Memoir celebrates life of local political giant
Jim Sanderson, LU Writer-in-Residence, held a book signing at the Tyrrell Historical Library, Oct. 10. Sanderson signed copies of “Turtle on a Post,” a memoir by the late state senator Carl Parker, compiled by Sanderson.
Sanderson said the project was conceived three years ago when Parker called him wanting his help on writing a book.
“Carl had these vignettes, these pieces of stuff that he hadn’t written, but had spoken into a recorder,” Sanderson said. “Then various people, including his wife Beverly, had transcribed and written them up. Once I started seeing him, I thought, ‘Well, wait a minute, maybe this might be a good deal, because Carl’s done the writing. I’ll get the idea, and we’ll share the profits.’”
The book goes through Parker’s life growing up in Port Arthur in the ’40s and ’50s and his higher education including earning his undergraduate degree at Lamar State College of Technology, now Lamar University. It also covers his time in law school, in the military and as State Representative and Senator.
Parker died in March, with his wife Beverly passing in April, before the book was published.
“That was sort of devastating, because I really wanted to know what they thought,” Sanderson said. “Essentially, I had the audience in mind, you know? (I think,) ‘Are they happy with it? Did we do things right when it came out?’
“While I was reading it, I think you can see certain things that apply to the area in general. In 1941, the population of Texas switched from more rural to more urban. Carl’s parents came from Louisiana to Port Arthur to work with refining, so they brought these Louisiana rural ideas, recipes, outlook and religion with them, and almost this protection of the unions.”
Sanderson said the book’s title refers to the saying regarding how a turtle gets up on a fence post.
“Carl attributed it to Mark Twain, but in a Google search, I found that it could have been Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton or it could be Barack Obama,” Sanderson said. “It’s been around a long time. People get it kind of wrong when they state it. They just say that if you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself. But people leave out the rest — He ain’t going to get down by himself, either,’”
Sanderson said the title was Parker’s idea.
“He felt as though he were a turtle on the post, and the book closes out with that sort of attitude, that he had a lot of help — he needed a lot of help to get up that post and get off of it,” Sanderson said.
“Turtle on a Post” is published by Lamar Literary Press and is available through Amazon or other online bookstores.
