A fifteen-year-old high school cheerleader is killed while driving on a dangerous curve one afternoon. By that night, her classmates have erected a roadside cross decorated with silk flowers, not as a grim warning, but as a loving memorial. In this study of roadside crosses, the first of its kind, Holly Everett presents the history of these unique commemoratives and their relationship to contemporary memorial culture. The meaning of these markers is presented in the words of grieving parents, high school students, public officials, and private individuals whom the author interviewed during her fieldwork in Texas. Everett documents over thirty-five memorial sites with twenty-five photographs representing the wide range of creativity. Examining the complex interplay of politics, culture, and belief, she emphasizes the importance of religious expression in everyday life and analyzes responses to death that this tradition. Roadside crosses are a meeting place for communication, remembrance, and reflection, embodying on-going relationships between the living and the dead. They are a bridge between personal and communal pain–and one of the oldest forms of memorial culture. Scholars in folklore, American studies, cultural geography, cultural/social history, and material culture studies will be especially interested in this study.

Interview with Wilhelmina R. Fitzgerald Delco, former member of the Texas House of Representatives (D-Austin). The interview includes Delco's personal experiences about childhood and education, marriage to Exalton A. Delco, Jr., being involved in community issues, running for the Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees, her 1974 election to the Texas House of Representatives seat representing Travis County, and serving as Speaker Pro Tem of the House. Additionally, Delco speaks about her family's involvement in Chicago politics, the difficulty of desegregating Austin schools in a manner that shared resources equitably with all groups, serving on the Committee on Public Education and Committee on Higher Education, being involved in the National Conference of State Legislatures, including efforts to encourage divestiture from apartheid-South Africa, as well as her involvement in efforts to reform the Texas higher education funding system and her commitment to education as her life's work.

Pamphlet printed by the owner of the dairy when he was trying to sell it. Notes the improvements on the dairy, price per various acreage, buildings, and terms of sale.

Interview with Elmo Champion, a United States Army veteran from Mineola, Texas. Champion describes his recollections as a member of the 9th Field Artillery, 25th Infantry Division stationed at Schofield Barracks during the Japanese attack there and on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Interview with Hugh E. Law, a United States Army veteran from Corvallis, Oregon. Law describes his experiences as a member of the Detach Finance Department stationed at Schofield Barracks during the Japanese attack there and on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Interview with Charles W. Lebkowsky, a United States Navy veteran from Otto, Texas. Lebkowsky explains his experiences and recollections aboard the destroyer the USS Tucker during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.