Raising a Texas Son in the Modern World

Every father thinks his childhood was tougher than his son’s.

By W.F.Strong March 24, 2015 8:31 pm

The relationship between a father and son is a very complicated one. It seems like with each generation, the distance between parent and child increases at a much faster rate. W.F. Strong has seen many things change in Texas: including father and son relationships.

“When I was a boy, my father knew more than I did and I knew he knew more than I did,” Strong says. Now that he has boys himself, he finds he doesn’t have as much expertise in their world.

“When I was a boy you couldn’t get me inside and now I cant get them outside,” Strong says. While his wars were fought outside on a battlefield that was five acres of backyard, his sons wars are fought on a 32-inch TV screen in a dark room.

“When I was a boy, I said, advanced technology was an electric train,” Strong says. “My dad said, ‘in my day we only had rusty old metal trucks that we pushed around outside in the dirt. My grandfather said, ‘hell in my day, we had to pretend we had toys.'”

W.F. Strong is a Fullbright Scholar and professor of Culture and Communication at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Strong’s the resident expert on Texas literature, Texas legends, Blue Bell Ice Cream, Whataburger (with cheese), and mesquite-smoked brisket at Public Radio 88 FM in Harlingen, Texas.