H.G. A flu epidemic hit in 1919, filling up the only funeral home in town, which was part of the hardware store. Nothing about living in Odessa was easy.
It is the story of how dreams and reality collide, at once glorious and immensely sad. Do you see similar examples in your own community? It so severely overran the town that there weren't enough men well enough to dig the graves of those who had died. Instead, Odessa eked out a living from the livestock trade, all dreams of Utopia gone forever when the town's first sheriff, Elias Dawson, decided that the ban on alcohol constituted cruel and unusual punishment and became the proprietor, along with his brother, of the town's first saloon. Although Friday Night Lights was written by Buzz Bissinger with the intention of focusing on the team itself, it instead became a critical commentary about the town of Odessa and the state of Texas, and how their obsession with football can ruin lives, and ignite racial tensions throughout Middle America. Was a great sport about football and life in high school. The streets of Odessa were empty, with no signs of life except the perpetual glare of the convenience store lights on one corner after another. It was the very first official day of practice and it marked the start of a new team, a new year, a new season, with a new rallying cry scribbled madly in the backs of yearbooks and on the rear windows of cars: Goin' to State in Eighty-Eight! This great book shows you how much it means for the the town and community and how much they love the team but also the negative the team comes first above everything else shows how these young men are playing a high stakes game, success means college football and courting by the NFL, failure means the loss of hope. Winning a state championship. Young children ogled at them when they appeared because it was unimaginable, even by the standards of children, to find anyone as dirty as these men were. Submit your email address to receive Barnes & Noble offers & updates. You divide that by three and there's four hundred in every class. Why do you agree or disagree with Bissinger’s statement that the school’s “problems didn’t make Permian a bad school at all, just a very typically American one”? How are the issues examined by Bissinger—for example, community, race, politics, economics, and class—relevant to you, your family, and your neighbors? They spent a lot of time in trucks traveling to remote corners of the earth to put in a string of drill pipe, and when they went home to Odessa to unwind they did not believe in leisurely drinking or witty repartee. By 1900, Odessa had only 381 residents.
"Groundbreaking. But ironically, the Zanesville elite was right in its fanciful prediction that Odessa was bubbling with a bounty of riches. Bissinger spent a season in Odessa discovering just what makes a town pin its hopes on eleven boys on a football field. The K mart was closed, of course, and so was the Wal-Mart.
What might explain, and who is responsible for, the “devastating erosion in standards” (p 131) that many of the teachers cite? But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true. Finally, there were those who said the college was burned down simply because it was something the damn Yankees had built the natives of the city when no one had asked for it. The Zanesville boys, careful to the last drop, actually held it 350 miles to the east, in Dallas. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is a book about lust and longing, aspiration and education, sex roles, race relations, economic uncertainty and national identity. You can view Barnes & Noble’s Privacy Policy. It's not but about 365 pages long...but sometimes, even in the fall and winter, you need a brisk read that's not too heavy. What differences exist between the two communities of Odessa and Midland, and how do those differences affect each community’s view of itself and the other? The panthers are special in that they very much punch above their weight. Bissinger writes of team trainer Trapper O’Connell’s end-of-season perspective: “A new set of kids, a new set of faces, a new set of hopes, a new set of heroes would be paraded atop the shoulders of the town as gloriously as the Greeks honored their gods.” (p 285) “That’s my salvation,” says Trapper. In front of 20,000 people. Grades. It was constructed around 1889 but burned mysteriously three years later. With fourteen thousand arid acres to sell, truth in advertising was not something to dwell over. It crept in everywhere, underneath the rafters, inside the walls, like an endless army of tiny ants, covering him, suffocating him, pushing down into his lungs, blinding his eyes, and that night he had no choice but to sleep with a wet towel over his face just so he could breathe. There was a small nucleus of people who settled here and worked here and cared about the future of the town, who thought about convention centers and pleasant downtown shopping and all the other traditional American mainstays. Auto Suggestions are available once you type at least 3 letters. “What’s their salvation?” (p 285) What do you think the kids’ salvation might be? Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. He lives in Philadelphia. