An Arkies Musings

My An Arkie's Faith column from the December 27, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. The morning dawned quiet and peaceful. It’s too quiet and peaceful. There was no excitement. There were no shouts of Merry Christmas. No laughter filled the air. The Christmas tree in the living room stood silently with presents all around. But the gifts remained untouched. No one was opening them. The living room was in perfect order, with no torn wrapping paper. I sighed and thought, “It doesn’t feel like Christmas.” Across the street, cars filled the driveway, and people arrived for Christmas morning celebrations. But our house was quiet. No one would be at our home for Christmas. No bubbly, excited granddaughters to make the day festive. I thought about all the people who would not be with those they love this Christmas and felt empathy for them. This would be my first Christmas without my Daddy. With no family here, a sadness washed over me. I sat in my chair, feeling just a bit sorry for my...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the December 20, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. The six-year-old boy stood shyly in line with the other boys and girls. It was his first Christmastime in the big city of Denver, and everything seemed exciting, wonderful, and a little bit scary. It had only been a short time since he, his mom, and his little sister moved from his grandparents’ house on the plains of eastern Colorado to live with his daddy, who had found work in Denver. The little family lived in a motel room as Daddy struggled to save enough money to find a proper house for them to live in. At six years old and having grown up during the Depression, Duane knew that there was not much money for Christmas presents that year. But as he stood in line waiting to see Santa Claus, he knew what he would ask for. He wanted an electric train set. It was all he could think about. He spent hours imagining his train chugging around the track. When it was his turn to see Santa, Duane timidly...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the December 13, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. My Daddy grew up in a Ford Model A. By the time he was eight years old he was driving the family Model A. One of the ways that the family earned money was by peddling eggs, fruit, and vegetables door to door. By the time he was eight years old, when the traffic was light, his Momma would send Daddy back down the street to pull the Model A up to where she was. Daddy remembered having to look through the steering wheel instead of over it. Over the years Daddy owned many antique and special interest collector cars. But the cars he loved the most were Model A’s. In 1992, he drove a Shay Model A on several trips. On one trip he drove the Model A from Arkansas to Dawson City, Yukon in Canada. From there, he traveled on the Dempster Highway toward Inuvik. Driving his Model A above the Arctic Circle was one of his proudest achievements. Later that year he took another vacation, driving the Model A to Key...

 My An Arkie's Faith column from the December 6, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. It was a cold, windy day in December 1903. Orville Wright stands on the beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, staring at the sky. His brother Wilbur is flying overhead in the machine they had built together. It was their fourth flight of the day in their hand-built flying machine. Wilbur Wright successfully flew their homemade machine for 59 seconds, covering 852 feet at seven miles per hour. Orville had piloted the day’s first flight, which lasted just 12 seconds and traveled only 180 feet, but it proved that human flight was possible.  Orville wrote in his diary about the first attempted flight that morning. “I found the control of the front rudder quite difficult. As a result, the machine would rise suddenly to about ten feet and then as suddenly, on turning the rudder, dart for the ground. A sudden dart when out about 100 feet from the end of the tracks ended the flight. Time about 12 sec...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the November 29, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. Most people don't like to take tests. It makes them nervous. Some occupations such as nursing, law, civil service jobs, and many others, require passing a test before you can be licensed to work. Tests can create a lot of anxiety in people. Waiting to find out if you passed is very stressful. Recently, a friend was stressed out while waiting for the day she would take the test required to be certified. Without the certification, she could not work in the field she had studied. Even though the worry about taking the test almost made her ill, when the day came, she passed it.  I remember taking my driving test. I was driving a 1962 Chrysler. For the turn signals to work, you had to hold the turn signal lever in position because it wouldn’t stay if you didn’t. When I had to turn corners during the test, I held the turn signal lever in position with one hand while I steered with the other. When t...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the November 22, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. After years of leg and knee pain, I finally decided to have knee replacement surgery. My left knee had been in bad shape for a long time. Three years ago, my X-rays showed that it was bone on bone. At that time, my orthopedic surgeon told me the answer was a complete knee replacement. I resisted the idea, and he said to me that when it hurt bad enough, I would get it replaced.  