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 ...