ABOUT | August 2021

BEYOND EXPECTATIONS

August 2021 • aboutrvmag.com

Reflecting the Character of the Arkansas River Valley

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MINING OUR HISTORY

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THE UNICORN

August 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Beyond expectations My seven-year old daughter Pearly is planning to travel to Mars. For at least a year now she’s been devouring anything she can about space. I was telling our editor, Johnny Sain, about my daughter’s love for the astral plane. “She needs to meet Grace,” he said.

Something in the air Mining our history The dream of one man, Robert “Bob” Thomas, became a reality on October 2, 2010, with the opening of the Paris-Logan County Coal Miners Memorial and Museum. In 2004 Bob was interviewing local miners for a book when it was suggested that it would be nice to have a memorial for the miners. That suggestion became his life’s work.

The unicorn Most restaurants settle into a specific food genre, along with subsets and different interpretations of each. But every now and then you run across a unicorn — an eatery featuring such a robust menu that you’re thinking surely they can’t pull it all off...but they do.

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Countertop Creations Embrace slowness Fluent Redneck 10 Things ABOUT: Devin West

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Twilight hour makes for some of the best imagery and it seemed an appropriate hour for space talk. This photographer and her camera faded into the background while Pearly and Grace passionately swapped intergalactic theorems from Sunset Point atop Mount Nebo.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Galactic standards My system for increased fulfillment, inner peace, more sleep, and (along with a better diet) better blood pressure readings has been a balancing of expectations and standards. I’d be lying if I said I had the formula perfected, but the trick seems to be figuring out how to lower expectations with a corresponding and seemingly paradoxical heightening of standards.

How can I accept what will likely be yet simultaneously strive for something greater?

I think it starts with the realization of just who is responsible for what. Expectations are the strong belief that something will happen, an open-ended guess about the future over which you really have no control.

It makes sense, then, to keep your expectations realistic and realize there’s often not much you can do to alter the outcome. I tend to err toward the bottom end when it comes to expectations. It leads to less disappointment.

But standards are wholly determined by me. Standards are what I demand from myself. They’re up to me to determine and me to meet. It’s within my standards that potential can be truly realized. It’s within my standards that character is determined.

While a slew of uncontrollables — ethnicity, sex, gender, socioeconomic status, place of birth — can limit one’s expectations and absolutely add degrees of difficulty to any endeavor, those added challenges

can also make success so much sweeter.

Those who overcome the challenges they had no control over inevitably raise their standards. But sometimes you need someone to show you how to do it or that it’s even possible.

In this issue, we feature the story of a small-town young woman who has exceeded expectations. To be clear, everyone already knew that great things were in her future, but no one had an idea about how great those things could be. She ultimately found her calling in an education and career that not even she imagined — the study of flight and space travel. — and within the mentoring of another small town woman who blazed a similar trail.

Both are prime examples of setting the highest personal standards.

Grace Zimmerman has built a path that, if not literally leading to the stars, will lead to her becoming a guide of sorts to wonders of the universe that most of us can barely grasp. And it’s also led her to another calling: helping free those young minds shackled by cultural expectations and enabling them to raise their standards. Most will likely discover, as she did, that the key was already within them. They just needed a little help to find it.

Reflecting the Character of the Arkansas River Valley since 2006 A Publication of One14 Productions, Inc Vol. XVI, Issue 7 – August 2021

DIANNE EDWARDS | founding editor JOHNNY CARROL SAIN | managing editor johnny@aboutrvmag.com LIZ CHRISMAN | photography editor lizchrismanphoto@gmail.com BENITA DREW | advertising benita@aboutrvmag.com MEREDITH MARTIN-MOATS | freelance meredith@aboutrvmag.com SARAH CLOWER | freelance sarah@aboutrvmag.com LYDIA ZIMMERMAN | columnist lydia@aboutrvmag.com CHRIS ZIMMERMAN | layout/design chris@aboutrvmag.com CLIFF THOMAS | illustrator maddsigntist@aboutrvmag.com

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My seven-year-old daughter Pearly is planning to travel to Mars. For at least a year now she’s been devouring anything she can about space. She asks to watch space documentaries on Netflix and TedEd. She pours over kids books about the solar system. And she routinely draws pictures of spaceships en route. For her seventh birthday party she requested a swimming and space theme. She even made her very own birthday equation on one of the party decorations because: “scientists do a lot of math.” I was telling our editor, Johnny Sain, about my daughter’s love for the astral plane. “She needs to meet Grace,” he said.

S t o r y by ME R E D I T H MA R TIN -M OATS | P ho to s b y L IZ CH RIS M AN Il l u s t r atio ns b y PE ARLY M OATS AUGUST 2021

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2017 Dover graduate and music major turned physicist, Grace is finishing up her second NASA internship. She recently graduated from UCA with a degree in physics and is about to head to the University of Maryland where she’ll pursue aerospace engineering. Naturally I jumped at the chance to take my daughter to meet a real life, local, soon-to-be space traveler.

My daughter and I met Grace at the ABOUT office and sat down to learn more about her path from small-town girl to rocket scientist in training. Wearing a NASA T-shirt and kind smile, Grace was quick to remind us that the study of space is about so much more than just planets and stars and galaxies. As a student of aerospace engineering, Grace is most interested in how we get there.

“I’m really interested in outer planetary stuff,” she explains. “So if they're going to send a probe to Titan, one of Saturn's moons, which is actually a mission that's coming up, then I'm really interested in things like, okay, what kind of propulsion are we going to use in the inner solar system? What planets are you going to use for a gravity assist, like, what can help us minimize fuel consumption and weight on the spacecraft and everything to get us to our location?” Grace says she especially loves the study of gravity and wants that to be at the forefront of her work.

My daughter looks up at us and purposefully drops the pen she’s been using to draw. She’s quick-witted and loves a good laugh, so I knew this was her way of talking about gravity, too.

“What’s your favorite planet,” Grace asks my daughter. Pearly thinks for a moment then answers, “Uranus. Because it spins on its side.” Grace gets excited and shares that last summer she got to work on a project that's going to send a spacecraft to Uranus and Neptune. “It's going to be the first one ever sent out there,” Grace says. “So hopefully, we'll learn a lot more about those planets. And you'll get to hear about that!”

Grace says when she was Pearly’s age, her first interest was dinosaurs and anything she could see in a telescope.

“As a kid, I just ate up everything about as far away as possible, you know, the farthest reaches of what we can see with our telescopes,” she explains. She recalls spending hours with both a dinosaur and a space encyclopedia. “I would just sit there and read 10

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“As a kid, I just ate up everything about as far away as possible, you know, the farthest reaches of what we can see with our telescopes,”

through those,” Grace says,” because I felt like there was always something out there that I didn't know that I wanted to learn about.”

When she wasn’t reading she was looking through an actual telescope. “I still have the telescope. It's a beginner telescope, and I use that a lot. And I look online and look at Skymaps to see if Venus or Jupiter were in our sky that night because you can see those, of course, with the naked eye,” she explains. Grace kindly gives us pointers on how we can start paying more attention to the night sky at our home, something my daughter has mentioned several times since that conversation.

