Johnny W JonesJW Jones was born in 1948 in Dodge City, Kansas. His given name was Pugh, but that changed after his mother married a Texan named M.H. Jones. In 1960, the family left the wide Kansas prairies and headed south to Texas.He grew up in Burkburnett, a tow still carrying the echoes of the old oil boom. Walking those fields as a boy, he could see the black tar patches that clung to the sandy soil and the weathered timbers from long-fallen derricks. Down at Joe & Joe's Barbershop, he'd listen to the old-timers swap stories about the boom days-mules lost in the muddy streets, fortunes made and gone before payday. Every man swore he'd seen it happen or knew the one who had. That's Texas for you: where truth and tall tales shake hands so often you can't tell them apart.In 1965, after years of hearing those porch stories about courage and adventure, Jones joined the U.S. Navy, hoping to follow the example of the men who'd come before him. He served four tours in Vietnam, then spent several years drifting the world-living in Germany and the Philippines before finding his way home.Using the G.I. Bill, he earned a degree in History from Midwestern University in Wichita Falls, Texas. Diploma in hand, he began a long career teaching and coaching in small-town schools-first in Italy, Texas (the one with football, not wine), then in Red Oak and Abbott.He retired early, at seventy-four, but the stories never stopped. The porch talk of his youth and the history he taught for decades came together in Tales of Old Texas-a blend of memory, legend, and the stubborn pride of a state that still believes its stories matter. Read More Read Less