If you were raised by anyone who went through the Depression in the South, there are things you never throw away. Whether you’ll ever need them or not.

My grandparents often talked about the Great Depression. It was a time, as they put it, “When everyone had nothing.”

Since neither side of my family had much before the Depression, it would seem that the worst economic downturn in American history made things worse.

My mom’s parents lived in a small area between Fomby ...

When Wal Mart grew, warnings that it would put the mom and pop businesses under seemed to come true. Now, online businesses seem to bring the same threat to Wal Mart.

But one store that seems to be hanging on, at least in the smaller towns, is the local hardware store.

When I was moving my mom from Arkansas to Texas, I had to make numerous trips to the local hardware store in Ashdown, Arkansas. When I needed ratchet straps, tape, and ...

There’s always that one house in town you dream of fixing up. Whenever you see it, you think, “Someone should bring that place back. Restore it to its former glory. Then move in and have a big get together.”

You dream of it being you.

For me, that house was built in 1910 at the corner of Willow and Joyner in my hometown of Ashdown, Arkansas. The two-story frame home has a wraparound porch and a dome with a spire. One of ...