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2012. On each of the coaches' desks lay caps with bills that were still stiff and sweat bands that didn't contain the hot stain of sweat, with the word PERMIAN emblazoned across the front in pearly thread. Does football play a similar role in your own community? He lived with the students, coaches and townspeople who dedicate their lives to their team, sharing their joys and triumphs, their pains, injuries and bitter disappointments. Keep up the tradition that was started many years ago.". Which issues play the greatest role in your community, and why? A classic of sportswriting - about a season spent following a town and a team's hopes and shattered dreams - and now a major Hollywood film. What Odessa lacked, and one look informed the most charitable eye that it lacked a fantastic amount, the speculators from Ohio would make up for on the strength of their own imagination. (p 132). And nowhere is more fanatical about its football than the small town of Odessa. Even dealings with cattle rustlers and horse thieves had to be compromised; they were shot instead of hanged because there weren't any trees tall enough from which to let them swing. He returned with a compassionate but hard-eyed story of a town riven by money, race and class, where a high school can spend more on medical supplies for its athletic program than on its English department. H. G. Bissinger has won the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award, the National Headliner Award, and the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel for his reporting. Going off after the season to Nebraska, or Arkansas, or Texas. Worth noting the mis-balancei in school expenditure for football versus books! The Methodists found the ranchers and the cowboys beyond saving. Be proud you're a part of this program. Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. How would you describe the “strange and powerful god” to whom they were being sacrificed? Whatever they fantasized about, it all seemed possible that day. H. G. Bissinger is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of five books, including the New York Times bestsellers Three Nights in August and Friday Night Lights, the classic that inspired the acclaimed movie and television series.He is a longtime contributing editor for Vanity Fair and has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, the Daily Beast, and many other publications. Outside of the oil business, the weather (which almost never changed), and high school football, there wasn't a hell of a lot to talk about. Paperback (8/1/2004) I confess to a rudimentary knowledge of the NFL. Yellow Jersey; New Ed Edition (28 April 2005), Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 November 2017. Bissinger spent a season in Odessa discovering just what makes a town pin its hopes on eleven boys on a football field. Starring unforgettable characters in a setting you'll never want to leave, this is a must-read for true fans.
"Welcome, guys" were the words Coach Gary Gaines used to begin the 1988 season, and fifty-five boys dressed in identical gray shirts and gray shorts, sitting on identical wooden benches, stared into his eyes. Given the later attitudes of Odessa, all these theories are probably true. And nowhere is more fanatical about its football than the small town of Odessa. It was enshrined in the county library, where the 235-page history that had been written about Permian football was more detailed than any of the histories about the town itself. Members save with free shipping everyday! Not Currently Available for Direct Purchase. It was a torrent of sand, looking like a rain cloud, that came in from the northwest and turned the place so dark in the afternoon light that the street lamps suddenly started glowing. We use cookies and similar tools to enhance your shopping experience, to provide our services, understand how customers use our services so we can make improvements, and display ads. Making All-State and gaining a place on the Permian Wall of Fame. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2014. "Bustle.com"About more than football. In the beginning, on a dog-day Monday in the middle of August when the West Texas heat congealed in the sky, there were only the stirrings of dreams. Through brochures and pamphlets it conjured up a place with weather as wonderful as Southern California's and soil as fertile as that of the finest acre of farmland in Kansas or Iowa. The first murder in Odessa occurred late in the nineteenth century when a cowboy rode into a water-drilling camp one afternoon and demanded something to eat from the cook. In Brokenomics, author Dina Gachman shares the lessons she’s learned about how to live large Being a British fan of an American sport it becomes a challenge to understand the mind set that makes people love the sport. From one of the coaches came the shrill blow of a whistle, followed by the gleeful cry of "Let's go, men!" It owed its beginnings to a fine blend of Yankee ingenuity and hucksterism, its selling the first primordial example of the Home Shopping Network. The book follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas, as they made a run towards the Texas state championship. It was a little after six in the morning when the coaches started trickling into the Permian High School field house. Some said the college was set afire by cowboys who disliked being told by the Methodists that they could not drink, particularly in a place that cried out daily for alcohol. Something went wrong. Of Boobie Miles, Bissinger writes, “He had the rawness, the abandon, the unbridled meanness.” And Bissinger makes much of the orneriness, fearlessness, and aggressiveness of many of Odessa’s football players, past and present—and of many of the town’s other citizens. What specific examples does Bissinger cite of the roles of fans, coaches, teachers, parents, and school administrators in the treatment of high school football players? Buzz Bissinger's story about the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas, is a critical look at the impact of high school football on a football-crazed community. Wuthering Heights? From 1926 on, Odessa became forever enmeshed in the cycles of the boom-and-bust oil town. H. G. Bissinger has won the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award, the National Headliner Award, and the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel for his reporting.
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