An Arkies Musings

An Arkie's Faith column from the December 19, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. The coarse grinder disc cut its way through layers of old body filler, creating a thick layer of dust on the floor. When the grinder disc made its way through all of the old filler down to the metal of the fender, large pockets of rust appeared. The bottom edge of the fender had rusted through leaving a large hole several inches in diameter. There isn't a word in the old car hobby that is more dreaded than the word "rust.” It's the automotive equivalent to cancer. Rust is bad news. I knew that my little Rambler American had some rust bubbling through to the surface before I began to repaint it, but I was surprised by how extensive the rust was. After driving the little Rambler almost three years, I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint. There were rust bubbles on the front fenders and the rocker panels. I knew that I would need to do some rust repair. What I didn’t realize was that ...

An Arkie's Faith column from the December 12, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. The country church was beautifully decorated for Christmas. There were Christmas trees, poinsettias, and a lovely nativity. One by one, Mrs. Bates’ piano students played the Christmas pieces they had prepared for the recital. From the simplest notes of Jolly Old St. Nicholas by the youngest student to a rousing duet version of Sleigh Ride by one of the students with Mrs. Bates, the sounds of Christmas filled the church. My granddaughters, aged eight, eleven, and thirteen were among the students playing at the recital. They had been practicing their pieces for weeks. The girls performed beautifully. I asked them if they were nervous, but they said they weren’t. Even when there was a problem with the piano, they didn’t let it bother them but played through it. As I listened to them and the other piano students, I remembered growing up and taking music lessons. I played the trumpet and was in the b...

An Arkie's Faith column from the December 5, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. The young boy made his way through the kitchen, out the front door, and onto the screened in front porch. He hesitantly opened the screen door and crept out into the night. The path that was illuminated just hours before was now lost in the blackness of a moonless night. Fear gripped him as he carefully made his way to the outhouse at the end of the path. When I was a young boy, my grandparents’ home didn’t have an indoor bathroom. The outhouse was interesting in the daytime because it was different than being at home, but on a dark night, it was creepy and a bit frightening. Darkness changes our perspective. Most children at one time or another experience the fear of the dark. And unlike most childhood fears, it’s one that plenty of people never outgrow. According to Psychologist Thomas Ollendick, the director of the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech University, some fears are acquired based o...

An Arkie's Faith column from the November 28, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. The warm sunshine filtered through the trees as we made our way from the trailhead to the Falls Branch Trail. It was a beautiful November day with temperatures in the seventies. After the second day of Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat, our family was excited to get outside and get some exercise. We had made plans to visit Garvan Woodland Gardens and see the Christmas light display. Since we were driving to Hot Springs to go to the gardens, we wanted to find someplace to take a short hike while we waited for the sun to go down. We referred to our book, Arkansas Dayhikes for Kids and Families, by Pam, Tim, and Amber Ernst. We chose to hike the Falls Branch Trail at Lake Catherine State Park. The book told us that the hike to the Falls Creek Falls “is an easy stroll along the lakeshore.” An easy stroll to a waterfall was just the hike that some of us older folks in the group thought sounded goo...

An Arkie's Faith column from the November 21, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. Matt McCabe is a tall, muscular man, standing 6-foot-2. He is good-looking, with blond hair and a big smile. He loves to talk about his city, London. McCabe had spent three years of his life thinking about London’s roads and landmarks, and how to navigate between them. In the process, he had logged more than 50,000 miles on a motorbike and on foot. He is studying to become a London taxi driver. To become a London taxi driver, he will need to pass a test called simply, The Knowledge. The Knowledge has been around since the 1800s. Taxi-driver candidates, known as Knowledge boys and Knowledge girls, are issued a copy of the Blue Book; a guidebook that contains a list of 320 trips around London. To be licensed as an “All London” taxi driver, Matt will need a thorough knowledge of all the streets, parks, hospitals, restaurants, places of worship, sports stadiums, hotels, club, theatres, museums, schools,...

An Arkie's Faith column from the November 14, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. I could hear the distinctive throaty rumble of Harley-Davidson motorcycles as they pulled up the driveway to my shop; an uneven, syncopated rhythm that sounded like potato, potato, potato, potato. The two bikers had been traveling on Highway 71 when they spotted the old cars at my shop and stopped to look at them. They enjoyed looking at the cars and visiting with Daddy and me. They were especially excited to see our right-hand drive 1954 Ford Popular that had been imported from England. As we visited with them, we learned that they were from the United Kingdom; one was from London, and the other from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  The bikers spent almost an hour admiring our old cars and visiting with us. When they were ready to leave, my Daddy asked them to sign his guestbook. Several years ago, he started asking visitors to our shop to sign his guestbook. Since that time, we have had visitors f...

Veterans Day is a day to honor the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces.  In 1954, President Eisenhower published a proclamation in the Federal Register, instructing citizens to recognize Veterans Day on Nov. 11. He wrote: “On that day, let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.” The Department of Veterans Affairs has broadening that tradition of observance and appreciation to include both Veterans and Military Families for the entire month of November. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Data Report, the veteran suicide rate averages 22 per day. Many more come home with significant problems as they try to return to non-military society. On this Veterans Day, please don't forget our...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the November 7, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. “Look over there,” my wife exclaimed, “there is a hot air balloon.” We were driving back to the house we had rented in Branson for the weekend. I pulled into a parking lot so that we could get a better view of the balloon and take some photos. As I got out of the car I noticed another balloon, and then two more. As the balloons drifted by, they were close enough to the ground that we could hear when the pilot activated the propane burner. The balloons seemed to be headed in the same direction that we were going, so we followed them. When we pulled into the driveway of our rental, we saw that a balloon was flying right over us. The balloon was low enough that the people in the basket saw us taking photos and waved to us, yelling “hello.” The balloon was made of brightly colored rectangles with a vertical yellow strip with the bold letters WWJD. After the balloons had passed over us, we got back in t...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the October 31, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. It was shortly after eight in the morning when we pulled up in front of the building. Outside was a sandwich board sign with the words “vote here” written above a rippling American flag. Even though it was early, there were several cars parked out front. My wife and I were headed out of town and decided to vote before we left. When we walked into the room to vote, all of the voting machines were in use, and there were a couple of people in line ahead of us. The people working the polls were friendly and helpful. Before long, both my wife and I were standing in front of our respective voting machines. After voting for the statewide races, for the U.S. representative, the state senator, local races, and the ballot initiatives, I carefully reviewed the ballot before giving my final approval. I was now one of the more than two million voters who have cast early ballots. Many people are expecti...