Grace has come a long way from sitting in her room reading dinosaur and space encyclopedias. COVID-19 made it impossible for her to travel to NASA, but she’s been interning virtually NASA’s Langley Research Center on the OASiS (On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) Architecture Simulation System) project. Last summer she interned with NASA Goddard on a net flux radiometer for the Ice Giants, a term for Uranus and Neptune.

One of the main reasons I wanted my daughter to meet Grace was for her to see and hear a real life, everyday local person throwing around science language. I’m ecstatic that our daughter wants to study space, but we’re certainly not a family who knows how to help her get there. Grace says that in her early days she found support and inspiration in Atkins-based University of Central Arkansas professor and astrophysicist Dr. Debra Burris. Grace learned about Dr. Burris through a family friend who rode horses with her and put them in touch. “Normally when someone says their kids will get in touch with you, never hear anything,” laughs Dr. Burris.

But Grace was different. “She put a lot of thought into this obsession, ‘' Dr. Burris explains. “It was not a passing thing to her.”

Dr. Burris is a local herself. She graduated from high school in Atkins in 1987, a time when there was virtually no encouragement for a woman to study any kind of physics. Today she has two facets to her work: research and public-facing work. “I look at how elements are made in astrophysical environments, such as supernova explosions or black holes,” she explains. “Those elements on the table have to come from somewhere.” >>

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But she says she puts much of her energy into her public-facing work, educating policymakers and the public. “Science literacy is something we desperately need to work on,” she says. She wants students and policymakers to be able to answer the question: “What does science actually look like?”

Meeting Dr. Burris as a child was an inspiration for Grace. But as she got older, she had her doubts. “As I got older, I just thought, you know, I don't see a lot of astronomers or astrophysicists around here. So I was like, I probably can't do that. That's what I always told myself.” She decided to head to college to pursue another passion: playing flute. “So I said, Okay, I'll be a music performer, and it was a great experience. But after a year, I felt like I couldn’t follow that path for a lifetime,” she explains.

Grace knew she still wanted to work in space. “I just decided that I didn't want to spend my life doing something I couldn’t see myself doing forever just because I thought I wasn't smart enough for physics. So I said, you know, I'm just going to, instead of practicing my flute, all these hours, I'm instead gonna work on homework all these hours, and I'm gonna make it work.” When

she was ready to make that switch she reconnected with Dr. Burris.

“I called her and said, ‘I know we talked a while ago, but I think I'm actually ready to do it.’” Grace makes it clear Dr. Burris wasn’t just a role model or abstract inspiration. She helped Grace develop a course of action. She helped her find which classes she needed and gave her tools to succeed in them. She also asked Grace to volunteer with her public-facing outreach work.

Dr. Burris refers to Grace as a “once in a lifetime student.” She tells me about Grace’s work with her through a service-learning program at Community Connections, a Conway-based organization that works to improve the lives of children with disabilities and provides extra curricular activities that support children and their families. Dr. Burris offers a science-based day camp where students develop and run the experiments. Volunteers like Grace help set up the camp and foster an environment that makes that happen. “How do you communicate science to a broad range of kids?'' Dr. Burris asks. “Neurodivergent kids? These classes help break down preconceived notions and show us that we don’t always have an accurate picture in our head. I know part of the rea-

“This work will take people of all areas of physics and astrophysics working together...All these different components go hand in hand.”

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son Grace got that NASA fellowship,” says Dr. Burris, “is because they want to know how you’re gonna give back to the community.” Grace knows exactly how to do that.

Dr. Burris is a dedicated researcher and leader in her field.

She studies stellar nucleosynthesis, cosmochronology and spectroscopy. But what she really wants to talk about is why she thinks it’s essential that we don’t regulate science to a select few. “I think that the biggest obstacle here is just getting anyone interested because we just don’t do as good a job of saying this is what you can do with this degree,” she says.

“And we need to change this.”

Though Arkansas may not seem like the most tech-driven state, Dr. Burris points out that physics and agri business go hand in hand. “Even a tractor has a GPS now,” she explains. And she’s quick to note that if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we desperately need more science literacy.

I think about my own daughter and recognize that she may eventually lose interest in places like Uranus.

Or she may wind up on Mars one day. Either way, I know that her curiosity now — and the example of a woman like Grace, and, by extension, Dr. Burris — lays the foundation for what my daughter, my sons, your children, see as possible. I ask Grace about what it’s like being a small-town girl pursuing this dream. “At UCA about half my classes, I was the only girl in the class. And even at NASA there's a lot more men than women, but it's changing really quickly,” she says. “And I was actually telling my dad earlier today, what's great is that we haven't yet reached just equal numbers of representation in terms of gender or race. But we're getting there. And the great thing is, most people are pushing for that. The people who want it to stay a male-dominated club are very much in the minority. So we're really getting a lot better about being progressive and that makes me really excited for the future.”

I look over at my daughter who has been doodling in her notebook. She holds up her drawing, one of her many space travel illustrations. Grace tells us about the James Webb Space telescope and how they’re building a mirror to see further into the galaxy.

I’m grateful that my daughter can hear how this work happens, talk about how the space telescope will do its work, and all the nuances of this research. “This work will take people of all areas of physics and astrophysics working together,” says Grace. “You're going to have your aerospace engineer saying, ‘okay, we need this kind of rocket to get it up there.’ And you're going to have your physicists say, ‘we need this kind of propulsion to keep it in the air.’ So that's what a lot of people don't know,” she explains.

“And I didn't know until I was, like, halfway through my physics degree. All these different components go hand in hand.”

In a follow up email, Grace told me that Dr. Burris was the one who was able to slice through the doubts and remind Grace that she was cut out to be a rocket scientist. Grace said she was shown

Grace and Dr. Debra Burris at UCA’s 2021 Spring Graduation

time and time again that it’s about how hard you’re willing to work for things you love. “I’m humbled and honored she sought me out,” Dr. Burris shared with me. “And I fully expect to one day be watching the NASA Mars landing stream and see her there. I’ll say, ‘Hey! I knew her!’”

A few days after we sat down with Grace in the ABOUT office, we met her and her sister and ABOUT photographer Liz Chrisman up on Mount Nebo for pictures that accompany this story. At our home, the sun rises between Nebo and Jones mountains and a trip up to its peak is always a joy. Grace brought along her trusty telescope and showed my children some basics of how to use it and how to find some of the planets with the naked eye.

My daughter, ever the jokester and conversationalist, chatted it up with Grace as we overlooked the River Valley. I heard them talking about Uranus and the moons and their rotational pattern and space travel, where you could go online to watch live feeds from NASA, and how to find a few planets with the naked eye.

Later, on our way down the mountain, Pearly said, “I have an idea! Let’s have family space nights!” I said, “Okay great! What do we do during family space nights?,” She paused for a moment, looked out the window, and said, “Well, it’s where you all go sit outside and look at the sky and you really study what’s there!”

We all agreed this was an excellent plan. l AUGUST 2021

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EVE RY DAY L I F E

Something in the air Story by SARAH CLOWER Illustration by CLIFF THOMAS

MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF AMERICANS ARE AFRAID OF THE DENTIST, and more than 70 percent don’t go as often as they should. Unfortunately, I fit into both of these categories.

