in the days of the Old West, families gathered around the living room after meals to tell stories late into the night. This tradition has been lost in the glow of the television and drowned out by the commotion of today's technological gadgets. Jon Garate wants to take readers back to a simpler time, when the air was clean and the work hard, but the payoff was rewarding with his new book, Stories from the Living Room: A Narrative History of the Last Days of the Old West (now available through 1stBooks).
Garate invites readers to step back through time to the waning days of the Old West. His stories, loaded with wit, adventure, wisdom and humor, tell of the life for the settlers of California's Madeline Plains, a remote area in the northeastern part of the state. He tells of these people's lives in a warm, rich style.
He covers all the facets of pioneer life. There are the classic cowboy and Indian stories. He offers stories about rattlesnakes and coyotes, windmills and outhouses, and much more. Life on the old homestead was rough, but he details the simplicity and importance of the most menial tasks on the ranch. He takes readers from the ranch to the old one room schoolhouse and out into the wide-open desert high country. With pen and ink illustrations scattered throughout, Garate's book is a rare glimpse into a lifestyle that has fallen to the wayside.
"Garate covers (the stories) all with tongue and cheek ambivalence that is both funny and revealing about this rustic world...When Garate doesn't have you laughing hard enough to bust a gut, he'll have your mouth hanging wide open in amazement as he describes the day to day ranch activities," says Gary Brady Herndon, Napa Valley Register.
Garate is not only an author and master storyteller, but is also one of the "last of the old time cowboys from the Madeline Plains." He was "blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) by being born and raised in one of the last pockets of the Old West." Having grown up in the saddle, riding the range on his family's ranch, he weaves these unique experiences into his writing. Garate is now retired, lives with his wife in St. Helena, Calif., and enjoys putting on living history programs for local youth.
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