In early October, Dr. Hefley performed a total knee replacement on my left knee at the Arkansas Surgical Hospital. The morning after the surgery, the hospital’s physical therapist came into my room and told me it was time for therapy. After she helped me get out of bed, I fumbled with my hospital gown, trying to maintain at least a small amount of modesty. As I walked down the hospital corridor with my walker, the physical therapist told me the goals for the session and then explained the importance of physical therapy aft...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the November 15, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. During the first part of 1993, our family built our new home. To save money, we would go to the building site every evening and clean up after the workers. Seeing the progress each day was exciting, even though it seemed painfully slow.  Before the new house was completed, the house we were living in sold, and we needed a place to live while our new house was finished. My parents had an available rental house in Yocana, so we moved to the country. Our new home was nearing completion and would be ready to move into in a few weeks. We enjoyed living in the country, even if the long drive into town several times a day did get old. The house on the hilltop overlooked the highway, and cows in the field behind the house stood at the fence and watched as we moved in. Before long, the excitement of living in a new home in the country wore off for my kids. There is nothing to do, they complained. My son w...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the November 8, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. Abraham Clark settled near the Buffalo River in Arkansas sometime in the 1830s or 40s. Records from those early days in Arkansas are scarce. He built a small cabin near a tributary of the Buffalo. Families who settled in the Buffalo River region had to work hard to make it. The land could provide food, but it wasn’t easy to make money. Some families grew cotton and some harvested plants like goldenseal, ginseng, sassafras, and slippery elm to sell to dealers. The rugged terrain made it difficult to move goods. We don’t know much about Abraham Clark, but the tributary of the Buffalo River, where he first settled, is named for him. This intermittent stream, called Clark Creek, plunges 1,200 feet in the 3-mile stretch from its source to its confluence with the Buffalo River. It was one of Abraham’s descendants who guided a group of government surveyors up the creek in 1898. He led them to an enormous...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the November 1, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. Four-year-old Molly is at her neighbor Nicole’s house. She likes to go with her big brother when he plays with the neighbor boys. And Nicole loves having Molly around. Being the mother of three rambunctious boys, she liked spending quiet girl time with Molly. Molly’s favorite movie is Pocahontas. This evening, while the boys are playing, she is in Nicole’s dimly lit bedroom, and Nicole is putting braids like Pocahontas’ in Molly’s long, dark brown hair. When she finishes, Nicole sets Molly on the vanity in front of the mirror and holds a mirror behind Molly’s head. “How do you like it?” Nicole asks. “Oh, I can’t see it,” Molly says. Nicole starts tilting the mirror in different ways. “I still can’t see it,” Molly says. Molly’s family and friends know she has poor vision, but no one knows she is night blind. She has already had one surgery and many exploratory tests, but people think she sees more ...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the October 25, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. Last Saturday, family and friends gathered to say goodbye to my Daddy. He was one of the most interesting people you could ever meet. His life revolved around his love for God, family, and cars. Anyone who knew him knew that he had a passion for cars. I drove one of my Daddy’s unique car creations to the memorial. It had started as a Chevrolet El Camino, but Daddy had grafted the front end of a 1950 Studebaker to the front of it. He called his creation a Studemino. As I was driving the Studemino to the memorial, it started to lose power, and soon after, it quit as I went up a steep hill. I had to call my cousin to rescue me. As my daughter and I were waiting to be rescued, she started laughing. “It is so appropriate to be having car trouble on the day of Grandpa’s memorial,” she said. Through the years, Daddy had broken down on the highway too many times to count. It was almost a trademark. And he...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the October 18, 2023, issue of The Polk County Pulse. My Daddy had looked forward to his Madison College reunion for six months. I told him I would take him, and he was so happy. Over the years, he kept in touch with friends from college. This year’s reunion was to be the final reunion, and Daddy didn’t want to miss it. Madison College closed in the early 60s, so there are few remaining alumni. As the reunion neared, he talked about it to everyone he met. A few weeks before the reunion, my orthopedic surgeon scheduled my knee replacement surgery just a few days before the college reunion. When I told Daddy, he was very disappointed. I felt terrible, but there was nothing I could do. I asked my daughter if there was any way that she might be able to take him, and she was able to arrange her schedule so that she could. Daddy was excited when I told him she would take him to the reunion. They packed the car with snacks and headed out on a road trip to N...