Growing up, my parents were sticklers about dental visits, and we rarely missed a cleaning. To date, my mother has yet to get a cavity. But I didn’t get her good teeth genes, and instead have been plagued by cavities my entire life even though I brush, floss and Water Pik my teeth twice a day — every day.

Last week, I went into the dentist to have a root canal and to be fitted for a crown on a molar that I had chipped while eating pork rinds. I was nervous. I had never had a root canal or a crown before.

I really like my dentist, and I think he and his staff do a really great job at making their patients feel comfortable and relaxed during their visits. When I first walked in, I was greeted by their sweet receptionist and waited in the lobby until I was called back.

Seconds after I walked in, another patient arrived and checked in at the front counter with the receptionist.

A few moments later, my name was called and I was escorted to one of the

back rooms by a friendly dental hygienist.

She got me settled in and made me feel a little better about my procedure by making small talk while I received the lidocaine shots. She checked on me before she left the room and said the dentist would be back in a few minutes to see how well my mouth was numbing up.

The same hygienist then brought the other patient from the lobby into the room across from mine. The hygienist got her settled, and it appeared she was maybe getting the same procedure I was. Before the hygienist left the room, the woman asked

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if it would be okay if she could wear headphones and listen to music during her appointment, explaining that it really helped her relax because she had terrible dental anxiety. The hygienist told her that it was no problem. The woman put her headphones into her ears, leaned back in the dental chair and closed her eyes.

I wondered why I didn’t think of doing that.

As my mouth numbed over the next 10 minutes, the woman across the hall looked as if she had nearly fallen asleep. I caught myself thinking about how envious I was

when the dentist walked in.

“Hi Sarah!” He greeted me. “I’m just going to —.“ A loud sound interrupted him and made me jump. We all looked in the direction of the woman in the other room. She was still lying in the dental chair, seemingly cool as a cucumber with her eyes closed and headphones still in.

My dentist cleared his throat and continued. “I’m going to check your mouth really fast and see how well the lidocaine is working.” He wheeled his stool closer to my chair, and I instinctively opened my mouth.

Right about the time he went to peer into my mouth the loud sound erupted again. Even with their masks on, I could see that the dentist and the hygienist were both blushing.

He confirmed the numbing shots were working well and said he would begin the procedure in about 10 minutes. He left the room, leaving the hygienist in the room with me. She began to ask me how business had been when…

“Bwhuuurrrrk!”

She and I just looked at each other, and

although we tried to hold our laughter in we both erupted in giggles.

“Surely she doesn’t know she’s passing gas, right?” I asked, feeling embarrassment by proxy.

“No, I don’t think she does because she has her headphones in.” The hygienist replied.

About that time another hygienist walked into the room that the other woman was in and began talking to her and prepping her for whatever dental procedure she was there for. The dentist came back into my room and leaned my dental chair back and signaled to the hygienist that he was ready to begin.

Over the next hour or so, there were many other very loud and equally curious sounds coming from the room across the hall. My chair was tilted back so far that all I could see was the extremely bright light from the dental lamp and the white ceiling in my peripheral vision. I so badly wanted to lean up and glance over into the other room, but I restrained my nosiness.

After a particularly loud toot that ended in a curiously high octave, my hygienist couldn’t contain a comment. “My good-

ness… what in the world did she eat that could be producing such toxic fumes?”

When my dentist had finished the procedure and gone over all the dos and don’ts of what I could eat until my permanent crown was put on, he slowly inclined my chair until I was sitting fully upright once more.

Curiosity got the best of me and I glanced over into the room across the hall. With my mouth packed full of gauze and one side still very numb, I let out the loudest yet stifled laugh. Both the dentist and the hygienist in the other room were wearing something akin to gas masks and an oscillating fan had been placed in the corner. I could hear that it was running full blast.

My hygienist caught my eye. “Believe it or not, this happens pretty often when patients come in wearing headphones,” she said. “I really don’t think they have any idea about what is going on.”

I instantly thought back to all the places where I regularly wore headphones: the gym, the grocery store, anywhere I know I will have to wait a while… and suddenly I could feel my face getting very hot. l

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Mining our History Story by CATHY GRAVES | Photos by LIZ CHRISMAN

The dream of one man, Robert “Bob” Thomas, became a reality on October 2, 2010, with the opening of the Paris-Logan County Coal Miners Memorial and Museum.

In 2004 Bob was interested in writing a book about mining and was interviewing local miners when it was suggested that it would be nice to have a memorial for the miners. That suggestion became his life’s work. In 2005, Bob enlisted volunteers to help plan and fund the project. The Paris City Council approved 2.5 acres of land for a Coal Miners Memorial. With Bob’s death in 2006, the completion of the project was entrusted to the Memorial Committee.

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COAL IN ARKANSAS Arkansas's coalfields are located in the Arkansas River Valley between the western border of the state and Russellville, encompassing an area about 33 miles wide and 60 miles long.

In Logan County, the first coal was found by 19-year-old Robert Dayton Waddell in 1866. He was a blacksmith’s son and was searching for material to burn in his dad’s forge. They used charcoal for his furnace because hard coal was scarce and costly. Robert discovered a small outcrop of semi-anthracite coal about three miles west of Paris. His dad made him a pick and other implements to remove the earth surrounding the coal and Robert dug four tons of this coal. What his father didn’t use was sold to nearby blacksmiths for 75 cents a bushel.

A survey of Arkansas’s coal fields showed a coalfield that ran from the northeast edge of Paris 18

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and extended west approximately eight and one-half miles under both Short Mountain and Horseshoe Mountain. The seam then pitched south from the outcrop and was 1836 inches thick.

Coal mining got a slow start with primitive tools and little knowledge until the first coal mine was opened in 1881 near Paris.

Surface mines were the first to open then

slope mines began operation. Slope mining is where mining followed the slope of the natural coal. Steel tracks could be laid and the coal removed by coal carts. Local blacksmiths made wheels for coal cars and rails to run into the mines.

After it became harder to mine the remaining coal near the surface, underground mines developed. A vertical shaft was sunk then horizontal tunnels or rooms were dug following the coal seam. The coal was lifted to the surface and placed in coal cars.

The railroad had a large effect on the coal mining industry and the town of Paris with the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway extended south to Fort Smith in 1887. The population of Paris in 1890 was only 547, but soon people began moving to the areas around the coal mines for employment. After construction of the Arkansas Central Railroad line from Fort Smith to Paris in

1897, large-scale mining began and soon 31 privately owned coal mines operated in the Paris area employing 2,000 miners.

THE MINERS Early coal miners in Logan County lived in tent cities and moved from mine to mine with their families. They stayed for a few months and then move to the next mine.

The mines paid 75 cents per hour.

The mining tools and conditions were primitive at the beginning. Miners worked 10-hour days with a pickaxe a shovel and a helmet. Once slant and underground mining began, the miners pulled blindfolded mules into mines to carry the coal out.

Sticking Tommy candles or carbide lights were the only light in the tunnels. Hand augers were used to drill a hole in the seam and to place dynamite to explode the coal to bits and the caves were held up with timber posts.

