About a year ago, my family and I went to a Family Camp with our church. It was deep in the Texas wilderness, a couple hours west of San Antonio. On the way home, we took the back way. I wanted to explore a little. And there was a town I wanted to drive through. I’d read a book written about it once. It was Utopia, Texas.
The book was called “Welcome to Utopia.” It was written by a freelance journalist who got curious and spent time in the tiny town, trying to figure out how little towns like that worked. I remember reading it and it reminding me of Salem. A movie came out about Utopia and I watched it too. It starred Robert Duvall and was about golf.
Still, I was curious about Utopia.
We drove through the town, which isn’t much, and I tried to connect places I’d read about with what I was seeing. Then we left town and headed for home.
Little did I know I was within a stone’s throw of the home of a Salem native.
Paulette Jiles was born in Salem on April 4, 1943. She went to University of Missouri-Kansas City and majored in Romance Languages (how cool of a major is that?). She moved to Canada, helping to set up radio stations for indigenous people in the far northern territories. In the process, she learned the Ojibwa language. That’s the language spoken by people of the Anishinaabeg tribes. I’ll bet you’ve never heard of that. I sure haven’t.
I hadn’t heard of Paulette Jiles, either.
As it turns out, the Salem native is a prolific author. She writes memoirs and poems and novels. Her written works include titles such as “Waterloo Express,” “The Jesse James Poems,” “Enemy Women,” and “Cousins.” Her 2016 novel “News of the World” was a finalist for the National Book Award. Most of her books have four or five stars on Amazon.
She’s no slouch, in other words.
This prolific author got her start in southern and central Missouri.
Maybe that’s why after marrying a Texan — and divorcing a Texan — she settled herself in the Texas Hill Country. She lives on what her bio describes as a “small ranch near a very small town with a horse and a donkey.” She also added, “If you want a free donkey, please let me know.” That’s small-town humor, and a small-perspective. Frankly, it’s exactly what you’d expect someone born in Salem to say.
But her current home isn’t all that different from her first home. Utopia is very similar to Salem. I know, because I drove through it once. Right past a ranch owned by a woman who — before she wrote novels that won awards — was from Salem, just like me.
