Page 4A - - THE SPECTATOR, Ozark, Ark.

, Wednesday, September 24, 2014

PLEASE
ADOPT ME!
Male black and white
adult cat found at 506
North 2nd Street. Help
this poor kitty get back
home or adopt him.
Please consider vis-
iting Ozark Animal Hos-
pital before buying your
next pet as there are
many homel ess ani -
mals in need of a loving
home.
For more information
on pets available for
adoption, call Dr. Holt at
667-3652.
Mark Pryors roots are deep in Franklin County
as evidenced by this article his mother published
17 years ago. Lonnie C. Turner
BOSTON MOUNTAINS
My Roots Are in Cass
Barbara Pryor
(Continued from last week)
When I was a child, my mother would put my brother
and me on a bus and tell the driver to take us to Turner
Bend. The road was gravel then. We would spend the
night at Uncle Champs store and sleep on a pallet in the
loft over the store.
The next morning he would drive us seven miles down
the road where Uncle Jake would be waiting with a flatbed
wagon and a team of mules. We would ford the creek and
go to Grandmothers house.
Grandmother collected bits of broken china and col-
ored glass bottles and saved them for me. I would spend
hours in the arbors soft dirt, in the slanted light of the
afternoon, endlessly arranging and rearranging the rem-
nants.
We learned to swim in the cold green water of the
Mulberry River. There was a large hollow rock where my
mother would bathe my little brother. Sometimes we stayed
in the creek all day long, and Mother would make coffee
in a skillet, and we would drink it out of tin cups.
Years later, I took the same bus with my own young
son and went to my great-grandmothers funeral in Ozark.
She lived to be one hundred, and when she died she had
some gray in her hair. But it was mostly still black as night
- like my mothers when she died, and now like my son,
Marks.
These days, when I turn off the interstate and onto
Highway 23, no matter how tired I may be, I take a deep
long breath of the sweet clean mountain air, and I drink
the fresh cool water and feel restored. I know then that
Im home.
All of this brings me to Eudora Welty, one of my fa-
vorite writers, who remembered the hills of West Virginia
in her book One Writers Beginning. Heres how she
recalled the feel of the landscape, so similar to my own:
It took the mountain top, it seems to me now, to give
me the sensation of independence. It was as if Id discov-
ered something I had never tasted before in my short life.
Or rediscovered it - for I associated it with the taste of the
water that came out of the well, accompanied with the
ring of that long metal sleeve against the sides of the
living mountain, as from deep down it was wound up to
view brimming and streaming long drops behind it like
bright stars on a ribbon. It thrilled me to drink from the
common dipper. The coldness, the far, unseen, unheard
springs of what was in my mouth now, the iron strength
of its flavor that drew my cheeks in, fern-laced smell, all
said mountain mountain mountain as I swallowed. Every
swallow was making me a part of being here, sealing me in
place, with my bare feet planted on the mountain and
sprinkled with my rapturous spills. What I felt Id come
here to do was something on my own.
Published 1997 in Somewhere Apart, My Favorite Place in Arkansas
The University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville
Paid political ad
FRANKLIN COUNTY FAIR PARADE GRAND MARSHALS J.P. and Christa
Littlefield and grandson, Parker Littlefield.
Our Worm Farm
by Clydene Overbey
We never had any
spending money and never
really expected any. No one
else had any either. At least
not anyone we knew or were
friends with.
A friend of ours told us
that the big red worms we
often found to fish with
could be raised and people
from the cities would buy
them. He said we had to get
something big and fill it with
dirt from the creek. We got
an old iron kettle that Mama
had discarded because it
had a crack in it. We filled it
with some slimy, slippery dirt
and we were all set.
Our friend said if you
break the worms in two
pieces then two worms
would grow and to keep it
watered. He also said that
we could get hair from a
horses tail and put it in wa-
ter and it would become a
worm. We got hair from the
horses tail out of the barbed
wire fence.
He told us we could sell
city folk a worm for one cent.
Well, heck fire, we were
agonna get rich by golly.
Yep, rich!
We dug a bunch of
worms and put em in the big
pot full of dirt. Now we
counted them every day and
seemed like they were not
making more. Heck fire, there
were less one day. Well,
shoot fire, Brenda, that aint
agonna work. Durn that
boy anyway.
The next day in school
we cornered him and called
him the worst thing we could
think of. You stupid nut, you
durn puke, and you dad
blasted fool. He asked us a
few questions and said, You
goofy girls, I told you to
break em in two. When we
got home from school we
run down in the pasture and
was agonna break them
things in two, but we didnt
have a dab blamed worm to
break.
We checked our bucket
of horse tail hairs and no
worms there either. Well, we
just proceeded to dig us more
worms and break em in two.
Well, I guess you know that
those dead worms didnt get
away like the live ones had.
Nope, they just sat there in
that slimy dirt that was green
and stinky by now.
Several days later in
school we spotted our
former friend talking to
some other boys on the play-
ground. Come on, Brenda,
were agonna beat the day-
lights outta him.