Miners in underground mines worked on their backs or knees all day in the small tunnels. Here the constant threat of caveins, gas poisoning, or explosions made it more dangerous and inhaling coal dust had long-lasting effects in the form of black lung disease. Their helmet lights changed to battery-powered electric because a spark from the carbide light could cause an explosion and a filter was inserted in the helmet that changed color with gas detection.

Larger coal mining companies provided housing for the miners along with a company store, and as new machinery was invented coal output grew. >> AUGUST 2021

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ment benefits in 1946, and health and safety protections in 1969. By 1933 all miners were members of the UMWA. At the height of the coal mining industry, an average of 250-300 tons of coal was shipped daily to northern markets.

During the eight-month mining season, 13,000 railroad cars of coal were shipped from Paris mines The flourish lasted until the 1950s when the demand for coal in the north diminished in favor of other fuels, and the coal seams were exhausted.

The mining machine used to undercut the coal looked like a large chain saw with a swinging cutter bar. The miner would use a pick, hammer, and wedge to break out the coal. The mining machine moved along the face undercutting the seam. A large log chain was pulled to the face of the coal and with a jack wedged between the roof and bottom to hold the chain and coal fell as it cut.

Longwall operations began using the face track, conveyor, and scow pan. The face track was used by laying track along the coal face and cars were pulled along by a hoist. The men loaded the cars then the cars were hoisted to the seam and out by mules.

The longwall conveyor was most often used in Paris. This was used on a narrow coal seam where a miner would work the seam and put the extracted coal on the

conveyor that rotated to the surface. This was the most economical operation and increased the output.

The scow pan was a large flat metal plate used in conjunction with the mining machine. It was placed under a large block of coal and wedged down. It was then pulled to the surface where it could be broken up.

At the surface, all the coal was sent to a washing station where it was washed, sorted by size for orders placed, and then sent to the train depot for shipment.

Although mining conditions had improved with these new inventions, explosions, low wages, and poor working conditions caused miners to strike. In 1890 the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) was formed. Miners were fighting for an eight-hour workday in 1898, bargaining rights in 1933, health and retire-

THE MUSEUM Located at 804 South Elm Street in Paris, a life-size bronze statue of a miner stands proudly in front of the museum equipped with a shovel and lunch bucket with a carbide light strapped to his helmet.

Commercial mining in Logan County began in 1881 and lasted until the mid-1950s.

In those 70-plus years, 2,869 men and women worked in the local coal industry.

The names of those who worked, owned or operated the coal mines in and around Logan County are displayed on plaques set into stone surrounding the statue.

The museum’s 2.5 acres are appointed with brick walkways and benches. Large equipment used in the mines such as an air handler, a coal car, a mining machine, and a barbecue grill made as a replica of locomotive Engine 2522 is on display. Also on the property is a full blacksmith shop displaying tools of the trade. There’s even a coal miner’s house that was once located at the

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foot of Horseshoe Mountain near the Dixie #2 Coal Mine. An old steam train “old Engine 2522” sits beside the museum. It is one of only two known surviving Missouri Pacific steam locomotives in the U. S. The museum’s top priorities are educating the public about coal mining and coal mining equipment restoration. Both of these goals are accomplished by preserving the history and honoring the thousands of men who worked in the coal mines.

This one-room museum contains photographs, maps, books, pamphlets, and artifacts from the height of the coal mining era. Every piece of memorabilia has been donated by a miner, a family member, or a friend. A shelf of the different headlights used by the miners is on display. Of these lights, the “sticking Tommy” was most unusual. It is a wrought iron bar with a candle holder on one end and a spike on the other. It hung from the miner’s hat until he reached the coal seam and then it was stuck into a crevice for light. Also used were carbide lights with a metal container for the powdered carbide and an oil container. These lights had the carbide

powder poured into the light with a few drops of oil and were lit. The first, very heavy and clumsy, electric battery lights are on display as well. These lights were used when a mine had too much gas inside to chance a stray spark causing an explosion. Another novelty here is a collection of cave pearls. These spherical shape is formed in caves where water is too swift to form stalagmites. The “pearls” are made of calcium salts and are about the size of a baseball. Polished by water, they feel smooth to the touch and are usually found in a ring or nest formation.

One of the books for sale in the museum is Paris Arkansas & Its People. Written

by Robert Thomas, the book includes his interviews with the miners and their families. Sales from the book help fund the non-profit museum which is also partially funded by the city of Paris but relies on donations for continued operation.

For more information about the Paris-Logan County Memorial and Museum call (479) 963-6463 on Tuesday through Thursday or visit their Facebook page: Paris-Logan County Coal Miners Memorial & Museum. l

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COMMUNITY

Main Street Russellville on the search for historic photos of the community Main Street Russellville is looking for old photographs (at least 50 years old) of Russellville, the downtown district, the old Missouri-Pacific Railroad depot, Russellville neighborhoods, schools, or buildings, and Russellville or Pope County citizens in order add to the community archival collection. If you have such photos and are willing to share them, please bring them to the Main Street Russellville office at the Russellville Depot at 320 West C Street on Thursdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. A volunteer will scan your photos and return the originals to you while you wait. In the meantime, you will be welcome to look around the depot, built in 1916, where you can enjoy the displays of historical Russellville and railroad artifacts or just sit in the shade of the breezy east end porch.

Main Street Russellville, which works to support the historic downtown district as a marketplace as well as a government,

The old Missouri-Pacific Railroad depot

business, and cultural center for the community, is a member of both Main Street Arkansas and Main Street America. As part of its mission to facilitate and support community activity, MSR continuously seeks to expand its collection of photographs, images, and illustrations, which provides materials for rotating displays at the depot.

The collection can also be made available upon request for historical or genealogical research by community members, scholars, teachers, or students. The ongoing aim is to collect and preserve images that show people, places, and activities from the city’s early days and onward, illustrating life in Russellville and the growth of the community over the past two centuries.

Also welcomed are pertinent historical documents for the community archives such as old maps of the city or of Pope County, records from downtown busi-

nesses, schools, or hospitals, and other such items. If you have any of these items and would like to donate them to the archives, please contact Danielle Housenick, Executive Director, at the Russellville Depot, 320 W. C Street, Russellville, phone 967-1437, or email mainstreetrussellvillear@gmail.com.

Arkansas Tech announces fall 2021 artist in residence Jade Hoyer has been selected as fall 2021 Windgate Foundation artist in residence at Arkansas Tech University.

During her five-month residency, Hoyer will provide leadership for a community mural project, teach a class in the ATU Department of Art, mentor students and collaborate with ATU faculty and students.

Hoyer’s community mural project is entitled Paper Makers. Workshops will teach OVER

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members of the ATU community and the surrounding area how to make paper from recycled materials and then apply the paper to wooden panels that will become a portable mural.

“The mural will represent the interconnected environment and the Russellville community in a fun and engaging way,” wrote Hoyer in her project proposal. “Paper Makers is an activity suitable for community engagement after a year of social distancing. This project can easily be created outdoors and is inherently hands-on.”

Hoyer will host additional workshops to engage at-risk Russellville area youth in the project.

“My hope with Paper Makers is to offer a free, artistic experience to as many people as possible, particularly those with limited access to artistic programming,” wrote Hoyer. “Too often public art takes the form of art to be encountered and appreciated passively, work that is sometimes created by individuals without a narrative connection or investment in the work’s location.

