Driving through the Ozarks
Now that Thanksgiving weekend is in the rearview mirror, I’m left thinking about how thankful I am for that interconnecting bit of a family holiday that annoys so many people. I’m thankful for the time I spent driving through the Ozarks over the past few days. We traipsed up and down and back and forth…
Working Cattle
When I was a high school FFAer, one handy way to make money every fall was to take a shift at the local feeder calf sale. It wasn’t exactly easy money. It was hard work late into the night, but for those of us who knew what we were doing it was at least simple…
In Praise of Ozark Culture: Green Growing Things
On Mother’s Day I planted my grandmother’s tomatoes, along with a couple of pepper plants. Grandma insisted that she didn’t need the help, but she accepted it gladly enough when we refused to give her any choice in the matter. She’s turning 93 this summer, and after much beseeching from her children and grandchildren she…
A Mathematical Jeremiad
I hated math in elementary school. At least, I thought I hated math. It took years before I discovered that what I really hated was arithmetic, not math. Arithmetic is only barely math at all, yet it’s the entry point to mathematics for all elementary school students. Elementary school arithmetic is a pernicious barrier that…
An Ozark Surprise in Pilot Knob
The Ozarks are full of surprises. That’s true even when the surprise has signage on a major road and its own webpage. Last weekend my wife, my dog, and I headed out for Taum Sauk Mountain. We’re all three more than a little stir-crazy from the pandemic, but the two humans of us are also…
In Praise of Ozark Culture: The Fecundity of Hill Folk
Back a long time ago when I was a little smart-ass high schooler, I made a big show of accusing one of my aunts of being fecund. She didn’t know what that word meant, of course, because it’s not a term in the Ozark vernacular. Being the little jerk that I was, I’d hoped to…
In Praise of Ozark Culture: Old Hillbillies and Sexual Relations
As a proud but realistic Ozarker, I was saddened but not offended to see Ozark culture criticized in the comments of a few threads on reddit. My initial impulse was to reply to those comments with ardent rebuttals of those criticisms, but after decades of online life I’ve learned that it’s okay to let people…
#$@% Hillbilly Elegy
It’s the anger that’s the hardest for me to communicate. Years of education has disciplined me to avoid expressing anger in my writing. Starting in junior high English class, and continuing on through college courses and beyond, I’ve been taught to write structured essays with restrained arguments free from emotional adornment. Yet thinking about that…
Let’s Just Stop Wearing Flags
I guess I’m just old fashioned: I don’t see anything at all “patriotic” about reducing the flag to an item of clothing. That supposed patriots are outraged by Nike’s decision to not release a “Betsy Ross” shoe doesn’t so much baffle me as it further convinces me that those who cry patriotism over the flag…
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