My sister and I always looked for the caboose. That unmistakable red car at the rear of the train that held the men who always waved to us. We were drawn to the caboose because it seemed like the ultimate playhouse.

The train itself looked almost desolate. It headed down the tracks on its way to a destination unknown to us. But then the caboose appeared. The man in the window and the man in the raised lookout on top. What ...

There’s a scene in The Grapes of Wrath when two children ask for candy in a store and it costs more than the grandfather has. The candy canes were a nickel apiece, but the clerk sells them two-for-a-penny. The penny was a symbol of kindness. During the life of our country, pennies have symbolized a lot of things.

The U.S. Mint is ceasing production of the penny. It now costs more than one cent to make it. The coins are mostly ...

I firmly believe GPS was invented to save marriages. Before that, wives had to drive from the passenger seat.

I grew up in Ashdown, Arkansas, long before Siri started giving directions. Back then, the only voice you heard was the wife saying, “You missed the turn again,” followed by a silence thick enough you could drown.

Some men had a natural talent for getting lost. It’s part of their charm. At least, that’s what they told themselves. They could rebuild a carburetor, ...

I was driving to buy the morning paper when I noticed movement ahead. As I drew closer, I realized it was a dog. An English Setter, wandering aimlessly in the middle of the intersection. Cars swerved, horns blared, and her eyes were wide and lost.

I stopped my vehicle at the red light, opened the passenger door, and called, “Come on, girl.” She climbed right in. She was panting and flustered, but her coat was clean and freshly brushed. This ...

“Doodlebug, doodlebug, come out of your house. Your house is on fire and your wife has gone South.”

I have no idea who first taught my sister and me that saying, but I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know it.

We were shown how to take a small twig or broom straw and stir the doodlebug house until the sand walls caved in. That caused the bug to kick sand out from the bottom, little legs churning like mad. Of ...

Robert Redford was a movie star. At a time when movie stars deserved the title.

Unlike most celebrities today, who pollute their brand with their ideologies, Redford was tepid in that area. He was obviously left, as evident in the roles he chose later in movies such as The Milagro Beanfield War and The Legend of Bagger Vance.

But with the wisdom Johnny Carson also possessed, Redford was wise enough to focus more on selling movie tickets than making his own, constant ...

Before cable television, the Internet, and social media reshaped how we spend our free time, entertainment in the South during the 1960s and 70s was rooted in community, creativity, and the great outdoors. We filled our days and evenings with activities that cost little but created lasting memories, bound tightly to family, neighbors, and the rhythms of nature.

Church was the heartbeat of social life. We looked forward to revival meetings, choir practice, and youth group gatherings. One of the most ...

Hard work has a way of shaping a person that no shortcut or modern convenience can replicate. In an era when many of life’s daily tasks have been automated, it’s easy to forget the lessons hidden in a long day’s labor. Yet the lessons of discipline, patience, and resilience are precisely the ones that give life a deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment.

That’s true for most folks who grew up in the South during the 1960s and 70s; a time ...

Growing up, movies weren’t just a Saturday night diversion. They were lessons, warnings, and often, thanks to amazing writers of the era, meant to make us think.

Hollywood was turning out stories that carried more weight than Flash Gordon and other serials of the 1930s. And for a boy like me, sitting in Williams Theater in Ashdown, Arkansas, those films shaped the way I thought about just about everything.

What I didn’t realize until years later was that these movies weren’t just ...

Outliving your hairstyle seems to happen to a lot of folks. Ducktail cuts, shellacked pompadours, bouffant hairdos that could hide an aircraft carrier, and especially mullets, should be shelved and forbidden. Punishment for wearing your hair in any of these forms should be home confinement for 90 days with nothing to watch but reruns of Dr. Phil.

The 60s and 70s in the South served as fashion laboratories. In Ashdown, Arkansas, where I was raised, one of the most common sights ...