Planning of this mural will be created in collaboration with the ATU and Russellville communities, and I find offers exciting potential for community representation and engagement.”

Details about ways in which individuals can become involved with Paper Makers will be announced later this year.

Hoyer is assistant professor of art at Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colo. According to her bio, she has exhibited her work internationally and has been

Jade Hoyer

recognized by organizations including the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Minnesota State Art Board. Her work is part of collections such as the Museum at Texas Tech University’s artist printmaker research collection and the Museu da Gravura de Curitiba, Brazil.

“Through a multimedia artistic practice employing installation art, papermaking and printmaking,” wrote Hoyer, “my artistic practice examines constructed social and natural environments, often reflecting my experiences as a multiracial, Filipina-American.”

Hoyer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art from Carleton College (Minn.) and a Master of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in printmaking from the University of Tennessee.

She is the third artist in residence in Arkansas Tech history. Manami Ishimura

(spring 2019) and Tiffany Black (spring 2020) fulfilled that role under the original $100,000 grant the Windgate Foundation made to the ATU Foundation in 2018 to create ATU’s artist in residence program as well as a summer professional development program for Arkansas K-12 art teachers.

The Windgate Foundation has since made an additional grant of $610,000 to the ATU Foundation to continue those programs and help create an endowment intended to provide scholarship assistance to students in the ATU Department of Art pursuing educational opportunities in traditional fine arts, studio practices and art education.

Learn more about the ATU Department of Art at www.atu.edu/art.

Taking Center Stage at the Center for the Arts.

Submitted by The Center for the Arts Prior to over eighteen hundred people flowing into The Center for the Arts for a three-day weekend production of Disney’s Descendants-The Musical and prior to CenterStage Productions evolving from a frantically conceived daydream into an actual production team, a small group of vested theater enthusiasts sought to keep the presence of the performing arts growing in the River Valley. In early April of this year, word spread that the decades long producers of summer musicals in Russellville would not be bringing a show together. This would mean a second year without a summer show after pandemic restrictions halted the 2020 production. >>

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Upon hearing the disappointing news, Greg and Leigh Barborek in conversation with friends Katy Brockinton and Dustin Jackson stirred up the idea that Katy and Dustin had discussed for years about heading up a community production. Jackson is the Russellville Jr. High theater director and his colleague, Brockinton, is the Russellville Jr. High choir director and neither are strangers to the theater stage. The Barborek’s interest laid in the passion of two of their children who became involved with summer theater productions starting in 2014 and now look forward to it each year.

The discussion between the four about another year without a community show quickly turned to “let’s just do it.” However, organizing such a production does not happen as a private effort. So, the focus quickly turned towards finding a viable non-profit that could, and would, support such a last-minute venture. Having observed the creation of The Center for the Arts Foundation while working on the architectural design and construction of The Center in 2012, Greg suggested approaching The Foundation about supporting and backing a new production group to put on a summer show as well as creating a foothold for future shows featuring the local talent.

Now becoming hopeful, the group contacted Chrissy Clayton, Executive Director of The Center for the Arts, and her immediate enthusiasm with the idea drove the group to develop and present their proposal to the Foundation’s board of directors. With a mission statement and business proposal aligned to the Foundation’s goals, the approval and creation of CenterStage Productions became reality and Daniel Stahl was appointed as Executive Director on

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behalf of The Foundation.

With Jackson taking the director’s chair, Brockinton as music director and the Barboreks producing their first show, the rights to Descendants-The Musical were secured and they were off and running. CenterStage sent call outs and held auditions in midApril then rolled into rehearsals two weeks later. As rehearsals progressed, the production team worked across the community finding corporate sponsors, launching their marketing strategy, starting a Go Fund Me and spreading the word across social media. The cast and crew consisted of all local residents from across Pope, Yell and Johnson counties and involved a spectrum of ages which was comprised of multiple family members, seasoned performers and first timers to the stage. The diverse range of the cast and crew quickly fulfilled one of the missions of CenterStage Productions to create inclusive, family-oriented community events featuring the vast talent of our local community. A week before the opening show on June 25th, the cast and crew moved to The Center for the Arts to begin dress rehearsals moving towards a soft opening and the three-day performance weekend of June 25th-27th. Descendants-The Musical opened that Friday night to an awe-inspiring large audience for the performers, then featured two Saturday shows and closed to another amazing crowd of over 600 people at the Sunday matinee. With over 1,800 ticket holders coming out to see CenterStage’s first production, the excitement of the initial four hopeful friends spread to the entire cast and crew and what lies ahead for its future productions.

Now that its first production is under wraps with an over anticipated turnout

and a great financial return, CenterStage is focusing on its ensuing endeavor and exploring options and ideas for its next production. With highly successful summer productions like Descendants, it will allow the production team to tackle harder to produce selections including straight plays and adult subject-based Broadway shows to fill the winter season and bridge the gap between the summer shows. Such types of Broadway shows, which are missing from the local performing arts offerings, are not always a viable option to produce nor financially successful. Adult centered shows or shows with less recognizable titles tend to have lower attendance, and therefore lower revenues. For these reasons, those types of shows have historically been absent from our community theater productions.

However, the success of Descendants has proven to the group that they can utilize the benefits of a big, all-inclusive summer show to broaden the variety and number of year-round productions offered by CenterStage Productions. This, in turn, will help provide one of the only local opportunities to perform on stage especially for adults in our community. More shows mean more opportunities and only strengthen their mission of growing the local performing arts, giving the community something for everyone, and showcasing the amazing talent we have right here in the River Valley.

You can follow CenterStage Productions on Facebook @CenterStagePro or search for “CenterStage Productions” and keep up with all our upcoming events and other news. View a photo gallery from CenterStage Productions presentation of Disney’s Descendants — The Musical on page 26 of this issue. l

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CenterStage Productions presented Disney’s Descendants-The Musical, performed at The Center for the Arts.

Photos provided by Steve Newby Photography

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THE LANDING AND SPORTS GRILL 102 W BROADWAY ST MORRILTON

The unicorn Photos by LIZ CHRISMAN Story by JOHNNY CARROL SAIN

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MOST RESTAURANTS SETTLE INTO A SPECIFIC FOOD GENRE — Mexican, Italian, soul food, Cajun, Southern, Chinese — along with subsets and different interpretations of each. And, to be honest, when we’re deciding on a place to eat, we typically lean toward the specialized restaurants because we trust that the chefs know what they’re doing within that specific food genre.

But every now and then you run across a unicorn — an eatery featuring such a robust menu that you’re thinking surely they can’t pull it all off. Legendary restaurants offering food from every corner of the food universe and doing it to perfection are pure myth, right?

Wrong. They do exist. And they are spectacular.

The Landing and Sports Grill in Morrilton made us a believer. You could close your eyes, spin the menu, and jab a finger

to choose your dish and come up a winner every time. During our visit we dined on fried catfish, shrimp, and the best beer-battered onion rings to ever cross our lips; a Cajun pasta bowl that had us double checking that we weren’t in the French Quarter; chicken parmigiana that tasted like it was straight from Sicily; an oh-my-word pastrami sandwich; a nostimo lamb gyro; a chocolate Oscar that could win an Oscar… if they gave them out for food; and an incredible red, white, and blue salad topped with a seared salmon, a combination that works together just as well on the plate as the colors do on the flag.