We started over there
and heard what he was say-
ing so we just stood there
and listened. That dad
blamed skunk was amaking
fun of us. Boy, I got them
ol girls good. The boys
were alaughing their
goozles off. Lets get em,
Brenda said. Oh, no,
Brenda, we are agonna get
him all right. Were gonna
get him good. But not here
cause well get in trouble.
Well do it at home.
We had to wait several
days, but we knew he would
come and one day, he did.
He was a skinny ol thing
and we knew we could over
power him. Heck, I coulda
done that by myself. Heck,
yeah. We just waited for our
chance. We had a pot of
slimy, stinky, green by now
and slightly stagnated with
a film on top that we had
dipped outta our Worm
Farm, kinda thick and easy
to manage. Throw him
down, Brenda, and hold on.
Brenda was bigger than me
then and a lot heavier. She
ran and pounced on his back
and knocked him to the
ground. We both sat on him
and rubbed rotten worm
smush all over him. Now
you smart aleck rat, thatll
teach you to laugh at us,
now wont it? Huh? Wont
it?
We were eight and he
was six, all of us old enough
to know better, but boy was
that sweet revenge. Boy,
howdy, was it fun. He
shoulda known Brenda and
I didnt get mad, we got even.
The kids in school all
laughed the next day when
we told em. Our mamas
didnt really see much humor
in it, but our daddies sure
did. Heck, our daddies
laughed harder than the kids
did. So did his daddy. Now
his mama was a different
story. You know how mamas
are.
Dont mess with men
Brenda. Nope. I think you
could really raise worms that
way, but not broke in two
and it had to be a lot bigger
container than we had, but
we didnt know the details
at the time. And the bit about
the horse hair, we tried that
again, but, of course, it never
worked. Well, you smart
aleck, we got the last laugh.
Ephesians 4: 14-15:
That we henceforth be no
more children, tossed to and
fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by
the sleight of men, and cun-
ning craftiness, whereby
they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in
love, may grow up in all
things, which is the head,
even Christ.
Play Arkansas Scholarship
Daily Specials:
Monday - Roast Beef Dinner
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Corn & Hot Roll
Tuesday - Chicken Fried Steak
Wednesday - Beans & Corn Bread
Thursday - Taco Salad
Friday - Fish & Shrimp Dinners
Everyday - Cheeseburger & Fries (Made on order)
- Breakfast Specials - 7 Days A Week -
Sm. Biscuit & Gravy .
$
1
49
Double Biscuit & Gravy.
$
2
59
Sm. Sausage & Biscuit
$
1
65
- With Sausage . .
$
2
49
- With Egg . . . . .
$
3
34
Sausage . . . . . . .
$
1
00
Bacon . . . . . . . . .
$
1
00
Pork Chop . . . . .
$
2
00
Egg Scramblers . . . Small Order
$
1
59
. .. Large Order
$
2
59
Open
Mon. - Sat., 5:00 a.m. - Sunday, 5:30 a.m.
Phone
Orders
1512 Commercial Phone 667-4922
"Where The Service Is Always Friendly!"
This Weeks Special:
Chicken-on-a-stick
$
3
29
Stop by and try one of our NEW buffet
items from the Krispy Krunchy Chicken
menu! Cajun cooking you will love!
NEW ROTARIANS Chris Brockett (center), Ozark
Rotary Club president, welcomes new members Mike
Murders and Linda Millsap to the club. Murders is chief
academic officer at ATU-Ozark and Millsap is execu-
tive director of the Ozark Area Chamber of Commerce.
District to present Rachels
Challenge Community Event
The Ozark School Dis-
trict will be hosting an as-
sembly for Rachels Chal-
lenge on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
The Ozark Middle
School, Junior High, and
High School will attend an
assembly in the morning and
100 students from each
building will attend training
in the afternoon.
In the evening, there will
be a community event, and
everyone is invited to at-
tend. The presentation for
the community will be at 6:30
in the High School Activities
Center at the High School
Campus.
Rachel Joy Scott was the
first person killed in the Col-
umbine High School tragedy
on April 20, 1999. Immedi-
ately after the tragedy, her
father, Darrell, began to
speak and used writings and
drawings from Rachels dia-
ries to illustrate the need for
a kinder, more compassion-
ate nation. Her acts of kind-
ness and compassion
coupled with the contents of
her six diaries have become
the foundation for one of the
most life-changing school
programs in America.
Today, Darrell and over
30 presenters honor
Rachels life by reaching the
nation with Rachels simple
but profound message:
1. Eliminate prejudice- by
looking for the best in oth-
ers.
2. Dare to dream - set
goals, keep a journal
3. Choose your influ-
ences- input determines out-
put
4. Kind words- small acts
of kindness, huge impact.
5. Start a chain reaction-
with family and friends
Powerful video/audio
footage of Rachels life and
the Columbine tragedy are
said to hold audiences spell-
bound during the presenta-
tion that motivates them to
make a positive change in
the way they treat others.
Concert to air
on AETN Friday
AETN (Conway) Emma
Thompson and Bryn Terfel
star in Live From Lincoln
Center Sweeney Todd:
The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street in Concert with the
New York Philharmonic Fri-
day, Sept, 26, at 8 p.m.