There are a few movies that have a big and lasting impact on you. For a 13-year-old kid from Ashdown, Arkansas, one of those was Jaws; the story of a great white shark that ate people off the coast of New England.

But it wasn’t just kids from southwest Arkansas who went to see that movie. For that matter, it wasn’t just kids. Everyone in the world, just about, went to see Jaws.

It was 1975, and no one had seen anything ...

I learned a lot from Scouting. Started as a Cub Scout, then joined Webelos, then the Boy Scouts.

Girls and making money took priority over my time around age 14, so I never made Eagle Scout. But what I learned up until then I still use today.

How to find a place to camp if you’re caught out in the woods. How to find fuel for and build a fire. How to forage and hunt for food. How to tie knots.

These were ...

The photo was taken quickly with little thought of its future impact. It was just one of the 36-count roll of Kodak color film that she’d bought for her vacation.

My sister was on a Colorado trip. She booked a trip on a vintage train that traveled on vintage tracks. As the conductor made a final walk of inspection, my sister leaned out a window and snapped the shot.

It was early morning. The mist of the mountain blended into the mist ...

Southerner’s are big on sopping. We like to sop our biscuits in lots of things.

There isn’t much that’s better than sopping a cathead biscuit in gravy. Especially if your mom made both.

My mother worked culinary magic in that tiny kitchen on Beech Street in Ashdown, Arkansas. She made biscuits and gravy most meals.

We learned to sop at a young age. Sopping made sure we didn’t leave a drop of country goodness on our plates.

Gravy is good, but it wasn’t the ...

About 40 years ago, my dad gave me a radio. Not just any radio. It was what’s called a farm radio.

According to Texas Co-op Power Magazine, in 1936, just three out of 100 farms had electricity. By the mid-1940’s, it was three out of 10. That still left most farm families without power.

The Philco radio my dad gave me was made around 1946 and it ran off a dry cell battery.

A dry cell battery radio was how those with no ...

If you’re a Baptist from the South, you’re hoping that the Pearly Gates pop quiz isn’t, “What’s the third verse to any song in the hymnal?”

You won’t know the answer.

If you’re laughing right now, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

In Southern churches that sing the old hymns, skipping the third verse is common.

“OK, let’s all stand. We’ll sing the first, second, and last stanzas,” said the church’s song leader.

In the little church in Ashdown, Arkansas, in which I grew ...

My grandfather called it a, “Po Boy Lunch.”

That meant we were having leftovers in whatever creative way my grandmother came up with.

Recently, I took two biscuits from breakfast and loaded them with smoked brisket, and from the garden, purple onions and jalapeños.

A little Heinz 57 topped them. Also from the garden, Roma tomatoes with sea salt.

It got me to thinking about why Southern folks like simple foods.

It’s because it’s good.

A pot of pinto beans, some sliced onion, and cornbread was ...

I don’t know if Red Goose was a real bird, but I used to love wearing her shoes. I especially loved getting them. Along with one of her golden eggs.

In Ashdown, Arkansas, Red Goose Shoes were sold at Blue Ribbon Shoe Store. It was one of thousands of shoe stores that dotted the American landscape of the mid-20th Century.

Unfortunately, shoe stores have pretty much gone the way of the buggy whip salesman.

I miss the experience of the shoe store.

Today, people ...

When you grow up with one car and no phone, trips to water parks usually aren’t on the summer agenda.

Two reasons. Budgets were tight, and there were no water parks in Ashdown, Arkansas.

Unless you count one of the numerous livestock ponds in the area. And those weren’t typically recommended for snorkeling.

But that didn’t mean our moms didn’t see to it that we had a day or two for aquatic recreation. On the contrary. Fun in the sun was as close ...

People use different ways to learn to read. Some folks use the vowels and consonants method. Others memorize how the words look.

I used both, but I had a secret weapon many didn’t know about.

Comic books.

While most kids were having, “Fun with Dick and Jane,” I was having a blast with Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four.

It started when my dad came home one day with a stack of comic books he’d picked up for a quarter at a garage sale.

At the ...