On Monday, I re-discovered my copy of The WPA Guide to Texas.
(Moving is awful, y’all… a year and a half later, and my library is still disorganized. That may or may not be because I spend more time taking photos and driving around Texas than organizing it, or because I keep buying more books. But I digress…)
The WPA Guide is a wonderful book, originally published in 1940 (my copy is a reprint published by Texas Monthly in 1986). It has a few paragraphs about Serbin in it, including this little tidbit that I’d forgotten about:
A few of the ancient folk customs survive—for example, in some of the homes domestic animals are still notified orally when a member of the family dies.
Sounds interesting. I’d like to know more about the origin of that tradition!