Whew!

And I’m positive that I forgot some items because the deliciousness was just that overwhelming for both palate and mind. But it’s normal for senses to be overwhelmed when encountering a unicorn. l

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CO U N T E RTO P C R E AT I O N S

Sweet & Delicious Memories Story by LYDIA ZIMMERMAN, Food Editor Photos by LIZ CHRISMAN

F

rom the big buttery yeast rolls in the high school cafeteria to the cafe or bakery you frequented in college, everyone has a fond food memory from their school days.

My fondest food memory was from a European-style bakery in Ft. Smith just a few block from where I lived when attending respiratory therapy school at Sparks Hospital. There I was first introduced to baklava, crepes and scones.

As a reward, I would often treat myself to one of these delicious sweets whenever I did well on a test.

What a motivation to study!

In memory of my long-ago college days, I’ve created and collected some tasty international sweets.

As always, enjoy (godere, prendre plaisir, disfrutar, zevk almak)!

Quick Apple Crepes

QUICK APPLE CREPES ABOUT Magazine Featured Recipe ~ AUGUST 2021

Crepes 1 c flour, sifted 2 T sugar 1/8 tsp salt 1/3 c heavy whipping cream or half and half 3 eggs, room temp & beaten 3 T melted butter, cooled 1 tsp Almond extract 1 can apple pie filling

1/2 c chopped pecans 3 T butter (sliced into 6 equal parts) Topping 1 c heavy whipping cream 1 1/2 T Mascarpone cheese (room temp) 1/2 c powdered sugar chopped pecans for garnish

Prepare topping first. In a chilled metal mixing bowl, beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff.

Add the mascarpone cheese and continue beating, then add the powdered sugar. Continue to beat until mixed well. Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve crepes.

In a large mixing bowl mix flour, sugar and salt.

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Make a well in the center of the mixture, then pour heavy whipping cream, beaten eggs, melted butter and almond extract. Mix well using a wooden spoon, until lump free.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat then add 1/2 T butter.

After butter has melted swirl it around the pan until entire pan is coated. Add 3 T of crepe batter to the skillet and spread very thin in a circular pattern. Allow to cook 2-3 minutes or until able to flip over, then flip over. Then very quickly using a smaller cast iron skillet or a metal mixing bowl press down on the middle of the crepe in the skillet to flatten as much as possible. Cook another 2 minutes, then remove from skillet onto a flat, clean surface.

In the middle of the crepe place 2 T of apple pie filling long ways and sprinkle with 1 T of chopped pecans. Fold crepe. Repeat the above process for each crepe. Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes. If serving immediately, top with whipped topping and garnish with more chopped pecans.

If you are not serving immediately, place in an air tight container with lid and place in refrigerator. When ready to serve, warm in microwave 45-50 seconds, then garnish with whipping cream and chopped pecans.

Makes 4-6 crepes, depending on the size of the skillet used.

STRAWBERRY BEIGNETS 1 3/4 c milk 1/4 c heavy whipping cream 1 tsp granulated sugar 1/4 c warm water (110-120 degrees) 1 pkg (.25 oz) quick rising yeast 1 c sugar 2 tsp salt 1/2 c vegetable oil 2 c strawberries (washed, seemed and pureed) 2 eggs, room temp and beaten 8-9 c flour, sifted cooking spray Vegetable oil for frying 2 c powdered sugar for garnish In a medium saucepan, scald milk and heavy whipping cream. Set aside to cool.

In a small mixing bowl place 1 tsp granulated sugar and warm water, stir to mix, then sprinkle yeast on top. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, in large mixing bowl on a standing mixer combine sugar, salt, pureed strawberries, and vegetable oil.

Stir in the yeast mixture and cooled milk.

Slowly add the flour, beating well. Add the eggs; mix again. Add additional flour if needed to get the dough to a consistency easy to handle.

Remove the beater and replace with the dough hook attachment. Knead the dough

Strawberry Beignets

on high for 5 minutes.

Place the dough in a large mixing bowl sprayed with cooking spray and cover tightly with a piece of saran wrap sprayed with cooking spray. Place in a warm place to rise for approx 1 hr or until doubled in size (I placed mine out on the deck in the sun).

After dough has double in size, punch it down and place it on a clean flat, floured surface. Roll it out into a rectangle approx 1/2 inch thick. Cut dough into small rectangle pieces, approx 1 in x 2 in.

Line 3 large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place small rectangles onto cookie sheets and cover with saran wrap that has been sprayed with cooking spray.

Place in a warm place to rise for approx. 1 hr (I placed mine on the deck to rise in the sun).

After beignets have risen, remove saran wrap.

Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer (I did not have a deep fryer so I used a large soup pot and filled it 1/3 full with vegetable oil).

Add 6-10 beignets at a time to the hot oil and cook 2 minutes, then flip each over to cook 2 more minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cook. Repeat process with remainder of beignets. Serve warm dusted with powdered sugar. Store any uneaten beignets in an airtight contained with lid and warm in microwave 30-40 seconds before serving. >>

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BROWNED BUTTER PECAN SCONES WITH MAPLE DRIZZLE Scones 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter 3 c all-purpose flour (sifted), plus more for hands and work surface 1 c granulated sugar 1/2 c light brown sugar 1 tsp salt 3 tsp baking powder 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, frozen 1/2 c heavy whipping cream (plus 2 T for brushing) 2 large eggs, beaten 2 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 c chopped pecans Maple Drizzle 2 c powdered sugar 1/3 c heavy whipping cream, add more if consistency to thick to drizzle 2-3 T maple syrup, to taste To brown butter: In a small saucepan over medium heat melt 1 stick butter. Cook, stirring frequently until small particle begin to settle in the bottom of the saucepan and butter has a “nutty” scent. Remove from heat and allow to fully cool.

Whisk flour, sugars, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter using a cheese grater. Add it to the flour mixture and combine with a your clean fingers until the mixture comes together in pea-sized crumbs. Place in the refrigerator or freezer as you mix the wet

ingredients together.

Whisk 1/2 c heavy cream, the eggs, cooled browned butter and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Drizzle over the flour mixture, add the chopped pecans, then mix together until everything appears moistened.

Pour onto a clean lightly floured counter or pastry mat and, with floured hands, work dough into a ball as best you can.

Dough will be sticky. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add 1-2 more T of heavy cream. Press into an 8-inch disc and, with a sharp knife cut into 8 wedges. For smaller scones, press dough into two 5-in discs and cut each into 8 wedges. Place triangles on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 3-in apart.

Brush scones with remaining heavy cream.

Place baking sheet with scones on them in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400°F. After removing scones from refrigerator place in preheated oven.

Bake for 18-26 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and lightly browned on top.

Maple Drizzle In a small mixing bowl, place powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Whisk together until smooth, then add 1-2 T of maple syrup. Whisk again until mixed.

Drizzle over cooled scones and let sit for at least 15 minutes until serving. Serve warm.

They can be placed into the microwave for 35-45 seconds to rewarm.

