INAUGURAL EDITION · No. 01

I went to France. Texas packed a bag.

The inaugural dispatch: family, fun, philanthropy, and an education that refused to stay in the classroom.

France, 1998. Editorial collage using photographs from Clayton’s archive.

The Short Version

A letter to the first readers

I’m Clayton Hollingsworth: a Texas father, a nonprofit fellow traveler, and a man with a proven inability to leave a promising question alone. I’m glad you’re here.

UNSUPERVISED* began when my daughter, Perry Kate, left for boarding school. The house got quieter. My interests did not.

This is the first email edition. Each week, expect a letter, one larger story and a few discoveries worth following. Family photographs, useful institutions, politics and ordinary Texas places all belong here. So does the occasional bad decision involving footwear.

I’ll tell you what I think, take care with what I know and leave room to be corrected. We begin in France, where I learned that crossing an ocean does not necessarily put Texas behind you.

The big story · October 16

I went to France to escape Texas. Texas packed a bag.

At fifteen, I went abroad through AFS. In Nîmes, I followed an American presidential scandal from an internet café and joined student protests. Later came L’Itaca near Nyer, mountain life, and a family visit that put two understandings of the world at one dinner table.

The story draws on my scrapbook, surviving letters and later recollections. Those accounts complicate the tidy version I might once have told. The written feature comes first; a 24:50 companion episode offers another way in.

Worth a look

One new essay and two archive selections to introduce the neighborhood.

New · October 17 · Opinion & satire

The Five-Day Administration.

The Unpresidential Library’s new essay turns a short personnel story into a longer question about hiring, preparation and presidential accountability. The museum jokes are satire; its argument is about management.

Imagined satirical illustration.

From the archive · October 9

The Faces We Keep

An afternoon at the scanner became a Birdwell family album. Ivana Sue’s handwritten school paper on hypnosis brought something else into view: the mind behind the familiar face. Original scans remain the evidence; restorations are interpretations.

Ivana Sue in pop art. An artistic interpretation of her family photograph.

From the archive · October 3

Clifton, Rain or Shine

Childhood field trips, family roots and a rainy return to Clifton. The places that hold our memories still need people willing to keep them going.

Clifton storefront photograph: Renelibrary, CC BY-SA 4.0. Editorial collage adapted from the photograph; shared under the same license.

THE GIVING FIELDS

The Lights Are On. Somebody Paid the Bill.

The Giving Fields follows the people and institutions making generosity useful. This time, we return to Clifton to look behind the open doors.

Bosque Arts Center, March 23, 2015. Photo: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. Full photograph; unchanged. Source.

A performance has a backstage. So does a town. This story looks at the volunteers, cultural institutions and ordinary organizational work behind Clifton’s art and local history. Admiring an open door is easy. Keeping it open takes somebody’s Tuesday afternoon.

One more thing

What place helped make you who you are?

Hit reply and tell me about a town, classroom, library or unlikely household that still travels with you.

If someone came to mind, forward this edition. They can join the adult weekly list below.

Gratefully,

Clayton