The Old Place

'Maybe the standards we come up with sometimes got more to do with what we're afraid of instead of what we claim to believe.' That's Cal Stewart's conclusion in The Old Place, a novel about the elderly former rancher overcoming bitterness and prejudice befriending social outcasts in a small, dying Texas oil town. Grieving for his dead wife, Cal is alone and bereft of a ranch he was forced to leave when a nosy, pestering little boy draws him into the lives of his socially outcast neighbors. Cal also reluctantly comes to the aid of an African-American family. His reputation is tainted by talk of him socializing with thugs and being romantically involved with an African-American waitress. Meanwhile, the estranged son of his former ranch partner returns to Leeray and there are rumors of drugs and a gang in town. Cal is ashamed of his associations and yearns for his days on the Old Place. Soon, he abandons his self-pity and old dispositions and faces the townspeople after a tragedy costs more than he could have imaged.