An Arkies Musings

My favorite cartoon when I was a kid was Peanuts. I remember one comic strip in particular. It is January 1st, and Charlie Brown tells anyone who will listen, “The best way to keep New Year’s Resolutions is in a sealed envelope in a bottom desk drawer. Charlie Brown knew what every person who has ever made a resolution knows. Making and keeping resolutions is a troublesome business, usually filled with failure and shame. How have your past resolutions worked out for you? I don't even want to talk about mine. If you have made and broken resolutions on many previous New Year's days, you may feel that you might as well seal them in a bottom desk drawer and forget them. That is the experience I have had. If there is anything to which Christians should be committed to, it is that people can change for the better and that there is every reason to hope for such a change in our lives and in the lives of others. If you ask the average person about the resolutions they made for the...

I am often intrigued by the ways that blogging has affected my life. The people that I have met and the things I have learned from blogging are amazing. Shawna K. Williams is one of those people. I first started following her blog because she lives in the same town that I do. I was searching Blogger for blogs from my hometown. In May of this year I bought a Kindle book reader from Amazon. I absolutely love it. When I first got my Kindle I was like a kid in a candy store. So many choices - what was I going to read next. I read on Shawna's blog, My Father's Oldsmobile , that she had just published her first novel and it was available on Kindle. I downloaded a copy of her book titled No Other . The book was like No Other that I had ever read. It is considered Inspirational Romance, and I don't read romance novels. My taste in reading is history, autobiographies, non-fiction, religion and classics with just a little science fiction mixed in, well really only Isaac A...

I really love Autumn and how much beauty is in Autumn. I also like Fall and the colorful foliage. My oldest granddaughter is named Autumn and she is beautiful! Recently my daughter placed some photos on Facebook that she titled "Autumn (the season)". As beautiful as my granddaughter Autumn is, this post is to showcase the beauty of Autumn (the season). It has been an unusual year. Usually the color is almost gone by this time of year. My wife said "The hills are alive with color. I thought we weren't going to have a very pretty fall this year but God wasn't finished yet". She sure was right. Recently I took some photos of of the Autumn foliage in my town of Mena, Arkansas. I would like to share some of them with you. As I drove to work I photographed some of the places that I drive by every day. God can make even a junkyard beautiful. I took these photos behind my shop where we keep the vehicles that some people consider junk. The Kansas City Sout...

Last weekend we took a trip to Eureka Springs for the Ozark Folk Festival. Eureka Springs is one of our favorite places. We try to go there several times a year as it is a beautiful three and a half hour drive from home. Eureka Springs is a Victorian mountain village that was founded in 1879. Judge J.B. Saunders claimed that his crippling disease was cured by the spring waters. Saunders started promoting Eureka Springs to friends and family members across the State and created a boomtown. Within a period of little more than one year, the city grew from a rural village to a major city of 5,000 people. By 1889 it was the second largest city in Arkansas. With bath house cures falling out of favor, and the depression that hit the nation being particularly bad in Arkansas, Eureka Spring fell into decline during the 30's. With the end of World War II the era of the family car trip began. Businesses and services moved to the highway, rustic tourist courts and air-conditioned motels we...

The Granddaddy of them all - The Ozark Folk Festival in Eureka Springs is the country’s oldest continuously running folk festival. It was in 1947 that this beautiful little town in the Ozarks held its first folk festival. The event was started by local artists and musicians with the purpose of keeping traditional crafts and music alive. They also wanted to bring in the young emerging voices and artists who were giving new energy to Americana music and arts. It began as a small informal celebration, with craftsman pulling their wares out onto the sidewalks and the sound of fiddles and banjos echoing off of the hills. Over the years some of the biggest names in music have performed at the festival. This is the first year that I have been able to attend. I really wanted to go because 3 Penny Acre was opening for Eliza Gilkyson . I had heard 3 Penny Acre when they came to Mena and put on a show at Ouachita Little Theater. I was immediately drawn to their sparse Acoustic/Folk/Roots/...