An Arkies Musings

My An Arkie's Faith column from the July 25, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. The two cars drove through the driving rain on narrow winding county roads. The rain had been falling for some time, pounding hard on the windshield as the wipers worked hard to keep up. The tidy, well-groomed farms with fields of corn, soybeans, and cotton flashed by. The drivers of the cars were too focused on the narrow black velvet ribbon that wound before them, dark with rain, to be able to appreciate the rural scenery. They had been driving for two days and were nearing their destination. After spending most of their time in heavy interstate traffic and the occasional traffic jam, it was good to be just a few miles away. A few minutes later they turned onto Fork Road, following the directions on the GPS. The innkeeper had told them that the GPS would tell them that they had arrived at their destination well before they reached it. Sure enough, the GPS said “you have arrived at your destination...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the July 18, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. When my oldest granddaughter is riding in the car with me, she often asks if we can listen to the those Southern Stories. She is referring to a podcast that I like to listen to called Tales from the South. The podcast features true stories written and told by the Southerners who lived them, in front of a live audience. One of her favorite stories is “Rainbow Cheerios” by Paul Strack. Paul started his story with the words, “Cool – You have Rainbow Cheerios!” He goes on to explain that on the night of April 26, 2011, tornadoes hit the Mayflower, Arkansas area. His 13-year-old daughter learned that her friend’s house had been destroyed. He reached out to the family and asked, “what can we do to help?” What the family needed most was someplace for their teenage daughters Rachael and Taylor to stay for a few days. Paul recounted, “with three teenagers of our own, and a 10-year-old to boot, we have a pr...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the July 11, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. The two dogs ran through the door and out into the backyard. As I stood on the deck watching the dogs, one of them ran around the side of the house where I couldn’t see her. “Maggie,” I yelled, “get back over here.” The dog that was still in the yard looked at me with big sad eyes, wondering what she had done wrong. The problem was that both dogs were named Maggie. Three months ago, Maggie the Golden Retriever came into our lives. A friend was looking for a good home for a pet she could no longer keep. She suggested that we keep Maggie for a week while she was out of town and see if we liked her. We fell in love with Maggie on the very first day. She has become a big part of our lives. This week we have been dog sitting our friend's Border Collie named, you guessed it, Maggie. The two Maggies have become inseparable. They love to play with the dog toys, but whatever toy one of the Maggies has,...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the July 4, 2018, issue of The Mena Star. As we drove through a remote section of the Boston Mountains, we came around a bend in the road and saw the sign that said Low Gap. The town consisted of a church and a cafe. We were hungry, so we stopped at the cafe for supper. Its old country exterior and remote location made us think that the food would be simple. The number of cars parked out front made us think that the food was probably good. My wife and I were spending the weekend in the Buffalo River area to celebrate our forty-third anniversary. Along for the trip was our seven-year-old granddaughter. We had a very enjoyable time attending the Buffalo River Elk Fest and visiting Jasper, Ponca and Boxley Valley. We love to explore backwoods dirt roads and ended up in out of the way places like Erbie and Murray. Our granddaughter loved swimming in the Buffalo River. She went swimming at the Ponca low water bridge and the Steel Creek Campground....