ITALIAN CIAMBELLA (ITALIAN BREAKFAST CAKE) 6 large eggs (at room temperature) 1 ¼ cups (10oz/284g) granulated sugar 1 cup (8floz/240ml) olive oil Zest and juice of 1 orange 2 cups (10oz/284g) all-purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt Preheat the oven to 350°F and generously butter and flour a 12-cup capacity bundt pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together, and then add the olive oil and orange zest, and juice. Whisk until combined.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt and then fold into the wet ingredients in three increments until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust with some powdered sugar before serving. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Recipe courtesy of biggerbolderbaking.com

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BAKLAVA 2 (two)1 lb pkgs (approx 40 sheets) phyllo pastry sheets, thawed 1 c unsalted butter, melted Filling 1/2 c chopped pecans 1/2 c chopped walnuts 3 T cinnamon 2 T cloves 2 T ginger 1 c brown sugar Syrup 1 c water 1 c granulated sugar 1 c honey 2 T orange juice 1 T lemon juice 1 tsp orange zest (optional) 1 tsp lemon zest (optional) Syrup In a saucepan over medium-high heat, place all of the syrup ingredients. Heat to a boil, continue to boil for 20 minutes; stirring frequently. Then remove from heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Filling In a food processor place all of the filling ingredients and chop until consistency is fine.

Butter a 9x13 in baking pan.

Baklava

Assembly *Place 8 sheets of phyllo pastry sheets in the pan (* brush with melted butter between each sheet). Brush top layer with melted butter and sprinkle 1/4 c of filling on top; spread evenly. Place 6 more pastry sheets (again brush melted butter between each sheet) brush top layer with melted butter and then sprinkle with 1/4 c of filling mixture; spread evenly.

Place 6 more sheets of pastry (again brush melted butter between each sheet) brush top layer with melted butter and then sprinkle 1/4 c of filling mixture; spread evenly.

Place 6 more sheets of pastry (again brush melted butter between each sheet) brush top layer with melted butter and sprinkle 1/4 c filling mixture; spread evenly.

Place 6 more sheets of pastry (again brush melted butter between each sheet) brush top layer with melted butter and then sprinkle remainder of filling mixture; spread evenly.

Place the remaining 8 pastry sheets (again brush melted butter between each sheet) brush melted butter on top of last (top) pastry sheet. Score pastry into rectangle or diamond shape pieces.

Place baking pan in oven on middle rack and bake for approx 35-40 minutes or until light golden brown.

After removing from oven, while still warm, pour the syrup evenly over the baklava and allow to sit to 10 minutes before serving. l

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THE SEED & THE STORY

Embrace slowness Story by MEREDITH MARTIN-MOATS Photo by JOHNNY CARROL SAIN

L

ast month I talked about the stories, families, and the lizards in the Harkey Valley cemetery, and how I loved watching my daughter explore the field stones on Decoration Day. I didn’t follow her around the cemetery that day because I didn’t want my leg to swell. I had recently had the first step in a small MOHS-style surgery on my calf to remove a melanoma skin cancer.

That’s been a few months now, and all that remains is a small scar. The doctor says the cancer is gone, but I must watch diligently for future spots. That afternoon at the cemetery I was in between procedures and filled with fears and memories of watching my own father almost die from melanoma.

My father was there with us that day. At 80 years old, he’s 11 years out from his second round of life threatening melanoma. But I

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vividly remember that battle.

Over the course of my own melanoma procedures, I thought a lot about what it meant to embrace slowness. I took stock of all people and patterns in my life that bring me real joy and peace and push me to do my best work. I thought about what I really wanted to live for and how I want to show up in this short time we have here.

Even if I live to be 100, I recognize that’s really nothing more than a quick, darting,

lizard-scurrying flash of days.

There is this thing about contemplating your own mortality that takes you back to childhood. When I was a kid, I had a real connection to turtles. Over time I’ve tried to downplay that reality. But if I am being honest, me and turtles… we just click. My dad used to work for the highway department, paving roads in Newton County.

Knowing my love for turtles and my endless requests to have more, whenever one

would pass through his work site, he would bring it home in the back of his truck. I loved to feed them worms and watch them slowly crawl around the yard. They could move quickly when they chose. But most of the time they didn’t choose that.

I recognize now that taking a turtle from its home isn’t’ a good idea. They live their whole lives within just a short distance of their birth, and whenever they’re crossing

“Even if I live to be 100, I recognize that’s really

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the road they are never lost. They’re just on a mission to get back home. But as a kid I didn’t know that, and I populated my backyard with these friends. I knew my Dad loved me because he noticed I loved turtles and honored that connection.

One early morning this summer between my diagnosis and the surgery — a time of high anxiety and fear — I was making my way to my car to head to work and there was a beautiful box turtle right in my path.

I nearly tripped on the creature. I stopped to say hello; I showed him to my dog Desto, took pictures so I could show my kids when they woke up, and I told the turtle how much I appreciated him crossing my path. And, if I was being real with myself, just how much I needed to see him that day. Then I picked him up gently and moved him out of the path so he could continue on his way.

I get that there is a turtle in my yard because it was June in Arkansas. There is a turtle in everyone’s yard. But still, I chose to sink into that moment rather than dart away.

Like me, this turtle’s family has probably lived for generations on this land. Maybe my grandparents had seen his grandparents. His family might have been here when this was Osage hunting grounds, long before that was stolen. He was most certainly headed somewhere. I’m pretty sure I want to go there too. l

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Story & photo by JOHNNY CARROL SAIN

A JOURNAL of our RURAL & NATURAL HERITAGE

Fluent Redneck THE TERM “REDNECK” HAS A DUBIOUS HISTORY. It’s a label that’s been applied to me more than a few times. While I’ve always been honored by the designation, I’m not a full-fledged redneck.

Sure, I’ve patched more than a few things together with baling wire and duct tape. I’ve owned some beater trucks, still own several guns, eat a lot of squirrel, live on a dirt road, have a camo ball cap near permanently affixed to my noggin, rarely shave, swig on moonshine, and used to have a loose-leaf tobacco habit.

But my resume pales in comparison to those I know among the elite of cracker culture. For starters, I lack the total self-confidence that can handle any situation. Confidence is the defining characteristic of a redneck. The men I know who truly wear the badge can kill any animal they set their mind to hunt, catch any fish they want, and fix any piece of machinery from a Weedeater to a Massey Ferguson tractor (real rednecks don’t drive John Deeres).

Aesthetics aren’t often part of their skill set, though. It’s mostly about results.

As for me, how I do something is more

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important than the end product. This is why on a recent trip out west I toted a fly rod in anticipation of slipping in close to wary fish and enticing them with creations of foam and hair instead of carrying a spinning rod, pocketful of split shot, and a can of worms.

But as a product of the culture that cultivated the breed, I speak fluent redneck. It often flows from my mouth drenched in a Southern drawl even when I don’t want it to. Given my usual appearance and speech

patterns, I’m rarely mistaken for a cosmopolitan dandy. But I very nearly was in — of all places — Idaho.

I was in Idaho to chase stories and fish.

And on my second day in the state, I was about to wet a line in the first classic western field creek I’d ever laid eyes on. The waters wound through a pasture in serpentine loops lined with willows and tall grass that waved gently in a high-desert breeze.

