When you grow up in a Southern church, you learn quickly how things are done. And how they’re not done.

Some kids learn early. Some kids never get it.

Bethel Missionary Baptist Church was a small, white frame structure. Like many churches of mid-20th Century America, it was plenty big enough to accommodate the 75 or so who went there. It was a lot like a weekly family reunion since many attendees were kin to each other.

That’s one of the first things ...

I have a lot of my grandparents in me. I’m cheap.

I also love the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Nowhere is this truer than when it comes to radio, television, and an Arkansas game. I grew up listening to free radio and watching free television. So the idea of paying money to listen to or watch an Arkansas Razorbacks game is foreign to me.

I’m not doing it.

Located in southwest Arkansas, Ashdown was and still is in a good geographic location to pick up games ...

Not so long ago, you could tell quite a bit about someone by the car they drove.

If someone drove a sensible vehicle, such as a small sedan, they were frugal and wanted to make sure their family enjoyed comfort during their travels. If someone drove a big red sports car, they had a lot of money — and a lot of speeding tickets.

In the 50s and 60s in Ashdown, Arkansas, most families had one car. The dad drove it to ...

I don’t remember a time when Burt Reynolds wasn’t around. That is until he passed away a few years ago.

When Gunsmoke was one of the biggest shows on television, Burt played the town blacksmith, Quint Asper.

It was a character I noticed, because my grandfather and great grandfather were blacksmiths.

Burt wasn’t always on the show, but when he was he reeked of the cool he would later embody when he ruled the box office in the 1970s.

I likely should not have ...

My grandparents lived modestly. Most from their generation did.

It wasn’t a choice. It was necessity.

My grandmother and grandfather were teens when the depression hit, so instead of enjoying their formative years, they worked to eat. They worked to survive.

I heard a lot about the depression. The thing I heard most often was that no one had anything; at least nothing of significant value, and certainly nothing that was frivolous.

When I came along in the early 1960s, the post-World War II ...

Something happened to tea along the way. Something bad. And it needs to be stopped.

Growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, in addition to water, tea had just two other ingredients; tea and sugar. Not necessarily in that order.

This sacred recipe was handed down through generations of southern grandmothers, who made sure that the right portions were in place and were never to be adjusted.

There were two simple tests that ensured sweet tea was made correctly. Did your teeth hurt when you ...

It’s a good thing women are in charge of decorating.

Each house in America would have the “Dogs Playing Poker” series on the living room walls if the guys had our way.

But humor me for a moment. What if men were given permission to have things our way? Would the world be that much different? That much worse?

I submit to you, that without ever talking to each other, with no collusion or complicitousness, men would make changes around the house – ...

I’m seeing lemonade stands again.

At a time when all you seem to hear is that the number of young people quitting their jobs is growing, I’m seeing young folks setting up to sell lemonade.

It makes me smile. And I stop and buy some.

My first exposure to good old capitalism was when I was about eight and my sister was six. I saw a kid on TV selling lemonade, so I told my mother that I wanted to set up a ...

People in the South check on each other.

I’m not sure if this happens elsewhere, but it’s almost innate for a person raised around where I was to check on folks.

In Ashdown, Arkansas, people left their keys in their cars, so they obviously didn’t lock their houses. So if someone was checking on you, they would crack open your front door and yell, “Woo Hoo,” and wait until you yelled, “I’m here, c’mon in,” before entering.

When I say, “checking on” someone, ...

Malls were the beginning of the end. Although, in the 1970s when Texarkana welcomed the opening of its mall, those of us who lived in the area were all too busy being excited about having a mall to see that by shopping there we were hurting our neighbors.

“What could be better?” we thought. All of the stores you could want under one air-conditioned roof, vendors selling trinkets, overpriced jewelry, and a food court with pretzels the size of manhole covers.

Maybe ...