Each curled section of creek featured clear riffles and hip-deep green pools where, I

was told, thick cutthroat trout lay in wait for hapless meaty terrestrials — grasshoppers, crickets, beetles — to float by.

After rigging up our fly rods, slipping on our wading shoes, shouldering sling packs, and donning polarized sunglasses, my two buddies and I carefully picked our steps to the water with eyeballs peeled for rattlesnakes lounging in the shade of sagebrush.

Two hours later, I’d caught more than half a dozen trout and watched at least that many rise to inspect my offering. But two hours with only young willows offering scanty shade had broiled the back of my neck. If ever in my life I was literally a redneck, it was now.

Luckily, I found a few shadowy holes of water where the willows grew tall and the trout were eager before finally climbing out of the creek. I had to hike a short way through the sage and scrub to the dirt road that would lead us back to the trucks. And it was there, on that lonely dirt road in the wilds of Idaho, where my cultural designation as a redneck (sort of) came in handy.

As the barbwire fence came into view, a gruff yet feminine voice called out: “Hell, you look like my future son-in-law.”

The words came from a sun-ripened, middle-aged woman in a ball cap. She stood beside one of those mini-monster truck side-by-side off-road rigs tricked out with a lift kit and knobby mud tires.

Did she want to set me up with her daughter? Did I look like her daughter’s fiancé?

A younger woman — who I assumed to be the lass whose soon-to-be-betrothed I resembled — stood next to her in a straw cowboy hat. Two men, one bearded and

round of about my age and one bearded and tall about two decades younger, leaned against the vehicle’s tailgate.

The younger man sported a pair of .45 caliber 1911 pistols, one on each

cy hipster gear and zero game.

But hearing my native tongue — albeit in a slightly different dialect — I instinctively slipped into redneck autopilot. I joked about greenhorns who needed

“There we were, a couple of dudes packing fly rods, adorned in Patagonia gear and high-dollar sunglasses. And now these four locals smelled our naiveté in all things outdoors. We were some of those posers come out west, owning all the fancy hipster gear and zero game.” hip, handles out so he could draw cross-armed, I imagine. A Rambo knife sheathed in a scabbard (far too large for a sheath) rode just behind one of the pistols. He might have been the future sonin-law that I looked like. I didn’t see the resemblance, but thought it best to lead off with a compliment.

“Then I’m gonna say that your soonto-be son-in-law is a helluva looker,” I replied. Her guffaw, rasped by a likely five-decade unfiltered habit, echoed off the dry hills.

I laughed alongside her and then the quartet enquired about my luck with the trout just as my partner clambered up to the road. I told them we caught a few and that we were here with another friend who was sort of serving as our guide. “You’ve got a guide?” The young man asked with a raised eyebrow as he took a sip of cheap beer.

There we were, a couple of dudes packing fly rods, adorned in Patagonia gear and high-dollar sunglasses. And now these four locals smelled our naiveté in all things outdoors. We were some of those posers come out west, owning all the fan-

guides to catch fish. I told the gunslinger about my own guns back home in Arkansas. We talked of beer and how that side-by-side could probably climb a tree. I asked what it must be like to live out here in the wild west and wondered aloud about how many city-folk got turned around in the boonies of Idaho.

“Aw, it don’t happen as much as you’d think, but it’s best to be prepared,” the pistoleer said. “You don’t always run into nice people like us,” and tapped his pistols.

Then he nodded, smiled, and offered us a brew. We popped the tops, took a swig, bid our goodbyes and headed east toward the rigs.

I’d never before thanked Jesus for my rural upbringing, and I’d never thanked Jesus for beer. But on that dusty walk, with ice-cold suds bubbling down my parched throat, I thanked Him for both.

And I learned something, too. When interacting with those who live where you play, it’s always a good idea to speak their language if you can.

It might save face. It might save your life. Or it could just get you a cold beer. l

Providing free quality instruction and support to literacy-seeking adults.

River Valley Adult Learning Alliance (479) 477-3910

rivervalleyliteracycouncil@gmail.com

AUGUST 2021

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COMMUNITY LEADERS

...

Devin WEST

AGE: 29 HOMETOWN & Magnet Cove, Arkansas. Been YEARS IN THE here for two years.

RIVER VALLEY: OCCUPATION: Director of Bands at Pottsville

School District.

FAMILY: Wife Kelsey and son (he’s on

the way and we expect him October 20th) Lucas.

1.What’s your favorite book?

The Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini was my favorite book series. It was a series of four books: “Eragon” (2002), “Eldest” (2005), “Brisingr”(2008), and “Inheritance” (2011). In 2002 when the first book came out I was 11 years old and the main character was 16. By the time I finished Inheritance in 2011, I was 20. So over nine years of my life, I was enamored by the trials and tribulations that the Eragon went through in only a short year in the story line.

2.Dog or cat?

I am definitely a dog person. My wife and I have two: a husky named Demon and an Aussie named Teddi. Being allergic to cats also helps make my decision.

3. What do you think is the most positive aspect of living in the River Valley?

The most positive aspect of living in the River Valley, for me, is the beauty of it. I am an avid outdoorsman. I bow/modern gun hunt, fish, and just love being outdoors. There is nothing like working a 16-hour day or competing at a contest and leaving to a sunset over a ridge and then waking up to a sunrise every morning. Unless we are leaving at 4 a.m. for a contest or getting home at 2 a.m. from a football game. Not much to see in the pitch black.

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4. What is something no one would ever guess about you?

I am a gear head. I grew up tinkering and working on small engines with my father. When I was seven, I took apart the carburetor on my three-wheeler. With dad’s supervision, of course, but I cleaned it and put it back together.

5. What is your favorite music genre and artist?

Depends on the day of the week. I listen to J. Cole, Kendrick, Hank Williams, all the way to Count Bassie Orchestra. I literally will listen to anything and find something that I can respect and appreciate from the listener aspect. That’s one thing I really love and appreciate about music.

There is a song or musical work out there that can invoke or cancel any feeling. You just have to be openminded enough to listen and explore to find it.

6. What do you nerd out on?

When I get the chance, I really nerd out on video games. I have a pretty elaborate PC set up with a couple of monitors and some pretty good equipment. I play a variety of games, my favorites are Rocket League, R6, and Warzone. It’s crazy, but I have more money invested in my PC than I did in my first truck.

7.If you could change one thing about the River Valley, what would it be?

I really don’t know what I would change about the River Valley. I haven’t really lived here long enough to see what it has to offer. The first year I was trying to get my feet under me in a new job and the second…well...pandemic.

8. Where is the one location in the River Valley that you would tell a firsttime visitor that they must go?

The first place I recommend visitors go

in the River Valley is Mt. Nebo. However, they need to stop at Taylors gas station on Old 124 off of Weir Road to get some chocolate gravy and biscuits for breakfast before they go.

9. Pizza, tacos, cheeseburger, or fried chicken?

I am a big fan of burgers out of these choices. I really enjoy grilling, and I make way better burgers than I do the others.

However, I do make really good turkey tacos with black beans and queso. So tacos are a really close second.

10. What is your favorite quote? Could be from an inspirational person, could be an original.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because in the end, those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.

-Theodor Seuss Geisel

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